Suntai’s successor ‘ll emerge by divine arrangement –Senator Bwacha by TEMITOPE OGUNBANKE Senator Emmanuel Bwacha, who is representing Taraba South Senatorial District in the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly is in the Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources. In this interview with journalists, he said that only God can determine who will succeed Governor Danbaba Suntai in Taraba State in 2015. He also faults those calling for his recall from the Senate. TEMITOPE OGUNBANKE reports You are perceived to be a loyalist of the ailing Taraba State governor, Danbaba Suntai, and not supporting the Acting Governor from becoming the substantive governor. Why is that so? Is the acting governor aspiring to be substantive governor, if I may ask? Well, I don’t know about that but if he is, that should be wrong because the governor is alive and kicking. I remember we had a similar experience in this country. During the tenure of late President Umaru Yar’Adua, the then Acting President Goodluck Jonathan never became substantive president until Ya r ’ A d u a was pronounced dead. So, don’t forget that scenario and make no mistake about it that the precedence has been set. Again, there has been no clear definition of what time an Acting Governor can act, so he has all the latitudes to act as an executive governor. Nobody stops him from awarding contracts, sacking and appointing commissioners or 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 he wants to be. If that 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; he may be doing this I don’t know. I don’t want to insinuate but as far as we are concerned, the governor is coming back very soon; that I can tell you authoritatively. 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 Senatorial District and among the three senators, I am the only senator that is friendly with their government; his government and his boss, the ailing governor. How do you see the sack of some officials including the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and other loyalists of the ailing Governor Suntai by the Acting Governor? Mind you, I stay in Abuja, I am not a Jalingo person and Jalingo does not come under my territorial district. Be that as it may, this is a statewide 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 insinuation and rumours, but we are waiting to see the processes of their being replaced because Taraba is a very complex state. Like I told you there have been many rumours. If you talk about Suntai loyalists, I don’t know what you mean, because the Acting Governor himself should be considered a Suntia man because he was not around during the election, but because he is a Suntai man, Governor Suntai went and brought him and most of us don’t actually know him. As a matter of fact I have never met him since my 22 years in active politics in the state. The Acting Governor is also a Suntai loyalist. Some political stakeholder from Southern Taraba under the name, Southern Taraba Peoples Congress led by one Daniel Likam are calling for your recall from the Senate. What would you say about this? I am not known to be a person who responds to ranting ants but the truth about it is that the so called stakeholders and a former Minister of State under former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, Salome by name. Remember she contested election with me in the PDP and lost. She didn’t only lose, she came last. She defected to the CPC to contest again with me for the Senate and lost. Not only losing, as a matter of fact she came last. She 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. He was working with the ACN candidate that I defeated. Now placing these two people to where they belong, which vote are they going to recall? Can you go and withdraw the money you did not keep in the bank? People who voted for you are the endowed with the right to recall; which vote are they going to recall? But, I am deeply concerned about why people should even be distracted by these people who didn’t vote for me or PDP. People who will call for my recall and I would be disturbed are the people who elected me and I know them; when they talk I would act and then I would go home and call for town hall meetings to know the problems. One allegation levelled against you is that you hardly visit your senatorial district since your election into the Senate? I am the first Senator in the history of Taraba Southern Senatorial district that organised town hall meetings regularly until the governor had his crash. And secondly, no public elected officer elected from my zone can claim that what he has on ground is better than what I have provided for the people. These facts speak for themselves; let the person come out and speak out. Those calling for my recall only want a situation where I should speak and talk about them, that is why I don’t like to reply them because I would be dignifying and glorifying them with my response What are your plans for 2015? Some said you have been anointed by Governor Suntai to take over from him? First and foremost, people appear to have lost touch with the position of the world. Now, everybody appears to be focused on what he is going to be in 2015. People are not believing that the world has come face to face with reality; the world is in a rapture mood; people don’t know and that calls for a deep concern for people and we should not only focus on 2015. In politics, I am aware that the ailing governor has agreed that the governor would come from my zone, Southern Taraba. He has told me, he has told the world, he has 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 times without number. Also, when they say they are doing this to distract me, I am not surprised. 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 because in developed democracy like the United States, even in Europe, you find that presidents are been 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 am experienced enough to know, by the history of my state that governors emerged by divine arrangement, not by the might of the candidate, not by the wealth they have, not by their connections. By the history of our state, governors that emerge largely are attributable to divine directions. Governor Jolly Nyame came from nowhere and emerged; even Suntai was not the candidate that the then sitting governor wanted and I think Suntai is also well experienced enough not to tell anybody that any candidate that he want 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 and I am aware of that as the truth. So, I don’t know why people are being mischievous and are being hyper active about trying to distract me . What is your take on the internal crisis in the state PDP? If you want to know that, we replied them that is actually what gave rise to our being in court with Senator Aisha. When the congress was conducted they decided on their own to stay away; all of us were there – myself and the other five members of the House of Representatives. So, it is not possible for two people out of nine to say that a congress that was held was not held. So, to me it is sounding very strange. The congress was held and the former party’s chairman, who vacated office also made public speech, endorsed the congress. Probably out of naivety and hypocrisy that is inherent in Nigerian politics or in the third world politics the chairman that left office also turned around and said that there was no congress. So, I am not surprised because it is very typical of losers in Nigerian politics. What is the chance of PDP in Taraba State with the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC)? Parties are like huts in the farm land, when there is sunshine or rainfall, to ensure you don’t feel the effect, you remain under the umbrella. If PDP allows a hole in the umbrella, when you create a hole in the umbrella and when the rain is falling nobody would like to stay under the umbrella but if the umbrella of the PDP remains as we know it to be, there would be no problem. I am a founding member of the PDP and I was the State Secretary General of the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), the Yar’Adua 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 and I was the Secretary of the state 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 you never can tell. Because, like I told you, nobody would like to stay where rain would be falling on his head. You would naturally run outside to seek for where you can stay and rain would not fall on you.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 06:23:34 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015