The Gubernatorial Interview

“He is not a dictator; he is an inclusive person and approaches governance from a good and functional business angle,” says the Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, while alluding to how he and his political leader, Senator Bukola Saraki have managed their relationship over time. In this interview with Olawale Olaleye and a few other political editors, Ahmed also espouses his position on some of the trending political developments in his All Progressives Congress party and the country at large. Excerpts:

Were you expecting anything different from the result that was posted at the end of your national convention?

No, because I have looked at APC as having come at a time that Nigeria needs to be rescued and the disposition of those who formed the APC has shown one clear thing: that we are all putting collective interest over and above self interest.

So, to that extent, I saw everybody’s disposition for a free and fair election. I knew that with the way things were going and with the kind of feelers that we were getting across the country, I knew were going to end up in a free and fair election and I knew that people are very conscious of the problem that Nigeria is facing today and the most critical ones being insecurity and corruption.

And truly, looking back into history, we judge people by what they have done. Of those people who came out to contest, Buhari had the highest credential in the areas of anti-corruption and to a large extent, in managing security. So, to a very large extent, I knew these would play a critical role in who was going to win and they were indeed critical. The emergence of Buhari is just in tandem with our mindsets.

It was predicted as a two-horse race between Atiku and Buhari. So, what happened that Atiku came third?

Those predictions were not premised on anything one would say was empirical. They were largely suggestive – I would say by the followers of each of these contenders and as it were, it was just a media perception. The reality on the ground was that people came in and voted what their conscience directed them to do. In fact, even as governors when we sat down to review the issue, it was largely about taking opinions from one another on the feelers on the ground and this was what came out at the convention.

Looking at Buhari and Jonathan: is that not a serious gamble for the APC?

We may not be taking a gamble to the extent that we allow critical issues that are bothering Nigerians to come to the fore because we are at the point where the issue of insecurity is getting to frightening dimensions. Unfortunately, the progress made by the current leadership has not suggested any serious sense of comfort for an average Nigerian. We are all witnesses to different bombings in various parts of the country.

Insurgency is not new to Nigeria and we are all witnesses to how it was handled in the past. We saw how it was handled by Buhari and how he was able to manage the Chadians and we are all witnesses to his anti-corruption fight which unfortunately was not allowed to stay. So, for us, we think Nigerians will vote according to their conscience and unfortunately, we think that the economy is not doing much as it should.

Yes, there is growth but there is no development. The areas that have propelled the current growth that we are talking about are the service sectors but it is not touching the lives of the majority of Nigerians. Unfortunately, it has not been able to rejuvenate the middle class that the Obasanjo administration attempted to bring back.

So, the disappearance of the middle class has put much more pressure on the current system such that more Nigerians feel the pain of deprivation now – social deprivation, economic deprivation and security deprivation are truly felt now. I am sure that Nigerians will look at now that if we truly want to have a difference from the way things are going that we need to do it differently from the way we are doing it now.

We try to judge people by antecedence. He (Buhari) has done it before, he can do it again. And why we feel convinced about his desire and capacity to do it, at his age, I don’t think he has any wealth he wants to accumulate now. He said it clearly that he doesn’t have money to give to anybody other than making himself available for service.

How do you intend to fight your own battle given the president’s assertion that they would recover their stolen mandate?

The political system in Kwara had been hinged on a structure which has allowed us to play an inclusive system. The structure is largely built on contributions from every nook and cranny of the state in the 16 local governments. The choice of who gets nominated, the way and manner in which people get nominated and most importantly in driving the need of the people into an encapsulated desire for growth and development.

I want to let you know that as a state, in Kwara, we have that structure in APC and that structure has always delivered. So, the next election is not going to be an exception because the same structure has delivered goods and services to the people; the same structure has allowed for inclusiveness; the same structure has allowed people, who ordinarily would never have thought of ascending to levels of position, myself inclusive, so this structure has allowed a democratised process of ascending into political offices.

So, for us, this same structure is still at play and will continue to get itself running the affairs of Kwara and we are happy that the structure has a leadership in Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, who has strengthened the inclusive process of arriving at decisions that are generally acceptable to the majority of the people.

So, we are using that structure alongside our developmental programmes, which we have outlined, especially taking the most critical area of Nigeria’s problems today which is youth unemployment.

We have recorded a lot of milestones in reducing youth unemployment. We have created programmes despite our lean resources to let the youths see that they are the leaders of tomorrow and they require to be managed accordingly. That has led us to, for instance, setting up one of the best international vocational centres.

We have also supported the health systems. We have not only raised infrastructure, we have also widened access through the community health insurance. I am happy to let you know that we received an award just recently in Paris, France of having one of the most successful community health insurance schemes in the world, not just in Africa or Nigeria because the award was designed to be looked at from a broad perspective, not just a Kwara perspective.

So with all these on the ground and with our understanding of our peoples’ needs having been very close to them, we are truly positioned to carry on to the next level in terms of growth and development. So for us, the 2015 election will usher us into a second term, God willing to broaden what we have been doing since 2011 in terms of infrastructure, human capital development and the economy.

So you don’t see the president’s assertion as a threat?

We have never seen them as a threat because it is all about platforms and ability to deliver goods and services to the people which we have demonstrated. Those are just mere pronouncements. What really matters is the issue of being able to articulate resources and to meet the needs of the people which we are currently doing and which we hope to upscale, God willing in the second term.

What factors should have shaped the emergence of Buhari’s running mate?

One key issue that will shape it is where the person is coming from. If the president comes from the north, obviously the deputy will come from the south. Also is the capacity to support the president in set goals and targets. It will be a key area and this will largely be driven by the antecedents of the person that will be chosen. For religion, people who are bringing religion into the politics of Nigeria are those who stand to benefit from it.

Not for balance of faith?

Faith on its own does not play any role in Nigeria’s economic system. So, for us, religion should have no role in the multi-religious environment; religion should have no role in a multi-ethnic environment. What has brought us together has no religious implication. So, on no grounds should we look at religion as a basis for choice of those who will carry on our social contract to desirable levels that will suit the interest of Nigerians

How have you been able to manage the successor-predecessor crisis in Kwara such that you and Bukola Saraki have co-existed cordially? Besides, is it good that the structure that delivers in the state is woven around a family?

It is an inclusive process which allows for inputs from all stakeholders. It is not taken as a family affair as if restricted to a single family. The family is all Kwarans in the 16 local governments. So when we refer to the structure as a family thing, it is for stakeholders.

Bukola Saraki is an exceptional leader, who has defined his leadership through inclusiveness, through strategic and methodical design of how he wants to see everybody’s inputs galvanised into a working process for the common interest.

To that extent, he has approached governance from the normal way you expect to see good business run. Strategically, you look at your strengths, your weaknesses, your opportunities and your threats. Also, in getting any system to run, it has to be given an inclusive outlook.

Governance can be successful anywhere in the world if you allow for inclusive process; if you allow for stakeholders’ input. It is the same structure that Bukola Saraki ran his eight year government, which I was part and parcel of and I was positioned as the commissioner for finance and got the understanding of how resources are collated and are methodically and optimally allocated to areas of need.

Having been well positioned in that administration, it was only sensible for me to use that process to develop an upscale of service delivery to the people. And that is exactly what we are doing. We have never driven the system from an individual’s angle; we have always driven the system from a collective/inclusive process.

People don’t know that that is where the success of our relationship is. He is not a dictator, he is an inclusive person and he has allowed everybody to create inputs into evolving the process that will be suitable to everybody and on account of that, I have also imbibed that system to drive governance in Kwara.

So, rather than see differences, we see strength, we see understanding in driving good governance, we see understanding in delivering goods and services and we see understanding in carrying everybody along as stakeholders in driving the process for the common good and that is where the secret of the success in Kwara politics lies.

But some argue that the structure you are talking about is dead and buried. Is it?

It cannot be dead and buried if it is still delivering goods and services. It cannot be dead and buried if it has one of the most successful electoral processes being carried on at the local government and state levels. Of course, if you see the way and manner our people have approached all electoral processes; you will see the discipline largely induced by leadership that encapsulates common interest into its strength. It cannot die because the interest is collective.

The one that will die is the one that has individual interest. It dies because self-interest overrides collective interest and that is the kind of thing you are seeing in PDP. What has brought them together cannot be harmonised into a congruence to drive them into a common goal. Self interest of wanting that position of governorship is what brought them together and if they are not getting, they have no option to not getting it. Unlike us where we have a compensatory programme within the structure and that is why you don’t see rancour and disagreements.

You see the way and manner they have carried on their activities? The only slogan is that they are looking for freedom – freedom from where and from whom? You cannot be free from a process that allows inclusiveness.

Is political amity still possible between Bukola and his sister, Gbemi?

Why not? In politics, you don’t rule out anything.

Still on the issue of stolen mandate: when the president said it, did you feel as if a bearer of a stolen mandate or thief?

No, I didn’t feel that way. You need to understand that there are categories of people in politics. There are seasonal politicians, who come in once every four years when elections are about to start and there are those of us who are regularly sitting down with the people. Those who felt that their mandate has been taken away are those who live in Abuja and are regularly feeding the presidency with what they want the presidency to hear.

But those of us at home sit with the people day in, day out – 365 days a year; we are with them. So when you talk about stolen mandate, I don’t know whose mandate has been stolen. But as far as I am concerned, we have the mandate of the people to deliver goods and services with respect to the resources that are available from them on an optimal level that will allow for inclusive processes.

Are you frightened by the nomination of Senator Simon Ajibola as your challenger by the PDP?

No I am not because Senator Ajibola has been made by this structure. Every success he has recorded has been on the platform of this structure from nomination to campaigns to also even getting to do things for the people have been by this structure.

Now that he has moved out of the structure that has supported him and I am still in the structure, why should I be frightened? For example, the only major thing he has done for his people being the major road leading to his place, I personally did it for him as governor to make him enjoy some political mileage in his place.