Bauchi State Governor recently granted an interview where he cleared the air on speculations surrounding his aspirations for the 2015. In this interview with Leadership, He  gave an insight to the achievements of his achievements and much more.

What do you think of Boko Haram amnesty being planned by Federal Government?

I believe this is a welcome development. The extension of the hands of friendship to the group is a good development and we are happy about it and we pray that God Almighty will make it possible for a final solution to be found to the problem that has been staring the nation in the face. I don’t expect any of the parties to soft-pedal on this initiative. The government should fast-rack its agenda to end this ugly scenario in our land. The group should also see the offer as an opportunity for peace and dialogue with the government.

There are rumours you are battling to upstage the Vice President Namadi Sambo in 2015. Why?

I have read something like that in the papers but seriously, there is no iota of truth in it. The VP and I are very close friends. I cannot, in all honesty do anything to undermine him or his position. He is aware of my love and friendship with him over the years and nothing can separate us. In the first instance , I don’t have blind ambition. Those who are familiar with me know that I have never lobbied or struggled for any of the positions I have occupied in life. You are aware that I have been a bank managing director twice. I have been a minister of the federal republic of Nigeria twice and also been a governor twice.

In all of these, God paved the way for me to occupy those positions and render service to society without coveting anyone. What I should rather do at this stage in my life is to say to God, thank You for all that you have done for me, instead of going to pull down another person put in place by the Almighty God in his time. I know that God would unfailingly punish me if I don’t show appreciation for what he has done for me and wickedly go to bring down the Vice President. I look up to the VP as a senior brother just I look up to Mr. president as a senior brother. I know that what they expect from me is total loyalty and not competition with them.

As a matter of fact I have never competed for any office in my life. As a bank MD, I was interviewed and given the job out of many others who competed for the post. But as a minister, President Obasanjo called me and offered the job and out of the 65 ministers who worked with him between 1999 and 2003, I was among the only three ministers who were retained by the government without lobbying to be returned.

God used Obasanjo to return me and two others. I did not lobby for it. When I wanted to become governor, I went to the PDP but some people made life very difficult for me then and I went to the ANPP and God made it possible for me to defeat PDP in Bauchi. So, as far as I am concerned, God has a path for everybody. I am a loyal PDP member who is bound by the constitution of the party, faithfully committed to the party leaders at all levels in the country and unwilling to do anything against the interest and well being of our great party.

There are also allegations you are running for the Presidency, Nigerian Governors’ Forum or the Northern Governors’ Forum. Which of these are you really going for?

Like I told you before, if I say that I’m not grateful to God and that I would pursue inordinate ambition, then I would be out of tune with my God. I never knew that God had planned for me to become a managing director of a bank at the age of 32 after graduating from the university. I didn’t know that God had also planned for me to be made the managing director of a second bank just as I never imagined that God had destined for me to become a minister twice in this country not to talk of becoming a governor straight from the banking sector.

You can imagine how difficult it could be for someone who is coming from the corporate world devoid of political connections to partisan politics. This is a profession bound by secrecy and somehow cut off from the general public. It is a profession that only the private sector players dominate.

It is God that makes a president and not an ordinary human being. Even Mr. President himself has said it many times that he is grateful to God that He has taken him to the peak of power in Nigeria from the humble beginning he started without knowing where it would lead to as a number one citizen of Nigeria presiding over a population of over 160 million; someone who is from a minority tribe that has never been reckoned with to occupy such post in the history of this country.

But as God wants it, he is the President of Nigeria and there is nothing any man can do about it. So for any person, all this satanic people who fabricate rumours deliberately to cause dissension and bad blood between the leadership and their followers, they should know that there are repercussions for every evil done to another person especially if he is innocent.

They should be wise enough to know that it is God who placed me here as the governor of the state and any deliberate attempt to blackmail me and my family without any justification, would earn the wrath of the Almighty God. Let the Nigerian press begin to see itself as an anchor for development and justice for all and not an instrument for blackmail.

So, where are you  going after completing your tenure as governor?

I’m a loyal PDP member and I’m a professional banker and by extension, I’m a businessman. We are trained to start business and work well. We can even revive ailing companies and turn them around. One thing is certain, I will remain in PDP and continue to work for its interest after 2015.

What do you think about the emergence of APC?

I’m happy about the development, which shows that Nigeria’s democracy is deepening by the day. What the APC is doing is good for the polity. We as a party are also working hard to regain those states which they took from us. But one thing the APC people should note is that power belongs to God and that no matter the kind of alliances they go into, they will never defeat PDP by the grace of God because of the good intention that the PDP and the president of this country have for Nigeria.

President Jonathan means well for Nigeria and he has a good heart to move the nation forward. For these and other reasons, the opposition will never win over the PDP. The hearts of some of the leaders of the merging parties are not good. In other words they do not love this country and God will never allow them to defeat the PDP in any election. God will never allow these people to rule Nigeria.

How far has your power project gone?

We have gone far with the processes. In just waiting for the signing of the loan agreement between Nigeria and the Chinese Exim Bank, for which they have availed us with $ 1.6billion out of which I am getting $ 171 million to jumpstart the project. At the same time, we are waiting for the release of the Power Intervention Fund to us by one of the commercial banks in Nigeria to start the project. In the next 18 months Bauchi would have sufficient power for use and for sale.

We have already signed a memorandum of understanding with a distribution company in Jos to buy the excess power from the plant. The good thing again about our IPP is that we now have access to crude oil very close to us. Therefore the cost of lifting the oil has been made cheaper for me. You can see that the break even period for the project would be shorter than envisaged.

It’s good news that I have access to gas within 200 kilometres. And I have a tank farm that can keep gas for six months. There is also a capped well in Yankari that we can use to run the plant.

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Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.

Source: Nigerian Gazette

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