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| Abubakar Audu |
During this recent interview, conducted with a former governor and governorship of Kogi state Abubakar Audu by Evelyn Okakwu, and Festus Owete of Premium Times; he alleges that his exwife is behind allegations that he is married to a minor. Excerpt:
PT: This is the third time you are going in for the
governorship of Kogi State since you left office in 2003. What did you forget
at the Government House that you are going to take?
Audu: As far as I am concerned, I forgot nothing there and
it is not about forgetting something. Firstly I am constitutionally qualified
to contest. Kogi State, I would say, without any iota of exaggeration, being
the first elected executive governor of the state, that it achieved tremendous
development during my period. And I can say that between1999 to 2003, precisely
in 2002, there was a media tour round the nook and cranny of the state to
assess the rate of development.
The media tour was put in place by the Federal Government,
organised by the PDP, under the leadership of Professor Jerry Gana, who was
then the Minister of Information and National Orientation. The media entourage
criss-crossed the length and breadth of Nigeria and by January 2002, all the
serving governors were assembled at the International Conference Centre, Abuja
and we were given our confidential report. By that I mean we were told the
performance of each and every one of us. There were 12 trophies donated for the
governors to compete and out of 12, I won seven. And you will agree with me
that that is no mean achievement. It was what led to my being crowned the best
performing governor of Nigeria, and Kogi was then tagged the fastest developing
state in Nigeria. And virtually every Kogite was proud of me.
Everywhere in Nigeria and in any part of the world, as a
Kogite, you would be very happy to be called one. But now the story is completely
different, Kogi is the most underdeveloped state in Nigeria. It has taken a new
dive. And this is because all the succeeding governors could not measure up
although their statutory allocations from Federation Account were much higher
than what I earned between 1999 and 2003 in the state. And the reason for that
is: from 2004 till date, the price of crude oil skyrocketed. And Nigeria, being
a mono-product economy, depends solely on crude oil. So with very large amount
of money accruing to the state from the Federation Account, the funds were not
efficiently deployed. And the state went down the drain.
During my time, our earning per month gravitated between
N200m and N300m. And in their own case, their earning was between N3bn and N5bn
and sometimes with excess crude, they got between N10bn and N15 billion. But
during our time it was only once we got N400 million. And the reason as I said
earlier is that the crude oil sale was very marginal. It was selling between $9
and $12 dollars per barrel. Therefore our earning capacity was very marginal
but in spite of that we brought development to the state. Any formidable
structure standing in Kogi today is always attributed to me. And since I left,
there has been no other development.
At best they white-washed the structure we left behind. They
are not creative; they don’t use the funds at their disposal judiciously. And
people started yearning for our return. They said with very marginal
allocation, we did a lot for the state.
Perhaps you are not aware but you must have heard something
about it; it’s on the pages of newspapers; I established the Kogi state
university. A model; and then it was said. After inspection by the NUC, it was
adjudged to be the fastest developing state university in Nigeria. Besides the
university, I established the Confluence Beach Hotel in Lokoja. I established
the Obajana Cement factory, which is the largest cement factory today in
Africa. I dualized the road, provided portable water for rural dwellers;
upgraded hospitals to general hospitals; making sure that drugs and medical
facilities were readily available. Workers were being paid as at when due.
PT: So what could have happened to the funds your
predecessors got?
Audu: It is not my responsibility to know how the funds were
deployed, but they were not deployed in the best interest of the tax payers.
This is because they have nothing to show for such a huge amount of money they
got from the Federation Account as a statutory allocation. So because of the
underdevelopment, virtually every Kogite is itching for my return to the
office. They have admitted that it is where I left Kogi in 2003 that it is now
and this has generated a lot of dissatisfaction. That is why they insisted. It
is not my own making. It is not that I have inordinate ambition of returning to
the office. They insisted that I must come and take Kogi out of the woods. They
said because I did it well to the satisfaction of electorate in the past and
that since the baby is sick, as a responsible father, I should come and treat
the sick baby to be healthy.
PT: You contested the 2003 election, you didn’t win and you
also contested under the platform of ACN. If you have performed so well, why
did your people reject you?
Audu: You are looking at it from the ordinary point of view.
Everybody in Kogi state knew that I won all the elections, but I was rigged
out. To start with, I did not win the 2003 election because they brought the
military. There was military intervention. Military came from the Air Force
base and the army barrack in Lokoja to torture, maim and kill. For the first
time I saw military personnel carrying ballot boxes. That is how they won the
election. And the second one – it was rigging galore. To crown it all, the late
President Yar’Adua mentioned in the course of his inauguration that he came
into that office through a flawed election. That is to tell you that they have
been rigging all along.
There was no true democracy then because of the rigging
machinery of the PDP. I believe that throughout the sojourn of PDP in office,
from 1999 to 2015, there was no democracy in Nigeria. There was civil rule but
democratic processes were not followed.
And as a confirmation of that, Yar’Adua of blessed memory
said that since he was not happy with the way he was elected into office. He
tagged it as a flawed election and set up a committee headed by Justice Uwais
to embark on electoral reform. So that is a confirmation. So, it is not that I
did not win in 2003; I won but they rigged me out. Ditto in 2007 and 2011.
But by the grace of God, with the emergence of opposition,
on the front banner, we are all very grateful. After all, nobody knew that
Buhari would win because they had been rigging him out. That also is my own
case. But God in his infinite mercy took control in 2015, the riggers went to
bed; they were sleeping when the election was conducted and the result
declared. Nobody even believed that Buhari would win, but God took control and
made Buhari the winner of the election. And it was declared in his favour. And
that was the first time that Nigerians conducted free, fair, credible and
transparent election. Even the international community made comments to that
effect. So we are grateful to God that APC has been able to come to Nigeria’s
rescue.
PT: People say you are arrogant. Are you arrogant?
Audu: Yes, I am very arrogant, if what you mean by arrogance
is being strict and being disciplined. And I have not refrained from being
strict, very prudent and have financial discipline. This is because what they
wanted me to do was to share the statutory allocation to the people who tagged
themselves as the state leaders. They met me and said they have no farm land.
They are retired people, and that the state was created because of the respect
the then military president, General Babangida, had for them and therefore when
I get the statutory allocation, I should share to them. They said we are not in
London, that we are not in America and therefore I should not think about
development. I should think about their stomach infrastructure. I said I could
not do that, share public funds among individuals. If I am arrogant, how can I
win an election? I went to the grassroots. Any day you see me in Kogi State
interacting with the grassroots, you would feel that I live in their midst,
because we curdle, we hug, and do virtually everything together. But the
leaders, since I refused to share the money they say I am very arrogant. They
said they would show me. And I went through the travail that not many
politicians went through in Nigeria, courtesy of those my detractors.
PT: You think they will allow you to come back?
Audu: Well, if God decides, nobody can stop it. Mark you,
there was intense hate campaign against Buhari. Even the government in power
did not want him to come into power, but he came into power. That is the will
of God and the wind of change. So whether they like it or not, if God has
ordained me and anointed me as the winner, nobody can change that. And I
believe that he has already done that based on comments from all and sundry and
from all well-meaning Kogites. They have relegated that slogan to the
background.
Some of them came and said they heard that I am a very
arrogant man but that they don’t subscribe to that. But even if that is the
case, it is better to be an arrogant performer than a humble failure. So the
origin of my arrogance is because I have refused to share money meant for the
public to a few individuals. And my successors share money and that is why Kogi
State has been thrown into total darkness. The money that should be used to
provide infrastructural facilities for the people has been divided among very
few individuals.
PT: If elected, how do you face the retrogression which you
allege your successors have thrown Kogi into?
Audu: My priority is to take Kogi out of the woods. The
people of the state know my pedigree and antecedents. I am associated with
development and every sector in the state is crying for action, for
development. So I will not say I will embark on road development, health care
delivery system and so on; virtually every aspect of the state requires
attention.
Immediately I won my primary I went abroad and interacted
with the international community like I did in 2003. I sensitized them and they
are willing to come to Kogi. They told me that in order to speed up their
coming we should declare the state a disaster state, especially some towns in
the state. They said we should declare a state of emergency in Kogi. And by the
special grace of God, we will register the difference in the first or second or
third month after we are sworn into office. By this time next year, the story
will be completely different.
PT: I recall that when you emerged as the APC candidate,
there were some complaints here and there. Have you resolved them?
Audu: You must have heard that the most credible primary
ever held in this country is that of Kogi state. The returning officer who
conducted the election, that is the Kaduna state governor, Nasir El-Rufai said
the best primary ever conducted anywhere in the country was in that state. All
the 27 aspirants – I am number 28 – we all agreed that it was the most
credible. If at a letter stage, somebody starts complaining, then you know it
is an afterthought.
Up till this moment there is no petition. That was the only
primary conducted in Nigeria without petition. The day I went to take my
Certificate of Return, I was asked to wait for another one day, by which time
the limit set for the submission of petition would have expired. After that,
they told me that there was no petition. So, I would be given my Certificate of
Return. If I hear that there is any petition I would be surprised because the
time for petition is gone. If somebody is writing petition now, when all of us
admitted that the election was free fair credible and transparent, then it is
an afterthought. In a political set up, upheavals are natural. It is not devoid
of upheavals.
PT: So in clear terms, in your opinion everybody is with you
Audu: It is not possible to assume that everybody is with
me. Majority of the people are with me.
PT: There are corruption charges against you currently in
court. What is the state of the matter now?
Audu: Well, it is a political vendetta because in the first
place the EFCC was not in existence between 1999 and 2003. The act came into
force in 2004 and you cannot make a law and backdate it. It is not retroactive.
Secondly they were accusing me of stealing cars. They said I stole the car that
was given to me as honorarium. The one given to my wife as honorarium, I stole
it too. So also the one given to the deputy governor and all public officers!
They were given these vehicles in consonance with the
Revenue Mobilization circular. The circular stipulates that at the terminal
point of a public officer, any mobile goods like vehicle for instance, you
either sell it to them at book value or give it to them on honorarium. If you
discount the cost of a 504 Peugeot car on book value for four years, the value
at the end of the four years is zero. Therefore you give them out. And how much
did I earn when I was in office. They kept changing the amount. First of all
they said its N1.5 billion. In another breath they said N5 billion and lastly
they said it is N10 or N11 billion. The same thing happened in my trial. They
kept changing the courts; I went to four different courts in Kogi.
First I went to a court under the control of a certain
judge. When he was about giving judgment, they moved it from there because the
judgment was going to be in my favour. They took it to another court. He did
the same thing, and the court said nothing was incriminating. Again they moved
the case to another court, also in Kogi. The judge was also convinced that
there was no prima facie case against me. They withdrew the case when they
realized that there was going to be judgment in my favour and took it to
Justice Husseini. This is a single case! Then they kept changing the amount.
Lastly, they took the whole case from Kogi State judiciary and brought it to
Abuja. They were looking for a court that will nail me. This is a matter that
is already before the court, and it will therefore be a contempt of court for
me to disclose what happened in the court. But as far as I am concerned, they
have not established any prima facie case against me in the past 12 years.
PT: Don’t you think this could affect you at the polls?
Audu: Even if it will affect me, now that we have free and
fair elections, let’s go to the public. They will decide. Let me tell you what
happened to me, particularly. When I was handcuffed and taken to Lokoja, the
students of Crowther Memorial College came out and it was a big battle between
them and the police. If I was earning very minimal amount, marginal, and I did
all what I did in Kogi State that enjoyed the accolade of all and sundry and
even made the Federal Government to crown me the best performing governor in
Nigeria and my successors have had tremendous amount of money allocated to them
and have nothing to show for it, yet they were not arrested by EFCC, don’t you
think that there is injustice?
PT: There is this other controversy over your wife’s age.
Are you married to a minor?
Audu: My ex-wife is the architect of it. You cannot be a
minor and graduate from the university. My wife finished from the University of
Jos. So if they say she is a minor, (that means) she graduated or was even
admitted to the university at the age of 10. Her name would have gone into the
Guinness Book of Records as the only woman that was admitted to the university
at the age of 11.
PT: So, how old is your wife?
Audu: She was born in 1992. So she is 23. All her documents
are there. When someone wants to blackmail you, he will do all sorts of things.
That’s why I said it is dangerous to lend credence to speculation.
PT: There is intense agitation for power shift in Kogi
State. Kogi East where you come from has produced all the governors since the
creation of the state. Why are you people depriving the other two senatorial
districts from producing the state governor?
Audu: We are not depriving them. The problem is that their
approach is wrong. You don’t achieve that through violence or conspiracy; you
achieve that through dialogue, negotiation.
Let me take you down the memory lane. In 1991, we assembled
in Okene. By that I mean the Igalas, the Igbiras and the Okuns, to decide on
who should get the first slot among the three groups. It was virtually agreed
that the Igalas should have it. The agreement is that after we have completed
our own tenure we should return it to the other side, that is, the two sides
and that they on their own will decide whose turn it should be. I am a party to
that but most of the people that were present during that agreement are now
late. So I told our people that we must make power shift a reality.
The Igalas were in the northern region but we did not have
any opportunity to present one of our own as a governor. We went to Kwara, the
same thing repeated itself. And that caused a lot of disenchantment among a lot
of ethnic groups. So that part of Kwara was amputated and merged with Benue.
Again in Benue, we did not have that opportunity, until Kogi
was created. I told my people that if what motivated us or prompted us to
agitate for the creation of Kogi State was the mere fact that our own did not
have the opportunity of becoming governor, and we have the opportunity now,
can’t we extend the same olive branch to our brothers? The Okun, Igala and
Igbira had lived together for 75 years, under Kabba Province and we have lived
together as brothers and sisters. Why should we allow this to cause friction?
All the Igalas agreed. Now my first term was 1999-2003 and my second term would
have commenced from 2003 and ended 2007 after which I would have returned power
to them. But the lifespan of my administration was abruptly truncated in 2003.
This is why we are dragging this up till now.
My contention is that since I was privy to that agreement, I
will be the first person to make power shift a reality in Kogi state. And by
the grace of God, in 2019, we will have either somebody from Okun or Igbira to
be the governor of Kogi State in the process of making real our drive to embark
on power shift. But unfortunately their approach is totally wrong. They want to
kill, maim and do all sorts of things because of power shift.
PT: So, what are you doing to calm the frayed nerves?
Audu: Well I have gone to Igalaland and told them that the
last time an Igala will be a governor until after we have completed the circle
of rotation is 2019. After 2019, we will hand over to our brothers. This is
because if you are eating sugar (you know that sugar is very sweet) but if you
are eating alone while others are watching, you are creating problem for
yourself. If you share it with your friends or neighbours, that will generate a
lot of peace. But I do not know whether it is the fault of the elite or whoever
is responsible. They are always saying ‘power shift, we either do it now or
never.’ That generated a lot of friction among brothers and sisters, which
should not be the case. I have promised them and it’s only me who can speak to
the Igala community and they will agree. As for my colleague in the PDP, he
cannot even say it without being lynched.
PT: Some people have complained that you always name public
institutions after your relatives while you were governor. Is it true?
Audu: It’s very true. Ahmadu Bello named the university
after himself. George Washington (former US President) University was also like
that. Even the Washington city was named after somebody. So, it is nothing new.
It is better to provide a structure and name it after yourself than not
providing anything at all.
PT: The PDP said that they have beaten you before and they
will beat you again. What is your take on that?
Audu: I have said it before. They rigged the election before
not that they beat me. But this time, that there will be free, credible and
transparent election. Let’s go and face the electorate. They purported to have
beaten Buhari before, 2003, 2007, 2011 but in 2015 what happened? So our
history runs pari passu.
