National Mirror - Jos crises getting out of hand –Abdullahi Adamu

Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu

Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, former governor of Nasarawa State and the senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP ) in this interview with Funmi Salome Johnson, spoke extensively on life after the Government House, his loyalty to PDP, his senatorial ambition among other issues. Excerpts.

It has become the trend for former Governors to seek election into the Senate. Why did you join the fray?
Well, I guess I didn’t get up one day and say I wanted to go to the Senate. The issue of my contest for senate started since 2006 when my governorship tenure was coming to an end. And for whatever reason, the people of this zone believe that there is something that I can still do. They did not see wisdom in my leaving office as governor into oblivion. They believe that the little we have been able to do as a team in the office as Governor of Nasarawa State should be extended to the national level. If you recall, I did contest for the Presidency in 2006, but I decided to withdraw from the race for reasons best known to me two days to the elections. That appearance gave me some exposure at the national level. Although I resisted that temptation to accept to contest, everyone, including the Governor of Nasarawa State who had won his primaries, did all that was possible to convince me. He said to me, ‘look, come and go to the Senate.’ His voice and other voices made me to decide to join the race for the Senate this time.

To what do you owe the huge and grand followership, especially with the grassroots?
I owe it to continuity of service. I want to believe, at the risk of sounding immodest, they have seen me serve them as a Governor and they must have been attracted by my achievements as a Governor, for them to express this manifestation of support. And because of that, I feel specially challenged to do more. And at the National Assembly, I hope the state PDP today. I brought the flag of PDP to Nasarawa State when the party was launched sometime in August 1998.I cannot abandon my child. I’ll be PDP, come rain, and come shine. PDP is the party. There is no alternative yet.

It is public knowledge that former President Olusegun Obasanjo spent billions of Naira trying to rejuvenate the energy sector without success. What do you think was responsible for this?
We have been in government for 12 years now. We cannot absolve ourselves of responsibility for the limitations in the energy supply situation in the country. We must remember that the problem of energy did not start with the PDP regime. It might appear we have not been able to achieve the set goals and the quantum of energy that will drive the economy as we want, the government is presently working hard at it. President Goodluck Jonathan has taken off from where former President Olusegun Obasanjo stopped. And I believe from what we read that he will do something about it. You must agree that the problems that have been there for decades cannot be solved within months or within a year. It is do-able, we can turn the fortune of energy in this country around but we need to be patient. People say all sorts of things like we are going to produce 20 thousand megawatts, but they forget that it is not just about generating much energy that solves the puzzle. We have to talk about transmission, distribution and maintenance.

Looking at the current state of affairs, if we start producing 20 thousand megawatts, will the present infrastructure for transmission take what we have at the moment? Is anybody thinking about that infrastructure of that magnitude of energy we are talking about? If not, what are we doing about it? Nobody is talking about these. Talking about the commercial aspect, nobody is asking for free lunch. At what rate are we going to sell each unit of electricity? Do we have statistics as to houses, industries? Have we differentiated between domestic and commercial industrial energy requirement in the country? Have we got sufficient statistics as to how many consumers? Have we done these? I hope that somewhere, someday we’ll get it right. I believe if you take a look at the PDP manifesto, there is so much in it with regards to the economic development of energy.

The carnage on the Plateau, Nasarawa’s neighbouring state continues, and the fear is that it may extend to Nasarawa. What viable solutions can you proffer to the Jos carnage?
God forbid! It will not extend to Nasarawa. I lived in Jos for over 20 years and it is sad that this is happening in Jos, Plateau State is happening. It is very sad. I started partisan politics in Jos and I was the first secretary of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN), and I later became the state chairman. I also became a Minister of the Federal Republic from Jos. So what is happening in Jos disturbs me. I believe it is a special challenge for those who see themselves as leaders of Plateau State to see this happening under their watchful eyes for so long and they could not meet their expectations of the moment, and call there people to order to stop this carnage. Something must happen and I believe very strongly, it is not enough to deny there is politics of tribalism and religion in it. I believe the Federal Government must stand up to its responsibility to call this carnage by its name and take every step to stop it. There was a state of emergency there sometime ago and it worked.

What does is cost us to re-visit it? There is no day we don’t hear of death. We have lost count and we cannot all be shaking hands, smiling and saying all is well. It is not well. And this is the failure of the establishment, failure from government to allow this to continue indefinitely and we will be smiling at ourselves. Lives are being lost by the day. And the first fundamental responsibility of every government is the protection of live and property. We are failing. And this is a PDP government. As a PDP loyalist, I call on the government to do something about the carnage in Jos, as it is really getting out of hands.