Nigeria’s way forward is good leadership - Garba Nadama
2015 is going to be a very difficult year politically. But the way forward is people should take politics as politics and play it the way it should be played and then whoever becomes a candidate, let him go and work to get elected by the people and not im
the whole of this country. So they wanted me to stay there but there was pressure from the group that since I was one of them and I invited them, I have to join them too. That’s how I got involved. I got involved as a deputy governor and the governor died, so I became the governor. I was then re-elected before the coup.
But how was your experience as deputy governor taking into cognizance the sour relationships between governors and their deputies today?
There wasn’t such conflict because the governor was my colleague; we had been teachers at various schools. I was posted to Sokoto; he was posted to Gusau and vice-versa. There was this intimacy; when people go to talk about me, he would just throw it out because he knew me well.
Do you think you would have naturally succeeded Kangiwa after his two term tenure?
It is difficult to say that when you are a deputy governor you can be governor. The system was so open then. Sokoto was headquarters of the state; that is an honour by itself. So Argungu produced the governor and part of Zamfara produced a deputy governor. That is the formula that we adopted. Now if Kebbi finished, the likelihood of Kebbi producing a governor was nil, so either Sokoto or Zamfara could produce a governor. Therefore the competition would be between these two states. That is how things were arranged by then. It was not that anybody could emerge because there was faction, and I come from that faction. But even now it’s going to be difficult for somebody from the centre, if they are following the rule. The East had a governor; the middle has a governor, now the governor should come from Sokoto west.
When the governor said I had to be deputy, there was somebody from Kebbi who said he too wanted to be deputy. I didn’t know who and who voted, I didn’t know where it was done, I didn’t tell any single person to vote for me but they voted for me as deputy governor.
You see there are so many things that are different. Let me talk about Shagari’s election. Shagari was practically forced to contest; we did all we could to ask him to contest .When he wrote his book, he said he didn’t spend any kobo for the election. I told him, no you spent some money, he said when? When we went to Lagos for convention that made him candidate, we sat down with him and asked him to give us some money to go round and welcome people coming from different parts of the country. He said ‘I have no money’, but then he remembered he had N170. So we hired cars and went from hotel to hotel thanking them for coming and asking them to vote for Shagari. While were going round, one group said they were not going to vote for him, if he was not going to pay for their accommodation. We came and told him and he said, ‘go and tell them not to vote for me and I don’t want anybody among you to give them any kobo’.
You see the difference between the politics in those days and politics as it is being practiced now. Nobody paid for anybody who went to Lagos; nobody paid for accommodation; nobody paid for their transport, and it was something you want to do.
Now there are so many people who have focused into politics so much so that other sectors are being deserted.
Where you taken to prison to like your colleagues after the coup?
The day the coup was hatched, I was invited to Niger for a programme by the president and I was getting ready. Then somebody said to me there was a coup. So I dismantled my things and later on the police and soldiers came and took us to the government house. Later we were taken to Kirikiri in Lagos and luckily the whole political prisoners were given a block, we were not mixed with other prisoners. There was some difference.
Later, we were redistributed; we were taken in plane, and you don’t know anywhere you were going. We were dropped at the airport and then some cars came to take us, it was only when you get to the town that you will know that this is where you are.
Sola Saraki, I, Mbadiwe, Barde, governor of Kaduna where put in Enugu prison and believe me the prison wardens where so lenient. Food was brought from Ekweme’s house to me. We had our rooms; there were no prisoners around us. But how did it feel? Well when you cannot see your family, friends and associate...the thinking that you are in prison alone was something. But the maturity of knowing that there will be an end to everything helped.
What was the most important thing you learnt from that experience?
When you are in such situation, whatever religion you are following, that is the only thing you are going to devote yourself to. Muslims were so devoted to their religion and so were Christians. We got people outside to build a mosque in the prison and the teachers who would teach us recitation of the Quran.
The Christians also built their church and it went on like that. Gradually when you get used to something, you don’t feel much about it, especially when your family can go and see you. There were conduits you can get anything you want and you are allocated some prisoners who will clean your room.
So it was not as people thought, that you were in prison like a prisoner, no. We only felt isolated, that was all.
What have you been doing all this while?
After we were released, I came back to Sokoto. You see I come from a business community. In fact my closest friends did not want me to take up teaching; they wanted me to continue business with them. They were very rich. And to a certain extent even before I became a governor, I had some money, I had houses here, by then cement was nine shillings. So when I came, I was not worried about how to cater for myself. Then I went into importing cars and sending them to Kaduna. By then I was the only person, nobody was doing that. If you come here you find cars all lined up. But now I am in politics.
Talking about politics, you are in PDP, how do you see the on-going crisis in the party?
We were the people who formed the party.
While were going round, one group said they were not going to vote for him, (Shehu Shagari) if he was not going to pay for their accommodation. We came and told him and he said, ‘go and tell them not to vote for me and I don’t want anybody among you to give them any kobo
There are quite a number of people who are now in the PDP, who were rejected at the beginning. Now the party has grown so strong that you have so many states, so many governors and so on, and with that there must be some problems. It is natural.
But they are going to mend fences because a political party would not bear the consequences of defeat. If they are in two factions, things are wrong for the party to be able to produce anybody, but they are going to patch up.
What do you think about 2015?
2015 is going to be a very difficult year politically. But the way forward is people should take politics as politics and play it the way it should be played and then whoever becomes a candidate, let him go and work to get elected by the people and not imposed on them.