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'I like putting smiles on the faces of people'

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, Governor of Nasarawa State, speaks with on his political programmes and strategies and his passion to help Nigerians.*

Africa Today: On May 29, Nigeria celebrated yet another Democracy Day. Looking back over the past six years, how have you used your position as the Executive Governor of Nasarawa State to touch the life of the average Nasarawa citizen in the face rising poverty and the decadence in the country’s social fabric?

Gov. Adamu: First and foremost, I see democracy as a vehicle through which people realise their hopes and potentials as in the areas of education, medical facilities, provision of basic infrastructure that would promote agriculture; their liberties and freedom to hold opinions; their rights to expression, assembly, freedom from want, security and even the freedom to determine what kind of government they desire over their heads: that to me is the first point of call that democracy is for the people.
On this score I can proceed to say what one has tried to do. When I came into office I was determined to bring smiles to the faces of our people through democratisation and good governance. We were able to impact on the theme of families: to see improvements on the menu, social service, numerical strength in literacy, and more. For democracy to be good and meaningful to people, it should be able to address these and many other things that would see their desires in life fulfilled. Democracy should be a vehicle for the delivery of these services. Nobody would pretend that he has done and can do everything in spite of being optimistic.

I believe democracy has helped to improve our lots, be it at the state or federal government level. Of course, we still have a lot of grounds to cover, yet I feel very strongly that with democracy, we have been able to cover a lot in this government. Before we came into office it was difficult for workers to have their salaries, not to mention other essentials of life. Today, most can afford to buy cars, build or buy houses. How many villages that didn’t have hospitals before but now could boast of them or primary health centres? How many primary and secondary schools were in complete state of disrepair but have been rehabilitated massively and in some cases, upgraded from 1999 till date? It extends to the universities as well. In aggregate terms, how many secondary schools do we have today? These are the indices that can be measured to show what improvement the state has had in the last six years.

Even as far as liberties goes, before the advent of democracy in this country, could anyone open his mouth and call the President by his name and pour out all unprintable things about him without being harassed? Only democracy can allow it. I don’t know of any press that is as free as the Nigerian press. The poverty thing we talk about is just as commonplace as anywhere in the world no matter how good the economy may be. There is no difference except perhaps in numbers. No country has been able to deliver completely 100 percent of the hopes and aspirations of its citizens. There are a number of things you have to put together to be able to measure performance or the lack of it. For me, there are still lots of grounds to cover, no doubt about it, but the fact of the matter is we have progressed.

Africa Today: As future leaders, the youth must have a place in your scale of priorities. What specific, enduring programmes have you put in place for the Nasarawa youth?

Gov. Adamu: The greatest legacy that one can bequeath to a young person is good education. We have worked from primary to secondary schools and to tertiary levels in order to make it possible for the young people in Nasarawa State to have education, which is the greatest asset I can give. If education is good for me as the governor of the state, it must be good for my neighbours and families. We have worked to enthrone quality education in the state.

Economically, we try to encourage the youths to be self-employed rather than seek for government employment and there is remarkable progress. Various fields are made available to them. We provide skill acquisition programmes such as for artisans, bricklayers, electricians, hairdressers and cobblers including transportation. We provide micro-credit schemes by giving out loans; buying tractors and giving them out to cooperatives at much subsidised rates. For all these, we still cannot pretend that we have taken along every youth that should be taken along. We have been able to do the much we can within the limits of our resources. We have tried the best we can and have even gone a step further to build an Information Centre from where the youths could get all kinds of basic information for their business needs: how to access bank loans, create business plans through the use of available software.
Africa Today: You have been roundly described as a peacemaker, humble, charismatic, a consummate politician and more. What would you point to as the source of these enviable traits that have endeared you to people even as far as Ile-Ife?

Gov. Adamu: One thing is that I had the opportunity of growing up very closely with my parents. My father was a teacher. Over and above everything, it was fundamental and basically a take-off point for me. I had the opportunity to grow up where certain fundamental values were inculcated in one. The greatest of these values is service so much so that one has this mental orientation that borders on believing that you are born to serve, that God has a purpose for you on Mother Earth, and that your success in life can be measured by the service you render to humanity, by doing whatever you need to do for yourself and through that be able to rub off on the lives of your neighbours. This is extremely important for me and all through my educational career I tried to develop my person.

I have also been involved in a number of activities during my primary and secondary school years. I was involved with the Young Farmers Club, drama club and sports. These were areas through which one got some kind of grooming. Yet God has a way of preparing one and whatever your destiny, you must get the basic training, the will to drive you forward and the will to succeed as opposed to gallivanting, or being lazy and unproductive. I will always remain grateful to God.

Africa Today: What informed your decision to enter politics, and how fulfilling has it been for you?

Gov. Adamu: To God and man, I want to say with all sincerity that I just found myself in politics. If you ask me at what point would I call a defining moment, I wouldn’t be able to answer. Like I told you a while ago, I had been active throughout my school years as well as in extra-curricula activities: any activity out there you can be sure to find me in it then and I matured with time and was more developed. We were encouraged to debate issues and form opinions on issues that affected the school or the individual. My university years were no different except that one got a bit involved in national politics. We criticised government over national issues, criticised some of our colleagues who would refuse to come and help us. We traveled internationally and got more exposure. Every one of these activities endeared us more to politics where we met with people like Abudu Garuba, Comrade Michael Imoudu, trade unionists and more.

Fulfilment? I thank God for the wonderful opportunity to serve my people and I appreciate the fact that it’s a rare privilege that I was chosen, not because I was the most qualified. I thank God for being accepted by my people to be their Chief Steward in the last six years. I wouldn’t say I have accomplished everything I wished for in office but that the fact of the matter is that the ground we have covered so far is satisfying. At least, we have changed the face of the state for the better. Today, if I quit office I have no regrets whatsoever, absolutely no regrets whatsoever.

In not sounding too immodest, if you measured our performance against the resources available to us, both manpower and material resources, I have no reason to feel bad and would always thank the Almighty God.

Africa Today: Politically speaking, what are your plans for 2007?

Gov. Adamu: My dream is that God should bless this country with a peaceful transition; that we go through the elections as smoothly as we can; that we would get to a development level of enviable record in our civilian transition; that Nigerians would learn to appreciate what government leadership is able to do under the existing circumstances and learn to appreciate and do the best possible to ensure that we have the right people to take upon affairs of State. To avoid the kind of tendencies that would hit the polity unduly. We should avoid that so that we can have a success story to write about ourselves.

Again, we should know that whatever we do as a country, we are the first witness to give account for ourselves. If we continue to tell the world we are bad, the world would continue to see us as bad. If we do good, the world will see us as good. There are still lots of grounds to cover and our desire is that we should have a prosperous country where there is continuity of following up programmes and projects, continuity in the political economy of the country. We should try to build those blocks and to make it possible for future generations to build on. These are the things we have to do well ourselves.

For goals in terms of power, in terms of political office, these are divine gifts. Power belongs to God and he knows whom he wants at any particular moment. The thing about me is that I don’t aggregate what I want to do. There are millions of problems in Nigeria that could engage my attention and service and this is why I do the best I can in every circumstance and live the rest to God Almighty and the people.

*Culled from Africa Today, July 2005

 

  


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