The acting governor of Taraba State, Alhaji Garba Umar spoke to select journalists at the end of a facility tour of the state initiated by the Jonah Jang led faction of the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF Excerpts:

By Henry Umoru

How do you rate the chances of PDP in 2015?
The chances of PDP in my state are very bright and I think in the whole North this is the only state you can find Mr. President’s posters by now. That shows you that Taraba is for PDP and PDP is for Taraba.

We are in a season where we have crisis, particularly in the North, but in Taraba this is not the case. What has been the driving force for the peace that prevails in Taraba State?
In actual fact we were able to involve dialogue. Stakeholders were really involved, the Emirs and Chiefs.
Recently we had a little problem- the Tiv/Fulani conflict that was on last week. Some of the Tivs were driven down to Taraba from Benue State by the Fulanis but luckily enough we were able to sit with the Fulanis and the Tivs and they were able to understand themselves. That shows that in Taraba we need peace and we are living in peace and everyone is involved really.

What are you doing to attract more tourists to the state?
Just of recent the Nigeria Economic Summit approved a project in Taraba, that is the Mambila hydro which has a capacity for 10,000 megawatts of electricity. We intend to generate 350 megawatts for a start. It is a package that involves the hydro project, a five-star hotel on Mambila plateau and an international airport and road leading to Mambila plateau.

What I did was ask them to allow me do the road before the other projects come on stream. I got the approval and, of course, right now the road is 40 percent completed. I believe within the next one year if these projects are completed Taraba will be a different thing all together and I believe that people from within and outside Nigeria will be here because the attraction will be there for them to enjoy themselves.

Apart from that we have been making efforts to improve on this. While I was in Saudi Arabia, I was able to have a chat with the Saudi/German hospital and they have assured me that as soon as the project is on stream they are going to site a 200-bed hospital here. So for Nigerians to go to Saudi Arabia for medical care will be a thing of the past by the time this hospital is on stream.

What do think Adamu Muazu needs to do to bring lasting peace back to PDP. Also, are you contesting in 2015?
Ahmed Muazu is a young man and he is really moving. The PDP governors are solidly behind Ahmed. I believe that even those friends of ours that decided to defect he is making efforts to make sure they come back because this (PDP) is their home anyway.

You cannot leave your home and go elsewhere because you are going to meet a new man there. What hope do they even have there? Even our neighbours there are now finding it difficult. At the end of the day I believe Ahmed will do his best and I believe even if all of them do not come back some of them will come back to their home.

On the issue of whether I am contesting I will leave that to the masses of Taraba. Tarabans will have to tell me whether they want me to contest or not. I believe at the end of it all you people will be able to see it yourselves.

The Taraba airport has been dormant for long time. What efforts are you making to make the airport viable and functional?
I don’t know whether you are aware that we have been able to procure two aircraft, each of them is 50-seater and we are trying to put these aircraft to use. Very soon they will start operating. Our problem has been that we have a 2.4 kilometre runway and these are jets that require 3.5 kilometres runway.

I have started extending the airport runway and we are making arrangements with Overland Airline that is operating in Bauchi and hopefully by April they will start operating from here. By the time we are able to finish the runway our own aircraft will be ready.

The PDP has a policy of involving more women in governance and this is one of the reasons President Jonathan gave women more than 30 percent of the slots in his government. What are you doing to involve more women in the administration of the state?
We have already involved more women. Let me tell you that even my Chief Judge is a woman. I have a woman Chief Judge and a police commissioner that is a woman and I am in the middle. Presently I have three women advisers, so we are doing everything to see that women are also part of this regime.

Can you throw more light on the SURE-P programme in Taraba state?
Last year I was able to empower 8,600 youths and women. This year we have gone to the rural areas, we are doing the local governments and we intend to do 10,000 at the local government level to empower them. Presently we are doing 5,000 this month and in the next two months we will do another 5,000.

This is a continuous programme and I believe before the end of the year we should be able to do 30,000 or even more to empower the youths and women and I think that will also bring down the restiveness of the youths in the state.

The national conference has just taken off. What are your expectations from the conference?
My expectation from them is to ensure that Nigeria remains one. People should ensure that at least we should embrace ourselves, we should ensure that we remain one and, of course, allow Mr. President to continue with his laudable programmes so that at the end of the day we will see light at the end of the tunnel.