By Peter Duru, Makurdi

Comrade Abba Moro is the immediate past Minster of Interior, and a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Benue State. In this interview he responds to questions on issues pertaining to the new administrations at the federal level and Benue State.

Excerpts:

There are fears among your party men that the APC may use its incumbency to influence decisions at the tribunals. Do you share that fear?

Abba Moro

I think that fear is palpable because of activities that have been set in the past in the development of democracy in Nigeria, there is this fear that President Muhammadu Buhari who is a product of the APC can most likely use his position as the President of Nigeria to influence judgments in the various tribunals in favour of APC elected officials whose elections are virtually in the courts and in the tribunals.

The fear was actually accentuated a week ago when the newspapers were awash with stories that the President has set up a ten-man committee which he is heading to help salvage APC members where their elections are threatened either in the courts or in the tribunals.

And of course, particularly in Benue State, when the outcome of the meeting of APC gubernatorial candidates, aggrieved on the emergence of Samuel Ortom as the candidate for the party that won the election eventually, there was palpable fear, quite frankly, that the President could continue the intervention up to the level of the tribunal.

Because we are all aware that in Benue State, the Governor has desperately been looking up for people to intervene to persuade his aggrieved colleagues in APC to withdraw their cases against him.

And for the obvious reason that Mr President has come out to say that he was going to fight corruption headlong and all of us believe in him because of his antecedents, all of us also trust that he will do it to a logical conclusion. And Nigerians are waiting that he fights corruption to a standstill.

How would you assess the Governor Samuel Ortom led government since it took over the reins of power in Benue State?

Well, while I can candidly say that it is too early to assess the performance of government, especially the government in Benue State now, I want to say that having been in government before at various levels,   I know that people’s minds are fixated on a number of activities and periods of administrations.

For instance, you know that 100 days is a celebrated period in governance in Nigeria. If you look at what is happening in Benue State now, the signs are very ominous that we are in for the worst of times. In spite of the much touted bailout and loans that the Benue State government under Dr. Samuel Ortom has taken to pay salaries, salaries are not paid.

The governor had ordered that two months salaries be paid recently but as I’m talking to you, I am on good authority that no salary has been paid. I think that for a government that is anchored on change, a government that is headed by somebody who says he is going to run the government by the fear of God, these steps are missteps.

They are not good steps in the right direction because the first set of activities that is expected of a government that is coming on the heels of despondency on the part of Benue State workers and the Benue people in general, are activities that are supposed ordinarily to ameliorate the conditions that they met on ground; the non payment of salaries, the fast decaying infrastructure on ground, these are activities that pronouncements should have been made on and actions taken to ameliorate.

What is your reaction to the recent dissolution of governing boards of parastatals by the federal and Benue State governments?

I don’t know whether that one is also Change. You know that it has been the attitude of governments in Nigeria that as soon as they are elected and sworn in, they   dissolve boards of parastatals whether they are statutory boards or are administrative boards, or whether they are regulated by law or not regulated by law.

That is exactly what has been happening in Nigeria. What is happening in Benue State is not an exception from what has been happening around Nigeria. When government comes, the first action that they take is to dissolve boards, sack this person and sack that person, institute probe panel so that people will see you as being active. I think it is wrong.

What steps should the government in Benue take to address the problem of insecurity?

First and foremost, I want to see the state government ensuring 24 hours patrol of the various communities that are vulnerable, number two, strenuous efforts must be made to arrest those persons that are responsible because they are not ghosts, they are there and it is not one instance.

What pronouncements have we seen from the government now as to the condemnation of what is happening, rather than trading blames? This is not the time to trade blames, somebody must take responsibility; somebody must take charge of the situation.