The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, in this interview with Muazu Abari says neither the APC nor President Muhammadu Buhari are desperate to win election in Adamawa or anywhere else.
How do you feel about the defeat of the ruling APC in the just concluded presidential election in your home state, Adamawa?
We were not defeated. Let me give you a scenario. We went into the race as a party in government at the centre and here in the state but we also have an opposition presidential candidate that hails from Adamawa state.
Atiku Abubakar has been part of the political life of this state in the last 20 years and in fact when I was the chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the then Gongola state, Atiku was a candidate in 1990 going into 1991 election.
It was when Atiku and late Bala Takaya were disqualified that I picked that ticket to run against Saleh Michika of blessed memory when Adamawa was curved out of Gongola state. So Atiku has been a constant feature in the politics of the state and also served for eight years as vice president of this country.
So whether we believe it or not he has a political family in Adamawa state. We were not defeated instead we put up a very formidable political fight considering the fact that this is his own state. Even then, the PDP narrowly won with only 32,000 votes.
The Adamawa APC is riddled in crises, what is being done to reconcile and avert defeat in Saturday’s elections?
We are doing the best we can to addressed areas of conflict within the party. A party is always about management of conflicting interest. I had the privileged of being a party chairman at a very tender age then as a bachelor when I was the protein chairman of the Peoples Solidarity Party in the then Gongola state I know how contentious party issues can be.
We have processes for the selection of the party leadership or at congresses and also for candidates for elective position and those kinds of processes always throw up issues. At the end of the primaries or congresses, issues came up but I can assured you that we are doing everything possible to narrow down those areas of conflict.
Just two days ago we have a stakeholders meeting in my office in Abuja to begin to address issues that hitherto had not been addressed and I can tell you that my visit to the state this evening is in furtherance of these efforts. We are coming out more focused, stronger and united with the sole aim of the APC retaining the governorship seat in Adamawa.
Both President Buhari and you lost in Hong and it has opened a new controversy as to which local government area you are from?
No, it’s not true. I delivered my local government to Mr President. Let me give you a background so that you can understand the context. I am kilba by tribe and Hong is my ancestral home but I have never played politics in Hong. I started voting in 1979 as a Part 3 law in ABU, Zaria. I voted here in Yola and when I started playing politics then there was no Hong local government it was Gombi local government. So when it was time for me to go to the Constituent Assembly Gombi wanted me, Hong wanted me to go and contest from there but I chose Yola.
I won that election in 1988. I came back to karewa ward in Yola in 1989 and became protein chairman of a political party. Again, in 1990 I won election from karewa ward in Yola to become one of the three delegates that went to state congress and eventually became the first chairman of SDP in Gongola state.
In 1991, I contested from karewa ward to secured nomination of the SDP to become its candidate for the governorship election in Adamawa state. Also in 2005, I was nominated from Yola to represent Adamawa state at the national political reform conference under President Obasanjo and I became a delegate from Yola to go to the national convention of ACN where I emerged as deputy national chairman. In all these timeline from 1997 to date where do you see Hong there?
So, ancestrally I came from Hong but Yola North has been my local government and in all my official documents even as the SGF and this has been consistent. There is no need trying to find comfort in one place. This is where I belong, where I played my politics. I have never played politics in Hong and I have never voted in Hong.
Why has the North East Development Commission (NEDC) not taken off almost two years after it was signed into law?
The commission is in the process of taking off. Don’t forget that we have two institutions that are dealing with the issues that have arisen as a result of the insurgency. We have victims’ support funds which is a private initiative of businessmen that came together to collect money in support the development and rehabilitation of North Eastern part of the country, chaired by retired Gen T Y. Danjuma.
There is also the Presidential Initiative of the North East (PINE) now PCNI. Before the bill was passed these two organisations were the two bodies that were driving the processes of rehabilitation and reconstruction in the North East and dealing with IDPs issues along with NEMA and other organisations.
The processes of securing membership of the commission have been completed. We submitted it to the national assembly a while ago but I understand that they have screened the membership of the commission and Adamawa state has the privileged of getting the chairmanship. If cleared by the senate, the managing director will be from Borno, executive director finance and administration I think is from Yobe, the executive director of operation is either from Gombe or Bauchi, and there is also another executive director projects.
Then our regional representative in the North East is from Taraba and there are other 5 regional representatives. We have made adequate arrangements for the take off of the commission. There is N10 billion allocated in the budget for the take off because it is directly under my office.
We have also made provision of N45bn separate from the N10bn for the funding of its activities. The N10bn is for the take off of the office, recruitment exercise, staffing among others and once the senate completes its work the commission will be inaugurated.
Some have said the 2019 elections have been characterised by militarisation and violence. Is the APC desperate to clinch to power?
There are some parts of this country where during election nothing takes place and whoever is in charge will just write whatever he wants to write. But in 2019 election there have been substantial improvement against what happened in 2015.
On the part of APC, there is no desperation whatsoever. We didn’t get enough votes as we got in 2015 but the margin was large because the PDP too did not performed as much as they did in 2015. We have about 15.2m as against 12 point something million which (Goodluck) Jonathan had.
So whereas we had 15 point something million the PDP fell short of its 12m. Atiku got about 11 point something million votes which explained the 3.9 million difference that you have seen in the margin. So if you look at the contest of the entire process how it went you will know that it is a free and fair election.
President Buhari’s comment following his re-election that the next four years will be tougher than the previous years has generated concern, what we Nigerians expect?
I know that Mr President is a good hearted man. I can only say he is only saying look we are going to take tough decisions that will move this country forward because of the decay we inherited in our first term when we came to power in 2015. Do you know that 27 states were unable to pay salaries? He had to take tough decisions one of which was to give them bail out.
Secondly, he ensured that the Paris Club refunds were paid and some other forms of budget support were given to states that deserved it. They were tough decisions but they are good decisions and I believe there were so many tough decisions we took which he is going to build on.
When Mr President banned rice importation there was hue and cry over the ban but today we have been able to grow the number of rice farmers in the country from four to 12m and we are almost 98 percent or thereabout in self-sufficiency in rice production.
We don’t import fertilizer but when we banned its importation there was outcry. It used to be a big racketeering where people made billions of naira, but today it does not exist. So there were many tough decisions we made and from insight if you look at them you will see that they have put the country on the path of growth.
Going forward, yes Mr President said it is going to be tough I think it is to prepare the minds of Nigerians that tough decisions will come but all these tough decisions are in the best interest of the country so that we can have an enduring nation that is sustainable and a nation that is on the path of trajectory of growth. I have confidence that it will be a bright nation.
