The Governor of Bauchi State, Mohammed Abubakar, believes that governance demands a hands-on module to engender worthy people-oriented developmental strides at every given time. The lawyer-turned-politician said the opportunity offered him to be a state chief executive is a challenge for him to put that theory into practice. In this interview with our Deputy Editor, Nation’s Capital, YOMI ODUNUGA, he explains how far he has gone changing the narrative in Bauchi and the challenges that confront him. Excerpts:
How do you cope with the little funding viz-a-viz competing demands of governance in your state?
Actually without singing my own praises, before we took over, the entire machinery of government in Bauchi was in tatters. There were a lot of wastages and a lot of corrupt practices; so what I resolved to do at the onset was to plug all the loopholes for wastages. And if one succeeds in doing that, you tend to release a lot of resources for development which had hitherto been either wasted or carted away into private pockets. Honestly, Bauchi State is one of those states that face challenges as far as internally generated revenue is concerned. I have fought shy of adding to the burden of the poor because I met them prostrate so to speak. So I always warn the chairmen of the revenue board to improve on their collections and widen the tax net but don’t introduce new taxes. I always give the example of Kwara State that has done very well in the area of IGR without introducing new taxes. So, I would say it is the proper management of the scarce resources of government. When we started, we inherited a workforce of about 105,000, translating into a wage bill of about N5.1 billion monthly. We come to Abuja where we depend on the monthly FAAC; if we are lucky, the best we have gone back with is N8 billion, which is for the state and LGs. So, out of it if you take away N5.1 billion you are now faced with the arduous task of allocating this to the competing demands. After payment of salaries comes the feeding of school children. Secondly, I am bound constitutionally to pay the legislature because they are an independent arm of government. So after this, you discover you now have next to nothing. I count myself lucky because of the magnanimity of the President with the various interventions he had given. We have utilised our funds judiciously and that is why we even have something to show to people.
Before you came, it was difficult for projects to take off or continue, were you able to do this through borrowing from banks?
Actually yes, we were borrowing. But we also decided to make efficient use of resources to be able to pay our matching grant for the Universal Basic Education Commission projects. Even the borrowing, you know the banks will assess and determine for themselves whether you will be a good debtor before they will approve, but we had them falling over each other to provide funds. So far so good, we have deployed these matching funds judiciously. Flying over Bauchi with the President the other day, I pointed out to him the blue roofs of schools that were my UBEC projects.
Bauchi is essentially an agrarian state, how have you fared in the agriculture sector?
Well, I must say so far so good. We probably have not been making enough noise about the feat we are achieving in agriculture. The first intervention I did was the Anchor Borrowers Scheme for dry season rice farming because we started very well under the guidance of the Central Bank of Nigeria. We convinced our people to come out, they opened accounts in some commercial banks and were given BVN. Suddenly, four or five of the commercial banks withdrew from the scheme for no reason, so we were left with only the Bank of Agriculture and one other, so we were forced to look for money elsewhere. So we procured seedlings, herbicides, the fertilizer, spray machines and little stipend.Only recently I was able to get some funds from the CBN. What came from that was a fantastic harvest of rice. Bauchi has always been a good rice producing state though not in the ilk of states like Kebbi. In the Anchor Borrowers Scheme, the anchor itself is the off taker; you have a sure buyer for your produce even before you plant. When Mr. President came the other time, he launched an agriculture enterprise programme through which we are acquiring 500 tractors and 150 power tillers and many other implements for farming that we are giving as loan through cooperative societies, individual and large scale farmers alike. The tractors were brought from Italy and coupled in Bauchi. The state occupies one fifth of the total land mass of Nigeria, and 80-82% of the population in Bauchi is into farming. So it is incumbent on us to improve on agric. There are giant rice mills procured by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture from China to be distributed to states that grow rice; so we will participate and see how we can add value to what we produce.
Fighting corruption is a strategy of this administration, are you also doing the same in Bauchi?
On inception and seeing the level of rot I inherited, I set up a high powered committee headed by a chartered accountant to investigate all the facets of government and State Universal Basic Education Board and MDGs were areas to pay attention to. This was where we discovered that money was just taken away without anything to show for it. So many things were unravelled; I now got a law from the state assembly to set up a recovery tribunal, got the law passed, and instructed that white paper committees should invite those accused because of fairness. Unfortunately, my Attorney General at the time bungled the matter. One of those indicted, a former governor, went to court challenging the setting up of the recovery tribunal. That is where we are now. Once we settle this, the tribunal will hopefully recover a lot of resources carted away.
How far have you gone in road development in the state?
I must thank God and the President for his magnanimity. There was an infrastructure that was given states, N10 billion; this was what started me off in the area of road construction. I took the N10 billion as a loan but I rolled out projects worth N22 billion. Road construction is not a short term thing, it takes time. But for one or two rural roads that I was told the contractors stopped work, in all the other areas the contractors are still working. Soon, Insha Allah, I am going to inject more funds into road construction. We were given loan yes, but we have added so much over and above to get the road construction going.
A lot of people are curious to know what state chief executives did with their share of the Paris Club refund. How did you spend your own?
The first tranche of Paris Club refund, 80% was spent on salaries. We had a situation where the Local Government Areas owed two months’ salary, the state was owing one month. So when we got funds, we paid salaries and we made the salary issue history. The records are there. Bauchi is essentially a civil service state, so it’s not too much, and this was what we did also with the bail out. We used every kobo unlike other states.
You have been able to bring President Buhari to Bauchi twice within a short period of time, how did you achieve this?
If you recall, from the first time President Buhari contested for election in 2003, he had been consistently defeating even sitting Presidents in Bauchi. And now as Mr. President, he is very appreciative of this. You can see the number of his appointments to the people of Bauchi. Every time he goes to Bauchi, one of his comments is the apparent affection the people of Bauchi have for him. The last time he was there, one woman at the Emirs Palace was crying because she had seen Baba. So the love is natural, real and that is why we have that affinity.
Health, they say, is wealth. In what way are you intervening in healthcare?
When we came on board, we realised that the health sector needs serious re-jigging. If you are able to get primary health care right, then the rest is easy. We immediately latched on the FG’s programme of ensuring one efficient primary health care with the building of one Primary Healthcare Center in every ward. So we constructed 19 brand new PHCs in all the LGs except the capital. And polio eradication was suffering. But the Dangote Foundation, Bill Gates Foundation, USAID and states were supposed to contribute. I took that up, paid the outstanding, and Iam paying religiously. This is all in a bid to improve health. And in addition we have been paying more than the 15 percent recommended as allocation of total budget to health; we have been paying 16 percent.
When would the Yankari Games Reserve begin to yield money for the state and what have you done in that regards?
From inception, the first place I visited, out of Bauchi, was the Yankari Games Reserve. That was because I had a stint there while I was growing up in the civil service of the state. For two years, I was the company secretary of that place. I was hands on, I was participating in its management. Every Friday, I will drive down, weekends were peak periods, I conduct room checks myself. There was a time 24 new chalets were constructed by the Sani Sami administration, we were to commission it, my board came, Alhaji Garba Gumel, Alhaji Abubakar Snr. and others; Ajuji Waziri was Chairman, they came, asked about the chalets, I told them they were fine, but they decided to see for themselves. I was so confident, we went but the first room we went was like a construction site, tiles stained, nails everywhere. So from that point, I said I would never take the words of anybody. So I have this love for Yankari, I started by renovating all the facilities. Thank God the Muazu administration did a lot of renovation of the place. So we did touch up and paid attention to details like linens, towels etc. And I appointed a serious-minded person as Sole Administrator, a hands-on person himself and committed, and I now became the number one marketer of Yankari on social media which served to attract a lot of clientele. So with all this progress I am making slowly and carefully, why, because we are located within the North Eastern region which is a complete put off. The current US Ambassador came to Bauchi without notice and called me that he wanted a first-hand experience. He said he found out Bauchi is hospitable and safe, so I thanked him and requested for him to advise his people that it is safe for them to visit. And we have Sumu Wild Park too. It is special and novel because the animal species you find there are not found anywhere in the West African sub region except in zoos. Former Governor Ahmed Muazu went to Namibia and Kenya and brought some species.
Looking back at three years of your administration, what would have done differently?
Well, what I would have done differently, for example, is the ongoing verification of staff. I did not like the way it was handled from the beginning. I was messed up by a lot of people I trusted, to the extent that I had to go on air to apologise to the good people of Bauchi State. I told them we made two mistakes—one was deliberate, the other because I am the leader, I take full responsibility and apologised. So, given the chance, I will do that differently.
What should the people expect in the remaining period of your term?
I will reinvigorate myself because so many things need to be done and with very little resources. But I have never deceived myself that it was going to be easy. I used to tell people that Abuja was my comfort zone. I left my comfort zone and joined the murky waters of politics but it was because I was convinced that there was something that needed to be done. I thank Almighty Allah for His mercies. People thought I was boasting when I said at age 24 I was already a big man, in the sense that I was a head of department in the House of Assembly in Bauchi; I was head of legal drafting. I used to sit with elderly people at management meetings. From that point on I have not looked back. So Almighty has been kind to me. If I should go to Bauchi and refuse to do things differently, then I will not be fair to myself. So this is my driving force and that is why there is a lot of noise in Bauchi, it is because I have decided to do things differently. I have a four-year mandate as governor of Bauchi. That is what God has given me and, as He gave me this, He never conferred with me. So whatever comes in future I leave it to the Almighty. I want to succeed in the mandate He has given me and I thank Him for what He has given me. Let me also crave for the understanding of Bauchi citizens, because they should understand where we found ourselves when we took over and the difficulties that befell the country. We thank God for the resilience of President Buhari that we are out of recession, and with God’s help, the economy will recover and when that happens and we are able to get additional funds into the coffers of Bauchi State government. I am assuring them that we are going to excel beyond their dreams. We will do wonders in Bauchi because that is what they elected us for. They should be law-abiding, respect their leaders and pray for them; we should not deviate from it otherwise the wrath of the Almighty will descend on us. I thank them for their understanding and appreciate them.