Senator George Akume (APC, Benue Zone C), is a former Benue State governor and one of the zonal cordinators of the APC presidential election council. He speaks to LEADERSHIP on key issues including the presidential polls which is few hours away.
What is the prospect of your candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari?
For a candidate seeking a second term in the office, there is always a major evaluation of your contract with the people. President Muhammadu Buhari signed a contract with the Nigerians in three core areas of fighting corruption, resuscitating the nation’s economy and security. You will all agree that Nigerians believed President Buhari just as he has not failed in these three key areas. In area of security, Boko Haram that earlier occupied Borno and Yobe states has been substantially defeated, but occasionally they come to mount an attack and this is expected. Even in Iraq where super powers are fighting the insurgents there are occassional attacks, same with Afghanistan.
So in the area of security so much has been achieved. Kidnapping and other threats have also been put under check. Look at the economy, foreign reserves was $54 billion but under Jonathan it collapsed to $22 billion. Today we are talking $42-$45 billion. So look at TSA, you know he meant business.There are many other component and intervention in the nation’s economy that has achieved a lot of results for the good of the people. Look at successes recorded in fighting corruption.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) are now more strengthened and other agencies too are strengthened to ensure that Nigerians who loot will never go free and this is a major lesson for all of us. In the area of infrastructure which is impacting on our economy, there administration is doing very well. Just look at the issue of railway modernization, and major high way that are becoming more motorable. Basically, it is not easy to fix things that have been destroyed over the years but you know if there is a set direction things will be better. Buhari is moving in a predetermined direction. Lets not even forget, for instance, the Social Investment Programme (SIP) including school feeding and NPower which are all unprecedented in the history of this country. Those who ordinarily think they won’t go to school are going to school. Employment was also created via Npower. Another important issue is what the Presidential initiative on Agriculture is doing such as soft loans to farmers and making fertilizers available.
There are so many achievements that can be credited to this administration.
When the president was presenting the 2019 budget I sat with two PDP senators and they all agreed that his achievements are critical to the development of the nation. So, our chances are very bright. Here is a man that has all the advantages in the world to take mismanage the country’s treasury but he never did. He was a former governor of Borno, Yobe, Bauchi Gombe, Taraba, Adamawa and other Northeastern states, minister of Petroleum, Head of State, now the president he has no oil well, no private jet. So you can see that such a man is very capable of fighting corruption and that is why wherever he goes to campaign he is received with applause. The commitment and involvement of people in his project are real, it is in fact total. You see people running after his vehicle. He attracts huge followership. I can understand why the Lamido of Adamawa endorsed him, he is not from Adamawa and one the presidential candidate is from Adamawa. So I am speaking as a patriotic citizen not even as APC person, especially in this era of fake news you can churn out anything about Buhari, but he is a very unique personality given to this country at this time to salvage the nation. I speak not as vice chairman of the campaign but I speak because of what is on ground. Buhari deserves a win. He is not a talker but a doer. When he came to Benue the feeling that his presence generated was that of total acceptability.
As a Vice Chairman of the campaign, there are insinuations that the killings by herdsmen would blight the chances of President Buhari in the North central, does that bother you?
APC did not invent the killing in Benue or Plateau states, history is on the side of APC. The killings in Benue started in 2009 under the control of PDP led federal and state government, nobody go there or did anything. Did Jonathan went there himself to condole with the people of Benue state, when people were killed in January 2017? But under this administration, President Buhari directed his minister of Interior to go and access the situation and condole with the people of the state. He directed Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to assess the situation and condole with the victims too. He further directed the service chiefs to handle the situation as appropriate that is why we have two military operations in the area to ensure peace. So he has restored peace. Of course, I was the governor of Benue state and we never had issues of herdmen killings. The problem of Benue state is lack of leadership by the PDP control government under Ortom, there is no achievement, therefore it is convenient to resort to sentiment. In absence of any tangible achievement in Benue, Ortom has resorted to lamentations and wailing.
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If Ortom is sincere that he loves the people of the state and he is a defender of the people he would have paid their salaries and pension. So many people have died because of lack of payment of this allowances in spite of the fact that President Buhari provided sufficient funds to cater for the arrears of salaries not only in Benue but other states. If you look at the inflow of money amounting to over N450 billion. Benue remains the least developed state and Makurdi remains the dirtiest capital in the face of monumental failure.Ortom believes he can use the issue of herdsmen and farmers clashes to deceive the people. Basically, farmers and herders do have conflict, our people understand the situation very well. When Ortom claims he is the defender of Benue land I don’t know what he is talking about, of course, he is the chief security officer of the state, what has he done to put a halt to this. He was talking of anti-open grazing law.
Which Atiku knocks down when he said such law is unconstitutional and Atiku also said if you don’t pay salary you are unfit to contest for second term. For over 12 months primary school teachers have not been paid their salaries, that is where we are in Benue state today, pensioners have not being paid for 14 months, civil servant eight months, no single project has been achieved and executed by this government. The road to his village is less than 45 kilometers and the contract was awarded in 2015 with over 98 per cent of the money paid yet what was executed was not up to 50%.So the truth is that there is nothing as a track record for the governor to convince the people of Benue state to vote for him.
So, we want him to show his scorecard and that is what President Buhari has done for the people of Benue state. He has awarded Makurdi-Gboko-Katsina Ala road project and due process have also been completed for the award of contract of Makurdi-Naka-Adoka-Ankpa road; contract has been awarded and the flag off has been done for the dualisation of the road from Keffi-Lafia-Makurdi mile. President Buhari also gave appointment to Audu Ogbe, he occupies one of the most strategic ministries in President Buhari administration. The people of Benue showed love to President Buhari when he visited. They showed him love and will vote for him. We say Benue is militarized and it is very true the non performing governor has decided to buy arms for militias, train them and use them on the day of elections. We founded the APC and the manifesto of the party is very clear. It is offensive to talk about corruption. So See what is happening in Benue today. The local government system has collapsed completely, he seizes their money, retains it in his house and devoted over N2 billion for propaganda. Local government that ought to go home with N70 million after deduction, unfortunately, gets N5 million or N10 million. In December last year he gave them N10 million for project of course he has no project for himself to show to the people, so everything points to failure as far as that government is concerned.
Now Gabriel Suswan was thrown out principally because he did not pay salaries and we capitalized on that. Suswan owed just four months but Ortom is running to 12 months, pensioners 14 months, civil servant eight months and there is no development. He likes going to radio to make false allegation.He said he left APC because of his refusal to share the state allocation with me. I was a governor for eight years I was paying salaries why can’t he pay salaries. Ortom is incompetent, pure and simple. Go to Makurdi there is nothing. There is practically nothing to show for all the billions.
So when the President visited Benue you see the crowd. This shows you the level of the acceptability of President Buhari amongst citisens of the state.Idoma. We don’t want to ethnicized the issue of killing or allow people to take advantage of this for political goals. Tell us you have performed and that is all, in spite of this killing you need to see the development in Borno, Adamawa, Plateau and Taraba. In Plateau they call the governor Mr Alert, Nasarawa Governor is also doing very well. In Plateau, Nasarawa and Taraba we show what our oneness is meant and our strength lies in our diversity as northerners. We need one and other in this complex and linguistically diverse nation. That is our strength.
You are instrumental to Ortom’s emergence, can we say this is error of judgement on your side?
I cannot compare myself with Zik of Africa, Obafemi Awolowo, Obafemi made Akintola the premier of western region. But things later fell apart.Sardauna had to remove Sanusi in Kano. In politics, such things do happen. You can never read correctly the psychology of the individual. Shakespeare was right when he said you cannot read the mind’s construction in the face. What about Tinubu and some of his people? What about Makarfi, Yerima, Abdullahi Adamu. People are very ambitious. Otherwise, some people assisted us to be where we are. I work close with Dr Iorchia Ayu. God used him as a vessel. I respect him till date.
The present senate has been the most hostile in the history of our democracy, as an insider what is the cause of this?
First, we must acknowledge the fact that Nigeria’s democracy has does not accept independent candidate. Our constitution is not clear on this. All of us are sponsored by different political parties to various elective positions and therefore we are supposed to work largely in tandem with the philosophy of the political party. The problem of the leadership of the senate was that it merged outside the framework and it affect the supremacy of the party and you will recall that when the country return to democracy the senate never got settled in the first four years. In the part of the president there is respect for the practice of separation of powers. This is very clear in the leadership of the Senate, so we have learned our lesson. If you tell me to run as an independent candidate I will. Even United State that introduces the presidential system and incorporates independent only two have emerged as an independent candidate. Father and son for one tenure each. So as party people we must learn to respect the supremacy of the party and that is the core problem.
In the next dispensation, what kind of Senate do you expect?
All over the world, the Senate is mostly for senior people, many of them are but a mix is also important for vibrancy and control as well. So that the system will work, we want a Senate where there are cooperation and understanding, a situation where there is an understanding between the Senate and the executive. We are all independent arm of government but collectively we are working for the coming good of the people, even America where we always make reference to, there are respect for institutions. The system should never be undermined. We hope to have a Senate that is not a rubber stamp and will cooperate with the executive to help deliver the dividends of democracy to the people of this country.
