BY UMAR YUSUF
Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State very much believes and thinks Agriculture. He says for state to witness rapid transformation in agriculture, his ongoing project of generating electricity using the Ladgo Dams of Cameroon must be accomplished. In this Interview with Yola Correspondents, Nyako further spoke on the politics of Adamawa among others. Excerpts:

Your re-election campaign in recent times has slowed down is it because of the Federal High Court judgment extending your tenure?

The date of the election is not known and I wouldn’t want to be politicking everyday. I need time to also look at what is called delivering dividends of democracy to my people. These are the things that will move the society and the country forward. These are the things we should continue to be gunning for. When the bell rings for the forthcoming election,  we shall be there.

Politics is very costly and you cannot be mortgaging the state’s resources just for politicking. The State resources should be channeled into those things that will move the society forward. Whether we have election this year or we don’t have elections this year in Adamawa, I think I am ready.

My tenure is supposed to finish by next year. My tenure for four years started April 18, 2008 and it will end up on 18 of April next year. So, I am still quite relaxed about it. But if they say go, have election within these six weeks, I will go and meet the electorates. We have done very well in this government, not perfect, but reasonably well, you could still wish to give us another four years to continue with those things we didn’t finish.

What are the chances of PDP against the opposition in Adamawa at the coming polls?

The chances of the PDP are excellent. God willing, we are going to win this election hands down. PDP is the most organized party. It is the party were people have the right to complain. In other parties here, it is either godfatherism or everybody running for elections without plan.

But we are the biggest party in Adamawa. We  are the biggest party in Nigeria. Is it not nice that most qualified candidates emerged through clean primaries? we have quality people in all our 21 local governments in the state, coming together under one roof to discuss t

What is the current relationship between former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the PDP in the state?

Atiku is a sensible guy, don’t take him for granted. We told him the other day, when it was all over in Abuja that ‘look you are still young, the year 2015 is still around the corner, if you can wait for the next four years, we will give you support, so there is nothing too damaging.

Personally, I have nothing against him, but he has not come out to support us. There is always next time. Let him support the PDP in Adamawa State. He should take it easy, it is better for him. It will be better for all of us, if he supports the PDP in Adamawa State.

Recently, you  were in the Republic of Cameroon over the states’ partnership with Lagdo Dams Authorities for the generation of power. What is the latest as regards the project?

When we came to power, we inherited a power situation in Adamawa State that was pitiable. Outage was very frequent for long. We now know that there is redundant power supply in our neighboring state’s power station called Ladgo. We contacted the official of the Dam plant. Obviously, they have been willing to send electricity to us.

So, we had a tentative understanding, but don’t forget, we are two nations apart. The Dams authorities are under the authority of a different nation. So, we had to write to the President to request for his consent and seek for an approval that would legalize our relationship with the Lagdo authorities.

The Cameroonian Ministry was happy with our moves because it can achieve a lot of improvements in the Nigeria /Cameroonian relationship. When we wrote that letter to the presidency, the presidency passed it to the Ministry of Power to comment and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who are in charge of relations with Cameroon.

Of course, the Cameroonians later consented to the blanket agreement. Remember, the first relationship with Nigeria and Cameroon was in 1965. Today, we want a stronger relationship with Cameroon to a level that Nigeria and that nation will do good business. Remember, the ECOWAS agreement was not entered into until 10 years later, where the blanket protocol of understanding and cooperation of West African states was sealed for which Cameroon is not one.

Now, Nigeria unlike other nations which are within ECOWAS finds it difficult to transact business with the Cameroon. So, any type of understanding or cooperation that we want similar to the relationship we have with other ECOWAS countries, has to bear extra cost on bilateral basis which we started in 1965.

The second major relationship between Nigeria and Cameron was around 1982/83. Since that time there has never been serious negotiation or understanding between the two nations. There was a short meeting immediately after the  Bakassi agreement between Nigeria and Cameroon.

I am happy that our electricity agreement is really generating serious concerns and interest on the Nigeria side and the Cameroon Government. And again, it was because of our letter and pressure to enter into agreement to evacuate power from Lagdo to Nigeria that is building another friendly environment with the Cameroonian government.

A year after we wrote the letter, another session took place where we now had that blanket agreement of generating power between Nigeria and Cameroon. With that, we have economic and trade agreement besides the protocol. We are now going into specific areas which the government was permitted to hold trade fair, trade mission in Lagos, Calabar, Kano and Port Harcourt in the year 2009 and 2010.

Another economic trade fair by Nigeria in Douala was organized in 2009. Our business people can now move in and start making understanding on how to integrate their economic potentials. Our letter also has another agreement and understanding in the communication sector. Now we have established an understanding where our telecommunication companies like Glo would now go and have business in Cameroon.

And again if there is any tele company in Cameroon, they would also come here. There was last year an agreement to complete the Southern Central African transmission line. Now, this line we are supposed to have are a road linking Dakar through the coast, through Lagos, Yaounde Central-Afrique, right over the east Africa.

In those days when I was a Young man, when you are in Enugu, you would see vans with inscriptions: Enugu to Ogoja, Mamfe-Cameroon to Enugu.

So, this has open up for our ordinary people trading opportunities. And of course, the two nations, last year November, another important  agreement was signed where we now have consular, immigration, economic, scientific, traditional and other cultural matters to discuss as neigbouring nations.

But agreed, these are more covered obligations between two nations, so that today, any of our artists want to go to Cameroon to play or do any artistry he doesn’t have to suffer. So between last week and this week, we signed two agreements, one is of course on electricity, and another on sports. Sports between secondary schools may be the schools on the border between Nigeria and Cameroon.

So, we have not yet connected the light from Lagdo to Adamawa but we have set in a chain of events and substantially improved the social and economic relationship between Nigeria and Cameroon. And they have given Adamawa a full compliment for that.

What we did last week, after signing the agreement is now to set up a committee that would look at Lagdo itself, how much refurbishment it requires and how much power we can get from the dam, which is only 104 kilometres from its point to Adamawa land. And  140 kilometres from the point to Yola, the state capital.