Sen. Emma Bwacha? Garba Umar can’t become substantive Taraba - TopicsExpress

Sen. Emma Bwacha? Garba Umar can’t become substantive Taraba Governor — Senator Bwacha Senator Emmanuel Bwacha is representing Taraba South Senatorial District of Taraba State in the Senate. The Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources, in this interview with journalists in Lagos, spoke on the consequences of the ongoing crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the politics of Danbaba Suntai’s health, among others. Excerpts: Your State has been embroiled in political discord in recent times. The recent one is the sack of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG). What exactly is responsible for this? Mind you, I stay in Abuja. I’m not a Jalingo person. Besides, Jalingo does not fall into my territorial district. Be that as it may, this is a state-wide matter. And I think some of my constituents are actually involved. Well, we know that the Acting Governor has sacked the commissioners. There are many insinuations and rumours. But we are waiting to see the processes through which they will be replaced because Taraba is a very complex State. Like I told you, there have been many rumours. We never can place them where they are supposed to be by now. Aren’t you aware of the accusation and counter- accusation that the acting governor is systematically weeding out Danbaba Suntai’s loyalists? (Cuts in) If people talk about Suntai’s loyalists, I don’t know what they meant because the acting governor himself should be considered a Suntai man. He was not around during the election. But because he is a Suntai man, Governor Suntai went and brought him. Most of us don’t actually know him. As a matter of fact, I have never met him in my 22 years in active politics of the State. You can’t cultivate the land and call somebody to come and eat with you if the person is not your man. So, I don’t think that the assertion is correct. The acting governor is also Suntai’s loyalist. You are perceived to be a loyalist of the ailing governor. It is said that you are the one leading those opposing the acting governor from becoming a substantive governor. Is the acting governor aspiring to be substantive governor? Well, I don’t know anything about that. But if he is aspiring to be substantive governor, that should be wrong because the governor is alive and kicking well. I remember we have a similar experience in this country during the administration of late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua. Remember, the acting President Goodluck Jonathan never became substantive president until Yar’adua was pronounced dead. So, don’t quickly forget that one. You should not make any mistake about it. The precedent has been set. And again, there has been no clear definition of the specific period an acting governor can act. He has all the latitudes to act as an executive governor. Nobody stops him from awarding contracts. Nobody stops him from sacking and appointing commissioner. Nobody stops him from doing anything that a substantive governor should do. So, I don’t think there is a quest or a cry for a substantive governor except if he tells you that it is his mindset. Then some of us can now speak. But as it stands today, he has not told us that he is trying to become the acting governor. I don’t want to insinuate. But as far as we are concerned, the governor is coming back very soon. I can tell you authoritatively. Specifically, what is your relationship with the acting governor? He is the acting governor in my state and I am the serving Senator representing Taraba South. Among the three senators, I am the only senator that is friendly with their government, that is, his government and his boss; the ailing governor. Recently, some political stakeholders led by Daniel Likam from Southern Taraba Senatorial District which you represent, gathered under the auspices of Southern Taraba People’s Congress. They said they were spearheading your recall from the Senate. Why really happened? I have dismissed this question as a question that doesn’t need reply because I will be dignifying some people with response. I am not known to be a person who responds to ranting ants. But the truth about it is that the so-called stakeholders include a former minister of state under Obasanjo government who contested election with me in the PDP but lost. The person later defected to the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) to contest against me. Yet, the person lost. As a matter of fact, she came last. The person was not even the second person in that election. The leader of the so-called stakeholders, I was told is known to be a thug. If you now place these two people where they belong, which votes are they going to get for the recall? Can you go and withdraw the money you did not keep in the bank? There are insinuations that you have earlier been anointed by the ailing governor Suntai to take over from him. Can we link this controversy to your purported 2015 gubernatorial ambition? First and foremost, people appear to have lost touch with the position of the world. Everybody appears to be focused on what he is going to be in 2015. People do not believe that the world has come face-to-face with the reality. The world is in a rapture mood. People don’t know. This calls for a deep concern. People should not only focus on 2015. Now on the issue of politics, I’m aware that the ailing governor has agreed that the next governor would come from my zone, Southern Taraba. He has also told me and the world just as he told several other politicians from my zone. But he has never told us who he wants to succeed him from the South. I have made this clear on at different times without number. Also, when they say they are doing this to distract me, I’m not surprised. Sometimes, when you are trying to think differently and be focused, somebody from somewhere will just try to distract you. I have well over two decades of experience in practical politics. Now, if you say do I have gubernatorial ambition? In developed democracy, I would have told you that I wished I was the President of Nigeria. In developed democracy like the United States and even in Europe, you find out that Presidents are being sourced from the countries’ parliament, particularly the Senate. Now, you would be insulting me if you think I am not qualified to be governor. Again, I’m experienced enough to also know that by the history of my State, governors emerge by divine arrangement and not by the might of the candidate, the wealth they have, or by their connections. By the history of our State, governors that emerge are largely attributable to divine direction- from Governor Jolly Nyame himself who came from nowhere to emerge and became governor to Suntai, who was not the candidate that the then sitting governor wanted. I think Suntai is also well experienced enough not to tell anybody that any candidate that he wants is automatically going to be the governor. He has said it is God who would decide who is going to be the next governor of the State. I am aware of that as the truth. So, I don’t know why people are being mischievous and hyper- active in order to try and distract me. How will you rate the chances of your party, considering the coming together of opposition political parties to form the All Progressives Congress (APC)? Parties are like huts in the farm land. When there is sunshine or rainfall, to ensure that you don’t feel the effect, you will remain under the umbrella. But if PDP allows a hole in the umbrella or you create a hole in the umbrella, when the rain is falling, nobody would like to stay under the umbrella. I’m a founding member of the PDP. By the way, I was the State Secretary General of the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), late Shehu Musa Yar’adua’s political machine that was the principal partner in the coalition that formed the PDP. In my own State, we were actually the dominant group that formed the PDP. I was the Secretary of my State’s chapter. So, if the umbrella is like how we formed it from day one, we have never known any opposition party in the State. But if somebody else has decided to create a hole in the umbrella, then as I told you, nobody would like to stay where rain would be falling on his head. You will naturally run outside to seek for somewhere you can stay so that the rain would not fall on you.