Prof. Sani Abubakar Malami of the College of Medical Sciences, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) , Bauchi, is a governorship aspirant of the Green Party in the 2019 Bauchi State governorship election . In this interview with SANI MUH’D SANI in Bauchi, Prof. Malami,who is also a former Commissioner of Health in the State, shares his vision and mission among other sundry issues concerning the state. Excepts.
You are one of the aspirants for the 2019 governorship election in Bauchi State. What is your vision and mission. What is motivating you to contest?
My interest in politics can be traced to the fact that I am a student of contemporary politics in Nigeria, I‘ve also a keen interest in development issues and I have also been opportune during my life to be exposed to some of the very pressing need we have at the society, it is the combination of some of these factors that I have been pressurized by a lot of people who are my associates who believe that I have something to contribute, these are some of the factors for my decision to contest for governor. In addition, it’s for a prosperous and self-reliant Bauchi State, a Bauchi State where every citizen will be proud to call his own, a Bauchi State that can stand on its own economically, a state can give hope to our youths, a Bauchi state that can provide a level playing ground for everybody to reach his or her own potential in life, this is my vision for Bauchi State. And sadly right before my eyes I see a deterioration of moral in the state among our youths, among our juniors and among our children, I’ve seen a deterioration in the standard of governance to the extents that now, unfortunately, majority of people, including myself, feel there is no single organ of the state that is functioning adequately well in the proper way in Bauchi State. I think these are things of concern and every patriot in Bauchi should be really worried, where are we taking the state to, where are we heading , what does the future hold for us, who is going to help us rescue the state? Is it us or are we expecting some miracle to happen? Does miracle happen? Is it not gentlemen that chart a course for the development of every society? I think these are the questions we should be asking ourselves and the answer for us is very obvious to stand up and do something.
How can payments of salaries be considered an achievement? Not even in our neighbouring states! Payment of salaries is payment for work done, that is not an achievement. If you me my salary or you pay a retiree his pension, that cannot be, by any standard, an achievement
How would you rate the present administration when compared to the last one in the state?
How dare you request me to compare light with darkness? That is my answer. The general performance of this government is known to everybody. Since the creation of this state, there has not been this kind of disenchantment with any government in the history of Bauchi State. There has not been this pervasive feelings of disappointment among the citizens of Bauchi State. There has not been this kind of confusion in the minds of the citizens that the state now cannot carry out even a single of its basic functions by maintaining the basic infrastructure that we have.
Maintaining ordinary service that we take for granted, this is no longer possible and we think this is because those who have been saddled with managing the affairs of the state are incapable of doing so.They do not have the capacity to actually run the state in an organized, purposeful and energetic manner. That is why we feel it is time for us to assist them out of the government because there are people who have the vision, who have the courage and have the capacity to deliver so that we’ll actually turn back to the path of growth and development again.
Do you think paying salaries is enough to rate any government in terms of positive performance?
As you’ll know, I’ve traveled a lot at in this country and abroad to be able to know what are the indices of on which governments are rated. The issue of paying salary which has become a matter of celebration in Bauchi State . It’s very unfortunate for us that the standard, the bar has been lowered, so low that people are even mentioning the payment of salary as an achievement by government.
Where are the builders of Bauchi State? Where are the people who started Bauchi State in 1976? At that time, we learned there were no more terrible roads in the whole state, not even a state secretariat, Nnot even a local government secretariat, you could count the number of secondary schools that we had. In 1976, we had only two or three general hospitals, where are those who built those secondary schools, where are those who had the vision to establish lay outs to establish estates and GRA’s in Azare in Misau in Bauchi, have we forgotten the history? How can payments of salaries be considered an achievement? Not even in our neighbouring states! Payment of salaries is payment for work done, that is not an achievement. If you me my salary or you pay a retiree his pension, that cannot be, by any standard, an achievement. It is a disgrace to our state that the level of governance has been lowered, so low, and it tells where we are heading.Do we really know what it means to develop a state when other states are using their own internally generated revenue to develop their states. Lagos is now becoming almost a country of its own with all sorts of commercial activities going on, we see foreigners coming to invest in Lagos, is it not the state that is providing the framework for these development? Why is it that in our own state we only talk of payment of salary every month? I should tell you, I’m very disappointed.
Your party, the Green Party, participated in the just concluded Bauchi South senatorial by-election.Some people are of the view that the defeat your party suffered was because it is new and has not been Nproperly publicized.What are your views on this?
I agree with those who say that the party is new, it was not well known, not enough has been done to publicize the party. To some extent, that is true and could tell on the performance of any party in any election anywhere.But having said that, I have been criticized for being one of the very few people to mention my own personal experience on that election day.What we saw was something that is very alien to us.It foreign to our culture, it is foreign to our understanding of politics in Bauchi State, whereby money, N200, N100, maggi cubes, Indomie, Atamfa all sorts of things, N500 were used to steal the people’s mandate in broad daylight. Very poor old women were coerced with N200, that shows you the level of poverty our people are being dragged into. I was not the last person to say so, at least many of our Imams preached against this and this confirmed our impression that this is what actually happened during the election. Even the international observers condemned what happened and they questioned the credibility of the election itself. Vote buying acquired a new life of its own that we have never experienced in our history. Vote buying became the main determining factor on who won the election.It is unfortunate that is happening, we hope that it is going to be a lesson to everybody.But I assure you, the Green Party have taken notes of this development and we are working hard to ensure that we overcome these challenges in the next general election.
Did that defeat deter your determination to pursue your goal?
Not by any means! I have said before that the mandate was stolen from s by the use of money.We are in politics to better the lives of people of Bauchi state, I am for real. I am not here temporarily, I intend to remain. I intend to identify with like minds to come together so that we can make a difference on the lives of the people of Bauchi State, I am not deterred, we have hope, we have our own capability and I have no intention of defecting.We are not going anywhere, we have been consulted, a lot of parties have continued to consult us and reach an understanding.The discussion is going on, it will go on until probably election day.The truth is that we are ready to work with people who are patriotic, who have foresight and have the fear God. We are open to these people any day, we are ready to embrace them so that we can work together to be the pinnacle of changing the fortunes of Bauchi State for the better.
How would you rate the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari?
To be fair to President Muhammadu Buhari, he has shown exemplary commitment, he has shown discipline as a president, he has kept his words, he came to office on the promise to improve security, to control corruption and also to create jobs, these are the major promises.If we are going to rate him, we must rate him based on these criteria and he has done quite well in the area of security, although there are new pockets of violence again coming particularly in the Middle Belt of Nigeria but in the North East, security situation has been improved drastically. I think he has done well in that regard. In terms of controlling corruption, he has not been able to do as he ought to do because the institutions which are supposeD to be addressing corruption in Nigeria are not strong.The foremost institution that addresses corruption in any country is the police, the Nigerian Police Force is not strong enough to actually provide the leadership that is required and it is the responsibility of government to strengthen the Police Force to be in the foremost of fighting corruption.The other institutions, the EFCC and ICPC have structural problems , they need to be addressed. The judiciary which is supposed to be the major partner in the fight against corruption is also weak. One of the major problem President Buhari has in fighting corruption is that we don’t have strong institution to provide the framework to execute his anti corruption promises in Nigeria.
What do you think would be his chances of winning the 2019 election ?
Going forward, he has gained politically in southern Nigeria, in places where he performed poorly. He has earned the confidence of a lot voters, particularly in the southern part of Nigeria, south east and the south-south, where a lot of his structural revolution has taken place. He’ll also gain from the new friends he has made in the south east and the south. Up north, where majority of his supporters traditionally have been, he has lost a lot of friends but that notwithstanding, when the votes are eventually counted, I have no doubtthat he’ll have majority of the votes in the north. But standing where I am now today, I will say that his chances of winning the presidential election in 2019 is bright as ever. We do not have a formidable alliance opposing him. The major opposition party, the PDP and the rest have not been able to muster enough strength to challenge his presidency. But I always believe that Nigerian politics can change within 24 hours.
What advice do you have for the people?
I would like to call on our people to have faith to elect credible people and shun votes buyers, to also think deeply of the things that are happening now because it will have implication in the next ten years or even in 20 years, God has given us the opportunity now to chose new set of leaders, it takes only one second for you to cast your vote. I am pleading with everybody that would cast a vote. Before casting that vote, think.
