Why I am qualified to be Taraba’s next governor – Prof Yahaya

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By Fidelis Mac-Leva |

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Yahaya is a former Vice Chancellor of Taraba State University and now chairman Governing Council of the Federal Polytechnic, Bida. In this interview the don-turned-politician who is currently the national deputy coordinator of Buhari Campaign Organization, speaks on his ambition to become governor of Taraba State in 2019.
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Why I want to be Taraba’s next governor – Prof Yahaya
You left the academia as Vice Chancellor of Taraba State University and ventured into politics. Now you are aspiring for the governorship of Taraba State; what prompted you into politics?
Like you rightly noted, I was the Vice Chancellor of Taraba State University from 2011 to 2017. Before then I was the deputy vice chancellor administration at the Federal University of Technology, Yola which is now known as Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola. I finished my tenure as Vice Chancellor and went back to my alma mater (FUTY) where I worked. It was at this time that my people from Taraba State called me to come and serve them in the field of politics. Initially I hesitated but they insisted I should come and join the race for the governorship of the state. They gave me three months to decide after which they came again and the caliber of people that came I couldn’t resist and eventually agreed to contest and that was how I ventured into politics. I realised it is another class of its own; completely different from the classes we find in the institutions. I started by joining the Buhari Campaign Organization as zonal coordinator in charge of North-East. Thereafter, I was promoted to become the deputy national coordinator of the organization. Now I am the chairman Governing Council, Federal Polytechnic Bida aside being a governorship aspirant in Taraba State. I find it interesting that the journey so far is wonderful and this is my own contribution to my fatherland, Taraba State as well as Nigeria in general.

Why did you choose to pursue your political ambition under the umbrella of the All Progressives Congress (APC)?
You know there are a lot of political parties that are registered by INEC but you have to critically look at them and analyze to identify with the one with policies and programmes that suit your aspiration in conformity with the national interest. You can recall that three years back it was the PDP that was in government and we have seen the crisis that characterised the nation. From the North-East it was Boko Haram, in the South-South there was pipeline vandalism and other serious challenges that affected virtually every part of the country. I found that when Buhari came in on the platform of the APC, we have seen the real dividends of democracy, we have seen that what the APC is doing is in tandem with national interest and anybody who has the interest of this country at heart would not opt for any other party rather than the APC. This was what motivated me to join the race on the platform of the APC.
But Taraba State is known to be traditionally a PDP controlled state, what gives you the conviction that APC would upstage the PDP in 2019?
In politics you don’t have the issue of tradition; what is permanent in politics is development for the generality of people. You don’t just bank on tradition because a state is perpetually under one party or one type of leadership that people could not change. If that was the case then how did the APC change the PDP government at the center? The government at the national level was PDP but the APC changed that after four times trial by President Buhari. If tradition was a factor, APC wouldn’t have won in Ekiti State which had being under the control of the PDP. The people there have now realized the need for change and voted for the APC. This is a party that respects individuals’ rights especially now that the electioneering process is maturing. The electorates have now matured in terms of their rights unlike before when money was the sole determining factor. Now the people change their representatives when they don’t live up to expectation and this is an indication that the politics have matured.
Taraba State parade many political bigwigs who are also aspiring for the governorship seat. How can you defeat these politicians who have more experience than you?
Well I have equally been into politics for a long time but it is now that I have joined partisan politics. I am happy you said those people you mentioned have been tested before me. But I have also been tested in my own field; I am a professor in my field and if I were in the army I would be a general. Therefore the people of Taraba know why they called me to come and serve them. They know my track record of achievements in my field from my position as graduate assistant up to when I became a professor and Vice Chancellor of Taraba State University. So I have enough record that qualifies me to govern Taraba State like any other aspirant in the race. Moreover, most of those coming were the same people fighting the APC except Senator Aisha who is still in the APC. All other parties are for personal interest as you can see from the kinds of defections going on in Nigeria.
The last congresses of the APC in Taraba State polarized the party; you had the unity group, the neutral group as well as the one led by Aisha. How convinced are you that the division within the party in the state cannot affect your chances in 2019?
The issue of delegate crisis is not only peculiar to Taraba State. There are other States in the country with similar issues. Talking about Taraba people that left other parties came and joined APC and wanted to take over the leadership. But thank God the current national chairman of the party has done away with the delegates’ method; now the elections are going to be done by direct primaries whereby every card carrying member will elect a candidate of his choice. This would reduce the internal wrangling that we are having. The party is equally working hard to settle these wrangling amicably so as to forge ahead before the 2019 elections. Therefore I believe this would rather make us stronger.
What is your assessment of the current PDP government in Taraba State?
You don’t need to be told; if you go to Taraba you will see. As you know Taraba was created out of the defunct Gongola State for many years now but it is still lacking in basic amenities. There are no roads and other development indices. Gombe State that was created much later has surpassed Taraba state in terms of development. Most importantly is the issue of insecurity in Taraba State. While other states that had security challenges are getting relieved the situation is getting worse in Taraba State. I wonder what is happening and I believe politics is involved; there is also weakness in the leadership in the state. The governor is popularly called ‘baba cucumber’; I wonder why he is spending much on cucumber while other state governors are cultivating farm produce like rice. This is lack of focus and priority and now insecurity is overwhelming the state; this is purely political. Therefore I can tell you that the people of Taraba are fully prepared to do the needful come 2019.
The current governor of Taraba State comes from the Southern zone and this is the first time someone from that part is governing the state. Don’t you think the electorate might want him to complete his second tenure in line with power shift?
The issue of tenure completion does not work in politics; you can only complete your tenure when the people are happy with your first tenure. When you have failed to perform nobody will vote for you again. Secondly the issue of power shift you raised is unconstitutional; it is only a matter of political harmony. If you even look at it Taraba North has all along been the zone producing governor then the central had Danbaba whose tenure was short-lived as a result of accident. The current governor who is from the southern zone is from the PDP and we are in APC. If the PDP wants him to continue let them elect him to continue but we in the APC are resolute with our campaigns to takeover and salvage Taraba. The governor says his policy is to rescue but we have not seen anything that he has rescued from the time he became governor up to this moment in time. So we are going to salvage the state from insecurity, lack of salary payment and other challenges.
If you fail to pick the APC governorship ticket at the primaries, what will be your next move?
My aim in politics is not because I must win. I am in the race because people called me to come and serve and I have seen that the APC is a party for development. At the end of the day whatever happens I am in APC and it is the people of Taraba that will decide for me because they are the ones that called me to come and join the race. I am sure I will be the APC governorship flagbearer because the people believe in me.
If you eventually become the governor of Taraba State in 2019, what would you be doing differently?
Taraba State is backward in terms of development which makes it easy for me to develop a blueprint to turn things around. Like I earlier said, the major problem is insecurity which will be my major priority. I will therefore make sure we look at the causes and address it. Thereafter we have to look at agriculture; Taraba is an agrarian state with many untapped potentials. We will tap into those potentials in order to fight hunger in the state. The other issue is education. They say if you think education is expensive try ignorance. I will make sure we educate our people. We currently have two universities and a private one in the state; we will look into how to develop these universities. More of our people and their children would be developed in these universities. There are the priorities I will handle as the next governor of Taraba State.

Naija247news
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