Why Jonathan can’t return to Aso Rock in 2015 – Yari

Zamfara state Governor Abdul-Aziz Yari has opened up on various political issues, especially the recent PDP’s threat to capture Zamfara state in 2015, security challenges of cattle rustlers and youth empowerment. UMARU MARADUN reports

PDP’s 2015 threat on Zamfara
That is a mere political tale and an empty threat by the Jonathan-led PDP to think of wining Zamfara in 2015. How sure is it that the PDP would return to Aso Rock after 2015 general elections, not to talk of winning Zamfara and other neighbouring states? The PDP should forget and not contemplate winning the presidential seat.
People are tired of the unending promises of boating them out of man-killer ocean’s whirlpool, which has become the fearful and most horrible regime ever in this country. No right thinking fellow would repeat the most dangerous mistake of voting PDP into power, especially with glaring failure of the PDP in governance. Look at the insensitivity in the killings of innocent people, across the north by either groups of insurgents or armed robbers or their likes. The most popular hallmark of the PDP is corruption followed by other malpractices that eventually back-pulled this country from achieving the expected developmental projects.

Electoral manipulation
If one thinks of using illegal means, such as security personnel and other forms of manipulation to secure victory at all cost in 2015, this is going to be a mere mirage. Nigerian people, including even the security personnel, are tired of the bad leadership of the PDP, and therefore, would never be part to any plan to rig election in favour of PDP.
Let me share with you something very important. It might interest you to know that security personnel themselves are  confused on the issue of security challenges bedeviling this country. The federal government has declined going about dozens of measures supposed to have been taken against illegal immigration into the country and inadequate empowerment of our security agencies.

I don’t believe our security agencies will allow government in power to manipulate their legitimate operations against the fragile 2015 which filthy analysts have already predicted to be the year of Nigeria’s disintegration. It is not the prayer of our active security agencies to have the type of Nigeria we have today, and they would not be happy to become the enemies of democracy and the good citizens of the country who deserve adequate protection of lives and properties as contained in the constitution.

There is no adequate security watch without maximum cooperation from both the governments and the ruled. A uniform person is not an omnipresence that can fetch information spiritually to respond to, but has to wait on the civilians who happened to witness what was going on at the scene of any event. So, if you look at the inadequate attention given to security sector by Jonathan’s administration, it is enough for one to jump to the conclusion that, this government has to be changed for a viable one.

And if you are talking of INEC to be dictated to and  change the results of elections, that one too cannot work, because people have adopted the idea of Vote-Wait-Escort (VWE) at polling stations on the voting boxes against any attempt of doctoring the real outcome of elections. And  apart from that, I don’t think even the INEC boss will be convinced to dance to the tune of unpatriotic politicians whose hope is to drive the peaceful country into a hell hole like other boiling states across the globe.

Jonathan, PDP and  2015
They are only a group of toothless and clawless dogs which cannot shake the powerful winds of change embarked upon by APC towards capturing power to rule this country and even in Bayelsa state. PDP cannot stop APC from taking power to correct the vortex of blunders they made which is resulting in the gradual derailment of our beloved country. Incessant killings under whatever category of crime must be stopped, a nation-wide corruption must be phased out of the Nigeria’s records of services.

APC’s plan for 2015
APC is a formation of progressive politicians across the country. So it is a common knowledge that, PDP has lost every decent politician that can knock on the doors of electorate to vote across the country.  Just remember the caliber of people who dropped the PDP for APC across the six geo-political zones. They have noticed what would not be good for the country as the main concept of the PDP, that is why they turned their back to regroup in APC for the delivery of peace, unity and dividends of democracy for Nigerians.

In addition to that, APC has signed agreement with well-wisher   countries and others to closely monitor the conduct of 2015 general elections.
Moreover, the performance of the APC governors in the South and those in the North- Kano, Sokoto, Adamawa, Borno, Yobe and Zamfara states, have climbed up the democratic hill which commands the view of the numerous developmental projects being  executed by the governors of APC aimed at ensuring better living standard for their people. The neighbouring PDP- controlled states are admiring the style of leadership due to the transparency and accountability as well as service delivery.

We left no stone unturned in almost every sector, be it education, health service, civil service, and many other issues pertaining to efforts to fight down unemployment and poverty. For myself, I gave priority attention to sanitising financial management of government’s coffers and productivity in the state civil service.  A lot also have been put in place in terms of  roads constructions to link our farmers and other resources with outside viable markets.  This is in addition to the state government’s commitments towards improving agricultural sector in the state.

Food production, especially in commercial quantity is believed to be a sine-qua-non to economic development, and it could not be achieved without access roads, because government would employ consultants who are experts in agricultural management to guide local farmers on how best they could produce qualitative and competitive farm produce, and such could not be achieved without motorable roads.

Infrastructure
Zamfara was in a crawling stage in terms of infrastructural development. When we came on board, its economic resources were in a state of bastardisation deliberately by unpatriotic politicians that we succeeded, whose concern was only to enrich themselves and their relatives. Something that people were supposed to understand is that, we must offend a larger percentage of our people, since we stick to the policy of making the state a developed one like other states across the country.

In the first instance, I had to block my ears from self- centred people within and outside the government who always insist on endless advice aimed at making money for themselves. My focus was virtually on how to build a new and prosperous  Zamfara which would be quite different from the popular poor one already known in the economic ranking list of the north. Even my cabinet members were lost at some points as to what should be done to make our state better than we met it.
Developing rural areas

Like I keep on saying, development started from rural areas, because if incessant migration of rural dwellers into towns and cities continues, then the little resource being managed by the state government would be put to stress.
With this development, local farmers would realize the value of what they produce, unlike before when linking them with viable markets was difficult. At that time, a farmer had to sell his products in a nearby market as he could not cover long distance on foot or other local means of transport due to absence of access roads. You see, like I said, where

there is no access roads, there would only be a little amount of farming interest, especially in commercial quantity.
So, as it is today, even those fleeing rural areas to cities for a living have returned home to enjoy gestures from the state government, aimed at improving farming activities in the fight against poverty. From the inception of my administration to date, we sell a bag of fertilizer at subsidized rate of N1,000, just to inculcate the habit of work-on-your-farm in our people.

Advocating self reliance
I don’t see anything special in occupying high-ranked offices, especially going by the current situation in Nigeria. It is better for  a common man to acquire a small and reliable business from which  he could afford a number of most popular needs to comfortably manage his matrimonial home, than relying on a dream to become a senior public office holder over night.

A number of viable projects initiated by the state government under agricultural programmes and indeed, those derived from both the federal government and world bank facilitated Fadama III programmes, have no doubt helped to encourage our teeming unemployed youth to return to farm. It is now clear that, an alarming percentage of unemployed youth are off the streets of the state capital and the government offices in the name of begging and other crime-related activities.

Nowadays, farming communities are made to realize the value of farm produce as they have learnt they could run comfortable life better than those days that they only had to put together what they produced for domestic purposes. I can tell you that, merchants from far and near and even from neighbouring countries like Niger, Chad and Cameroon are patronizing our local farm produce, a situation that is quite improving commercial activities and the growth of economy in the state.

On unemployment
Of course, government’s effort at tackling unemployment is not limited to its agricultural programmes but extended to even the transport sector. We distributed nearly 30,000 vehicles to youth from the 14 local government areas of the state with a view to engaging them and making them self-reliant and at the  same time for easy movement of goods and services.

Cases of cattle rustlers and other banditry acts
Apart from what should not be made public for security reasons, you see, the issue of embarking on roads network by my administration is still to be your answer. Before the constructions of access roads, criminals were believed to use the opportunity of having unmotorable roads to terrorize communities down there, which even before the arrival of security personnel on patrol, they could comfortably hit their targets and run. But now, by God’s grace, it is becoming  history due to quick response of security agencies operating in the state against criminals. On the whole, today’s Zamfara has changed for the better.