Prince Mustapha Audu, popularly called Mona by his supporters and admirers is one of the numerous aspirants jostling to unseat Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello. Even though there has been speculation that three of them from the Prince Abubakar Audu family were interested in the governorship seat, he is the only one who has paid the N22.5 million needed to obtain the nomination and expression of interest form for the All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview with Tony Akowe, he speaks on why he wants to govern Kogi State.
WHAT exactly do you have for the people of Kogi State? We will focus on three major things. We know that a lot of sectors are lacking in Kogi State right now, but we need to have a focus. Our major focus will be human capital development, the youth and women empowerment. That does not mean that we will not focus on other areas. We honestly believe that any government today focusing on constructing roads, water, health care is not really a serious government because these were the same promises our grandparents gave to us, the same promises our parents gave to us. So, we cannot be giving out these same promises, but we know that they are very important. But with technology and new means of doing things, we believe that we can build roads, hospitals, schools, provide electricity quickly and efficiently in a sustainable manner.
You are going into the race with an incumbent governor. Considering the fact that the party has approved indirect mode of primary, what are your expectations?
A lot of people worry about the power of incumbency because of the power to influence the delegates. But we are not worried whether it is direct or indirect because we know that we have won. This is because our own approach to finding out the way forward is completely different from others. We believe that good leadership and good government is about the people. So, rather than spending our time carrying delegates and putting them in one hotel and giving them stipends like every other aspirant will be doing now, we have taken a different approach. We believe that we should be out on the field and we have been going from village to village, meeting delegates in their environment, trying to fix their problems. We are about to provide water to some communities in the central zone. We believe that this is the most efficient method of reaching the delegates. We don’t have as much money as the state government because they have not used the money given to them to do what they are supposed to do; salary payment, the schools, infrastructures in the state is worse than it has ever been because the government is trying to save the money they have towards election. So, for every one naira you give to a delegate, the government can afford to give them one thousand more. So, because you cannot match them, your strategy has to be different. We believe that the way to accomplish this is by appealing to the heart of the delegates by seeing them in their environment, understanding their problems and helping them to overcome such challenges. They will understand that a government that looted all their money and give some of it back to them is just looking for their votes and that it will be one day in four years that such will happen. They will come to the realisation that you need a government that understands your problems and has seen your environment and is willing to bring people from your community on board and develop your environment. That is the real government which is all inclusive. This is the first time that Nigeria is actually having an all-inclusive government. That is why we adopt a simple and plain strategy and we are confident. That is why we tell everybody our strategy. Majority of the aspirants are too old and if they try to do what we are doing in one week, they will die. We know that we are the only ones in position to accomplish this and we are doing it on a daily basis. We have been on the field doing just that.
What has been your pedigree in politics or are you trying to rely on the popularity of your late father?
First, a lot of people have asked what I have to offer and whether I want to ride on the glory of my late father? The truth is that I am an individual; according to the Nigerian constitution, I have met all the requirements to run for office. It is also an unavoidable truth that the greatest leader ever to come out of Kogi State is Prince Abubakar Audu. I will not shy away from what is strength because I have had tutelage under the greatest leader Kogi State has ever produced. I am aware of the plans he made for the state and his relationship with a lot of people. So, we will use this to the advantage and benefit of the people. But I am my own person; I have my own principles. I hope to build on the legacies of the late Prince Abubakar Audu. I will not deny that I come from that legacy. If we see something that is great, we should have the habit of building on it rather than saying it should be a disadvantage. I will not deny that he has left some legacies which have projected me. Other than that, I am not his only hair because we are a huge family. What differentiates me from others is what I have learnt from him and the ability to understand the grassroots, being able to go there and understand the resources available there and being able to carry a lot of people on board. It is also knowing the right person for the right job and empowering them to do the job. That is what leadership is and that is the qualities that I have learnt over the years. In addition to my professional experience, I am an entreprenuer and has worked in different areas. That has enabled me to understand the difference between the private sector and the government and why government fails to accomplish its tasks. A lot of people in government have not been in business and so don’t understand the challenges that people in business face. We have built international networks over the years that will enable us harness the resources in Kogi State. So, we are ready because we have the experience, the tutelage and believe that when we set our mind to a task, in spite of the challenges, we will accomplish it.
The incumbent is of your youth bracket. If you have to access him, would you give him a plus and what do you think you can do better than him?
Yes, the current governor is a young man, but he is not our representative. The current governor is a man. No one said that men cannot rule. It is unfair to say he is a representative of the youth because no young person selected him and said this is our representative. No Kogite voted for him. There is no single Kogite alive or dead that voted for the current governor. The governor accidentally, through an act of God and providence made it there. Unfortunately, because he did not understand what was needed to get there and was not part of the people who brought this victory, he was not part of the people who fought the incumbent for this; he misused the opportunity. He got rid of all the people that worked for it. In life, there is a simple rule. If you don’t work for something, you don’t know the value of it. This is exactly what has happened. He didn’t work for it and so, he does not understand the value. Now, the young have gathered together and picked one person and we know that Kogi State is our last chance. If you don’t get it right in Kogi State, the door will forever be shut to every young Nigerian because they are going to use Kogi State as an example on why young people shouldn’t be in leadership. If you talk about young people in government, people will tell you, look at Kogi State. Something as basic as salaries, he could not pay for over 40 months. But this is not a consequence of being young. We have a lot of people under our employment and we pay them. There are quite a number of young people around the world who employ people and pay them. This is the function of somebody who is not prepared for leadership and we are ready to change him and we are going to change him shortly. We will be ready to replace him, but will welcome him back to the fold because we believe that the era of witch hunting the previous administration should stop. We are ready to give him amnesty if he returns a lot of the missing money from the Paris Club refund and the bailout funds and other resources of the state that have gone missing. If he is willing to return them, we are willing to give him free passage because we are not after jailing anyone.
There are about three or four Audus from the same family that have indicated interest to contest the governorship seat. Why so many of you from the same family and don’t you think that is a minus?
At the end of the day, we had a strategy because we realised that a house divided against itself cannot stand. When you appear weak and divided, the opposition becomes comfortable. As you can see, only one Audu has picked the form, there is only one Audu form. That form that I picked up is for every single Audu and every single Kogite and every civil servant that has been unpaid, every taxi driver in Abuja that is a graduate and from Kogi State. That form that we picked is the only form that truly represents all of us. Unfortunately, there is also propaganda from the opposition who specialises in projecting that the family is in disarray. They are projecting that some people desperately wants it. But that is not the case because since I picked the form, no other Audu has picked the form. What you have been following is propaganda, but it’s ok. The opposition should continue to focus on us while we will continue to focus on the task ahead. At the end of the day, we hope to get victory.
Your late father had an idea of getting the state House of Assembly to pass a law institutionalising rotational governorship among the three zones in the state. What is your view about this?
I will give you a little history that many people are unaware of. When Kogi State was created, before Prince Abubakar Audu became the governor, four people came together from the west and said that the west has had power in Kwara State as well as the central and the only people who has not had power was the east. So, there was a pact for the west to support the east on condition that power will return to the west. That was the original plan. Unfortunately, the military came and truncated the Third Republic. When the Fourth Republic started, the pact was again put in place, but before his tenure was completed, the old PDP had its way in collaboration with INEC and again, it was truncated. In 2015, he had the same arrangement, promising to deliver power to the minority and gave his life to accomplish that. Unfortunately, it wasn’t how it was agreed to, but power shifted all the same. Now, we have to re-enact similar pact now that we have an incumbent. As honour bound my father, so will honour bound me to my commitment to the west. I believe that Kogi State stands on a tripod and two out of that tripod has benefited and now, it is left for the third to benefit. Now, in enacting a law to institutionalise power shift, honestly, I believe that there has to be a better way for future generational leadership. I think that this country has not grown leaders. I don’t want to call names, but the gentleman that contested for the presidency and didn’t win is spending billions in court today. Why not spend those billions on training young leaders and preparing them for the battle of leadership. No one is doing that and because they don’t do that, it has been challenging. We only have one leader in Nigeria who has really empowered young people and that person is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I wish we have more leaders like that who will empower the next generation of leaders. So, rather than a law that states that you should transfer power based on region, we can set a law that will take people from the three regions into an institution that will train them to attain leadership position. But I think we should go for quality rather than geographical location. It is however not something I can sit down here and say I will enact because a law takes many things into consideration; one of which is that people will have to sit down and agree on the modalities. So if I tell you that I am going to enact a law, that means I am not being truthful. Any law that has to be enacted and has to do with power shift cannot originate from me. I will support anything that help power shift. I will try myself to take deputy from the west and make sure that power is transferred to the west. However, whether it is four or eight years is left for the people of the state to decide. If you look at the history of Kogi State, you will discover that we had a governor who did nine years while Audu did four years. His four years is far better than the nine years. So, it is not the duration of time you spent in office that manners.
You seem to be non-challant about the mode of primary when some aspirants are kicking. What is your take on this?
Whether direct primary, indirect primary or consensus, come August 29, we believe that we have won. We have already defeated the current governor and every other APC aspirant. I am very sure about this and it’s simple. You can see that the current governor has not been involved in any governorship election before.