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Home |   About Us |   Contact Us |   Members |   Search |   Subscribe |   Disclaimer |   THE GUARDIAN CONSCIENCE, NURTURED BY TRUTH LAGOS, NIGERIA.     Wednesday, August 04 2004   news   editorial/opinion   policy & politics   focus/record   business   sports   capital market   metro   arts   money watch   energy   maritime   Guardian Chat Click to join the chatroom The Sharia crisis was my most trying moment, says Makarfi Kaduna State Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi spoke to SAXONE AKHAINE in Kaduna on the challenges, achievements of his administration and other pressing national issues in this interview AT your inauguration for your second term, you said you would carry along your political opponents, how is it today We did accommodate the other parties that went into election and did not even get 1000 votes for governorship, and parties that went into election and got hundreds of thousands of votes, you can't compare them when you are talking of accommodation, so in our accommodation we asked the ANPP they gave us names, generally those names we have accommodated. AD gave names, we have accommodated from APGA, it should rank in terms of performance of the party, these were the parties that you can rank and see. Then, in terms of performance of votes, these were the parties you could rank when you talking governorship election. Then, there was what they called coalition of other parties, they excluded the AD, the ANPP and APGA, they excluded them because they said they have been preferred, but then you have to look at their strength, you put people to represent basic interest. But even then this coalition, we accommodated them, they submitted names which we accommodated. But some of the names we accommodated, somewhere along the way they fell apart and they said that they can come to government and say now, ok drop them and will give you a replacement. I said no, they are doing public job and if you have argument over money with them which we know you cannot come to ask me to drop them, are you coming to my government to take money That is not what happens in my government and this is really the centre of their agitation. To be honest, I don't want to hide what I know, they ask them that whenever they get even their remuneration they should go and even share it with them. Then what would they live on Apart from that, some of them from the coalition were involved, some of them are Special Assistants but they feel that these people should be making certain returns to them otherwise they would be blackmailed or they will blackmail government, are then they would be dropped and it would be their turn. If this is what governance is all about, then I'm sorry. That is not my idea of governance or accommodation. On the issue of the presidential committee, the basic thing to be done is geophysical survey of the country, a number of contracts have been awarded for the survey of the entire country, the geophysical survey, because no investor would bring in hundreds of millions of dollars if he is not having some kind of data, information which would indicate to him that he is making a rational and reasonable investment. I don't know at what status this work is but I know that satellite geophysical survey has been awarded for the entire country, and I know that the Federal Government also set up a committee to look at the legal issues which need to be addressed because there are also legal impediments, except they are addressed it would also be disincentive for any investor. Except these basic things are done, it is not a matter which a state or a Local Government can take, there are fundamentals, there are things that need to be in place and we are all waiting for the outcome of these things. As chairman of that committee, I have submitted my report and I have seen that majors have been taking to begin to take a decision on the fundamental and major things that need to be in place in order for this nation to fully exploit the natural resources that abound in the country. You have marked your fifth year as the Governor of Kaduna. what would you say are your trying moments The most trying moment was the crisis over the Sharia legal system. The second was related to the Miss World Pageant. Dealing with these incidents were my most trying moments. But we managed the situation. What is the position with the distribution of fertiliser and what is the government doing Government's role has always been to intervene and to help in providing fertiliser to our farmers. Government never promised to supply all the fertilisers that the farmers need. We have not achieved the target, which we said because the initial contractors failed to supply and we did not want to extend the contract. Extending the contract would have been dangerous. But the delegations I have received, have expressed gratitude that this is the best distribution system of fertiliser. Although we have not achieved our objective fully, I believe we have done reasonably well when you considered the problems that we encountered. What impact did the creation of many chiefdoms have on the search for peace in the state I did not champion the creation of any chiefdom. Mine was to listen to those who elected me, their yearnings and aspirations. I had no choice than to accept the yearnings and aspirations of people that we govern. It has enhanced visitation leading to various festivities; it also encourages mutual interaction among people and I think that is good. I think I am satisfied that it was a wise decision to have created chiefdoms. On the Development Areas, it depends on how far you go across the state. You cannot equate them with the local councils. Now, whether they will transform to full councils is not for me it is left for the National Assembly. How far has the state government gone with the privatisation of the companies We have received expression of interest. They are from many groups, both national and international. On each, I have seen expression of interest from about five groups, national and international conglomerates. The due diligence report is coming out and then, there will now be substantive bidding. Those who have expressed interest would be given the documents. You created the Area Development Councils in response to the yearnings of the people. Have they made any difference Well, they are supposed to be funded jointly by the state and local council. Each month, we make a capital grant for each projects of N1 million for each Development Area. Each quarter, they are suppose to present what they are going to use that N3 million for. The first quarter, we said they should look at the immediate primary schools. (The rains have come) and make a submission on how many of them they are going to repair. There are Development Areas that made submission of up to seven primary schools to benefit from the restoration we gave them go ahead. Some wanted to build additional classrooms and we gave them the go ahead, just this week, we ask them to bring another expenditure of N3 million. That is with state government grants some of these areas in the last five years, not a single classroom was painted by the local council and if in three months, you are having seven primary school fully rehabilitated, or additional classrooms being built, you can imagine in three years, what you are going to have. Now, the funding from the local council is tied to the local government budget. I don't have data on statistics about that we generally give clearance to local government. Those that falls within the Development Area to carry out yes, there has been some dragging if felt by the local government wanting to do everything. But this is human nature we are talking and resolving all these matters so that everybody know that it is for the common good for everybody and not necessarily one against the other. I have seen tremendous change of attitude throughout the local councils in the way they are now working and co-operating with the Development Areas for the good of our people. � 2003 - 2004 @ Guardian Newspapers Limited (All Rights Reserved).  Powered by dnetsystems.net dnet�

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