As part of the preparation for the 2023 elections, Secretary to the Government of Katsina State (SSG), Mustapha Muhammad Inuwa, spoke to The Nation Newspaper on his gubernatorial aspiration. Our Katsina State correspondent, AUGUSTINE OKEZIE reports the encounter.
YOU want to be governor of your state. What is the level of relationship you have with critical stakeholders of the state?
To me, I have an excellent relationship with all whom I have come across. We have very good understanding and cordial relationship. I have many other political friends, whether we work together or not, you see the only problem is I know I’m somebody who stands firmly on what I believe in. Once I believe this is the right thing to do and I’m convinced, I stand by it. And I don’t mind who that position offends, once it is in the general interest of the people.
You know, like I told you earlier, I worked in this state almost in every sector. I worked in the parastatal. I worked in the local government. I worked in the ministry, the largest, and also served as the secretary to the government. I also worked in the political party office. So, people know that when I stand on a thing, I stand by it. I try as much as possible to avoid things that are for personal interest, regardless of who is involved, you understand? Let me just give you two instances.
When I was lecturer in the university, my wife was a student, she was my student. I think twice she failed my paper and to this moment I had no regret for that. When I was commissioner of education, twice I went to her school without telling her I was coming. I left her at home and she was queried for coming late.
She was Vice Principal in Shargalle, she was appointed Principal and was posted to Sandamu which is far away from Katsina. When she told me, I replied, you have to go or resign because I will not talk to anybody on your posting. So there are things that some people believe I cannot do, so they feel, they have to look for may be somebody who they will dictate to, whom they will want to dance to their tune, which would not.
What is your take on your party’s zoning arrangement?
Okay. You see, to this time I’m talking to you, I have never discussed with anybody that I’m aspiring to become a governor. All what you have been seeing and hearing is like you said, calculations by people who are watching the political development in Katsina state. So people looking at our antecedence; what we are able to do in the political scene especially during the late Yaradua’s era where I served in four different capacities or places in his government. From being the General Manager of a parastatal to a Sole Administrator of a local government, Commissioner of Education and then Secretary to the government. I later moved into opposition after having problem with the then government of PDP under Shema, plus the political positions we held in the parties and up till this moment, people are making their own calculations.
So they believe, yes, we are well suited for that but like I said, I have never discussed this with anybody, for two major reasons. One, I believe we are in government, we are elected for a second term of four years, to me this should be our focus, this should be our main concern now, what we deliver, what we are able to do to the people of Katsina state.
Secondly, as a party man, I believe in party supremacy. I believe in the party giving guidelines. For now, the party has not in any way made the guidelines available. What we are now doing is to put the party structure. You know, we started from the ward to local government. We have done the state congresses, now we’re waiting for the national convention where we will have complete set of party leadership from ward to national. So to me, it is only when that is done, then you start talking about elections, which will come later in 2023. So that is why I am just watching. I’m attending to people. I’m listening to them. We are waiting for the right time to get into this. Like I said, to me, we should wait until early part of 2022.
The issue now is will you contest or you will not contest?
You see, this is something difficult to say. One, we wait for the time to come and when the time comes, like I said, we have procedure, we have leadership even in the state, we understand, we have a political leader who is our ideal Governor. See, I’m not afraid of contesting. Nothing difficult in that, after all I led the party to big victory in 2014 as the party chairman. So it’s not something new. It is not something that is difficult for us. But all I’m saying, let us follow the procedures, let us not disrupt the activities of government, let us not disturb the government, because the problem is if now we come out as the secretary of the government and maybe the deputy governor contesting, there may be some people probably coming also to contest. So how do you imagine the kind of government we will be running? You understand?
So let us move on until when we get to the time, when the party says, okay, get ready, go. So then we look at it and see, but like I said, people are going ahead to do a lot of things, all what we have been seeing around, like you say, banner, posters, billboards social media, all these things are done by people who believe that, yes, we can, we can do it. They have their expectations and they believe we can do it. But we’re not saying we are going to disappoint these people, but let us have a little patience. Wait until when the time is right.
But the people they’re free on their own to go ahead. We don’t tell them to talk. Okay. We, some of them even visit us, some of them come to us, some of them present all this, like you say to us, you understand this, but what I’m saying for me to work on this, you understand? I think it’s not yet time.
Okay. While waiting as you said, definitely you must be articulating your blueprint, your points of agenda to execute, should you already come out?
You see, honestly, if there is any one reason why at the end of it we will agree to come and go into this it’s because I strongly believe that we have a lot that we can contribute to address quite a number of the issues that we believe are the challenges that we are facing as a state, especially in the education sector, youth unemployment, insecurity and to me, more importantly revenue generation.
I believe, we have a lot that we can do, but this we can do with the understanding of people that we have to change the way we do things over years and we are not getting the results we expect to get. So it is obvious you have to change your style.
You cannot be doing one thing over the same way and you expect to have different results. So I think we will agree to go into this because we strongly believe we can bring a lot of ways that will improve on what we have been doing so far drastically.
We want to have a radical departure in some cases. There must be a radical departure from the way and manner we do things. You see, we have to sensitize people. We have to make people understand that government is not something that can do everything to the people at the same time. We as people of Katsina state have also our way of contributing especially in terms of revenue generation. If we look at Katsina, it’s one of the states that largely depend on the federation account, and this cannot continue.
We are now looking at the problems because we’ve actually now become just a salary paying state. What we get is only enough to pay salary and do a few things, this cannot continue. We have a lot of resources; we have a lot of ways that we can generate money to address the needs of the people. We have a lot of school age children who are not in schools. Our schools are over congested. A lot of them are dilapidated. A lot of them do not have sufficient teachers, materials and so on.
Education is key to any development in the world. So for us to address this issue even if we now agree that all the money we get from the federation account should go in to the education sector, you cannot do anything. This is an area where you have very large population, we are said to have about 8 million people and by the way we are increasing, in a few years, it’ll be much more than that.
So we really need to look at the way we are getting resources that are certainly very inadequate. So, also you look at this issue of insecurity. It is crippling the economy. It’s crippling every activity in the state. So we have to address it. We have to change the way and manner we are addressing it now. We said this several times to the security agencies. So we hope before 2023, the insecurity situation will be addressed and tackled, and we hope by the time 2023 elections are conducted and new governments come in, the issue will be history. But in case there is anything I believe we have to look at the society and see what we can do to have lasting solution to this problem.
What we are getting now and by the day is reducing, so this is very critical. You have to address it. People have to understand that we have the political will and the determination to address this issue. It is only when you’re able to address that we can look at other issues. There is nothing you can do without funds and you cannot continue to be taking loan, otherwise you will reach a time when you cannot even take the loan, because you don’t have the means to pay back. So when you exhaust your expectations for certain period of time, nobody can give you anything.
Some people are saying you may not have or enjoy an excellent relationship with the GOC Mangal?
No, I have very excellent relationship with him. Since we started I know the role he played before this government came in to win. We have excellent relationship. To me I don’t think we have any problem. But like I said, whoever it is and no matter what the relationship is, I want people to have the interest of the state not their personal selfish interest at heart. I will not support you to do what I believe is detrimental to the progress and the development of the state or it’ll affect majority of the people of the state, no matter what.
So that is why my family doesn’t come into my work, no matter the relationship. Nobody comes into my work and they know that. When you come, they tell you, go and meet him in the office. This is purely official; we have no hand in that. So to me and I have no regret for that. Honestly, I have no regret. If for that reason I will not become governor of Katsina, it doesn’t bother me. If people feel because of that, I should not become governor, it doesn’t bother me. Get the point. I’m not selfishly looking for the governorship. It is not going to be because of myself. No it’s because I believe we have what we can contribute to change the narratives of Katsina State.
Finally, what is your take on the clamour that Shitu should not return as APC state chairman especially now that he will not be returning due to zoning?
That is where people are mistaken. Let me tell you one thing, it is a practical knowledge. When we came in 2014 as a party in the entire party structure in the state at the state level, out of 26 members of the state party structure, I was the only person that you can identify and say, this is a hundred percent, Masari man. All the others were brought by other people. It was either Sadiq or Hadi Sirika; Audu Soja or former SSS Boss, Sada Ilu. Even in the local governments it was the same. Kafur local government, which was the governor’s local government, the structure was not his own. So that’s why I wonder, look at people and laugh when people are talking about this structure.
I say, it’s not always so. To me, when you go into history to this moment, I’ve not seen somebody who has made a structure that eventually worked for him. Masari was able to defeat other aspirants without having the structure at the state or local government levels. We have come a long way with Mallam Shittu and our relationship is beyond politics. You cannot say, because he’s the party chairman, people saying that I’m going to contest, so we should cut off the relationship, we should not be seen together.
Okay, now that he is the party secretary, I hope they’re comfortable. They are satisfied. Now they’ll feel at home. That they can now feel safe. I don’t attribute success or lack of success to an individual. I believe in what Allah has ordained to happen to his servants. So, whether Mallam Shittu is in office or not is completely out of the question. After all who is sure of the guarantee that we will all live to see 2023? When you go into history of the political activities of other people, you see where the party structure is immaterial as far as becoming or not becoming a particular candidate or particular office is concerned.