Idris Kashim Hussein is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a governorship aspirant in Kogi State. In this interview with reporters in Abuja, the 43-year old politician appeals to the elders to give the younger generation a chance to contribute their quota to the development of the state.
Why do you want to be the governor of Kogi State?
I have been in business for some time now, basically real estate. I am a property developer; I am one of the front liners when it comes to real estate business in Abuja. I do partial business in entertainment and I run a couple of outfits when it comes to hospitality business. By aspiring to govern Kogi, I am trying to see how I can improve the lot of my people in my own little way. In my business, I have tried to bring together like minds, brilliant minds from among those I related with on the streets; the downtrodden; people who had no shoes (apologies to President Goodluck Jonathan); people that have no godfathers, into my business. My general manager and all my managers are people that I know right from time. Besides, most people working for me are people from Kogi State. What I am today, 70 per cent of the glory goes to Senator Atai Aidoko (Kogi East). He has been able to impact on my life positively. He taught me how to fish and today I am doing pretty well to the glory of God. I have passion for offering support to other people to raise their God-given potentials. For sometimes now, this is what I have been doing as an individual.
How do you intend to bring your experience to bear on governance, if given the opportunity?
Part of what I want to do is to make sure that we put Kogi State where it is supposed to be. I promised that I can grow the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR) of Kogi State to nothing less than N3 billion monthly. I have come up with the programmes and plans on to how we can achieve that. From the streets, as an orphan, I have been able to be what I am; I have been able to create wealth out of nothing. Now, I have been able to do samplings, I have been able to look at issues critically and objectively, about what we need to do to improve the lot of our people. First of all, I am not too okay with what is going on in Obajana (Dangote Cement factory). I believe Obajana is strategic to the economic well being of Kogi State. Unfortunately, we have not made good use of that place. Recently, President Jonathan signed the papers that proclaimed part of Enugu as a development authority; a free trade zone. We can get that done in Obajana. I remember sometimes ago, at my youthful age, I did a paper with the direct involvement of General David Jemibewon and Yomi Awoniyi, the present deputy governor, proposing a law to make Obajana a development authority. Unfortunately, former Governor Ibrahim Idris saw it as a non-issue; it was not deliberated upon in the House of Assembly and was thrown away. If I come into power, it will be part of my priorities. Plus, minus, that place, Obajana can at least generate N500m revenue for us on monthly basis.
Secondly, Nigerians from nothing less than 21 states traverse Kogi State on daily basis. That gives you nothing less than 35,000 to 40,000 vehicles that pass through Kogi on daily basis. How can we translate that into wealth? We can create conducive atmosphere for them, when passing through Kogi. We can then offer small services to provide a comfortable atmosphere for them. We can now start generating little funds from those vehicles. It can give us nothing less than N250m monthly, if it is well packaged. I have equally looked at the possibility of establishing the Kogi Petroleum Company. Almost every filling station in the North gets their products from the South. Kogi State is strategically located at the confluence of Nigeria where the South and the North met. I did my analysis, went to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to do some research. What we need to do is not far-fetched: We have a river bank here in Lokoja, across the river in Shintaku. Nothing is happening there. What they take from the North to the South everyday is not less than N300m. What you do; build a tank farm, bring in investors to fund the project, with that the N300m don’t need to go to the South anymore. We would then be able to save them costs in transportation. We will also be able to save them costs in the risks involved. We will be able to make 20 per cent; 20 per cent of N9bn is about N1.8bn on IGR.
As a state government, we should be able to generate revenue internally, rather than sitting idle and waiting for allocation from the federation account. I am trying to justify my projection that we can generate N3bn monthly.
Thirdly, today the world is information technology (IT) driven. It is because of IT that I can sit down here in Lokoja and be talking to someone in London. Today, one of the poorest countries in the world has the best in IT, which is India. Nigerian universities teach the theoretical aspects and not the practical. And that is why when a computer scientist finish from a university in Nigeria they will say go and learn the practical aspect of IT because they don’t have the technical knowhow to run an IT firm. What to do? We have the land everywhere in Kogi, go to NUC, tell them this is what I have on ground, you get approval to establish a IT-based university basically for practical aspects in Kogi, so that undergraduates in other universities after studying the theory aspects up to 300 levels when they get to 400 levels they come to Kogi to do their practical. For Kogi indigenes, we give them 50 per cent rebate. What this will achieve is to generate revenue and help in building capacity. In the next 10 years, every IT firm you go in Nigeria you will see there is one Kogi person there.
I am not coming into government to wait for what is coming from the Federal Government. I believe it is a good omen that the country is broke at the moment. This will give us the opportunity de-emphasize our over reliance on oil revenue. It will compel every state to begin to look inwards. In Kogi, we have the highest mineral deposits which have not been tapped. The only exception is the limestone deposits around Obajana. We are facing the challenges we face today because we are not an exporting country. As a result of this, the value of our naira keeps going down. If we were exporting cocoa, for instance, we can tell anybody who is coming to buy our product to pay us in naira. We would insist that we are not accepting payments dollars or pounds. This will help to increase the value of our own currency and that is the kind of government we want to run.
A government that can create wealth, a government that can increase the value of what we have, the government that can develop capacity, the government that will build infrastructure, the government that can look inwards and say, this is what we need to do and put it in black and white; that holds meaningful town hall meetings with the people at intervals to sit down with them and say look at what we have done over the last one month, tell us where we have not done well enough, so we may improve; a government that is accountable, subjects itself to the will of the people; a governor that will say at the point of taking over governance this is what I have, I don’t want to have much more than this because what I want is to make sure that I give meaningful life to our people, which is possible.
Prince Abubakar Audu recently declared his intention to come back as Kogi State Governor on the APC ticket. Are you out to challenge him?
Basically, I will like to put a square peg in a square hole. There is no doubting that during the tenure of Prince Audu he did tremendously well. If I say he did not perform, I would not be fair to posterity. He did a wonderful job. He is innovative and he is a man that I respect as an individual. I basically see him as my role model. I think during his first tenure that was truncated by the military I was in primary school. I look at it that there are situations that over a reasonable number of years a new trend will take over from what was in the past. 25 years gone. I look forward to a time Prince Audu would say “oh, Idris, is my son I have every need to support him because he has come of age, he has the courage, he has the charisma, he has done pretty well for himself and he can help develop the state as well”. I look forward to that happening within the shortest period of time. Today, it is becoming so glaring that people are now beginning to appreciate that their vote counts. At the appropriate time they will choose who they want. If they say, “oh, Idris, sit down, there is every need for you to support Prince Audu”, to God be the glory, I will. But, if otherwise the man being a father figure will see me as his son and say Idris deserves my support, because he is a young man who has supported me in the past when I was contesting, so be it. I see him as a father figure. I am not coming to challenge Prince Abubakar Audu. I am coming to answer the clarion call by my people to run for the governorship election; I am coming to answer the call by my own generation wanting a change of baton from the old order to a new order. I think my generation has spoken. Part of the campaign you have seen, you are never going to see anybody that is old in the race. What we are saying is give us a chance. Let’s be able to prove our worth. About 35 years ago or thereabout they keep telling us we are leaders of tomorrow, and today at 40 years plus, I am married with children and I am still not a leader, then I just wonder when I will now become a leader of tomorrow! I look forward to the possibility of him saying Idris come and continue from where I stopped. I think I am going to make him very proud. He would be doing what is right giving us a space in the new system, the new order that will allow us to give our own contributions, giving us a space to hear the voice and share the feeling and aspirations of our people that all is not well with Kogi and the freedom to say our state must be better off for it.
