By Chinelo Obogo
Alhaji Ahmad Mahmud was Jigawa State deputy governor for eight years. He served in the Sule Lamido’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration. But on the eve of the 2015 general election, he defected alongside others to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Today, he is Director- General of the Badaru Governorship Campaign Organisation. He speaks on the Badaru’s administration and the chances of the APC in the February and March elections.
Governor Mohammed Badaru is seeking re-election, as the campaign DG, what will you be telling people about this government in term of its achievements in the last four years?
When this government came in 2015, it found out that the previous administration had badly vandalised the psyche of the people such that impunity was the order o the day. Anything and everything goes during that regime. A lot of things were messy. It was when this government came in to that Badaru was trying to change the orientation. You know that there were a lot issues in the country pre 2015 elections. There was Boko Haram, insecurity everywhere, the economy was down. With the coming in of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, things have started easing up. The economy was and is still on the rise, insecurity has reduced, and Boko Haram has been curtailed and contained. All these actions by the Federal Government will naturally trickle down to the states. So, Jigawa is also a beneficiary of the Federal Government’s positive actions. Coming back o this administration, what the Badaru administration did, on coming on board was to place premium on investment of the people, and that is by way of education. Education was and still a priority of this administration. He believes that once education is right, every other thing will be right. The other one is the issue of agriculture. Agriculture for this administration is like crude oil. And that is why the government is investing heavily in agriculture such that it even has a slogan, farming is a business. The governor galvanised the youths and ensure that they not only participate but they are making a living from it now.
There is what is called the cluster farming initiative. What this government did through this initiative, is to refocus the subsistence mindset of the small holder farmer and open their eyes to the commercial potential of their farming activities. The government then registered these subsistence farmers and cluster them for target input provision and extension service. Initially, a maximum cluster size of 50 hectares was formed in each of the 287 wards in the state. So far, a total of 1,306 clusters have been established with 61,184 farmers presently in this initiative. At the moment, Jigawa is heavily into its rice farming, what we grow presently is even much more than some states. Very soon, Jigawa will not only be supplying the rice needs of the country but the entire West African sub region. All these were achieved within just less than three years.
You were in administrations, the Sule Lamido’s own and now the Mohammed Badaru administration, what is the difference?
There is a great difference. Before now, the country was heading for the rock. Security was a big problem including the economy. I was commissioner of finance in 2000-2005. So I know how the ministry is run. I have never in my life thought of getting a leader who is so prudent, so accountable like Badaru. Unlike before, this governor is a budget man. Everything and anything that the government must do must be documented, that is, it must be in the budget. If it is not in the budget, then, you won’t see him appending his signature. We lack his type in this country. He will never do anything outside the budget. His action presently is a big deal in our political development. When I say it is a big deal, I am talking from experience. I know how government operates in this clime but for him to have a paradigm shift from the status quo, is a big deal. When he came into the government, he abolished the use of security vote. He is the first governor in Nigeria that immediately he was sworn in, he stopped the use security vote.
Unlike in the past, the governor was said to have insisted on completing the past administration’s projects even though they are from different political parties with different manifestos. Why?
Yes, that is why I said this governor is a big deal in Nigeria today. His actions are totally different from what is operational in Nigeria presently. It is unheard of that a new government from another party and with different manifestos would still continue the projects of his predecessor. These are part of the qualities this man posses. He completed these projects; first of all, because the projects are for the people, more importantly, it is the people’s projects because it is the people that own the resources. He completed projects worth more than N100billion that he met on ground before starting his own. His action is a real progression in our political developments. We need more of Badaru in our polity. We need more clean businessmen in our polity. We need more of clean but God- fearing persons like Badaru in our polity. If everyone is staying back, there won’t be serious minded people in politics. If Badaru too had stayed back, how would we have had these benefits the state is presently enjoying now? The more we have the likes of Badaru in the polity, from the ward, to Local Government, to state and the federal level, the better for this country.
There has been gale of defections from the opposition PDP to your party. However, some have said that the defections were monetarily induced, how true?
If you know Badaru very well, you will know that the governor would be the last person that would induce anybody with money. Badaru is not different from President Buhari. He is a very prudent person. I was once in PDP, a strong one at that. I was the deputy governor to Dr Sule Lamido for eight years of his administration. Now let me say this, whoever is coming to APC is coming essentially because of two things: one, they are coming because they have since discovered that their lifestyle have changed, dependence on them have also reduced because the people are busy themselves, they are seeing the developments everywhere which are also beneficial o them as well. Two, some of them are coming because of some of us who left the PDP. If we could leave the party, they believe they also have no reason to still remain there. Presently, I have more than 70 groups waiting to declare their support for me and defect to the APC. Not only in PDP, but several parties including SDP. In the last one or two weeks, that is what we have been doing, receiving new members who interestingly, are even willing to support us financially. Recently, I was in two Local Government Areas where we witnessed the defection of 22 ward chairmen, two Local Government chairmen.
If all those that matter in the state are coming over to the APC, as you claim, are we not likely going to have a one party structure in the state?
Yeah, it may likely happen because if the government is truly for the people, if it is caring for the people, there is likelihood that the people would be voting such party into government all the time. Now, everyone can see that nobody is stealing any money, because there is nothing to steal, besides, the governor, a self made, well contented person, a business man of international repute will not steal your money and the little he receives are accounted for through the various mass benefiting projects across the state. Nobody is preventing you from joining the party, nobody is bribing his way to secure contracts, and everything is on merit. I don’t need to know the governor before I get certain things done. Rules are rules. Unlike the previous administration, here, rules cannot be broken. The problem with our country is that people go along with the trend, trend I mean where the money is, that is where people will go to, even if it is detrimental to the development of the generality of the people. Things are changing. Ideas rule the world. Prudence, I can say, is one word and major reason people are in love with this administration. Now, everyone is returning to agriculture which fortunately is paying their bills. As we speak here, I am the director of campaign; we are not collecting money from the government. We source the resources ourselves. Badaru isn’t giving us a dime. This campaign is financed by the people. Now, people are watching and looking at our lifestyle, they know that their money is not being stolen. They know that whatever that was earmarked for this project will definitely go into that project, not only that, they know that the project will be seen physically, not on paper. With all that is ground presently, both in the state and at the federal level, APC will be returned, God willing, to power.