Sen. Muhammad Danjuma Goje Senator Muhammad Danjuma Goje, was governor of Gombe State from 2003-2011. Now a strong member of the New PDP, he was accorded a rousing welcome by his supporters when he arrived Gombe last week. In this interview with newsmen, Goje speaks about his leadership style as a governor, the nPDP and his relationship with Governor Dankwambo among other issues. Excerpts: What would you say informed the mass turn out of people to welcome you when you came to Gombe? I was really surprised and touched when I saw the unprecedented large crowd. As a politician and as a human being, I was grateful to Allah for giving me the opportunity to be so loved, to have such a large number of supporters cutting across age, gender, religion and tribe. There are so many reasons that informed this mass turn out of people to welcome me but I will mention only two.. First and foremost people of Gombe have shown me real love and that goes to say that they are happy with the way I led them when I was a governor of the state for eight years. The development we brought to the state; roads, pipe borne water, the Gombe State University, hospitals and the International Airport that we were able to bring to Gombe for the benefit of the people. People are happy with what we did to lay a sound foundation for the development of the state and that could have been the reason people came out in large crowd to welcome me. During my tenure as the governor, we paid our workers promptly, businesses were booming, we paid our contractors on time without taxing them unnecessarily, contractors during our time did not experience any delay in payment of contract. Many politicians who participated in one way or the other were adequately compensated. So for that reason a lot of people who cannot boast of owning a house of their own have built theirs, those who could not dream of buying cars have bought one, we have empowered people in so many ways to be able to be on their own economically. You so much talk about your tenure, how would you rate the present administration? I am not in power, I have done mine and I am now an onlooker. If you do your part you will need to give others chance to also play their part for people to see and judge. So what have you seen? I am doing my work as a senator representing my constituency, but I am sure because people have enjoyed my stay as a governor that is why they thronged to the Airport in mass to welcome me to Gombe. Some say the style of leadership has changed… I don’t know all these but I am telling you about my tenure and the way I ran my administration in the state. Are you saying your type of politics is people centred? Yes my politics is people oriented; it is a politics of development through empowering the people. All what we are doing is for people to benefit and it is meant for them. Even God values human being more than any other creature. If you are building roads or schools, you are doing it for people, so you have to meet the immediate need of the people before they can live to enjoy those things you built for them. You have to survive to be able to benefit from the roads and schools. What is your position on the new PDP in Gombe? I don’t want us to talk about nPDP or old PDP. What we are saying is we are the real PDP and we are saying that changes must come to the party because of so many mistakes being committed every day. But in Gombe State we are PDP, we brought the party to Gombe. There is nobody who is more PDP than myself they are all beneficiary of my struggle. All those people making noise in Gombe State wouldn’t be where they are without my support you know it very well all those making noise all of them. Back to 2012 where were they? They were nobody, they were nobody all of them they were not even politicians. We defeated ANPP in 2003 through our struggle to entrench PDP in Gombe, So I am the father of PDP in Gombe whether you like it or not. I know politics is not a game of one person but it must have a leader and I am the leader of PDP in Gombe. I was the Commander General of the war to entrench PDP in Gombe State. So whoever you are and whatever you become under the party, I know you must have contributed in one way or the other to the development of the party in the state and I am of the firmed belief that individually and collectively people have been compensated in one way or the other. But the fact remain undisputed that I am the leader of the party in Gombe. When you talk about this it reminds us of the cold war between you and Governor Dankwambo despite the fact that you contributed immensely in bringing him to power. What is the true situation of your relationship with him? You cannot build your house and destroy it. So I don’t indulge in this talk. The governor is my younger brother and we are not in any way into cold war with him. We are living in peace with him in my own understanding. As far as I am concerned, he is my younger brother, as far as I am concerned God brought him but through me, through my own support. So as my younger brother he is playing his part, one day it will finish then somebody will also come and play his own part. Why is it that people get scared any time they hear that Danjuma Goje is coming to town? I have not seen that all what I am telling you is that I was touched by what I saw with the crowd of people who came to welcome me. I saw real love by my people, the people of Gombe, I am not at loggerheads with anybody in Gombe State. As I told you as far as PDP is concerned in Gombe, I am the leader, therefore everybody is mine and we are one. People would like to know why Goje who has not been talking has all of a sudden decided to talk. The reason why I have not been saying anything is because I cannot do my part and do someone else’s part because elections are around the corner and we need some changes in our great party PDP in Nigeria. I am a politician so if I talk once or twice I think there is no problem. My call to the good people of Gombe is to cooperate for peace in our state and the country at large. We are known for peace and we should continue in that direction. We should not allow our political or religious differences to be a catalyst to our development in the state.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 11:44:25 +0000
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