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Blog -Monday's Report
Top News - Honourable Mohammed Arzika Tureta was a member of the National Assembly. He was also state chairman of PDP in Sokoto State and now Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources. In this encounter with ANKELI EMMANUEL,
Turreta expressed fears over the electoral fortunes of the PDP as 2015 approaches. He said the people of Sokoto State voted for Wamakko and not PDP.
Top News - Honourable Mohammed Arzika Tureta was a member of the National Assembly. He was also state chairman of PDP in Sokoto State and now Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources. In this encounter with ANKELI EMMANUEL,
Turreta expressed fears over the electoral fortunes of the PDP as 2015 approaches. He said the people of Sokoto State voted for Wamakko and not PDP.
As former state chairman of PDP, what magic did you perform for the once ANPP controlled State to become a PDP controlled State?
You see, people vote for the right candidates or candidates of their choice. It is easy to sell a candidate if the candidate is good. If a candidate is good, you need not suffer when selling him to the people. When I was the State chairman of the PDP, we suffered a lot because of the internal problems within the same PDP in the State. Our leaders in those days could not sit together and work as a team. This one will go a different direction the other one will equally go the other direction. And this was basically because of selfish interests as each of them wanted to become governor.
What was obtainable in the former PDP in the state was simply if he or she never becomes governor, let everybody die. Therefore, when I became chairman, I had a lot of problems with those old people who suffered us during the old PDP. When we decided that we should bring in somebody that can easily be voted in by Sokoto people, we thought of Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko because of his clean records.
He has absolute sympathy for the people and because of this cherished attitude, the moment we said we are merging with ANPP and Aliyu Wamakko into PDP, a lot of people welcomed that idea. They are happy that now PDP has leadership that has initiatives.
Thus, the whole 23 local government areas of the state were happy with our decision. Therefore, in the election, the people of Sokoto State voted for Wamakko because of his charisma, all inclusive, result oriented leadership qualities which he has and not because of the party per say.
But do you still foresee a lingering effect of the old PDP in the new Wamakko-led PDP?
You see, some of the people in the old PDP are still hanging in limbo. They are nowhere to be found. Today you see them in one man’s house, tomorrow you see them somewhere else. They are nowhere to be found rather, they are running everywhere without change. They are Abuja-based politicians now going from one office to the other seeking assistance but they cannot come home to work with us as a family so that we can raise the standard of governance in Sokoto State more and more.
But should they decide to come now, is the new PDP in the State ready to welcome them?
When they come honestly to work with us, why not? We will carry them along but I am assuring you that the people of Sokoto State went to the extent of voting for Aliyu Wamakko not even party (PDP).
Recently, governor Wamakko was suspended from the PDP by the national body only for them to recall him within a few days. In your opinion, what do you think led to his immediate recall?
You know, truth is bitter. Governor, Wamakko is an innocent person. He has not done wrong to anybody; both the president and the party. He has been a loyal member of the PDP. No meeting that they called him that he refused; and should there be need for any contribution from Sokoto State, Wamakko will be the first person to bring his own contribution to the party. He has 100 per cent elected persons in the state; we have 23 local governments, 244 councilors, 23 chairmen, 30 members of the state House of Assembly, 11 Members of the House of Representatives, three Senators as well as the governor himself and his deputy are all PDP.
Therefore, somebody with this qualification cannot offend anybody. Look, what they decided to do at the national level was so bad; however, they discovered that this man is innocent just that the Abuja-based politicians are misleading us and they immediately decided to withdraw the suspension order.
Wamakko is a peace-loving person; no matter what, he always forgive and will assist you and work together with you if need be. Therefore, there is no way you can just wake up and say you have suspended somebody with this character and qualification out of the several governors of PDP.
Some of them are permanently based in Abuja now and they cannot even come back home because they cannot go out in Sokoto in the daytime because people know them. They know who they are and as such, people look at them with disdain because they cheated the state. Now, look at the infrastructures in Sokoto State today, see networks of roads all over the State, all courtesy of Wamakko.
Now, how would you rate Wamakko in terms of infrastructural development of the State generally?
Look, Wamakko is being rated high in every sector. Is it education where Wamakko gives free education to all school age children no matter where they come from? No matter who you are, so long as you reside within Sokoto State, your child will receive free primary and secondary education. In the health sector, both women and children of bellow five years are receiving free medical attention. Wamakko is also scored high in the transport sector; the numerous Sokoto State Transport Authority buses plying all over the country tells it all.
The governor initiated a lot of things which will continue to positively affect the lives of the people of the state and that is why the people of the state will continue to be happy with him. Let me be very frank with you, if there is this opportunity of going for third term as governor, I’m assuring you that governor Wamakko will still be voted for by the good and peace loving people of Sokoto State. Yes, they would have given him automatic ticket and he would score over 90 per cent of the votes just that the constitution does not allow that.
In the area of youth development, the state has skill acquisition centres for youths and women development where they teach so many of her youths in skills like mechanics, electronics, welding, and tailoring. The governor is spending so much on the youths because he is very interested in the future of the youths and women, and they are now enjoying the benefit of the administration hence so many of them are now reformed.
They have their own houses, wives, cars and something to show.
Wamakko is rated high among his peers as the first governor to have initiated Almajiri Model Integrated School. How would you describe that initiative?
You see, even before the federal government initiated their Almajiri education programme, Sokoto State governor, Aliyu Wamakko had started his. He even built the Almajiri School in Denge Shuni where a lot of other governors came to see what was happening. When they saw the miracle, some of the governors went to their respective states and introduced same. Having seen the success of Wamakko-formed Almajiri Model Integrated School, the federal government then introduced theirs.
Not only that, the state government had its school for the handicaps. It is an interesting school where you go and see a lot of interesting things. You will be surprised to see a scenario where both the blind, deaf and dump, handicap and normal children are studying in a particular class with all of them understanding the same thing they are taught. About three serving ministers have come to see that school and they were all surprised about the learning system that is going on there.
Therefore, in every sector of human development, Sokoto State governor, Aliyu Wamakko is being scored high especially that he recently received an award as the best governor on housing for 2013. He has built over 2000 houses, which are to be occupied by our people. In fact, I am one of the beneficiaries and many other people are equally happy with the development.
Do you see the current political alignment between governors Wamakko, Sule Lamido, Kwankwaso, Babangida Aliyu, Amaechi and others as capable of forming another political party?
Is it an abomination to interact with other governors of the same party? Is it an abomination for PDP governors to meet among themselves? I am asking a question. Those who are making such costly allegations are misleading the country. These are governors and everybody should know that they can sit, talk and initiate projects for their respective states; collaborate with one another for good. And let me tell you that if people see their meeting or closeness as an abomination, then we are making a mistake. When you see governors visiting themselves or putting heads together, you do not make such costly allegation. You see, some people are very sensitive to criticisms that when someone does something, they might instantly begin to think that what this person is doing is against him; no it’s not, you are only being hypertensive to criticism.
One should look at the dos and don’ts of the people. You as a leader, you invite these governors, they expect you to come, and you sit with them to take decisions on various political issues in the country and they will never say no; but because they meet somewhere, you start alleging that they are doing something against you! No, it is not true. People should consider so many things because we do not want to misunderstand ourselves. We want Nigeria to continue as one entity without having any problem.
You cannot compare Nigeria with countries where they have these political misunderstandings and uprisings. No, Nigeria is a peaceful country. The leaders should continue to initiate things that will unite the people and not to divide the country. Because if we work together, and follow the constitution of this country, things will go well but when you become selfish, then selfish interests will spoil the country. Let’s be honest and work together as a people so that we can achieve whatever we want to achieve. But when you start showing some people that they are not good enough, it will turn into the issue of handshake going beyond the elbow, and such would turn into something else.
Now, some governors are thinking of State Police because there is no reason the Nigeria Police should come and maltreat, harass and humiliate a sitting governor of the ruling party. I do not feel comfortable. If the Police can harass an elected governor of a state and nobody calls them to order, then I am getting worried when people start calling for state Police; I was always against state Police. However, with the level of what is happening now, I think people should do something that can protect them.
Are you now saying State Police should be approved?
Now, let me say this. See what is happening in Rivers State, is it good for the country? When they show it on NTA, is it good for the country? And you see Police there. What are they doing? Who brought them? Who initiated that? Now let us put heads together, let leaders of thoughts all over the country come together and iron out what is the problem so that we can collectively talk it over.
We cannot divide ourselves rather, we have to be together. We inherited this country as one indivisible entity, as such, we should make sure that we leave it the way we met it, if not better, so that our children’s children will meet it better than the way we inherited it.
Considering the level of insecurity in Nigeria and north in particular, do you see the north uniting towards 2015 presidency?
Well, as for me, I always talk of Nigeria in general. What I want is that we should unite. Let PDP sort all the problems it has so that we iron out these problems once and for all. PDP has problems within itself and if we don’t address these problems, I am afraid if we can win again. Let us come together, sit down, iron out the problems, forgive one another and move forward. But with the way things are going now, I am afraid because they say when people get fed up, there is nothing they cannot do. Some can defect from the party, some can retire from politics completely and a lot of things could happen.
So many good friends that have worked together for the past years are now falling apart because of little misunderstandings. I am not saying this about the PDP only but all other parties, let us look at our ideology and try to fish out what the problem is and how best we can address it for the good of all. And I am assuring you that by the time this is done, all the developmental projects we are fighting for will definitely come to the north, the east, south, west and every other region of the country. But I am telling you that these squabbles everywhere will lead us nowhere.
Let us therefore, unite, have sanity and stop over heating the polity because the polity is being over-heated. Let us call conventions in the north, south, west and east so that we can deliberate and after such zonal meetings, we will now meet at the centre again for each zone to say their problems so that at the end of the day, we will sit down and reconcile all positions.
But do you see the north coming together as one indivisible zone towards 2015?
Well, I doubt very much because in every group you will certainly see people with their own ideology. You cannot do politics in the north without the south, east and west; same thing goes for other regions. Therefore, when they say the east will come together and fight the north in 2015 presidency, I always look at it as not possible because nobody can do it alone. The north must put their heads together with other geopolitical regions of the country to produce the president.
Look at the constitutional requirement; one has to at least score 25 per cent of the votes in specified number of states of the federation. And how can you score that without the north, south, west and so on? Therefore, I think it’s just a political miscalculation, however I am not saying the north cannot put heads together but we have to do it with non-northerners if we want to win the presidency.
