In an interview with Ibrahim Garba, a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress in Kano, Aminu Abdulsalam Gwarzo‎, ‎posits that the illness of President Muhammadu Buhari has denied the nation a coherent response to sectional agitations across the country
Your assessment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration ‎in the last two years?
I am very impressed with the way and manner the administration has dealt with the issue of security with utmost seriousness. Everyone can attest to the fact that on coming on board, the president confronted the issue of the much dreaded Boko Haram insurgency with vigour to the extent that Nigerians are now heaving a sigh of relief.
 The president knew that the security situation in the country was shaky and precarious at the time he assumed the mantle of leadership. He quickly mobilized forces to act on the front line by boosting the morale of the Nigerian army to coffront the insurgency head on.
 We all knew that we were in a terrible mess before Buhari came on board to change the status quo by addressing the issue of the insurgency in the northern part of the country. This eplains the peace we now enjoy in the north. Normalcy had since returned to the north-eastern part of the country in particular and the entire north in general.
 Many of the territories captured by Boko Haram elements had been recovered with the number of the so-called ‘gallant Boko Haram fighters’ almost reduced to the minimal. Many of the internally displaced people had returned to their towns and villages and started living like before. To me, Buhari had achieved a lot and really lived up to his billing as a leader.
 But one issue that had to be taken into account, is the issue of addressing the economic rot he inherited from the immediate past government.
 At the time he came on board, he met the economy in a serious bad shape. But the major issue of contention is his inability to form a strong and cohesive economic team to take the gauntlet. That is why we still remain where we are.
 If there is a strong economic team formed to face the challenge squarely, something remarkable would have been done to inject sanity into the economy and make every citizen to live happily.
The issue of budget had been a course for serious concern to all Nigerians, considering the frosty relationship between the National Assembly and the executive arm, what do you think is responsible for the sour relationship?
 We have to consider the fact that we are operating a purely democratic government based checks and balances. That principle must be respected for genuine and vibrant system to prevail. Avoiding a systemic failure is what we want achieve as an APC-led government.
The issue of having a frosty relationship between the National Assembly and the executive arm of government does not arise. We should also take into cognizance the fact that there is a constitutional way of electing the leadership of both chambers of the National Assembly.
 Leaders of both chambers had to emerge in line with the wish of the majority votes and the leaders should not be stampeded into doing the bidding of the executive arm by hook or crook. It is not expected that leaders of both chambers should be voted on the prodding of the executive.
 Talking about the issue of budget, we need to have a strong institution to prepare the ground of setting a formidable agenda for an all encompassing budget to hold sway. Ministries and key institutions of the government should also meet such an obligation even beofre the budget proposal is made. The issue of padding is all about corruption, because of the innate desire of some vested interest to manipulate things to their parochial advantage.
 The clamour for a Biafra sovereign nation is widely considered as a threat to the peaceful coexistence of Nigeria as one indivisible entity, what is your take on this?
 To me the issue of Biafra nation at this material point in time does not arise. We have taken so much pain to cross the thorny path to peace after fighting the Biafran warlords for almost thirty months. Those agitating for cesession are ignorant of history. We have almost reached a stage where Nigeria’s unity must be kept sacrosanct. We have learnt a great lesson in our match to break away at that time.
 ‎The issue is; if other part of the geo-political zones, have the resources and means to live on their own what of the Igbos? They have nothing to fall on. What is becoming a serious problem to us at present is lack of coherent leadership on ground because of the illness or rather the failing health of the president.
 He is the one to take charge and address the issue in consultation with all the stake holders involved. Even at the National Assembly, we have the Igbos as representatives of every shred of political opinion within the Igbo race. They can take the bull by the horns to address the issue. Look at the issue of the recent ultimatum given to the Igbos by some youths in Kaduna to leave, we are not comfortable with this development.
The Igbo leaders should swing into action and call the agitators to order and make them to comprehend the simple fact that cesession is not something that can just be actualized without a price. It is bad. We ought to begin to think out of the box for us to have a conducive environment to live together without ill-feeling or bad blood.
 What is Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje’s major score-card in two years?
 The issue of appraising governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje’s performance is something that should be analyzed within the confine of how he was voted to power as governor in 2015. We sat at a party level and deliberated extensively. We first considered three factors in choosing him for the plum job.
 One, we considered the fact that his excellency governor Ganduje was the most senior in Kwankwaso’s cabinet. Second, he was the most experienced person better to handle the job and thirdly, he was part and parcel of all the major accomplishments recorded by Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. So he was expected to be an off-shoot of the Kwankwasiyya movement, but he had derailed from the path of such an ideology.
 To us in the movement, Ganduje had been only preoccupied with the business of casting a slur on the integrity of the man he succeeded and deputized for two terms. Look at the way and manner he began to destroy and dismantle the edifices built by Kwankwaso, destroying his achievements on education as a clear case in point.
 But, what is most alarming at present is the crude tactics he had adopted in concocting figures to embellish the debt profile of the state in order to paint his predecessor’s administration black. We are certainly worried by the degree of indebtedness he is subjecting the people of the state at the end of which such an outrageous backlog would be inherited from him.
 Look at the Paris Club refund from the federal government and the billions of the monthly statutory allocation accruing to the state from the federation account, and yet the administration is taking heavy loan in the name of paying workers’ monthly salaries. Look at the manner he is cajoling members of the state’s House of Assembly to support his covert design to take loan from many sources with heavy interest attached?
 Take the issue of the controversial rail project and the memorandum of understanding signed for the project that is expected to gulp a whooping sum of $1.8 billion and only to cover a negligible size of our land mass it is a white elephant project which could not in anyway be justified. With a government having the lump sum ofN100bn in its kitty, how can one be convinced that the administration has the legitimacy to incur a loan? He had also entered into various deals with commercial banks to secure loan in addition to entering into another deal on agric loan running into billions of naira. in fact all these cannot in anyway be justified.
 It is my candid opinion that Ganduje had allowed his administration to be consumed by political crisis instead of concentrating attention on what he is supposed to be doing to build on the good legacy of the man he succeeded. We are making our case for him to understand our stand that we are opposed to those loans.
 Seeking redress in a court of law would be our next line of action for these issues to be tackled. This is the only way we as stakeholders in the APC can clear the rot and set the stage for an administration that needed to be called to order. This is the crux of the matter.
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But the major issue of contention is his inability to form a strong and cohesive team to tackle the economic challenges. That is why we still remain where we are.
If there is a strong economic team formed to face the challenge squarely, something remarkable would have been done to inject sanity into the economy and make every citizen to live happily.
