Governor-Elect of Katsina State, Rt.
Hon. Aminu Bello Masari, a former speaker of the House of Representatives in
this interview gives an insight into what the people of Katsina should expect
from his administration. Excerpts:
My experience as opposition
politician
It is really an experience for
somebody to contest election in a party that is in the opposition, especially
because of the way we see opposition in this country. I believe that the
opposition should partner in the development of the democratic process in a
country.
Unfortunately, in some quarters,
people in opposition party are seen as enemies and not as partners. So, my
experience, since I joined the opposition in 2009, is that for you to be in the
opposition, you have to be very patient, persevere and also to be steadfast.
Once you have an idea which you
believe in, you should remain constant and consistent and in the end, God will
definitely be with you in terms of succeeding. So, my experience has really
been mixed in the sense that the ordinary person wants change all the time, but
the powers-that-be always want to maintain status quo. The worst situation is
the lack of level playing ground. But we have seen how the simple introduction
of card reader made it almost impossible to inflate votes, and this has made a
little difference. Really, with the right leadership in the right place at the
right time, Nigeria will get it right.
What to expect from me as the
Governor of Katsina State
If you passed through our campaign
office, we said our project is Restoration 2015 for Katsina. What are we
restoring? Traditionally, Katsina is known for investment and producing highly
educated and technically sound people. So, our main area, our first target,
second target and third target is education because today in Katsina, the public
schools, based on last year’s performance in WAEC, we could not get three
percent. If you take the entire Katsina indigenes, whether they live in Lagos,
Abuja or anywhere outside the state, 45,800 of them sat for WAEC and only 4,500
of them got five credits and above in Katsina where the first middle school in
Northern Nigeria was established.
In Katsina where the first
generation, second generation and third generation including the
President-Elect were products of the Katsina Native Education Authority.
We were the first to open an
education account in the UK for the training of our people. But today from 1999
to 2014, we have presented over 255,000 students for WAEC. What did we get out
of that? Only 32,000 of them got five credits and above in 15 years.
Teachers and classrooms
During my campaign, I was able to
travel to all the local government areas in the state. We have 34 local
governments, I slept in 27 and in each local government and I made sure that I
did not follow the tarred road. What did we see?
60 percent of our primary schools
have either their roofs blown off of or the windows are down or the doors are
down or no floor. On the average. A classroom is housing about 97 children.
What are we talking about? There is a district that the District Head told me
that in the whole of the district, only one child has gone to senior secondary
school. The rest dropped out because there are no teachers, no classrooms. It
is a terrible situation. There was a time we presented over 17,000 students for
WAEC and all we could get was only 370 who passed. We cannot continue like
this.
Your relationship with other
contestants
We have done very well and have
already passed that stage. Nine of us contested the primary and all of us
worked for the success of APC in Katsina state. The preparation for the
Presidential and National Assembly election, as well as the governorship
election, , each of us was involved and they all brought in materials and their
physical presence into the project.
Even though APC was announced as the
winner of the election in the state, the other parties are from Katsina and we
will offer a hand of fellowship to them too. We are going to be magnanimous, we
are going to be leaders. We are going to provide leadership and not rulership.
We have no problem in carrying along
anybody who has the interest of the people of Katsina at heart. Our key word
here is the people and not about skyscrapers. It is not about a road that will
not go anywhere, but to develop the people and the people will develop the
land.
Our expectation from the
president-elect, General Mohammadu Buhari
We are not meeting with Buhari on
the platform of the political party alone. We have a long standing relationship
and now, we have a political relationship. That Buhari is from Katsina State
for us, is a plus and that plus depends on how we manage it.
Positive contribution
We want Buhari to be a Nigerian
leader. We don’t want Buhari to be a regional, zonal or provincial leader. We
want him to be a Nigerian leader that will leave a legacy of positive
contribution to this country and that is the basis on which people elected him.
So, we will help him to maintain and
improve on those qualities that the people of Nigeria see in him. We will never
do anything that will tarnish his image, his reputation or his standing
internationally and nationally. When we go somewhere and say I am from Katsina,
we want the doors to be open. So for us, it is a plus.
What my new position means to me
If you know me well, I am a normal
person. I don’t look at things in such a way that it will carry my mind off the
direction.
We have promised, we have pledged
and we have prayed that God will give us the opportunity to restore the honour,
dignity, prestige and integrity of the people of Katsina state and this is what
we are going to work for, we see it as a challenge. I am not here not make a
new name.
As Speaker, I was given presidential
treatment anywhere I went in the country. I am here because we believe that
without executive power, you cannot make any meaningful contribution to
development in this country at this point in time.
That is why I have decided to come
back home and see how I can repay the debt because I am a product of public
institution. So, I cannot be there and watch the public institutions where 99
percent of our people started from crumble. If you are having 20 percent pass
from Katsina State, where will Katsina be in 20 years time? It means we will be
nowhere in the scheme of things in Nigeria.
There are some states in Nigeria
that if they stop going to school, it will take us 30 years in Katsina to catch
up with them.
- See more at:
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/opposition-politicians-should-learn-to-be-consistent-masari-katsina-state-gov-elect/#sthash.3QBamr6D.dpuf
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