Yusuf Abubakar Yusuf is the senator representing Taraba central in the red chambers of the national assembly, in this interview with Nathaniel Gbaoron in Jalingo, spoke on the leadership tussle in the National assembly insecurity in the country, illegal mining and other issues of National interest. Experts.
How would you acess the outing of the APC in Taraba generally in the last election?
I think the party has done extremely well, very very well it has beaten all past records. We have done very very well. There are a lot of things that happend, we have to look at it in the context of the election itself the manner of election, the method of the election, how the election was conducted whether it was free and fare and the rest of it. APC is very very popular in Taraba state, in fact, it is the people and the government that we have, the people are APC while the government is PDP. Now we can see in the context which the elction was conducted what has happened and we are going to redress the situation
Do you see the party reclaiming it’s mandate especially the governorship at the tribunal?
Well, when something come to election tribunal alot of things will come into play, because we have our own facts and am sure the PDP governorship candidate also has his own facts. You know how the election was conducted, from the figures that were pasted left right and center. We are challenging the figures we have a very good case in challenging the governorship election of Taraba in the 2019 election.
Security is one of the major challenges facing the country and the situation seems to be detoriating, what do you think is actually the problem and how can it be addressed?
Thank you very much, alot of people are pilling blame on the government especially the federal government and Mr. President in particlar. My own take on this is that even the citizenry has the responsibility of curtailing the insecurity of this country. This is my simple reason, the citizenry are stakeholders of this Nigerian project, the government is a stakeholder all of us are stakeholders as to our roles that we are going to play in Identifying best ways in which we can solve the problem of insecurity, it is tire to many things, it has political conotation, social economic conotation, religious conotation and somany reasons. It is the responsibility of both the government and the govern to make sure that they come together and solve this problem. For me the government will engage the citizenry and the citizenry will engage the government in each state of the federation. I could remember the governor of Kaduna once said “we should not blame the president but the governors who are the chief security officers of their respective states”. We have to come together to solve the problem and stop blaming the federal government in this kind of situation because there is a limit which the president can go,he cannot just take the security agents to start bombing and shooting people here and there it has to be consultatve.
But the govs. are calling for the establishment of state police to enable them have total control of security in their states hence all the security institutions are under the federal government, how possible is it?
I totally disagree with that, when you are not communicating with the federal government but you say you are a state governor. You think the federal structure has given you your own level of participation in the Nigerian project and you don’t respect because the federal government is headed by a different party, I think this is where we have the problem,every governor should work with Mr. President. Look at all the monies he has given them to meet pensions,salaries and gratuity. The federal govenment under president Muhamadu Buhari is doing very well to extend his hands of fellowship to the governors. Is now left for the governors to reciprocate the gesture and stop politicising the issues. Insecurity is real and serious every governor should sit up so that they can relate very well with security Architecture in their states. State police should not even be contemplated at this point in time where we have governors who can not even pay salaries, pension and gratuity, cannot even meet their usual requirements of running the states how can they run the police? for us not that it is not appropriete but it is not ripe at this point in time.
The APC accused Atiku Abubakar of not been a Nigerian do you subscribe to this?
I don’t have much to say on this because it is a constitutional matter and am not an expert in constitutional issues. let us leave it at that, let the party explain the possition it has taken so that we can find out what is the constitutional requirement. If Atiku meet the constitutional requirement of been a Nigerian well and good but if he doesn’t let the Constitution tell us.
The south are complaining that crude oil is extracted for the benefit of Nigerians while mining of other resources like gold etc is exclusively for the North what is your take on this?
Mining is a very complicated issue. I can give you an example, who has the land? who has the authority over land in the state? is the governors. Now let’s take an example, you have your land and I went to the ministry of mining they give me a license to come and mine, there will be issues that is why the issue of mining is very complicated until we sit down and address those issues that are conflicting we might not be able to get this things right. For me I don’t think the North is cheating the South.
Senator, the current national Assembly is almost ending can you give us an over view of your personal performance and your plans for the 9th senate?
Thank you very much, I try to look at my own participation in the National assembly from two or three pespectives, one am a law maker, two I do oversighting and three I do representation these are the basic mandate of every paliamentarian. Within these mandates I try to sponsor some bills which are in the pipe line and I hope the bills will be passed before the end of the 8th assembly. I also do a lot of good will, alot of oversighting and I have done a lot of effective representation which will protect the members of my constituency which I have done to the best of my capacity. Out side that I have done alot of projects, I have empowered youth, women and I also try to support the federal government on the issue of Mambila hydro power which will not only benefit central Taraba but Nigeria and Man kind.Am also trying to see that we bring elctricity into Taraba central. To that extent I have done the little that I can we now have extension to the next level, here we will support Mr. President for meaningful development, sponsor more bills and generally run an all inclusive government.
In this 8th Senate many people blamed the president for not been able to determine the leadership of the national assembly and that affected the runing of the government, now it seems the APC want to determine the leadership of the Senate what’s your take on this?
National assembly is an independent arm of the fedreal governnent,and so we have our own checks and balances it will be difficult for one to detect who will be the senate president and the hon. speaker federal house of representative. However in the 8th Assembly yes there was a miss communication between the party, executive and the legislators, we have seen what happened.The leadership of the national assembly was not in good communication with the membership of the party and the executive. If I can remember through out the the last two or three years it is only once or twice that the leadership of the national assembly had meeting with the party. It is natural of one to fill that in the 9th assembly we should have a better communication between the leadership of the national Assembly and the party. Probably, that is why the party has taken upon it self that look we will not allow what transpired in the 8th assembly to happen in the 9th assembly so it has taken the lead trying to have a good communication with the senators and to make sure that the repeat of the 8th assembly is not done at the 9th assembly. The party has already indicated or recommended a senator who the party is trying to sell to the remaining senators. It is not an imposition contrary to what a lot of people are insinuating, so this is where we are at this point in time.
The party has taken a possition but some members of the national assembly are not confortable with this and are saying they will go ahead and contest don’t you think the opposition will take advantage of this seemingly crack in the party and they will be a repeat of history like it happen in the last time?
Today is the 13th day of April, and we still have about 57days, in politics 24 hours is a long period of time who ever is interested should not depend on the dictatation,nomination or the recommendation of the party but to go and meet each and every senator to sell his or herself as to the intention to vy for the senate president. I think what the APC leadership is doing is not an imposition it is a guide or a direction, it is now left for the candidates to go and sell their candidatures to the other candidates it is not like other members of the party in the senate are not interested or are opposing to give room to the opposition no. Once you are elected senator of the federal republic of Nigeria to me you are not an APC sentor,PDP senator, Yoruba senator, an Igbo senator or a Fulani senator once you are there you’re going to work in tandem with one another. Lukily enough the senate president seat had been zoned to the North East and so who ever in the north east that is qualified has a responsibility to vy for the senate presidency. But the party said this is the direction that we are going. It is the candidate that will go even to meet with the opposition because there are also members of the senate.I think that’s what I will say at this pont in time.
You are a very qualify senator from the North East, are you thinking of contesting for the senate presidency?
I am not vying, for the simple reason that the time is too long to talk about it. We see the direction of the party so we work with the candidate or the candidates that are interested but we know that about six or seven of us are qualify to vy for the position
