‘I will beat other aspirants indirect primary’

Former Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Abubakar Adamu is a governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Nasarawa State. He spoke with reporters on his ambition, zoning, and chances at the primary and next year’s election. Deputy Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU reports.

My coming out is because I have what it takes to add value to the development of the state. My coming out is really see how we can improve on what we have on ground and also to harness the resources we have in the unity, peace and prosperity of the state. In doing so, I am concerned about certain developmental issues in the state which is motivating me to come out and see how I can partake and improve on such areas for example in the area of security.

We know that in the country, and in North-Central in particular, we have been having issues of insecurity not only in Nasarawa State, but also in neigbouring states like Benue, Kogi, Taraba, Plateau, Niger. And these are challenges that you know that what affects one state goes to affect the others and I feel that in view of my background in the security sector, we know the challenges in terms of security and if we were advising and implementing some of the decisions of government in trying to tackle insecurity, I feel that, at this time, I should be in the driving seat, knowing fully how some of these security issues can be solved, if there is political will. So, having known that we need political will to solve some of these problems, if I am on that position, I will be able to utilise that and solve security problems not within Nasarawa State alone but within the catchment states too.

In economy, Nasarawa State is agrarian; we thank God we have a lot of deposit of minerals and harnessing this and investing in those can help the state and people of the state in development. During my consultations for this governorship race, I went to all the 147 wards in the state and I have seen the multitude of youths that we have and the women that need help, attention. The youths need job, training; the women need training in different fields that will give them the skills to help themselves. I have seen that those things are not there, and those are the things that I should be able to address when I get to the office. When you address the issue of youths and women, some of the security challenges in the state may reduce. For example, the state is lacking in power – electricity. If you go to the capital, you can never have 24 hours electricity, still we have substation close by. And the small scale businesses rely on electricity to survive. For example, the woman that has a fridge to sell iced water to train her children in school, there is no electricity and she can’t achieve this aim. As a result of my contacts, I have seen that there are still low level group of people that we need to concentrate on. Also, the infrastructure that is needed to help the farmers when they cultivate their agricultural produce is lacking. You see some major roads passing through the capital, but when you go to the villages, the rural roads are not there. And these are where farmers come from with agricultural produce. They need easy access to the city so that they can sell their produce but those roads are not there.

These are things I feel one should come and help the state. Furthermore, water supply in Nasarawa State is a problem. In the state capital, you cannot open tap and get water. And without that, how can good health of the people be guaranteed. People go to dig boreholes in the capital. These are challenges I feel when I come in that I need to address. In education, yes, there are schools built –primary and secondary – but they suffer neglect. These schools are dilapidated, no maintenance and the teachers’ welfare need attention. It is only when you get to tertiary level that you see institutions well built and maintained. We need to change these narratives but not having multitude of schools without maintaining them but ensuring that the ones that exist are up to the required standard. The teachers must be trained to the required level so that the students will be of high class rather than what we produce now.

Nasarawa has experienced little development. Why should people of Nasarawa trust that you would be any better?

You are right in the sense that the previous administrations that we had since the coming of democracy did not prioritise the development of the city as a capital. The first governor then, Abdullahi Adamu had a different priority rather than concentration on the state capital. One must acknowledge that people can have an impression of the state from what they see of the state capital. Due to that lack of concentration in Lafia, there was the instance of people pelting him with sachet water. The person that took over from him was late Governor Akwe Doma and he had some crisis from the beginning till the end of his administration. There were protests here and there, particularly by doctors. So, his priority was not Lafia town. It was when Tanko Al-Makura became governor that he was able to prioritise development of the state capital. That is why we have some of the roads you see today inside the town. He was the one that constructed, expanded them. And the level of development and beauty within the capital came up.

Up till today, most of the development inside Lafia town was brought by Tanko Al-Makura. The current governor was able to dualise about five kilometers of road that passes through the government house. Apart from that, nothing in the town, and it is the way Tanko Al-Makura left it. I am from Lafia town. My priority will be to see that the landscape of the town changes, not because of Lafia people but because of the state. If you get to a state capital, the impression you get of that state, is what you see in the capital. Apart from changing the landscape of the state capital, I also intend to create some satellite, modern settlements outside the city, so as to give the state a look of an urbanized city.

You have touted your security background, but the security seems overwhelmed. How do you intend to change this narrative concerning security in Nasarawa?

Everyone of us knows the security problems we have in this country. We have communal clashes, banditry, kidnapping, terrorism, but you can classify these offences into different regions or zones in this country. In the North-Central, where Nasarawa is, our major problem is communal clashes, kidnapping. We tackle it by asking what are the causes of these problems. The causes are nothing but poverty. If you don’t have what you do and you must survive, you must find a way of surviving. There are strata of solutions. The first is to focus on creating jobs that the youths will have the opportunity to have one thing or the other so as to remove their minds from committing crime. In the agricultural sector, you can create a lot of jobs for the youths. In the mining sector, you can create a lot of jobs for the youths. And this is an area I would focus on. That would reduce the number of youths roaming around without jobs. The second step, especially in dealing with farmer-herder conflict, is bringing the community together, bringing the farmers and herders together and solving the problem. What is happening in Nasarawa State in terms of farmer-herder conflict is the same thing that is happening in Zamfara. And I have firsthand information of what happened in Zamfara because when they killed themselves, when I was in office, I went there and found out that not only the resources, in terms of herders going into farmers’ farms and destroying it, there is this issue of hatred between one ethnic group and the other. When I went to Zamfara, and there was farmer-herder conflict, we discovered that all of them were people of the same tribe, same religion, same language, but they were fighting themselves because a group formed a vigilante group to fight the Fulanis in protecting their farms. So whenever they see Fulani, they attack them, then the Fulani revolted and started attacking and kidnapping. In Nasarawa, the farmers are there, the herders are there, but to solve their problems is for the herders’ community to agree that if you destroy any farm, you must be responsible. There has to be that understanding and then know that it is natural. And if the farmers should infiltrate the herders, and take their cows, they should also be told that that is not acceptable and that it is not normal, and if you do that, you have to be accountable. If that is understood within the community, everybody will restrain himself or herself. Then the next step is to implement community policing initiative. In every community, you have traditional leadership and the leadership is able to take care of their youth, women because of their culture. But within such leadership, you can empower some youths within the group legally to perform police functions but with some limitations. Their duty is to generate intelligence, identify and report those who are likely to cause problem to the traditional leadership of that community for them to resolve it. If they are not able to resolve it, then they bring in the conventional policing.

Nasarawa is the closest to the Federal Capital Territory. What is your plan to exploit this untapped opportunity?

Yes, a place like Mararaba is still a slum. When Federal Government wanted to move the capital from Lagos to Abuja. They found Abuja and started construction. The workers that constructed Abuja are the workers that stayed in Nyanya because of lack of space. So, the Shehu Shagari government in 1979 decided to build workers’ quarters in Nyanya. So they come here work and go back. When they were constructing those settlements, it was not a planned one but a temporary settlement so that when they finish constructing Abuja, they can demolish it. But those structures are there, people acquire land there. When ministries moved from Lagos to Abuja, the staff that couldn’t stay in Abuja had to more there and they were cheap accommodation, that is why the place is like that. But, that doesn’t stop re-landscaping the area to make it look as the way it is here in Abuja. And that also doesn’t stop creating another settlement with structures, buildings like it is here in Abuja, with good infrastructure. If you look at Mararaba, at the back, there is a town called Gurku. It has a boundary with Mpape. We will create express road such that if you’re coming from Kaduna, you don’t need to come into Mararaba. From Gitata-Panda, you can enter Abuja through Mpape. By that axis, we must have big estates, like the way we have in Abuja, and go back to the slums and reshape them.

What is your position on zoning? How much of the support of the power brokers do you enjoy as the party primary will be either direct or consensus?

Politics is about interests. Anything that you feel will favour you, as a politician, you go for it. In Nasarawa State, there is nothing like zoning. Zoning has never taken place. In 1999, when the state was created, the state needed a civilian governor and needed someone who has political experience so Abdullahi Adamu was brought in under the Peoples Democratic Party. When Adamu completed his term, they were looking for someon within the PDP, but couldn’t find anyone and then went to the All Nigeria Peoples Party, and picked Aliyu Akwe, who was a contemporary of Abdullahi Adamu. When they brought him, they made him decamp from ANPP to PDP. It wasn’t because of zoning because PDP never had zoning at that time. Tanko Al-Makura came from a different party, Congress for Progressive Change. He defeated Aliyu Akwe. None of CPC or PDP came with zoning. When Tanko was going, he supported the current governor, Abdullahi Sule. Now that Sule is going, Abdullahi Adamu wants the governorship to come to his side, and he has the right to agitate for it. My zone, Nasarawa South, argues that any competent person in the state should vie for the position, that there is nothing like zoning. So, whether you’re from Nasarawa West, South or North, anyone interested should come out and contest. But the governor, in his wisdom, felt that he should support somebody from Nasarawa West, and that does not stop any other person from contesting. On the primary, the governor has made a public statement that Nasarawa State will adopt direct primaries, which is okay for everybody. We want direct primaries. We will be vigilant, open our eyes and make sure the primaries are free and fair.

 How would you battle a governor who has a succession plan in the primary?

Go to Nasarawa to reach a judgement whether he has done well or not. The governor has the person he is supporting different from my zone, that is from Keffi zone. I am from Lafia zone. So I don’t expect any patronage from him. But it is not the governor that gives power, it is the electorate. So, I decided to go directly to the electorate. I went to all the 147 wards. I saw the party officials, the stakeholders; I saw the problems they are facing, I heard their complaints. Some of them were about leaving the party. I listened to their problems; I solved some of them, and urged that we work together, and we are walking together. I saw them at least twice every month. Nobody can beat me in terms of support from the electorate.

But in our politics, it’s a common knowledge that governors wield a lot of influence on the result of party primaries...

The Electoral Act does not recognize indirect primaries. It is when you have indirect primaries that they manipulate the delegates, when few people represent large number of people. That has been eliminated. No governor will carry five people saying they represent my local government and hide them somewhere, bring them out on election day and ask them to vote a certain aspirant. The Electoral Act allows consensus and direct. For direct primaries, you go to the electorate and that is where I went. Consensus will never take place in Nasarawa State because when one out of many aspirants disagrees with consensus, you go for direct primaries. So whoever came with the idea of removing indirect primaries must have contested and suffered from indirect primaries.

You are known more for your police career rising to the pinnacle to become the Inspector General of Police. You have joined the political space vying to become governor. What are your political antecedents?

 As you have mentioned, I rose from being cadet office to become Inspector General of Police but I have a lot of political experience too, internationally and nationally. Many professionals are politicians one way or the other, whether they climbed the podium with drumming to campaign or not. The way you define politics is not the way another person will define politics. At my level where you mentioned that I operate, we play politics there. A politician that goes to the electorate, sits down with them, goes to campaign grounds with drumming is another aspect. An individual who goes around studying what is happening politically within the country and proferring solutions to the political situation and giving good analysis of how things will be if certain activities take place is also a politician. At the level of looking for peace and security in the country, and you see that certain group of people are going to cause problem in the society, heat the polity, and you get there without arms, without force, and you’re able to maneuvre and solve the problem, it is also politics. So, I have done that at the highest level. I am now coming to the level that I need to climb drum and start talking. So, we shouldn’t describe politics as a straitjacket, you play it at different levels.

Some people say they don’t want a politician who lives in Abuja, that they want someone who lives with them. What have you done in Nasarawa that the indigenes can point to?

Talking about Abuja politicians coming to Nasarawa to contest, I was born in Lafia, grew there, built my house in Lafia, my family, my wife, my children stay in Lafia. I am a Lafia guy. Regarding what I’ve done for the state, first of all, I was the Inspector General of Police and I implemented security strategy for the entire country, including Nasarawa State. I helped in advising governors and deploying resources to help the governors in fighting crimes in the states.

I did recruitment into the police all over the country and Nasarawa State also benefited. I built Police Mobile Training School for the country because we were having problem of insecurity in Gwoza. Our mobile police men used to go to Gwoza for training but because of insecurity, they were not going again. They were going to Ila Orangun in Osun State and it was not enough so I had to build a brand new big mobile police training school in Nasarawa. I built Police secondary schools, hospitals, constructed roads in Nasarawa. Among the aspirants - those that have been politicians before I came - what I have built, brought there, they have not done. So, they can’t say I have not done anything for the state.

There’s the unending discourse about the establishment of state police amid fears of its abuse by governors. Where do you stand on this?

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The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria states that we should have one police force - no other one should be created. But what we have in the country already shows that we have been having different police services everywhere. When you perform function that is meant for police, you’re already policing. At the national level, we already have some structures, institutions that are performing the same functions of the police. At the state level, we have neighborhood watch, some call it Amotekun, some vigilante, already doing police functions. So, we invariably already have state police but in different names. What we need to do is to find ways of strengthening them to be effective, so as to deal with crime of different nature. So people that are against state police have their reasons thinking that the governors will misuse it. But the governors are using the vigilante and other structures they created. So we already have state police, it is just to find ways of strengthening them.

What is your stance on local government autonomy?

In every developed democracy, you must have and respect the three tiers of government. In Nigeria, the only tier of government that is suffering is the local government. They are there at the mercy of the governor. If the law states that they should be autonomous, they should be. If they are autonomous, you hold them responsible. But if you don’t allow them have their resources, how will you assess them? I am an advocate of local government autonomy, and if I become governor, it will be implemented to the fullest.

Would you be among those in the forefront campaigning for Nasarawa votes for President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 election?

There is no government that has done what everybody praises. When he removed fuel subsidy, you know that the money is going back to the states. Every governor will tell you that he is getting more money than they used to get, and they will tell you they are using the money to develop the states. If it were some government, subsidy would have been taken and the states would not have seen anything. Every governor acknowledges that they have more money but it is for us to hold them accountable. No governor says he’s not able to pay salaries because there is no money, or that he will borrow money because of projects. When you go to those agrarian states, they produce a lot of food, with the intervention of the Federal Government. If you have support like that, you would die for the president to come back because you’re getting what you’re looking for. So I will call on Nigerians to give support to this present government to come back for the second term. If you want to go to Port Harcourt from Lagos, you have a shorter road that is being constructed. Those who were in government that never thought of that were criticizing the project but they are now accepting it as a good idea. As a result of getting more money, Lagos has done a lot of projects in terms of ease of transportation that you can get in developed nations because of the intracity rail lines. Before now, there would not have been such fund. So we must make sure that we vote this government again so that we have more benefits of democracy.