By Kingsley Omonobi, Abuja
General Mohammed Buba Marwa of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, is one of the governorship candidates directly affected by the recent  judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja stopping governorship elections in five states.

Marwa

The court said, the tenure of the incumbent governors took effect from the day they took the oath of office for second time. General Marwa who wants to govern Adamawa State in this interview the reason why he is opposed to the judgment, his plans to appeal and how he intends to upstage the Murtala Nyako administration incumbency factor.

The judgment of theFederal High courtstopping gubernatorial elections in five states in the country for the April polls, including Adamawa State, obviously came to you as a shock. How are you handling it?

This is a matter that has been in public discourse in the past week.

But before responding to the question directly, I will like to seize this opportunity to caution that in the course of the last few days, I have had occasions to interact with the media on this particular issue and my views were carried widely in the papers. Some of the comments that were ascribed to me were not made by me.

Yes, I disagreed with the judgment and we are appealing it but the language that was carried in some of the newspapers, ascribing me to have made those comments; comments that appear rather harsh against the judiciary, those were comments I did not make.

I have the highest respect for the judiciary and ultimately the same judiciary it is that we are going to appeal to.

Therefore, even though I do not know personally, the federal high court judge who read the judgment and even though I do not agree with the judgment based on which were are appealing it, I could not speak in the language that is either derogatory or not in good taste either against him or the judiciary as a whole, definitely not. I will continue to respect the judiciary.

They have a job to do; even the judge himself read the judgment based on his own informed opinion as a judge. So I want to distance myself from some of the harsh language that was ascribed to me against the judgment. I would never disrespect the judiciary so openly.

But, yes, I disagree with the judgment; I feel and a lot of people feel that there is something not equitable about it in the sense that the law is there but I believe it must always be tempered with equity.

As a layman, I am speaking purely as a layman now; if you say that a governor’s first tenure did not exist because it was annulled, then we have to answer the question: all those things that occurred when he was on the seat, all those agreements signed by his government or by himself personally committing the state and therefore binding, did they not exist or can we unwind them?

All those funds that were expended both for himself and committing the state, all the loans that were signed and taken, can those be unwound? Because they have to go together in my opinion as a layman. So you have to unwind those things. It is a different thing to say you are governor and you were sitting down as governor doing nothing.

Then you can say yes, he didn’t exist. But he existed as a matter of fact, because things were committed, you committed the state and actually took funds, expended them either for personal uses as per emoluments accruing to you or for the state. You have to unwind those things. Can they be unwound?

If you cannot unwind those things then you have a situation where as a matter of fact, you existed and ruled as a governor. Those are some of the issues, not to mention the fact that the citizenry at the other level, are there waiting for the election itself to take place.

Those are issues I believe our lawyers will tackle when we go to court.

The candidates affected by the judgment, we like to know if you are coming together to appeal it or are you spearheading the fight alone?

Answer – Some of us are talking already and ultimately our parties and our lawyers will put heads together. But I am seeing a situation where ultimately the cases will all be reconciled. I am thinking that is how this will happen but at this point, we are all moving in one direction. It’s very possible that a consolidation will take place.

Since the judgment came out, has it dampened your conviction of moving to Government House, Yola and your supporters have they stopped campaigning?
Not in any way at all, at this point. We remain confident that the ruling will be set aside by the superior court and I have assured our teeming supporters to remain calm and not to be in any way fazed.

We have of course committed time, efforts and processes, and there is great conviction in Adamawa state to throw out the incumbent government and for us to form a new government that will provide service. Basically, the people of Adamawa state, and this is the basis of the call, that please come home and repeat what you did as governor of Borno state and military administrator of Lagos state.

You will recall that I ran for president before and it was a hard decision for me to accept. Not that I was running for president any more but it was a hard decision to come down and run for a seat that I was on as governor 20 years ago. But I took that decision in the interest of service to the people.

Having sized up your opponents including the present governor of the state, what are your chances of winning the election if the superior court set aside the judgment?

As we know in Islam and in Christianity, it is God that gives power to whom he chooses and we pray to him to give us victory. But having said that, it is an open secret throughout the state, the length and breadth; every where in the state people are saying ‘Sai Marwa’, simply because of the trust, confidence and track record. That really is the credential that is selling us across the land.

They know the tremendous impact and service delivery that we did when we held this type of office before. Though Adamawa has its own set of challenges that are unique to it, I can tell you that it definitely a far cry from the challenges that Lagos state put up where we delivered.

Therefore people are very hopeful and the promises we made are like no other promise made by others because in this case, they have seen it done. But the others, there will always continue to be that question: have they done it before or will they do it or is it just hot air like what most politicians do?

But in this case when I say free education, people can go home and sleep because they know that we abolished school fees in Borno and in Lagos at the time. So it is not a new thing.

When we say we will pay the SSCE fees, as you know, the state government does not pay SSCE fees. It says even after spending six years, parents should go and cut firewood and sell in the market.

They said it in public; it is not a hidden thing everywhere. Go cut firewood and sell and pay your school fees for your children at SSCE. It is very sad because I was the first governor who paid SSCE fees, WAEC fees in 1990/1991 in Borno state, in the North. And 20 years later to find my own state is still not paying. Of course we repeated the same thing in Lagos .

So we have this programme, we have free health care. This will be the first state that will have free healthcare. There is no state that has free healthcare now in Nigeria . We will do that. Then we are going to do electricity. The plan that I had when I ran for president for electricity, the plan is still there. It is that part that I will pull out that will befit Adamawa state and people will see what we will do.

And of course you remember the road network that we did in Lagos , over 700 roads. Those type of things, ‘direct labour’ will come back. We already have those plans. Water supply, we did about 800 communities in Borno state and over 500 in Lagos in the rural areas and urban centers. All those things we are going to repeat them. So the whole business is about service.

All over the world and Nigeria in particular, the power on incumbency is always a factor. Do you think you can surmount this huddle with regards to Adamawa state and how?
Well in Adamawa state, we are confident that the present government has lost it with the people, that is a fact.

As I said if you go to the length and breadth, it is ‘Sai Marwa’ everywhere based on the credentials that no other person running in Adamawa state has as far as the office is concerned and we are for the masses.

And the masses, all the ‘Talakawas’ as you say, that is where our strength lies, and that is why you see when I move around its with great difficulty because everywhere they block and practically mob our convoy. So there is a clear indication that anybody that thinks his incumbency through rigging; because that is the long and short of it, ‘through rigging and spending’, that will not help this time around.

You used to be in the PDP. People outside are now asking, is it the desperation to become governor that made you abandon the PDP family and go to CPC? Secondly, can you also say there is no internal democracy in the PDP?

Well I will not make a comment about the PDP but I will tell you that, if you remember, when I ran for president, I did not quit the party even though I was not victorious at the primaries. So it’s not really about losing or about the lust for office that makes you leave.

It is more than that and I will tell you what happened. We ran for the congress, my delegates won overwhelmingly and we were poised to win the primaries in the following week. And three days after the result had been submitted and accepted by the PDP, the congress was cancelled and what did I do?

I went back to my structures. About 300 of us, we sat with my structures all the way down to the wards and I consulted with them because this is politics. They were the ones who asked me to come back from South Africa and to run for this seat and I told them that well, here we are, you all know that we won, because the delegates, we were able to obtain the submitted list and we sent it back to them.

Every one of those, they had the copies, so they knew that this is what was submitted by the congress committee of the PDP itself which came to do the congress. And we asked them: what do I do? Should I go back, quit, attempt to go back to South Africa ? You tell me what to do.

They took the decision and I was bound by it that we should seek another platform because they felt that what is important is the service that I will give to the state as governor. So it’s my structure actually that compelled that move and once that decision was taken that we should go to another platform, I also ask them which platform. It was not my own decision.

So I asked them what platform? The truth of the matter was that at the end of that seating, the house accepted two platforms, ACN and CPC. ACN of course in Adamawa state was older while CPC is a new party. However the house resolved that I would make my choice which I did based on some reasons I will not give now.