Katsina State governor-elect and former House of Representatives Speaker, Aminu Masari, speaks with Assistant Editor (North), CHUKS EHIRIM, his agenda at repositioning his state as well as on how patronage system induced by state governors destroy the legislative arm of government.
How does it feel emerging Katsina governor after a second attempt?
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 opposition is also a partner in development in the democratic process of a country. Unfortunately, in some quarters, people in opposition party are seen as enemies and not as partners.
My experience since I joined the opposition in 2009 is that for you to be in the opposition, you have to be very patient and steadfast. Once you have an idea which you believe in, you should remain constant and consistent, and at the end, God will definitely be with you in terms of success.
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 the status quo. The worst situation is the lack of level-playing ground which has been lacking. Really, with the right leadership in the right places at the right time, Nigeria will get it right.
What should the people expect from you?
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 target is education because in today’s Katsina, public schools, based on last year’s performance in WAEC, could not get three per cent.
(Some) 45,800 Katsina indigenes, whether they live in Lagos, Abuja or anywhere outside the state, 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 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. 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, I made sure that I did not follow the tarred road. We would find a rural road to make sure that we see the inside of the local government.
What did we see? Sixty per cent of our primary schools have either their roofs blown off 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 where the head told me that only one child has gone into 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. So, what we are bringing on the table is the issue of education.
Second, Katsina is an agrarian state. Our economy was, until the discovery of oil, dependent on agriculture and livestock. Where are we today? We can’t feed ourselves. Forget about imported rice, imported pasta, imported noodles, imported everything. If, for whatever reason, the import stops, how do we feed ourselves? People expressed surprise that Russia was able to break down, though they had everything. They could not feed themselves at a time because they ran short of food and that started to expose the weakness in the system they were operating, and the country went down. We cannot sit down here and depend on rice from China, India and Thailand when we have water and the land. Before Katsina was created as a state, it was a province. The province was constructing roads, schools, hospitals, courts. It had the police, prison services and the judiciary. It was paying salaries and carrying out development. Why can’t we do anything for ourselves today? The province was also making its contribution to the running of the Northern Nigerian Government. Where are we today? If this money coming from Abuja stops, the state cannot survive for one month.
As the governor of the home state of the president-elect, a lot will be expected from you. Considering the lean resources available to government since the crash of the price of oil, how do you intend to attract funds to run the state?
The problem has always been the fact that we have not always been open, democratic and honest with the people. It is not about resources alone. You think that development depends on money alone? But it is not so. Even the military were building roads, hospitals and others. Under the colonial administration the emirate system was building everything. Democracy is about being open with the people. If you have money, let the people know that you have money and let them have a say on how this money is spent.
Each time, we talk about lean resources. No, it is not about lean resources, but about good management of resources. If you allow the local councils to operate, if you allow a ward to produce a councillor that represents the people and not himself, things will work out well. We don’t have councils now. The needs of the people at the local level may cost you N100,000. If you sit here in Katsina and decide something of N1 million for them, that is not what they need. The key word is not lack of resources, but involving people in decision-making. That is the essence of democracy.
This state under the Native Authority as a province was doing well looking after itself. What happens now? We want to look at Katsina in the next 20 or 30 years. There was a time crude oil was less than $10, and it can happen again tomorrow. We don’t decide because the international community, the powers-that-be, decide how much they will buy your oil, what quantity they need from your oil. So, we have no control over pricing, we have no control over the market, we have no control over even the imported products. How can we depend on something that has a life span? Let us depend on the land to give us food. No country is great when it cannot feed itself.
You contested the party primary with some people. What is your plan for them?
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. At the preparation for the presidential and National Assembly as well as the governorship election, each of us was involved and brought in materials and showed physical presence in the project. So, we don’t have problem with that .We are saying that we are going to do things differently. 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 road that will not go anywhere, but to develop the people and the people will develop the land.
How do you think the emergence of Buhari will help your administration?
We are not meeting with Buhari on the platform of political party alone. We have a long-standing relationship and, now, we have a political relationship. That Buhari is from Katsina State is a plus for us, and that plus depends on how we manage it. 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. That is the basis on which people elected him.
So, we will help him maintain and improve on those qualities which 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. So, for us, Buhari is a plus. When we go somewhere and say we are from Katsina, we want the doors to be opened. So for us, it is a plus.
Taking you back to the issue of education, we are aware that your party has a policy on education. Are you going to follow that or you intend to initiate your own?
The first item on the APC manifesto is human resource development. How can you develop human resources without education? Fundamentally, the position of APC in education is known. Figures not produced by me, but in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education, give Katsina about 20 per cent enrolment rate, while some states have 80 per cent. So, their approach and mine will be different, but the goal remains the same.
Here in Katsina, we will design a road that will lead us to success on the basis of the basket provided by our political party in the area of education. We will take roads that will lead us, that will lead Katsina to salvage itself, restore the honour, dignity and integrity of the people of Katsina. We cannot do that outside education. The road that other states will take to reach the destination will be different from ours, but the objective remains the same.
As former Speaker of the House of Representatives, what kind of leadership will you suggest for the eighth National Assembly to assist Buhari in piloting the affairs of the nation?
Luckily, we are going to have a comfortable majority in the National Assembly. What I have seen as a former member of the House of Representative is that because of patronage system by the governors, they have destroyed the institution. Patronage system in the sense that for you to become a senator, you must be in the good books of the governor. For you to be a member of the National Assembly, you start lobbying the governor to make you a candidate.
Definitely, at the National Assembly, if you play your card well, it is an opportunity to come into limelight. If we go there, what interest do we represent? How do we subsume our local interest into national interest? If you are making an Act, it is for the entire country? If you are participating in the budget, you have to find a way of subsuming your interest into national interest. As long as the interest you represent is the interest of your community that cannot find its way into the national development agenda which is the budget, you are no longer providing representation.
In determining the leadership, the leadership has to be focused on why we need the change. So, we must get leaders that understand why we need the change in Nigeria. It is not about changing faces or names. It is about changing how we conduct businesses of government at any level; how we, as Nigerians, do things. After all, South Africa said it is returning our money after Buhari is sworn in. Why? The international community is comfortable that somebody who will manage the resources well is coming. These are the kind of people we need and it should be the vision of those coming to the National Assembly. I hope they are not being attracted by the package, but also by the work.
How would you describe your victory as Katsina governor-elect?
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 God to give us the opportunity to restore the honour, dignity, prestige and integrity of the people of Katsina, and this is what we are going to work for. We see it as a challenge. I am not here to make a new name. As Speaker, I was given a presidential treatment anywhere I went to, 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 pay, of how I can repay the debt because I am a product of public institution. I cannot be there and watch the public institutions, where 99 per cent of our people started from, crumble. If you are having 20 per cent pass from Katsina, 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.