Katsina State governor, Ibrahim Shema has descirbed as unfounded, media
reports on a plot to dislodge incumbent vice-president, Namadi Sambo and
anoint him, (Shema) as running mate to President Goodluck Jonathan for the 2015
general elections. He spoke with journalists at the Katsina Government House.
We have moved
around the state capital and the local councils and observed the enormous
social infrastructure you have put in place. We want to ask, how did you source
the fund for all these?
Well, we must
give thanks to Almighty God. Whenever the leadership performs and it is
effective, it is due to the guidance and support of our creator and we must
give gratitude to Him.
Secondly, I
have no other source of revenue than the usual sources of revenue for all the
states in Nigeria : the federation account which is just an average of N4
billion per month and of course, the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). When I
came into office, I met an IGR of about N130million and now it is in the
average of about a N1 billion monthly . So, if you put it together, may be, it
is N5billion in a month. And we are one of the first states to start the
implementation of minimum wagen for workers in the country and that takes more
than 50% of my allocation every month. .
So, you can
see that what I am left with to work is probably about one quarter of the total
amount. So, in short, I have no other source of revenue beyond the IGR.
We did devise
some methods and those methods are yielding results.
One, we don’t
award contracts worth more that N1 million without having the money to pay the
contractors. We try to imbibe financial discipline. My background as a lawyer
and a masters degree in Business Administration and another masters in
International Diplomacy helped me a lot. I started running my law firm from the
time I left school. Based on that, if you award N1 million contract, we keep N1
million aside for the contract . We give the contractor N400,000 and he has to
give us bank guarantee bond for that. The other N600,000, we keep in project
savings account and that account will generate interest and we do that for all
our projects without exception.
So, at the
end of the day once a contractor finishes his job, he comes for payment and
takes his balance of N600,000. You now find out that account must have yielded
interest of about N100,000.
Working like
that over time, we generated over N10billion separately from our sources of
revenue. So, when we make over N10billion interest, we asked ourselves, what do
we do with this amount?
We tie it to
specific projects. We took part of it about N4 billion and built a new
governor’s lodge in Abuja. In short, the source of fund is the same like every
other state, except this unique method that gives us additional revenue,
otherwise my revenue remains the same.
When I came
into office my revenue was about N2.3 billion every month. Now, it hovers
between N4.7 billion every month and of course, with increased labour but we
manage it. I think you can say, if corruption is controlled to a minimum
level, the resources will be well managed .
Talking about
Katsina, we aren’t talking about resources alone but effective utilization of
meagre resources for the service of the people.
Talking about
Youth Craft Village, we were told that students are sourced from the local
councils, to be trained in various skills. What is your administration
doing to replicate this in every local government area of the state?
Well, this
kind of project is one you have to pay attention to the successes and
difficulties before you expand it. We started it s in 2009 and as we are
working, we are monitoring, we are getting feedback on the areas of successes
and areas of difficulties.
One of the
trades in which we got challenged right from the beginning was
pottery-making of flower vases. Nobody wanted to take it up, so we had very
limited number of students in that department for about a year. Then I called
the runners of the programme, those managing it, I asked them where they
sourced their students for pottery. They said well, ‘’we give application forms
and those interested apply for it’’. I told them they are not doing it the
right way. I asked them to go to the local villages where they make local pots,
get their children and get them trained for modern pottery making.
Before you know it the place is full with students because they went to where
people took it as a trade and train their children and they are happy to learn
new trend to improve on their business .
Take the area
of film and photography, we decided that we were not going to set it up on our
own, we needed the best operators to run it, because if you just get
somebody to set it up and just train them and send them away, we are not
doing it the right way. So, we went out of our way to engage the Nigeria Film
Institute, Jos to be our resource persons for training our students in that
area and have the facilities there. They have been training our kids on
how to take pictures and develop them . It is professional and they are giving
them certificates to go to the institute in Jos to earn a diploma and
move forward.
In other
words, you have to keep checking. Our plan is that with the performances, our
intention is to turn it into a technical school and make a law that will
encourage technical culture and we have spoken to Institute of Industrial
Training in Singapore and they are very interested in working with us.
They are going to partner with us to set up a school. And we will make a
law so that nobody will come and scrap it tomorrow. Let the law establish a
proper structure, proper funding, proper management and all that is
necessary so that it will be an institution of its own. Once that law is
passed, we can start setting up those schools in the senatorial zones.
This centre isn’t being run by government officials. For instance, in the
computer department we have CISCO running it . We don’t want government
people there because they will make it bureaucratic . But if you give it to
professionals, they have a fee to earn so if you are not happy with
his performance you kick him out and get someone who can do the job. It
is a contractual business. So there is plan to make a law, we have
plans along lines of expanding but we have to take them in stages.
As a former
deputy national chairman of the PDP and now a serving governor. INEC has just
released the time-table for all elective positions for 2015 general
elections. There is this stiff opposition against President Jonathan seeking a
fresh mandate, especially from the North. What is your take?
Secondly, the
party is facing a lot of crises, that led to five of your colleagues defecting
to APC.
Do you see
the new chairman being able to redress these challenges? On the impasse in
Rivers state , what do you think can be done to douse the tension and restore
peace?
Yes , I was
honored by my party to be the deputy national chairman, I was chairman
national disciplinary committee, I was chairman of its Democratic
Institute, I was chairman of its south-west reconciliation
committee, and if you like, I was in the fire brigade team to solve
crises in some states. I was in Imo, I was in Benue, I was Edo, Ibadan to
solve crisis so it is something that I am quite familiar with.
About 2015,
we have spoken about it severally. Whenever it is time for election the
temperature goes up. Even if it is the chief of a market that we are
electing, the human temperature will go up, so it is no exception.
And the
President himself hasn’t declared whether he will run or not but
there have been speculations that he will run, he will not run and so on
and so forth.
But I
have always asked people, especially last year, up to this time, it is only in
Nigeria that people start running for election right after swearing in. So,
what worries me is, are we really thinking of providing service to our
people? If we are thinking of service, the time isn’t ripe for
politicking, but I can tell you that 70 percent of the time people are
talking about who contests, who will take over from the incumbent and so on.
Unfortunately,
that is Nigeria for you. Maybe it is because our democracy is just coming
up. But we can’t be in so much of a hurry that we will say we have caught up
with nations that have been practicing it for over 250 years. It
will be stupid to do that. But it is good to learn and make corrections
when mistakes are made and it is good to try our best to reform.
The president
will come out and make a statement at the right time. And for the stiff
resistance, to my mind, it is because some of the people challenging him are
also interested in the same office. Some of them have made categorical
statements, some speculations are in the air. If somebody is interested in your
office, yes, he can go to any length. That’s the truth.
On the issue
of our party, we have our challenges. That isn’t to say other parties
don’t have challenges. The reason why people see our own is because
of our size and in politics, size matters.
It is always
easy to talk about differences in political parties, or any organisation. What
people failed to realize is that PDP has succeeded tremendously in
Nigeria since 1999. First of all, in capturing power and retaining power. The
party has succeeded in the first transition, from one civil rule to the other .
I know PDP
belongs to Nigerians and that is why everybody talks about PDP even
none party members who belong to the opposition parties, because it is truly a
Nigerian party, every Nigerian thinks PDP is his own. Unlike other
parties where you can say Mr. A owns this party or that party
belongs to group A, PDP really belongs to Nigerians.
It is truly a
national party; that’s why whatever affects PDP affects Nigeria, even the
opposition talks about PDP, even you journalists, as if you belong to that
party. You are worried about what we do; it is because it is truly a
national party.
So, on the
challenges we are facing over defection, I am sure you are aware of the
efforts made by Mr. president to make sure that they didn’t leave the
party Even in a family, there are bound to be quarrels but to resolve the
issues maturely is the way of the PDP. Look, at the issues of the resignation
of our former chairman Bamanga Tukur. At the end of the day, PDP is the only
party in Nigeria where a party chairman can resign and another one step in
without rancor and breaking of heads. I don’t know of any other party
in Nigeria that does this except the PDP because we truly have the
interest of Nigerians at heart.
Hope is not
lost on the question of reconciliation. We can reach out and reconcile with
those people. Politics is a voluntary business. Those who don’t want to belong
to the PDP, I am sure they have their reasons why they don’t
want to belong to PDP, but as they are leaving, let me assure you that others
will be moving in. That’s politics. In fact there are those who left PDP,
that rushed back.
But we will
make our efforts; we aren’t closing our doors on our members who have
left. And even those who are not our members who want to come in they are
welcomed. And I am sure our new chairman is equal to the task. He had been a
governor for eight years under PDP and I have no doubt in my mind that he
can reach out and make deliberate efforts to see that our party grows from
strength to strength. It will be in the interest of Nigeria if PDP continues to
do what it is doing, to stablise Nigeria.
You people
know the situation of this country in 1998, it is the emergence of PDP that was
probably the saving grace for our nation that helped to restore the
nation back to the path of peace and harmony. In PDP, all the tribes and
tongues are the same. So, whatever happens, Nigerians still believe in
PDP, because they know that it is their own; they don’t want to handover to any
individual.
On Rivers
State, the crisis is something that the leadership in Rivers State
should be able to address. I am not from Rivers so I am not in a position to
comment effectively, truly and deeply on the state because Rivers State
has its peculiarities and those peculiarities are best resolved by our leaders
there in the best interest of Rivers people and in the best interest of
Nigeria.
From the way
you have spoken, it shows that you are a man who plans ahead. By 2015, you will
be leaving office, what next?
You see,
planning ahead, you forget the saying that man proposes but God
disposes. You can plan whatever you want, I can plan whatever I want, but
our fate is in the hands of God Almighty.
I have said
severally at both international and local fora that as for me my plan is to
continue to serve this nation in whatever capacity, even when I go back to my
law practice . I am grateful to my God, I have a second address. You see when
you enter into politics and you don’t have a second address that is when you run
into trouble, but I have a profession, I have a second address. If God chooses
for me to continue to be relevant in politics in Nigeria at any other level, so
be it. If He chooses for me to go back to my practice, I will certainly give
Him all the glory for giving me the opportunity to serve my people and my
nation.
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Politics