By Benjamin Jibrin/Kaduna
Governor Mukhtar Yero of Kaduna State has quashed criticism by opponents, given himself a pass mark, and is optimistic that the vote in February next year, which he hopes to win, will justify his stance.
Yero rose from Deputy Governor to Governor in December 2012 after the death of Patrick Yakowa in a plane crash.
He is serving out the joint ticket, but hopes to win a mandate in his own right in 2015.
He spoke in reaction to the declaration by a member of the All Progressives Party (APC), Sule Buba, that Kaduna State is in limbo because the government has failed to live up to expectations.
Yero is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Buba, leader of a group called “Save Kaduna 2015”, was a member of the PDP until 2013 when he defected to the APC.
Yero explained through his Director General of Media and Publicity, Ahmed Maiyaki, that his achievements include the provision of fertiliser to farmers without intermediaries, bringing the government closer to the people and giving them a sense of belonging.
Maiyaki accused the critics of nursing selfish political and economic interests which fate will be decided through the ballot box.
“The leader of this group had opportunity in the past to hold positions under this same dispensation, what changes has he been able to bring? Maiyaki wondered.
“People don’t see beyond their noses and pockets. Whenever something is happening, so long as they are not benefiting materially, they say they want to bring about change.
“What change do they want to bring when already [Yero] has brought about changes tremendously in all sectors in the state?”
Maiyaki said Yero has brought changes to education and health, something his opponents did not achieve when they had the opportunity.
He added that it is during the administration of Yero, “for the first time in the history of Kaduna State,” that farmers were given free fertiliser.
“What changes do they want when farmers are the direct beneficiaries, when people like them were not given contracts to serve as intermediaries, where they are political farmers?
“What changes are they talking about when farmers are benefiting from the decision and policies of the government? What changes are they talking about when the education sector in the state has seen genuine transformation in terms of both infrastructural development and policy implementation?”
Maiyaki argued voters to distinguish between governance and politics. People can say whatever they want in politics, he stressed, but in governance, they do not have the moral justification to say they want to introduce changes they had failed to effect in the past.
He dismissed those who band together simply because they want power at all costs and talk about changes.
Everybody will know in the election in February 2015 who is actually for the electorate and who is not, he said.
Voters, he reiterated, have the ultimate right to decide who they want to govern them, not a few people who are aggrieved, selfish and concerned about their personal interest because government agenda that is against ‘business as usual’ does not favour them.