Hon Mohammed Ayuba Nana is the Senior Special Assistant on Youths and Women Mobilization Ankpa federal constituency to Governor of Kogi state, Alhaji Yahaya Bello. In this interview with Chamba Simeh, Hon Nana explained why Governor Bello is man to be Nigeria’s president in 2023.
What is the pedigree of Governor Yahaya Bello that stands him as Nigeria’s next president?
Today in Nigeria, many are convinced that if we are going to solve the myriads of problems militating against our development as a people, we must change our leadership recruitment process. We must look for leaders who have against all odds shown good leadership and moved their people forward. An example of such a leader is the incumbent Governor of Kogi state, the young and ebullient Chief Yahaya Bello. He has within a short time turned around the fortunes of the state and I believe that with that magic wand, he is capable of turning around the fortune of this country. Clearly, Yahaya Bello is the best man to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
There are many antecedents that stand him out as the next president come 2023.Yahaya Bello is a born leader who has traversed, even as young as he is, all the nook and crannies of Nigeria. He would replicate the Kogi success story across the whole.
But some pundits argue that even in the North central states Yahaya Bello is not the best governor. Why are you convinced that he is the best?
People are entitled to their opinions. For those who know politics of the six states in the North central and the crisis of development in those states prior to the tenures of the present leaderships in those states, they would attest that it is through the leadership sagacity of this young and ebullient governor that Kogi state that was almost classified as a failed state is now classified as one of the success story in the whole country. Today, no leader in the zone can match Yhaya Bello’s success story when peer reviewed.
Yahaya Bello is one of the very few in the APC today who are classified as core Buharists. He is among the very few who sacrificed to make Buhari president, saved the country and put it again on the right path to development. If people believe that the president has transformed Nigeria from the corruption and rot of the past then if a core Buharist should be picked as the next president to replicate the good work the president has done, then Yahaya Bello is the man for the job.
If anyone can claim he knows Yahaya Bello, I am one. The governor believes that politics should be about the people. This is a lesson he learnt from his father. He believes there is never a paved expressway to an individual’s true freedom because when freedom is offered on a platter of gold, the value is undermined. This philosophy has shaped and helped him in his political life and it is the pills that shape his life and in the process winning all of his battles. As a leader and governor, he emphasizes the building of strong institutions rather than strong men to advance development. Prior to the emergence of Yahaya Bello, the problem of Kogi state was godfatherism – government was about loyalty to a godfather, the godfather and cronies see the state as their personal estates. But today, this governor has eliminated the godfatherism syndrome in the state and built strong institutions that make the state work better. Today, Kogites can boast of seeing development in all of physicality. The administration’s priority-driven projects and budgeting processes identify the projects whose values are important to the people at the immediate. Those projects today are scattered all over the senatorial zones.
Has the governor told you he is interested in vying for the president in 2023?
No. If the governor has intimated me of his interest in contesting for that office I wouldn’t have been pleading with him to contest. What I am doing today is a personal conviction project which insists that the best should be president come 2023 to continue with the good work of President Buhari; and the best today is Yahaya Bello. I am convinced as a listening leader who wants to change the way we play politics and administer good leadership in Nigeria that it is only a matter of time, he will agree; he will change our country for the better, you can take this to the bank.
In the whole of Nigeria, the tallest person politically today cannot match Yahaya Bello. I would continue to urge him and insist he vies for the presidency come 2023. While Yahaya Bello has not declared his intention to contest for the presidency in 2023, I am strengthened by the president’s declaration that he will not pick his successor. The integrity of our president is our political capital in the APC and with a level playing field the cloud is blue for Bello.
What are the likely focal points of the Bello administration when he becomes president come 2023?
Politically, he would just as he did in Kogi state eliminate the strongman syndrome militating against the growth and development of Nigeria and build powerful institutions that make things work. Economically, I he will focus on seven points that would make our economy work for the people rather than depending on petro dollars. The development of a critical infrastructure plans, the return of the commodity exchange boards, the development of a government-backed national housing programmes – these measures would lead to the revitalisation of the nation’s economy and put it on the path of growth and development. The decline in prices of oil has revealed the travesty of our national economic model. He will develop a national industrial policy, fostering the development of strategic industries which would create jobs and spur sustainable economic growth.
We must realise that no country has ever attained broadly-shared capacity without first creating industrial capacity that employs large numbers of her people and manufactures significant quantity of goods for domestic consumption and export. Countries like US and China implemented policies that protected key industries, promote employment and encourage export.
The Bello presidency will push forward of a national industrial policy that would enhance the attainment of the growth and expansion of our economy.
Whether we decide to focus on steel, textiles, cars or machinery components, or other items, we must focus on manufacturing things that Nigerians and indeed the rest of the world want and value. We must partially reshape the market place in order to accomplish this. He would also implement the policy of tax credits, subsidies that insulate critical sectors from the negative effects of import. He will also develop and implement a national infrastructure plan, roads, railways, bridges and ports need enhancing and new ones built with the goal to develop a coherently-planned and integrated infrastructure grid. A national economy cannot grow beyond the infrastructure that serves it. Good infrastructure yields a prospering economy. Weak infrastructure relegates the economy to the poor house. His government will take the lead. The focus on infrastructure has corollary benefit to all.
What are the possible hurdles in achieving these?
Bracing of hurdles are not new to the governor. In fact, he is the bracer. The hurdles we face are not technical in nature. We must convince those political and economic factors to step aside so that we can obtain such critical ingredients to economic vitality. A credit based economy is the only way to go right now. Credit for business investments in our country today is too costly. The long term economic strength of our country is dependent on how we deploy men, material and machinery to economic endeavours. And this is highly dependent on interest rates. He would ask the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to cure its affection for interest rates. Lower interest rates are required by industrialists to borrow without fear that excessive cost of borrowing would consign them to irredeemable debts. The normal profit rates of any business today cannot support the burden imposed by the current interest rates.
If industrialists do not invest on more plants, machineries and jobs, the economy would stagnate. Consumer credit must be available to the average person. The prevailing norm is for a person to purchase high priced item in one lump sum. This is oppressive. It defeats the average person and constrains transactions in real estate, vehicles and appliances that vitalise the economy.
Government-backed home mortgage system would be re-engineered, mortgaged loan agencies would be better funded and asked to liberalise their requirements so that more people would be qualified for them. They would be required to provide long term mortgages and manageable interest rates. The Bello presidency will provide the needed guarantee to make such financing a reality. By sparking the effective demand for housing, the whole economy is enhanced.
Yahaya Bello believes just as he has delivered in Kogi state, agriculture remains the backbone of advancements and survival. His government would help rural farmers by improving rural outputs and incomes and this would be done by ensuring minimum prices for crops strategic to food security. Though effective, it was abandoned because it negates the free market economy totem that we were asked to erect against our own interest. We must return to commodity exchange board that allows farmers to get good prices and hedge against losses. An agricultural mortgage loan corporation would be inaugurated to further promote such goals. These policies are largely within the province of the federal government and Yahaya Bello will implement them to the letter when he becomes president, insha Allah. By God’s grace, Yahaya Bello is the real deal and the main factor in the 2023 race. When the political calculations of the 2023 are made, you dare not ignore him. He shall win the presidential ticket of our party, APC, and subsequently win the presidential election.
