Alhaji Yakubu Muhammad (Jacob)The last local government election in Yobe State was conducted without the participation of PDP, leaving the ruling APC in the state to sweep all seats. Former PDP financial secretary in the state, Alhaji Yakubu Muhammad (Jacob), now an APC chieftain, says in this interview that the fear of defeat was behind PDP’s boycott. Excerpts:
How come the Yobe State government went ahead with the LG elections when some parties said they were boycotting it?
We contacted the PDP and other political parties in the state about the local government election. We wanted them to prepare and indicate their participation. Initially, the PDP was ready to partake in the election, but upon realising that they had no credible persons that could win, they decided to stay away.
Governor Ibrahim Gaidam further extended the period of the election to about three to four months with the intent of making the PDP have a change of mind and partake in the election. He wanted them to nominate their various candidates for chairmanship and councillorship positions. We ensured a level playing field for all the parties. They still refused to do that and after that, we announced the election date.
Unfortunately, the PDP leader in the state, who is the minister of state for finance, came out through the media saying that there was no security in the state, hence there would not be election. I want the people to know that despite the security problems that he is claiming in the state, his relatives are still in the state, they are in Gashua. And the minister is an indigene of Gashua. It is only the minister with his family that are based in Abuja. As such, we wonder how he came out to say there is no security in the state. We can say that he does not know what the state is going through, because he is away from the state.
Are you saying there is adequate security in the state?
If there was no security in the state, the whole world would have heard it. There would not have been successful, peaceful elections as Nigerians have witnessed it. We did the election with large turnout, and APC eventually won all the 17 local government chairmanship and councillorship seats. It showed the world that the people always want to be identified with the party that is peaceful and one that takes security as its priority. In terms of security situation in the state, I don’t know why the minister keeps on referring to the state he comes from as insecure, despite the relative peace we now recorded in the state. One would wonder whether the minister is trying to instigate, or instill fear in the minds of Yobe people, and Nigerians. We are unaware of the insecurity he is claiming.
The reason why these people make such accusations is because they discovered the domination of APC in the state and other northern states. More especially, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Jigawa and Kano recently, the party has dominated these states. And we knew that they wanted to take the advantage of security to cheat. So the people have woken up from their sleep.
In fact, the minister of finance could not have won his ward, where he would have gone to cast his vote. In all the TVs, newspapers or radio stations in the country, was there any incident of even an insect’s killing during the election? The statement of the Joint Task Force chief security officer in Yobe, who said there was adequate security vindicated us. The election was conducted peacefully, we swore in the elected officers and nothing happened up to now.
But there is the state of emergency in the state. Is that not a sign of precarious security situation?
Yes, but that will not stop us from doing the political activities, because even the Nigerian Constitution does not stop us from conducting our political affairs. So we cannot stop it. You cannot beat someone and say he cannot cry. That is impossible. The federal government owes us over N8 billion due to the security expenses. It is supposed to pay us this money because the National Assembly agreed with the state of emergency it imposed on us. Therefore, the expenses is supposed to be handled by the federal government, not the states.
But there were some parties, apart from PDP, which also said they did not participate in the election, but they were said to have scored some votes in the election.
Even if you did not participate in an election, you may still have some people who would vote for the party and you cannot stop them. We know that despite APC’s domination of Yobe state, it is not 100 percent. Some people are with other parties. So we can’t refuse to acknowledge these few supporters. We are not liars. But what I am telling you, for the next many elections, there would not be vacancy for other parties in Yobe. I am telling you this, by the grace of God.
How do you see the budgetary allocation of N2 billion as economic stimulus of the North-East by the federal government?
This is disappointing. We are all Nigerians. While some parts of the country are talking about N100 billion, but we were allocated N2 billion. And we have a minister of state of finance who is from this region, and was even proud to defend the N2 billion. If as he said the federal government is still going to allocate more money in the future, why did it fail to do that now, with the 2014 budget?.
Will the minister also defend the Gashua-Yusufari road project by the federal government? What about the N2 billion project in the Gashua college of education which was brought by senator Ahmed Lawal? Even the federal university, Gashua was pursued since from 2010, that is even before Dr Yarima became minister. The people of Yobe and Nigerians know all these. Let me also tell you that there is a 66 KM federal road project from Gashua to Baimari, which the minister said was just 29KM when the contract was awarded. As someone from Gashua, there is an abandoned project of 64 km from Guru to Gashua, which was started since late Mamman Ali’s period. But up to now, it stopped at just 25 KM, he is aware of all these projects.
Our governor, Ibrahim Gaidam has been taking up some of these projects, in addition to the ones under his responsibility. For instance, the Guru to Machina road, which is also an abandoned project, he constructed feeder roads that linked about 30 communities and provided them with dispensaries. So the federal government’s N2 billion will not address the economic realities of one or two states of the North-East, talk less of the whole region.
How do you see the chance of APC in the state and in the country at large in 2015, especially as the party is now engrossed in internal crisis in Kano, Adamawa and Sokoto?
The party has bright hope in 2015. Everybody is trying to be part of the salvaging ship of the party. If you are lucky to be in the ship before it left, then you are lucky. The northern states are becoming APC states. We are going to occupy the villa in 2015.
Concerning the in-house problems, we are going to solve it. but do you know who is pushing the crisis? It is the PDP pushing this crisis, by pumping money, because they begin to see the future as bleak for them.
We contacted the PDP and other political parties in the state about the local government election. We wanted them to prepare and indicate their participation. Initially, the PDP was ready to partake in the election, but upon realising that they had no credible persons that could win, they decided to stay away.
Governor Ibrahim Gaidam further extended the period of the election to about three to four months with the intent of making the PDP have a change of mind and partake in the election. He wanted them to nominate their various candidates for chairmanship and councillorship positions. We ensured a level playing field for all the parties. They still refused to do that and after that, we announced the election date.
Unfortunately, the PDP leader in the state, who is the minister of state for finance, came out through the media saying that there was no security in the state, hence there would not be election. I want the people to know that despite the security problems that he is claiming in the state, his relatives are still in the state, they are in Gashua. And the minister is an indigene of Gashua. It is only the minister with his family that are based in Abuja. As such, we wonder how he came out to say there is no security in the state. We can say that he does not know what the state is going through, because he is away from the state.
Are you saying there is adequate security in the state?
If there was no security in the state, the whole world would have heard it. There would not have been successful, peaceful elections as Nigerians have witnessed it. We did the election with large turnout, and APC eventually won all the 17 local government chairmanship and councillorship seats. It showed the world that the people always want to be identified with the party that is peaceful and one that takes security as its priority. In terms of security situation in the state, I don’t know why the minister keeps on referring to the state he comes from as insecure, despite the relative peace we now recorded in the state. One would wonder whether the minister is trying to instigate, or instill fear in the minds of Yobe people, and Nigerians. We are unaware of the insecurity he is claiming.
The reason why these people make such accusations is because they discovered the domination of APC in the state and other northern states. More especially, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Jigawa and Kano recently, the party has dominated these states. And we knew that they wanted to take the advantage of security to cheat. So the people have woken up from their sleep.
In fact, the minister of finance could not have won his ward, where he would have gone to cast his vote. In all the TVs, newspapers or radio stations in the country, was there any incident of even an insect’s killing during the election? The statement of the Joint Task Force chief security officer in Yobe, who said there was adequate security vindicated us. The election was conducted peacefully, we swore in the elected officers and nothing happened up to now.
But there is the state of emergency in the state. Is that not a sign of precarious security situation?
Yes, but that will not stop us from doing the political activities, because even the Nigerian Constitution does not stop us from conducting our political affairs. So we cannot stop it. You cannot beat someone and say he cannot cry. That is impossible. The federal government owes us over N8 billion due to the security expenses. It is supposed to pay us this money because the National Assembly agreed with the state of emergency it imposed on us. Therefore, the expenses is supposed to be handled by the federal government, not the states.
But there were some parties, apart from PDP, which also said they did not participate in the election, but they were said to have scored some votes in the election.
Even if you did not participate in an election, you may still have some people who would vote for the party and you cannot stop them. We know that despite APC’s domination of Yobe state, it is not 100 percent. Some people are with other parties. So we can’t refuse to acknowledge these few supporters. We are not liars. But what I am telling you, for the next many elections, there would not be vacancy for other parties in Yobe. I am telling you this, by the grace of God.
How do you see the budgetary allocation of N2 billion as economic stimulus of the North-East by the federal government?
This is disappointing. We are all Nigerians. While some parts of the country are talking about N100 billion, but we were allocated N2 billion. And we have a minister of state of finance who is from this region, and was even proud to defend the N2 billion. If as he said the federal government is still going to allocate more money in the future, why did it fail to do that now, with the 2014 budget?.
Will the minister also defend the Gashua-Yusufari road project by the federal government? What about the N2 billion project in the Gashua college of education which was brought by senator Ahmed Lawal? Even the federal university, Gashua was pursued since from 2010, that is even before Dr Yarima became minister. The people of Yobe and Nigerians know all these. Let me also tell you that there is a 66 KM federal road project from Gashua to Baimari, which the minister said was just 29KM when the contract was awarded. As someone from Gashua, there is an abandoned project of 64 km from Guru to Gashua, which was started since late Mamman Ali’s period. But up to now, it stopped at just 25 KM, he is aware of all these projects.
Our governor, Ibrahim Gaidam has been taking up some of these projects, in addition to the ones under his responsibility. For instance, the Guru to Machina road, which is also an abandoned project, he constructed feeder roads that linked about 30 communities and provided them with dispensaries. So the federal government’s N2 billion will not address the economic realities of one or two states of the North-East, talk less of the whole region.
How do you see the chance of APC in the state and in the country at large in 2015, especially as the party is now engrossed in internal crisis in Kano, Adamawa and Sokoto?
The party has bright hope in 2015. Everybody is trying to be part of the salvaging ship of the party. If you are lucky to be in the ship before it left, then you are lucky. The northern states are becoming APC states. We are going to occupy the villa in 2015.
Concerning the in-house problems, we are going to solve it. but do you know who is pushing the crisis? It is the PDP pushing this crisis, by pumping money, because they begin to see the future as bleak for them.
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