INTERVIEW: Taraba ASUSS Call For More Support For Gov Kefas
Dr Agbu Kefas is the only Taraba State Governor that came on board with the vision to build a new Taraba black by block. Tarabans should encourage him to fulfil his vision and not to distract him – Dr Kazon Ishaku
Dr Kazon is a quintessential educationist of substance and a respected youth mobilise who is the Secretary of the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools, ASUSS Taraba State Chapter. He also doubles as the State Chairman of ASUSS Multi-purpose Cooperative Society in Taraba State.
Dr Kazon Ishaku, ASUSS Secretary, Taraba State Chapter
In this interview, he refuted the allegations by the People’s Redemption Party, PRP Governorship Candidate in the 2023 election in Taraba State, Engr Wukari Wasa who accused Governor Agbu Kefas led government in the state of bad governance.
Below is the details of the interview:
Echo Express: Sometimes this year, the PRP Governorship Candidate in the 2023 election in Taraba State, Engr Wukari Wasa went to the Press and accused Governor Agbu Kefas led PDP government in the state of bad governance. According to him, Governor Kefas is continuing with the damage that Governor Darius Ishaku inflicted on the state thereby pushing the state on the precipe of infamy. What is your take on this?
Dr Ishaku: Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have loved to commend on this issue but as a Comrade, I have to. Sometimes politicians use the media to try to defend their poor performance during the election. Why, perhaps they did not win election and they will find out areas they can weep up sentiments and they will start to label some unnecessary allegations to attract attention to themselves. If you say the Governor has not done very well, it is quite unfortunate because if you were the one, would you have performed magic? Someone who is just one year in office, you now go to tell the whole world that he is not performing for a four year tenure. Someone who came in with a Five Finger Agenda to build Taraba and he is building Taraba State block by block, touching every area of his Five Finger Agenda to ensure he actualizes the goals he set for himself and instead of encouraging him to continue with the good work he is doing, some people are now criticizing him destructively. That is very unfair. I think what is important is for Tarabans to note that the era of politicking is over. What we need to do now is to put away sentiments and rally round this man of God to build the state for the betterment of posterity. Any right thinking person should know that this state belongs to all of us and everyone has an opportunity to perform. By the time this person finishes his tenure, you can tell us whether he has done well or not. Somebody has just mapped out his strategies on ground to see how he will achieve his goals, you start criticizing. It shows that you don’t mean well for this state. You are power drunk. Though criticism is part of governance, positive and constructive criticism is what makes for greatness. It fast tracks the development of a nation but not when you run one down. These are people oriented policies that Governor Agbu Kefas has brought on board. I wonder what policies that his critics would have introduced that would transform this state. The policy of free education at the time of economic melt down where people find it difficult to feed, someone came and say don’t pay school fees, let your children go to school free, free registration of WAEC and NECO, even those in tertiary institutions, he slashed it by half. What more do you need that would move you to encourage this man to move forward? What about agriculture? He procured agricultural inputs, tractors to boost mechanized farming in the state and also he has distributed fertilizer to various communities in the state. What more do you need to say? These are people oriented programmes. Remember, this government is the only government I have ever seen since the inception of Taraba State that has included women and youths in his cabinet. There are more women and youths in governance. So, what are you saying? That is why I say the era of politicking is over. Anybody who has positive ideas on how to develop the State should come forward with those ideas so that we can jointly move the state forward. Not just making noise without contributing. We must be fair to the person who is trying his best to make things work and give him all the necessary encouragement to enable him to succeed.
As we speak now, His Excellency has embarked on aggressive infrastructural development in various locations both in and outside the state. These include the remodeling and commissioning of the General TY Danjuma House in Abuja. Coming back to the state, you will discover that the abandoned General Hospital in Lissam, Ussa Local Government Area of the state is now awaiting commissioning. The Government House in Jalingo has been remodeled alongside the ALGON House. If we talk about roads, we cannot forget Kurmi road, Pantisawa and many road projects that are ongoing. Health facilities are being provided. We have mobile ambulances that would attend to people who have emergency cases in rural areas. He has also procured school kits that some people have been singing that he only makes declarations. They are already in supply. On resumption of schools, these school materials would be distributed to various schools across the state. In fact, the young man is in a hurry to transform Taraba State into a mega state. So, what we need now is to support him. What of the dualisation of Wukari – Zing road which is awaiting the mobilisation of the contractors to start work. If you are outside the state and saying that your Governor is not doing well, it means you have lost touch with your state and you don’t know what is really going on in your state. Come and see what is happening in your state, then you will appreciate what your Governor is doing.
The ongoing projects are too numerous for me to mention. We are praying with him to succeed in whatever he has set his mind to achieve for the state. I am not here to sing the praises of His Excellency. I am just interested in what the man is doing as a pressure group. I am interested in the infrastructural development, human capital development and in whatever he is doing that would promote the economic development of the state, peace and unity in the state and put the state in the pedestal of developed states. That is what we are concerned about. And the man is doing it.
Echo Express: Considering what His Excellency is doing in the state in terms of development which you have just enumerated but a few and bearing in mind also that there are many well to do Tarabans outside Taraba, have you any call to make on them to come and invest in the state to complement the efforts of His Excellency in the development of the state?
Dr Ishaku: Sure, sure. Taraba State is lagging behind because a lot of people do not want to invest in the state not that we don’t have rich Tarabans outside the state. There is no state in this country that has succeeded in development without the indigenes investing. Some of our elders have viable companies outside the state. If you allow the government to struggle to develop the state alone, that will be a difficult task. I am not saying the government cannot do it, but it will be easier if all of them put their hands together to do it. All the well to do sons and daughters of Taraba State can come and site their companions in the state so as to contribute their own quota to the development of their state. The Governor has launched an endowment fund for Taraba indigenes to contribute to the development of this state. He is not going to do it alone. Come and donate so that the poor masses can have quality education. By having quality education, it means at a point in time, these people will give birth to a better society. That is how societies develop. So, well meaning Tarabans should not run away from Taraba. Why Taraba is lacking today is because they have failed to come and invest in Taraba State. And if you have investments in Taraba, believe me Taraba State will be the most enviable state in the nation. We have men of timber and caliber that if they want Taraba to be like Dubai, it will be. Taraba is the only State that has the most climatic condition of the whole world. Go to Mambilla, it is a different country. Good to Southern Taraba, it is a different country and the same applies to Northern Taraba. If you pull all these together, Taraba will not only be the hope of Africa but the hope of the world. So, I call on Tarabans to come back home and invest. Those who stole our money and took it outside the state, please bring it back because we need it to develop our state. I love what the Governor did by asking the youths to come together. We have a vast land. Some of them can go into agriculture, some of them can go into mining, some of them can go into tourism, build standard hotels, create cable cars on the Mambilla Plateau and bring people who would go round and see nature’s beauty at that place. This is money. We have Gumti Park. People go to parks in other places to see animals in their natural State and they pay. Why can’t we do it in Taraba too? The Governor wants to make Taraba a small heaven on earth. Let us support him please. I call on all of them to come back home and invest.
Echo Express: Lastly, do you have any message for His Excellency?
Dr Ishaku: To His Excellency, I like his posture, ability and courage. He should not allow detractors to distract him from his dreams of a brand new Taraba. His large heart has accommodated everybody. He has the good, the bad. I like that posture and more importantly, his position as a man of God. He has forgiveness at heart even when they wrong him. That is a good thing. Let him continue with that. You know there are few people that can take criticism. Some of them can kill when you criticize them. But his pedigree has shown that he can go far with people. I like what he once said, somebody who does not like you, even when you are doing well in the ocean, he will say you are raising dust. He is already setting the pace not only in Taraba State but in the whole of Nigeria that once upon a time, there was a young man that ruled Taraba State with integrity. Maybe he may be the Solomon of our time that almost everybody that wanted to fight him became his friend. If he keeps to his principles, the sky will be his starting point. That means that Taraba State shall be his political starting point.
Echo Express: Thank you very much for giving us your time.
Dr Ishaku: Thank you also for sparing your time with me and you are welcome.
