Alhaji Suleyman Malami, the Chief Protocol officer to Governor Mohammed Abubakar of Muhammed Abubakar of Bauchi State in this interview gave his perspective of the faceoff between the governor and the minister and some members of the National Assembly from Bauchi State.

Excerpts.

Efeunu Erezi

What is the situation in Bauchi?

As part of the change mantra of the APC administration in Bauchi State, the governor is fighting looters and exposing how they shamelessly looted the state with impunity. He has vowed to retrieve all that was looted. Some erroneously rated the governor as a joker on corruption but when he started the war, including rejecting a selfish request from the state’s national lawmakers, they resolved to fight him and make the state ungovernable. We are not folding our arms to watch them and we shall never succumb to their selfish request.

Is it true that the conflict has overshadowed governance in the state?

It is not in the character of the governor to blow his trumpet unnecessarily or because of any baseless allegation from lost sheep.   But for the sake of your question, a lot has been achieved within a short period despite the inherited insolvent treasury and the unfortunate recession. Apart from the on-going road projects across the state, the education sector is receiving an aggressive improvement just as the health and agricultural sectors. Bauchi State is not on a different planet, what I’m saying can be verified within the state by those that may be in doubt.

Governor Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi State

Can you be specific on why the governor and the National Assembly members refused to agree?

As an aide to the governor, I may not be in the best position to state most of the reasons on the pages of newspapers.

The governor resisted their temptation for the feud but they kept on dishing out baseless allegations to ridicule his reputation and derail his efforts to developing the state, including making attempts to factionalize the ruling party which they claim to belong.

It should be on record that as leader of the ruling party in the state, the governor requested for a stakeholders meeting to iron out any lingering problem within the party. Those aggrieved were invited and the meeting was hosted by the governor in the Banquet Hall of the Government House for space and security reason, but the national lawmakers either out of fear of exposure or malaise, refused to attend.

Instead, they organised their own meeting in Abuja and invited the governor which he honored. At that meeting, some requests were submitted to the governor which he promised to study and respond at the next meeting after his return from China. To his greatest surprise, before his return, the lawmakers stormed the presidency and APC national secretariat to blackmail the governor for favour.

To be honest with you, what the lawmakers want is to remote-control the state administration by dictating to the governor what to do, who to appoint as aide and who to be awarded contract etc. They want to plant their stooges and agents at strategic political positions within the government to do their bidding against 2019.

The governor said no and it is not done that way. They resorted to the use of the media to send messages of hate and blackmail to pollute the minds of the electorate against the governor. But, we are not sleeping as we know the atrocities committed by some of them against the state and we shall soon reach to that. Anyway, we are not for mischief but we shall normalize the unpleasant situation to forge ahead. Their tactics cannot disturb a sleep.

Do you think this racour would augur well for APC in 2019?

What that means can best be explained by the person who said it. What we know is that APC in Bauchi State is united and committed to the development and stability of the state. Those aggrieved with the laudable efforts of the governor to developing the state can only be bold to commit political suicide or join him. We have no axe to grind with any lost sheep.

There are allegations that the governor has favoured opposition members in his government

The governor is not aware of that. But let those opposition members appointed be mentioned. Let their names be made public for correction by those that know them. If they fail to mention them, then they qualify to be called parochial liars on a suicide mission of destroying Bauchi State.