*Forget NGF crisis, when it comes to money
govs ‘re united
Governor Sule Lamido is arguably the most
socialist inclined of the country’s 36
governors. In his six years in office as
governor of Jigawa State, he has in several
ways sought to give the imprint of the
Talakawa ideology he inherited from his one
time leader, Mallam Aminu Kano on the state.
Such policies as the allocation of slots to
women and the physically disabled at all levels
of government, subsidy on quality medicare
and education, and the frantic effort to extend
infrastructure to reach the lowest cadre of the
citizenry are glimpses of Governor Lamido’s
socialist inclinations on ground in Jigawa State.
Following the Sallah Durbar marking the end of
the Islamic month of Ramadan, the governor
sat down for a brief interview touching on the
recent effort by him and four other governors
to mobilise some of the country’s elder-
statesmen to intervene in the crisis in the
polity. Of course, he spoke on the conspiracy
of the elite class against the Nigerian masses.
Excerpts:
BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR
What do you intend to achieve with your visits
to the past leaders?
We are people who are normal human beings
who are concerned about their country, who
believe in their country regardless of which
party they come from. If we are going to have
democracy, democracy has rules therefore we
should learn to uphold those tenets of
democracy. If you manipulate it you are
rocking the entire system. It is not against
anybody’s aspirations, we are not against
anybody. But we are being maligned, we are
now being called a gang of five, we are now
being called desperadoes. See how we are
being maligned.
But if you look at us, these are people who
stuck out their necks for this country two
years ago, all of us! It is because we have the
capacity to understand where we are going
that is why we have the courage to stand up
and say. It has nothing to do with this so
called aspiration for 2015 at all, it is about the
way things are being done within the system,
the way the government is being run. It
doesn’t matter if it is my own government or
any other one in the country, the way the
institutions are being run, the way the parties
are being run, do they really conform with the
rules of democracy? A situation where a hired
hand like Doyin Okupe, a wage earner speaks
only to justify his pay will malign me that I am
irrelevant.
Justifying the wages
He became an aide after the election. These
people who are now talking and abusing us are
personal aides who became what they are
when the mandate was achieved. They were
nowhere when the whole thing was being
worked out. It means there was an election
before they were able to serve as personal
aides. In their own case, it is an industry, they
are justifying the wages they are earning, it is
for the pay. There is nothing like honour in
that because they are just hired hands if
tomorrow you have another president they go
to him.
Gov Sule Lamido
All of them are so irrelevant in their own
constituencies, they have no idea what we
went through. Our worry is the institution,
ignore our personalities, ignore Sule Lamido,
he may be an irritant it doesn’t matter, you
can abuse my person but don’t abuse the
office l am holding because the office is
symbolic. If you demystify the office, if
appointees of the president would be that
audacious to organise people to pellet us with
stones unwittingly they are also disrobing the
Office of the President because he is also our
symbol.
You can abuse Sule Lamido, you can abuse
Kwankwaso, you can abuse Wamakko but don’t
abuse our office because after I leave office as
governor of Jigawa State, this institution will
remain. If appointees of the president would
insult us simply because they are justifying the
pay that they are earning, because they are
there for the pay. They are wage earners, they
are not stakeholders.
Two, we are going round not because of any
personal interest or because we have an
ambition, we are going round because we feel
that no matter what, a democracy must have
some pattern, some standard. It must have
clearly defined rules and when the rules are
depressed to obtain an advantage, you are also
depressing the country. How can we as
governors unite and pick our own leader,
clearly, our own chairman, nobody else’s. You
know in the Governors Forum we don’t discuss
politics, it is all about the economy.
Are you not bothered that the real agenda of
the Governors Forum is being lost?
No, no. The Governors Forum is an informal
thing, nothing like an agenda.
What I mean is your coming together to
articulate common issues?
My friend if tomorrow the issue is about
sharing money, the governors of Akwa Ibom,
that of Lagos, that of Zamfara, Bayelsa will be
on the same frequency because they all want
money. In fact, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom need
more money because they have got very
difficult terrain. So, the issue is not about
persons, but it is about what do we get as
governors from the federation account which
is defined as ours. That is all. Today, the
Federal Government is the custodian, minister
of finance controls the money and for us to
take from the money we have to go and beg
and beg and beg.
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