INSIDEPOLITICS We need to amend electoral laws before 2019 polls - Governor Ishaku
Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku of Taraba State, as a result of the two-year legal battle he fought after the 2015 governorship election, is advocating for a review of the country’s electoral laws to avoid long- winding legal battles that unsettle those elected into office. Relating his own experience in the last two years while speaking with journalists recently, Governor Ishaku recommended that the National Assembly, working with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), “amend the Constitution to ensure all court processes are concluded before the swearing in of winners.” He described his experience as two years of “unnecessary stress,” as an election which “should have been seen as the decision of the people,” was taken out of the domain of the wishes of the people of Taraba State to the legal arena, where unnecessary legal technicalities prolonged the time for the law courts to make final pronouncements.
“It’s a lot of cost to everybody,” he added, saying that the two years of fireworks in the courts of law nearly distracted him from the main task of administering the state.
Apart from unnecessary legal issues that attend to the country’s electoral process, Governor Ishaku said further that the crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was “sad, but seems to have been fueled by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to ensure the PDP is in perpetual crisis.” He lamented the fact that in the absence of a clear political solution to the imbroglio in the PDP many strategic members of the PDP had decamp to APC, leading to the loss of governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states. He sees the situation as a precursor to a one-party state, which will be very dangerous for the country, but he adds that “I’m optimistic the PDP will bounce back stronger, because even the APC is not yet a party; it’s made up of about three political parties, and up till this moment the marriage does not seem to have been consummated.”
As a way forward for the PDP, Governor Ishaku called for a proper clean-up of how politics was played over the 16 year period that the party was in power. “The PDP lost power because of the lack of decency, the injustice perpetuated by the leaders; those given tickets were not those who won primary elections; the arrogance of the party; and the fact that it operated like a drunken party. We’ll correct these things as soon as the issues are resolved. We’ll instill discipline and choose electable candidates who will compete for positions against the APC in 2019. My appeal is that in the primary elections, quality personalities should be elected into the party’s leadership positions so as to move the PDP forward.”
The governor, while reviewing his two years as governor of Taraba State, spoke about the challenges of raising Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in an agrarian society. According to him, “It’s not easy to raise tax in a state like Taraba, but I’ve raised IGR over four and five times more than what I met on ground.” He explained that if he could generate 10 times of what he met on ground, it would reduce his enthusiasm in going to Abuja every month for FAAC allocations. There are opportunities for raising the IGR, especially from the mining sector, but Governor Ishaku raised issues with the mining law in the country at the moment, a confusion that allowed illegal
Calling the issue of teachers’ unpaid salaries “a torn in the flesh,” the governor promised that a committee set up to clean up teachers payroll had nearly completed its assignment, and real teachers would be paid their salaries in no distant future
miners to thrive in an atmosphere that render state governors helpless.
He explained it thus: “The State governments are side-tracked in the law, so we have to amend the law. The land (surface) belongs to the state, under the control of the governor. But the mineral resources in the depth of the soil belong to the Federal Government. The Ministry of Solid Minerals issues mining lincenses to miners, and tax is paid to the Federal Government, but what about the land? The state government which owns the land does not get anything on the land from which mineral resources are extracted.”
Governor Ishaku, therefore, called for the amendment of the Land Use Act and the mining law in such a way that state governments can share in the tax and revenue from mineral resources mined in their states. He said there were 40 different mineral resources in Taraba State, but many of them were not developed enough for proper exploration and mining. However, in the last two years Taraba State has revived five out of 25 state-owned companies which were moribund over the last decade. Some of these companies have begun to generate revenue for the state.
The governor harped on the fact that Taraba State could feed the country with rice and other crops because it has vast fertile land. “We did the Anchor Borrowers Scheme in Wukari and it yielded results. We produced a lot of rice. I’m looking towards giving the people irrigation facilities. Boreholes are not enough. We could pump water from River Benue into the canals along the farmlands. We want to work on rural roads. I learnt from India how to build rural road networks to support farmers, and I already have a blueprint on how to replicate it. But my problem now is the lack of funds.”
In order to boost tourism in Taraba State, the governor said there will be daily flight from Jalingo to other parts of the country as from June, 2017. At the moment there are three flights weekly by Overland Airline on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, so those who travel to Jalingo on other days have to fly to Yola and take three-hour bus ride to Jalingo. With the daily flights, Governor Ishaku said, it would be possible to attract tourists to locations like GashakaGumti National Park in the state, one of the inspirational parks in West Africa.
He talked about the progress made already in tackling the shortfall in the health sector in Taraba State. Governor Ishaku lamented that when he took over as governor there were only two functional hospitals in the state - the Federal Medical Centre and the Specialist Hospital - both in Jalingo. But they had no medical equipment and necessary facilities. In two years, the government has been able to refurbish several hospitals; imported vital medical facilities, working of a School of Nursing to deal with the shortage of nurses; recalled retired nurses to civil service; trained new nurses, and before the end of 2017, three new hospitals would be completed.
On the issue of unpaid salaries, the governor said it was only teachers that were being owed salaries, because of the large number of ghost schools, ghost workers and other fraudulent schemes that drained the resources of the state into the coffers of corrupt civil servants. Calling the issue of teachers’ unpaid salaries “a torn in the flesh,” the governor promised that a committee set up to clean up teachers payroll had nearly completed its assignment, and real teachers would be paid their salaries in no distant future.
Some of the challenges the state has been confronted with is the farmers/herders conflicts. According to Governor Ishaku, ranching is the way to go. He argued that, “There is nothing wrong with ranching. It will provide jobs for those growing grasses to sell. We’ll try it in Taraba State, and we’ll succeed.” He said ranching would reduce incidents of violence between farmers and herders, and would lead to the production of quality milk and meat because, examples from developed societies have proved that sedentary cows produce more quantities of milk and softer beefs for consumption. Moving cows over a thousand miles makes them to develop thick muscles which are hard to crush with the teeth when prepared for eating.
While calling on governors in the North-East to close ranks and work to eliminate poverty, illiteracy and terrorism, the Taraba State Chief Executive faulted the call for restructuring the country along geopolitical lines, saying it would hamper development. He argued that, “The beauty of states, as we have it today is that, it has brought development to the hinterlands. We have benefitted more with states than with regions, so we have to work hard to make states viable, not to relapse to regions.”