Adamawa
State Governor Murtala Nyako can be described as a war hero. He fought in the
civil war and still carries the scars to show for it. The retired naval officer
and President of Nigerian Farmers Association, who has been having a running
battle with the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, last month,
defected to the All Progressive Congress, APC, putting himself in direct
collision course with the Presidency and the PDP.
In
this interview, Nyako, popularly referred to as Babamaimangoro, apparently
because he produces more mango for export than any other African farmer, gives
reasons why he fell out with President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP National
Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.
What
have you been able to do for your people as a long standing farmer with
experience in food production?
Well, as a long standing and successful farmer in Nigeria, I would say that I
have done a lot to improve the lot of Adamawa people and empower them so that
they can stand on their own. I have trained them on how to run a successful
agricultural business and become self-sustaining. When I came in, I promised to
unite the state and work for the overall interest of the people.
I
can say we have achieved the set goal of unity, peace and progress. One of the
dictionary meanings of politics tells me that ‘politics is the art and science
of judicious use of resources for the attainment of public good’. We have concentrated
our development programme bearing in mind this definition. We are happy with
what we have done to develop our state and people. Our target is
pan-agriculture and our people are already into it.
But
what have you done to replicate the knowledge you have as a farmer?
We have established five centres dealing with vocational training. You go there
for one and graduate to another centre, which is technical training centre to
specialise. Once you are trained, you don’t need to worry. Those trained
by us are a hot cake to multinational companies and we are happy about that.
This is the only place where people call for investors but don’t have the basic
skills and manpower.
The
so-called investors can rip you off or sabotage you. We are doing our best to
train and educate our youths to ensure that they can take part in agriculture
as an investment and reap immensely from the sector. We have trained many
youths that many of the multinational companies can recruit and use for their
own agricultural production. We have established schools for all vocational
trades and it is serving our people in many ways. We are providing agriculture
for food security and economic empowerment.
It
is still unclear to Nigerians why you don’t seem to appreciate the imposition
of a state of emergency on your state by the president.
The first thing I did when I became governor was to write to the late President
Umaru Yar’ Adua on the security situation of Adamawa State, which had
been described by the World Bank as being situated in one of the poorest
regions of the world-the North-east of Nigeria bordering with Cameroon, Chad,
Niger and the Darfur region. The report said Adamawa was replete with poor
infrastructure, wide ranging health problems, poor educational facilities, unemployment
and frustrated elements.
The
bank also described the region as a dangerous zone in Nigeria because of these
problems. So, when I became governor, I wrote to the president to give us a
special attention to be able to tackle the precarious situation in the state.
We pleaded with the president to approve a standing operation task force for us
so that if there is any threat to lives and property, the standing force could
be mobilised to deal with the situation.
I
also made a case for a standing batallion here so that they could do what we
call in the army ‘cordon and search’, which is best done everywhere in the
world. They could search and destroy suspected bad elements and recover arms
and ammunition. That would have solved the proliferation of arms.
After
reading my letter, the late Yar’Adua approved a standing battallion for
Adamawa. A base was set up in the state. But as soon as Yar’Adua died and
Jonathan took over, he wrote us a letter that the army should not be used by
any state for any type of operations. We wrote him back and pleaded with the
president to give us a special consideration because of the bad situation in
Adamawa.
I
pointed out the World Bank report classifying the state as one of the world’s
worst spots and the need to retain the task force already working in the
state. I drew his attention to the approval given by the late president.
But he refused to listen to me. But now, he introduced a state of emergency in
the state and he does not pay them their allowances as and when due. I told our
people when they declared a state of emergency that we were in trouble because
our situation was already dire.
We
have to find a way of interfacing with the soldiers so that they don’t cause
any havoc. We have been working closely with them at all levels and I am happy
that since the soldiers arrived here, they have not killed any innocent
citizen. No single Adamawa man has been caught as a Boko Haram suspect. We are
using what we call Special Assistance Programme to checkmate unemployment and crimes
in the state.
In
fact, I can say that Mr. President copied my Special Assistance Programme and
called it SURE-P. We are using the programme to pay and train people on gaining
a means of livelihood. We had put things right only for the president to slam a
state of emergency on us? How do the people earn a living? There are some
totally innocent people who sell food and run their private lives separate from
government and you want them to go home and die? There are others who ride
Okada and they earn a living from that. How do they survive?
So
are you saying that the state of emergency has destroyed the economy of the
state?
Certainly, and in no small measure. For the poor man, it has adversely
affected them, but the evil few in Abuja don’t care about it. There is no
excuse for the hardship imposed on the people of the state. I wrote to the
president on the role of the task force and he did not even acknowledge
receipt. We even wrote as governors and advised him on the way to go about the
security situation and he has not given me audience till today.
I
was a naval officer and the one who established the security branch of the
Nigerian Navy and I have been the longest serving Chief of Naval Operations and
Plans in the Nigerian Navy and we know about security. When we advise the
president on what to do about security, we speak from a position of knowledge.
The president was not trained as a soldier and we don’t expect him to know all
about security awareness but he has advisers who are bringing hardship to the
people of my state?
Adamawa
was not even on the list of the three states that were slated for emergency. It
was meant for BOYONA- Borno, Yobe and Nasarawa where over 100 security men had
just been killed by a cult group. Adamawa was never listed for emergency rule.
The president just removed Nasarawa and put Adamawa thereby bringing
untold hardship on the people of the state. It is pure politics, pure
double-mindedness and wickedness and nothing more.
He
wants to ill-treat us who had given the PDP three senators, 21 LG
chairmen out of 21 LGAs, six House of Representatives members out of eight and
22 out of 25 House of Assembly members in the last elections. At Eagle Square
during the primary election, we gave the president 80 percent and 20 percent
to (former VP) Atiku, our own son. Ahmed Gulak, who is now confusing the
president, did not get up to five votes in his unit and this is the man
convincing Mr. President that he was responsible for his victory in Adamawa.
We
gave 60 percent of the votes to Jonathan during the presidential election and
the remaining 40 was shared by Buhari, whose wife is from Yola, and Nuhu
Ribadu, whose father and mother are from Adamawa. Yet, we are the ones the
president is penalising. Sadly, the state executive of the PDP that worked so
hard to bring about the president’s electoral victory at the polls was also
inexplicably dissolved on the advice of evil men in Abuja instead of
recognising and rewarding such an exco.
Is
that why you decamped to the APC?
That is a stupid thinking. What am I looking for again? I told off David Mark
the other day when he wanted to insinuate that I would one day come to the Senate.
I told him the president could not to talk to me anyhow because I am not
going for any political office in 2015. I am not also supporting my son or wife
to succeed me as some elements are alleging.
What
we are kicking against is the high level of impunity, which has been enshrined
in the polity at all levels. We cannot allow it to continue so that this
country is not plunged into avoidable crisis.
If the philosophy of political parties is not followed and protected, we may
regret our action. We should not allow disaster to strike before we wake up to
protect the system that brought us to power.
Democratic
culture must be developed and protected from the top to the bottom. We must
start to copy the South-west and do what is right. This nonsense has substantially
gone down in the South-west because the people are aware of their rights. Let
me tell you that we had a primary election here in the state on a Saturday and
on Monday morning, Bamanga Tukur sat down in Abuja and sent the name of his
cousin who never contested in the by-election primary and INEC, which witnessed
the exercise did not say it did not witness the process.
The
PDP hierarchy is corrupting our security and judiciary institutions. They can
corrupt INEC, police and the judges, otherwise how can a DPO come to disrupt a
meeting being held by governors trying to see how to resolve the crisis in the
party? We cannot wait for anarchy to take over Nigeria again. We will not
accept impunity again, not even in Adamawa but in Nigeria as a whole. They want
to draw us back to a civil war again? I am a victim of the civil war and I
still have a scar on my leg till today.
Was
there any agreement between the northern governors and President Jonathan that
he will serve for only one term?
Yes, there was an agreement. In the first place, when they brought that
agreement for me to sign ahead of the 2011 primaries, I was told that the 2007
and 2011 presidency belonged to the North. They had all agreed under President
Obasanjo that the entire 2007 and 2011 belonged to the north. Jonathan was a
signatory to that document as the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa. So when they came
and asked me to sign and I objected saying that I did not believe that Jonathan
would honour the agreement because Jonathan did not give his pledge in the 2003
document, they said, ‘Ha Babamaimangoro, please sign,’ and I did.
Who
brought the agreement?
The governors of Niger State, Katsina and the rest were there. All of them were
trying to get our support for Jonathan to become president in 2011.
So,
was it the northern governors who brought the agreement to Jonathan to sign?
Yes. It was the northern governors who signed the agreement with Jonathan. Of
course, it was the Niger State governor who took the document to Jonathan and
he signed. Obasanjo would tell you that he came to me with Jonathan and pleaded
with me to support him in 2011 to become the president and I did. There he sat.
Jonathan told me he was going to run for only one term in 2011. Jonathan
virtually took an oath to run for only one term. So when he went back to
Obasanjo that he was going to run in 2015, Obasanjo asked him why he was doing
so after he had made the governors to support him in the 2011 poll.
Who
has that agreement?
The Niger State governor has the agreement. He is the one who handled it.
We want to deal with people of honour and integrity and not those who dribble
others and treat others with no sense of respect and not respecting their vows.
Leaders must be honest with their colleagues and the larger society. Without
that, we would run into serious crisis in this country.
Source:
Vanguard
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