Bauchi State Governor Mohammed Abubakar spoke with reporters in Lagos on his achievements, his anti-ghost workers policy, relationship with House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara, strategies for boosting Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and restructuring. Group Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU was there.
What motivated you to become the governor?
My state was two years old when I started working for it. I have been an active participant in the development of my state. At a point, my state was a pacesetter. It was young, but a pacesetter in the Northern part of Nigeria. People came and copied things from us. The agric development project supported by the World Bank in Bauchi State and Nasarawa State was successful. Up to now, Bauchi Agricultural Development is the best. The Cooperative Federation in my state at a time was the best and a pacesetter. When Bababgida decided to set up community banks, it met with success in my state. So many good things were happening in the state. However, there has been a retardation of progress. In fact, at a point, there was a stagnation. The state witnessed a setback in its development strides. The roads became poor. They were full of potholes. That was retrogression as far as I am concerned. I was concerned. Why should Bauchi suffer a set back? This was my motivating factor. I was not a rich man before I contested for governor. But, I was very comfortable. My practice and my abode in Abuja was a comfort zone. I was living comfortably, taking care of my family and even my community. Even, before I became a politician, when I went home for Sallah and other ceremonies, my house used to attract more crowds than serving senators. It was a fact. I was in my comfort zone. I had to leave my comfort zone because of my concern for the development of the state. I thought I should be able to make a difference.
Why is your government courting controversies?
As governor, I decided to do things differently. I have decided that at my age I do not allow myself to be dictated to by people, most especially those who did not support my bid for governor. I have resolved to work for the people of Bauchi. It is very important that people should understand the scenario when I took over. I took over when labour was on strike because they had not been paid for four months. We negotiated with labour before my swearing in. I pleaded with them to call off the strike to enable us take over government properly. I promised to address their problems after the swearing in. perly. Without the civil service, we couldn’t take over properly. They conceded and called off the strike. When I took over, I inherited an empty treasury. I inherited N120 billion debt, including N15 billion gratuities. We hae reported this matter to the Federal Government. We went to the National Economic Council to assist us to deal with that, particularly in this period of recession. Ramadan was around the corner. Bauchi is predominantly Muslim. It relies heavily on government for salaries. I was sitting on a keg of gunpowder. I took a N4billion loan. I contacted the former Speaker, a PDP member, and members of the House of Assembly. Some assert that I took a loan without the approval of the House of Assembly. That was because of ignorance. I inherited a House of Assembly that was inaugurated on the 15th of June, 2011. It had a four-year tenure. So, it would stay at least, up to 14th of June, 2015. I took over on May 29. At a time, I was operating with that House of Assembly. I called the Speaker. At that time, there was only one appointee in my government, the Head of Civil Service that I inherited. His position was not political. Three of us sat in my office. I told the man, you are from this state. You know the realities of the state. Your government failed to pay civil servants for four months. The state was on a keg of gunpowder. Raining season had commenced. The raining season will not wait for anybody. Government has not make any arrangement for one bag of fertilizer. Ultimately, people will go to Saudi Arabia. Government has to facilitate the Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board for going to Saudi Arabia, not even sponsoring it. I asked an approval from the House to take care of these three major items and get a little to continue running the government until the next FAAC meeting. He told me he would table the matter before other members of the House at a dinner in the night. I directed the Head of Service to write formally to the House of Assembly. A week after, I received a communication from the Clerk of the House conveying the resolution of the House to me. This is what a lot of people do not know. I am a lawyer of 38 years. There is no way I will violate the constitution.
What next after taking the loan?
I took that loan and I was able to douse the tension. After paying one month salary, I procured metric tons of fertilizers and facilitated the hajji and it was the most successful. We continued paying salaries as at when due. In December 2015, when local governments could not pay salaries, I had to come to their rescue. I lent them to pay salaries. That was when I decided I must conduct staff verification. Why verification? Bauchi State, if you compare to Kano; Kano State is the most populous in Nigeria. Kano has 44 local governments. Yet, Kano has 92,000 staff, both state and local government. Bauchi State is said to have 105 staff. So, any right thinking person must look into that. I started the verification with the hope of getting to the bottom of the problem. Unknown to me, the cabal perpetrating the phenomenon of ghost workers in my state are very strong and very rich and they started fighting back. At that time, there was a disagreement with the members of the National Assembly. They were supporting them. They said I was doing staff verification. Today, my wage bill is 5.1 billion, for the state and local government. There was never a time I went to Abuja and got more than N5.1 billion. Yet, I am proud to say today that I am not owing salaries in Bauchi State. It has been attested to by labour. Like I said earlier on, my state relies on salaries. Even, in markets, buoyancy will not be there if salaries are not paid. That is why deliberately, I have been using all the intervention funds for salaries. The bailout is a loan we took. The only difference is that the terms are soft. The Central Bank of Nigeria intervened to get banks to give us the loan on soft terms; repayment over 20 year-period and nine percent interest. I utilized N8.6 billion, less N88 million. A group of NGOs organised a conference in Abuja and asked governors to come and give accounts. I opened my books because I have nothing to hide. I was in a bus in Port-Harcourt going for the campaign for elections in Rivers State when my Accountant-General called to inform me that we had got the Paris Club money. I asked him to use it to pay salaries. Local governments were owing two months. The state government was owing one month. Bauchi State never owed more than one month salaries from the time I took over till date. I had an occasion to visit the President privately. I told him jokingly that I had him advising to use between 5o and 80 percent to pay salaries. I told him that in my state I used more than 80 percent to pay salaries. He said oh, thank you very much, well done.
What about capital projects?
In spite of this, we commenced major projects; Urban Renewal projects. We were not happy with potholes on the roads in the state capital. We have embarked on the rehabilitation of roads leading to Bauchi. Works are going on, but for the raining season. I am spreading these projects across the three urban areas of Bauchi State. In Azaria, I am doing four focal roads; two in Missau in the North and two in Bauchi in the South and one in the Central. I am trying to establish one health care centre in each ward as enjoined by the Federal Ministry of Health. I have 322 wards in Bauchi State. I have built an additional 19 primary health cares; equipped with staff quarters, VIP lavatories. I have sunk 34 solar powered-boreholes, rehabilitated 1,700 boreholes and built 600 hand-operated boreholes. If you travel within Bauchi State today, you see blue roof primary schools. That is my project. You see the renovation of existing classroom blocks and building of band new classroom blocks. Some of these are completed. They are not abandoned projects. My policy is that there will not be an abandoned project in Bauchi State. The abandoned project phenomenon has retarded the progress of Nigeria. My policy is, even if I am not the person who started the project, I will complete it because the resources of our state should not be a waste. There is a project of the Government House that has been on since I was the Attorney-General of the State. I intend to complete it ultimately.
What’s the outcome of the staff verification?
Verification is on-going. After the first phase of the verification, people tried to frustrate it. I addressed the state on steps taken to frustrate the exercise. I told them the verification will go on, but I will not suspend the payment of salaries. Right now, biometrics are being captured. After the biometrics, we will know the outcome of the exercise. There are many ways of verification. They frustrated those ones. But, after the biometrics, we will know the outcome.
What is your relationship with the members of the National Assembly from Bauchi State?
I am a politician managing everybody. In recent times, at every occasion, I have been telling people that I don’t have enemies. I have been calling on my supporters to desist from responding to anyone who says any wrong thing against us. I have appealed to anybody who feels aggrieved to come over. The true story will be told. I have sent several committees to go and meet them in Abuja. I even asked our Executive Committee to meet with them in Abuja. Only five of them attended the meeting. Even, the first class emirs from Bauchi went to Abuja to see them. The late Maitama Sule spoke to them. The bottom line is that the most beautiful system of government is a constitutional democracy; the one that has a written constitution. The parameters are determined. Everybody knows his role. The National Assembly does not have any oversight function over me. The relationship is that we come from the same state; we are from the same party. But, they are my brothers. We started this journey together. There is no member of the National Assembly whose constituency I did not visit during the electioneering. I intervened in the primaries in support of some of them when they were having problems about nominations.
What is your relationship with House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara?
If you recall vividly, during the election of principal officers of the National Assembly, the APC took a decision I am an APC member. I toe the line of my party. We used the party to become who we are. The party requested us to do something for it and we can’t turn against the party. God in his infinite mercies chose the Speaker. After that, I told him that’s the end of the matter. God has chosen you. We will respect that. We will respect you. And I put it into practice. When he came home, I received him in my office. I accompanied him to the palace of the Emir of Bauchi. I didn’t need to do that. Somebody should have accompanied him. But, I accompanied him because, at that time, he had become the number four citizen of Nigeria. The issues are actually over-flogged. Right now, a rapprochement is going on. It started before the APC Reconciliation Committee was set up. The committee has just submitted its report. Nothing has been said about the report last week.
How are you improving the Internally generated Revenue (IGR) of the state?
It is easier said than done. The improvement of the IGR will not happen overnight. When you are talking about IGR, you are talking about taxation. I don’t want how it is possible to squeeze water out of stone. The people of my state that I met, I met them laying prostrate. My government was elected by the people. Card readers were used. There is no way I can impose hardship on my people. I can’t impose consumption tax. How many standard restaurant do we even have that I will be collecting tax and issuing receipts for them? But, we can increase IGR in three areas; agriculture, solid minerals and tourism.
What is your view on restructuring?
Restructuring means different people to different people. I support an adjustment to the present arrangement. For example, power should be devolved to the states in some areas, including agriculture and education. On agriculture. The land does not belong to the federal government. It belongs to states and local governments.
