Dr Akilu S. Indabawa, former Political Adviser to ex-President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and one time Political Adviser to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, is an aspirant for the Kano State governorship seat on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Akilu, who is currently the PDP National Youth Leader, served Governor Rab’u Musa Kwankwaso as Senior Special Adviser on Political Affairs between 1999 and 2003. A one-time lecturer at the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Education, Bayero University Kano (BUK), Akilu was also the Secretary, Confab Presidential Organising Committee at the recently concluded National Conference in Abuja. He spoke to newsmen in Kano and gave an insight on his mission and ambition to govern Kano. Kolade Adeyemi was there. Excerpts…
Can you confirm the rumour that you are interested to succeed Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso in 2015?
Well, friends and supporters across the state, especially at the grassroots level have been agitating that I should run for the governorship race. Meanwhile, I am in the process of consultations, as one cannot take such a monumental decision without consultations. So, we are consulting and whatever the outcome of the consultations, we will make it known to the public very soon.
How far have you gone with consultations and preparations for this project?
Well, consultations have no limit, as politics is essentially about consulting, so we have been consulting people for a pretty long time, since the resurfacing of governorship election issues, particularly after the congresses, which we held recently.
What would be your agenda if you are voted into office?
In a contest like this, there are two stages; the first stage is to get the party’s nod to run as the party’s flag bearer. To that extent, one has to sort it out within the ranks and file of members of the party, particularly those who will go to the state congress to elect the gubernatorial candidate. Once that is accomplished, one faces the general populace and put forward his programmes, as well as the party’s position and the like. PDP as a party has a platform or manifesto, which it issues at the end of every four years, prior to the beginning of each electioneering season, which will be the case this time round, as every candidate of the party would be expected to campaign on the platform of the party’s manifestoes and programmes. However, if consultations turn out to be positive that one should run and if I do run and clinch the party’s ticket, my immediate priority would be to assemble officials, who I will saddle with the responsibilities of bringing positive change in all sectors in the life of Kano people.
Are you confident that PDP will re-capture Kano in 2015?
Well, incumbency in Kano politics has been demystified when it comes to election. Previously, I was the head of Kwankwaso/Ganduje campaign team, way back in 2003, we had the incumbency factor but unfortunately, it did not work in our favour; we lost to Malam Ibrahim Shekarau of the then ANPP, which was little known and it wasn’t a party that was popular in Kano but all of a sudden it just came up due to so many factors. Also, in 2011, nobody ever gave Kwankwaso any chance because of the incumbency factor but again Kwankwaso became governor for a second mandate after being out of office for eight years. So, there are two cases we can cite in the contemporary history of Kano, where incumbency factor has been demystified, so, that is no longer an issue for us.
You know, this kind of development will continue to happen. You cannot have full grown democracy until you have a situation whereby the incumbent can lose power. An incumbent party can be in and out of power at any time, just like the opposition can be in and out of power at any time. That indicates some kind of positive development. It has happened twice in Kano.
You once highlighted some of the late Governor Abubakar Rimi’s landmark achievement. Which of them, would you want to embrace in future?
There is no policy of the late Rimi’s Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) administration that any sensible Kano leader in government would not want to repeat and build on. Indeed, it would be my model of governance for Kano State. For example, the late Rimi ran a people’s centered administration. He championed and implemented an aggressive adult literacy programme, which won Kano State the UNESCO medal for adult literacy, the second time that medal was awarded in the world, the first time being in the mid 1970s when it was awarded to Fidel Castro for his Adult Literacy Campaign in Cuba. The second time the world had seen that medal was when Rimi ran a massive adult literacy programme and he won in a space of one year between 1980 and 1981, the PRP administration that he led made about a million or thereabout Kano people, who were earlier illiterates, to be literate within one year. That was an award winning programme. Number two, Rimi had women focused intervention in many areas, the first time women were appointed commissioners in Kano State was when he was governor. He appointed three women at a stretch, as it was a taboo at that time. Now, women are playing more significant roles in Kano politics, if they could get three slots on the cabinet at once in 1979, then definitely, they deserve a better deal this time around.
Also, there is no reason why people in Kano, who fall sick, will be afraid of going to the hospital because of their inability to afford the bill. The world has moved at a very fast pace. We will introduce radical health insurance policy, which will enable people to have access to world class health system. We will be able to recruit top quality and world class medical experts and procure top class medical equipment and facilities that are of international standard.
We have proposals for the radicalisation of governance in Kano State. We have proposals for the active engagement of the youths. Most of our leaders rose to stardom in their youth, mention them, President Shehu Shagari, Yusuf Maitama Sule, Danmasanin Kano and their contemporaries, all became prominent in their 20s. The late legend, Aminu Kano, started the struggle when he was 25 years. Also, Danmasini Kano became a Member of Parliament at the age of 25 or thereabout, same thing with Shagari; many of them were very young when they became somebody in the society. We will engage the youths actively at all levels of government, we will engage them as stakeholders, not as veranda boys, give them drugs, buy them little weapons and they start shouting your name, who the bloody hell do you think you are?
As I said earlier, all these depend on the outcome of my consultations; if it turns out that one should run, so be it. If by the grace of God it eventually happens, then Kano people should be ready for a very radical administration, an ideologically based regime. Ideology is not dead as we will prove to the world that the ideology of the late legendary Aminu Kano is alive. We will prove to the world that the ideology of the late Mohammed Abubakar Rimi is alive. We will prove to the world that the ideology of the late Sabo Bakin Zuwo is alive. We will prove to the world that there is more to governance than just going into government to make money, as they are competing with the richest people. Some of these people that in government are largely there because they want to compete with Alhaji Aminu Dantata and Aliko Dangote and that is why they always want to engage them. They go to China and woo some companies to come to Nigeria and they award them useless contracts, without following due process. They will account for all that.
How would you revive folded industries to Kano?
We will address the power sector, which is very critical to industrialisation. Kano industries cannot run where there is no power or water. So, we have to generate additional power, spread it to Kano industries and they will be able to work. There are also other incentives, whereby we will have to sit down with the industrialists, engage them as stakeholders and work collectively with them. There are things that we would like to do, like introducing tax incentives, some time government will lose revenue but at the end of the day, the loss of revenue from tax exemptions or tax holidays granted to industrialists would result into employment generation for the youths and income generation for a large percentage of our people. I am ready to allow for that, as we are ready to collaborate with the business community, the industrialists, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and other stakeholders to put together an aggressive package of industrialisation. One of the problems we had in Kano has been a recurring decimal of industrialists of going into the same line of production. Once furniture is in vogue, everybody will veer into furniture production, no diversification. We will have to harmonise the situation by sitting down with the stakeholders and agreing on result-oriented programmes, as the basic line is power and the issue of tax incentives by way of tax exemptions and other macro-economic inputs, which we can give to industries. That would be done and we are hopeful that the results would be positive. Our focus would be on revitalisation of industries, so that the economy can be expanded to have absorptive capacity. Once you increase the absorptive capacity of the economy, it will absorb these young men and women you find roaming the streets and it will generate income and savings, then to God be the glory.
What plans do you have for Kano youths who are roaming the streets?
I earlier told you there has to be a radical transformation of the education sector, that includes remedial education; you have to create an avenue for them to utilize those skills, that is what I am saying, we have to first of all expand the economy, so as to increase its absorptive capacity before we can address the problems of the youths. The bottom line is economic and so in whatever decision you want to take, you must bear that in mind, make sure that you revive the economy. Once the Federal Government of Nigeria is doing its own, the Kano State Government must do its own bidding by way of making sure it adopts the right economic policies and programmes that will now expand the capacity of the local economy and so forth.
If at the end you are elected Kano State governor, what would be your promise to Kano people?
I will promise them that we will run a good government that everybody would be proud of.
