From Gyang Bere, Jos

Member representing Barkin-Ladi/Riyom Federal Constituency of Plateau State in the House of Representatives, Simon Mwadkwon has said the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been insensitive to the plights of Nigerians due to their unfriendly economic policies and under performance. He blamed the party for the scourge of insecurity in the country and said only the PDP can right the wrongs of APC in 2023.

Are you satisfied with the living condition of your people coupled with the skyrocketing prices of foodstuff in the market and current hardship in the country?

Honestly I am not satisfied because if you look at the people, you will find out that they are highly impoverished; people are begging for intervention at all levels. But I have tried to do some little interventions going into empowerment of widows, people living with disabilities and we have also engaged youths by trying to teach them how they can fend for themselves and become economically self-reliant. We did train them and empower them with starter packs which some of them are doing very well. We have also empowered women and youths on agricultural production; so I am not satisfied, that is why we have to go into this type of interventions to see how other people can start doing something for themselves. This is because the level of poverty in the country today is unprecedented and if we look back, one will shed tears because things are not working well. We are all aware of what is happening in Barkin-Ladi/Riyom Federal Constituency, my people have been under siege for more than a decade now. There is this feeling of frustration, despair and despondency but with this little intervention, it will alleviate their plights.

Talking about insecurity in Nigeria, nowhere is save. If you travel along Kaduna-Abuja road, you need the grace of God to survive, and recently, there was jailbreak in Jos, are we secure in this country?

We are not in any way secure in this country even in your bedroom; there is that fear of uncertainty. The country has become so fearful, I have never dreamed of this country becoming what it is today that leaving your house to the next street, you have to pray. That even inside your house, your gate has to be sealed, the doors and your bedroom have to be sealed; Nigeria is becoming a lawless society. It is unfortunate that the government, those who are saddled with the responsibility of protecting lives and properties have been playing politics with the issue of insecurity and that is going to consume all of us. The recent breakage into the Jos Prison is something that I cannot phantom how it happened and why it should happen that way. It is unbelievable because if you look at the security arrangement within the area, the A Division is there, the DSS office is there and the Police Barrack is there. These are security agencies and to say some people broke into the prison and freed some people, it is unimaginable. The Correctional Service should do a thorough investigation because this thing cannot happen without a collaboration of people within the Service itself; if not, it is very impossible. Talking about insecurity and my constituency, I have cried loud, although it has become a national issue. Before now, when there was problem of insecurity in my constituency, I cried out loud that this thing is going to consume us one day, that government should do something about it but nobody listened to us, nobody believed us until the whole thing engulfed the whole country. I believed that some of the insecurity activities that we have today in Nigeria, the breeding ground is fromm Barkin-Ladi/Riyom Constituency. I have talked so much about Rakum and which some people have changed the name to “Mahanga”;  that it is a training and hideout of Boko Haram. I have said it time within number while I was Chairman of Riyom Local Government but nobody believed me; nobody listened to me but today, it is clear from investigation that most of the attacks happening in Plateau, the people are coming from that area. Even the recent Prison break, security has it that the people are from Barkin-Ladi and certainly, I know that they will be from Rakum. Therefore, the issue of insecurity in Nigeria is no longer strange, it is something that people are getting used to and living with it like that because we have a government in place that is insensitive to the plight of the people; we will continue to live with it like that until when we have a better government in place. Before President Buhari was elected, he made a lot of noise on this issue of insecurity, especially the Boko Haram thing. He said that possibly within the shortest time, he will stem Boko Haram; here he is today, Sheikh Gumi is going to negotiate and discuss with bandits without any result. If I were President Buhari, I will arrest Sheikh Gumi and tell him to bring to me the details of all these bandits. Because if Military people cannot have access to the bandits, they cannot sit with them and here is an Imam of Sheikh going to negotiate with these people and he will be saying that if you destroyed these people, hell will be let loose. It means he is part of them. In Nigeria today, hardly a day will pass without somebody being killed; we pray that God will help Nigerians to be wise in 2023 and vote this party out. This is because I don’t understand the kind of Leadership the APC is giving Nigeria; you will not see any physical development but only noise making. They will make noise and be deceiving people and anytime they notice that people understand that they are not doing anything, they will come up with another issue that will distract and divert attention of people from discussing the economy, issues of insecurity and what will bring the people together in prosperity.

Do you think PDP is the solution to the current challenges in Nigeria?

Yes. PDP is a solution to the current hardship and insecurity in the country. During PDP government, petrol was sold at N48; today is N165 per liter and they are thinking of taking it to N340,that was the proposal recently. If patrol becomes N340 per liter today, even those of us that are privileged people, we will drop our cars.

But most of the people in APC are the same people that were in the PDP except the President and a few, don’t you think they are the same people?

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The same people but they are wearing new clothes and those clothes can be infectious. The APC clothes are very infectious, they don’t think PDP again. The head of the government is the government itself; if the head cannot think and coordinate well, the rest of the government cannot do anything. So, it doesn’t matter whether they were in PDP before, but I am looking at paradigm shift, a total generational shift. It is for the old folks to give room to the younger generation to govern.

If you are called by your people based on your performance in the House of Representatives to contest for Senate in 2023, what will be your reaction?

I am already out to contest for the Senate because the call has come earlier than now and I have accepted it. It was a very big call from people of the six local government areas in Plateau North Senatorial District. I said it, that I will not go to Commission solar street lights which cost N25,000 and so if I put 100, have I helped that community; it will collapse one day and the life span is one year. Although I have them in many communities but backed up with solid infrastructural development. There is the Health Centre I commissioned; I constructed borehole and there are solar streets light and I will not go to Commission solar street lights, I have them in all the Health facilities that I have built. Our next commissioning, we will go to at least four health facilities again. My priority is the education sector, the health needs of the people and one thing that can promote health is potable drinking water that is why I am also focusing on water. Therefore, I am running for Senate by the grace of God.

Will you say the assumption of APC government was a punishment for Nigeria?

Yes, this is because we refused to do the needful; Nigerians were warned never to vote for APC. I have a friend who told me that he was from the same ethnic nationality with the person Nigerians want to vote as President and belonged to the same Fulani stock. He warned at that time that if Nigerians vote this man into power, we will serve our punishment so dearly and advised Nigerians not to do so but people refused to listen to the advice and went ahead and voted APC. The worse aspect was that, we voted them again to come for second tenure even when in their first four years, we noticed that they did nothing but I believe we still have opportunity to address the issue in 2023 by voting PDP into office.

Your zone, the North Central has produced the National Chairman of the PDP and a group is drumming support for the zone to produce the President in 2023, don’t you think the people are selfish?

There is no rule anywhere that said if you have the National Chairman, you cannot have the President, sometimes we do that just for convenience but if we have the Chairman, we can still have the President. I think the North Central also has the right to contest for the President.

Why are you prioritizing schools as part of your constituency projects?

Education for me is key because without education, I don’t think I would have been in the House of Representatives. For instance, the Asian Tigers today pride themselves with the level of development they have simply because they invested hugely in education that gave birth to several researches that led to so many discoveries which brought about the development they are enjoying today. Also, look at Singapore; it was at the same level of development with Nigeria but because of their investment in education, it is one of the best countries in the world in terms of development. Education is everything that will take us out of poverty and out of the current security challenges. When you give people education, you have given them life because even if you don’t have a job but you have education, you will know how to take care of yourself; you can go into any type of business. That is what informed my focus on schools infrastructure and equipping schools with learning materials to provide a conducive learning environment. You recall what the President of Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) said about the Bible School; he said the school has been looking for an opportunity in the last 10 years to improve the facility to be upgraded to Diploma awarding institution but with the six classrooms I built and commissioned, they can now award NCE certificates. Therefore, for me, education is a strategic function that will give people a vision and direction, lead to development, growth and every sphere of human endeavor rallies around education.