Ashiru: Why I Want To Run For Kaduna Guber Race Again

Hon. Isa Ashiru was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2019 governorship election in Kaduna state. In this interview with John Shiklam, he said he has not given up on his ambition to be governor, come 2023

In 2015, you lost the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to Governor Nasir El-Rufai. In 2018, you decamped to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and was the party’s flag bearer in the 2019 governorship election which you lost to the APC.
Can you share your experiences in the political terrain in Kaduna state?

It has been very interesting. In politics when you lose the first time, it is not a loss. This game is not about me but about my people. I have a vision which I believe, if given the opportunity, I will transform the lives of the people for the better. I am not in politics to serve myself but to serve the people.
I feel I have something better to offer to improve the economic and social condition of our people.

It is like you are still nursing the ambition to contest the governorship again in 2023.

By the special grace of God, I will contest.

Do you think you would have done better than the APC administration in Kaduna state if you had won the 2019 election?

In Kaduna, politics is not practiced the way it should be. A government that is elected by the people is supposed to serve every citizen, not an individual or group.
With what I have seen, and I am sure as a resident of Kaduna, you will attest to the fact that the kind of development we are having is centred in four Local Government Areas out of the have 23 LGAs in the state.

Developmental programmes that are currently going on, are located in four LGAs – Zaria, Kaduna North, Kaduna South and Jama’a, as well as some parts of Igabi LGA.
For me, this is not democracy. A leader should ensure fairness in the distribution of resources. Given the opportunity, I will do it differently.

If you become the governor of Kaduna state, how do you intend to address this problem of insecurity ravaging the state?

As you are aware, security is everybody’s business. It is not about the governor or the commissioner of security or police or the DSS. When you find yourself in this kind of quagmire, the government of the day should be the listening type by allowing people to contribute on ways and means of addressing this problem.
We had this kind of problem before, we know how we managed it. This should not be different.

We have modern communication gadgets, but has it change anything?
Kaduna is the melting point of the north, we have many people who are knowledgeable about security issues in the state.

We have former governors, be it military or civilian who were faced with this kind of problem. Organise security submit, invite them. Kaduna is home of the military, there are retired Generals who are resident in Kaduna, you can still seek ideas from them by organising seminars. We have traditional rulers who have been keeping peace in their domain. Bring them together, share ideas and come out with tangible report that will advise the leadership on the way forward.
I have written an open letter to the governor, published in the media, giving suggestions on the way forward.

Recently the government shutdown telecommunication networks as part of the strategies to fight banditry and kidnappings, but the problem is still persisting.

That should have come much earlier than the time they did.
It came at a very wrong time. These people (bandits ) are using satellite equipments to communicate.
If they want to get you, they don’t need communication, they have people that they pay heavily.

Unfortunately some of our people are hungry and live in abject poverty. You have people that were laid off, doing nothing, what do you want them to do? Bandits have prevented them from going to the farm… So what do you expect?

All is not well in the PDP in Kaduna state considering the existence of three factions. What is the chance of the party winning the 2023 election?

You got it wrong, the truth of the matter is that in the early days of PDP (in Kaduna state), we had divisions and not factions. We had the Prof. Ango Abdullahi, Nuhu Babajo, Sarki Tafida and the Senator Ahmed Makarfi groups. Do you call that faction?

At the end of the day, we came out as one and we moved on. That is why we were able to form government in 1999 , even beyond. There is no party in this country, including the ruling APC that does not have groups within. The APC is even worse, they have more than 93 groups.

Let me state categorically that the PDP National Chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, recently in Makurdi, confirmed to the press, that in the handing over notes, there are nine states with these kind of groupings. Kaduna was not included, so I don’t know where you got your information.
For me Kaduna has followed due process for the conduct of its congresses and leaders emerged. For your information, during the last national convention, Kaduna was part of the 35 states plus FCT that the report of the congresses were adopted:

We know we have small misgivings and misunderstandings in some LGAs. I have started reaching out to them and the party itself is making in-road in reaching out to those who are not really happy with the process.

The PDP won more councilorship seats during the Local Government Elections, how do you intend to mobilise the grassroots for the 2023 elections?

Yes, we did pretty well, we won 129 wards out of 255.
To be precise 130 councillor seats, we are still in court and we are hoping to get more.
The efforts we put in getting 130 councillors will be sustained. We are reaching out to those that were not happy with the process.
Let us come together and get this state out of this mess we found ourselves. We cannot do it alone, that is why we are reaching out to them.

In one of his television interviews, Governor Nasir El- Rufai, said his six years administration has done better than the 16 years of the PDP in the state. What is your reaction?

You are in a better position to answer that question. For me, if you are talking about development in Kaduna state, he has performed below average. That is to be fair to him because we are talking about Kaduna state with 23 LGAs, but infrastructure development is in four LGAs.
Are you fair to the generality of the state? And more so, he went and borrowed (money) to invest in a venture that is yielding nothing in terms of returns.

From the time he was sworn in to date, the state government collected more than N1 trillion statutory allocation.

What are your thoughts on rotational Presidency and agitations for powershift to the South-east?

As a democrat that is not democracy, but there is nothing wrong in accommodating your brothers. Democracy as you are aware, is a game of numbers, but if you have a country like Nigeria that has more 250 tribes, there is nothing wrong. But that cannot come by force.
It is negotiable, negotiate and do the needful, that is the beauty of democracy, but you can’t stop people from expressing their views. At the right time, those that matter will come to the roundtable to discuss the issues.

The federal government plans to remove subsidy on petrol and many Nigerians are apprehensive about this, what is your take?

Well, it is only an insensitive government that will venture into this kind of decision. It is ill-timed and a very wrong decision. They said they will remove it and give 40 million Nigerians N5,000, this is laughable!
That is to show you the kind of people we have at the helms of affairs. People are struggling to survive under difficult economic situation. This decision is wrong.

What is your expectations from new national leadership of the PDP.

The National Chairman, (Dr. Iyorchia Ayu), is a highly respected politician, he is a man of his word. He is one of the founding fathers of the party. I am optimistic that with the crop of leadership that we have, PDP will bounce back. I am sure that they will not disappoint us.

Do you support direct primaries for the selection of party flag bearers?

I don’t have any problem with direct primaries because we had it before. I got nominated on the platform of the defunct Social Democratic Party(SDP) through direct primaries in 1992.
However, the motive behind the introduction of direct primaries in the Electoral Act is wrong.
Majority of members of the National Assembly decided to introduce it to settle scores with governors. That is not in the national interest. If that is the motive behind what they did, it is wrong.

There are speculations that some governors of the APC may decamped to the PDP.

We are in discussion with some of them at the highest level, including some members of the National Assembly. With the umbrella, we will accommodate everybody.

QUOTE

Yes, we did pretty well, we won 129 wards out of 255.
To be precise 130 councillor seats, we are still in court and we are hoping to get more. The efforts we put in getting 130 councillors will be sustained. We are reaching out to those that were not happy with the process. Let us come together and get this state out of this mess we found ourselves. We cannot do it alone, that is why we are reaching out to them