It’s wrong to describe Bauchi APC as weak – Uba Nana
There seems to be friction between members of the APC and its elected representatives in Bauchi. How would you react to this?
The relationship between the party leadership, members of the party, its elected representatives at state and federal levels, as well as the state government has been very good all this while. The party is the foundation and a mother to all its members, whether you are an elected or appointed person holding office, as long as you are a member, the party will relate well with you without any preferential treatment. The party does not quarrel with any of its members. So, we don’t have problem whatsoever with any elected member in the executive and the legislature in Bauchi State. And any of its members, who does something wrong, the party will always call his attention. I am assuring you that there is no problem between the party and the two arms of government. Nobody has ever fought with the party on any issue. That is why we have regular meetings of the party’s executives and the elected representatives where we discuss our performance and assess our achievements and challenges. We know that we have to work for the people who elected members of our party and we must fulfill the promises we made to them. Therefore, we must always reflect on our performance, what we have done and what we need to do and what to avoid.
Some members of the party recently called a press conference and accused two Bauchi senators of flouting the APC directive. Don’t you think that action signifies that there is a problem?
Like I told you before, APC is intact in Bauchi State. You cannot escape having differences of opinion Alhaji Uba Nana is the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairman in Bauchi State. In this Interview, he speaks on matters affecting the party in the state and other issues. Excerpts: in a party. It is one of the fundamentals of party politics and good for democracy. We don’t have crisis in the party leadership in Bauchi. We may have differences on issues, but crisis, no we don’t have crisis. What you said about some people voicing their opinions on the two senators is not a crisis. People are entitled to their opinions on elected or appointed representatives. The party is aware of it though we were not officially informed. The people who were hurt by what they think the senators have done wrong have not informed the party about their grievances. The two senators affected have also not informed the party about the development. However, the party has a responsibility to wade into the issue and mediate between the parties involved.
You said that the party has accepted the resignation of its Deputy Chairman Bauchi South, Musa Adamu Lar, which he had withdrawn at a stakeholders meeting. What were the reasons he gave to the party for his resignation in the first place?
He did not submit his resignation to the party until after he held a press conference. He informed the world that he has resigned. One of the reasons he gave was that there is leadership weakness in the party. He listed many reasons which he said were what made him resign his position. Since nobody forced him to resign, the party accepted his resignation in good faith and the party will put in somebody to act in that capacity who will oversee the affairs of the party in Bauchi South because the people of the area must be involved in the affairs of the party.
But he said his resignation was also based on the fact that he had in the past called the attention of the party’s leadership about some lapses on several occasions, but the leadership ignored him…
Look, if he said that the APC leadership is weak in Bauchi, he is also involved because he is one of the key leaders and decision makers in the party. Anything good or bad done in the party must have his input. I can’t remember a time when, not even him who holds a key position in the party, an ordinary member of the party brought a suggestion to do something in the right way and was ignored by the party’s leadership. You know, it is not possible to ignore a suggestion from a member of the party’s state working committee. He is among the 16 leaders of the party who always take decisions for the party. He also represents the interests of seven local governments in Bauchi South, therefore, there was no decision taken by the party which he was not involved. A person has the right to say whatever he wants to say, but anything that concerns this party whether good or bad, he was affected, not only affected but he was involved. I have said it on many occasions that any member of the party who sees anything wrong going on should call our attention. The party does not belong to a single individual or the leadership, it belongs to all its members and we cannot take any unilateral decision without the input of the other members of the party. We are doing this because a small mistake on our part will affect a lot of people.
There were rumours recently about some legislators making moves against the governor. Is the party aware of such attempts? If so, what is the party doing about it?
As a party, we have never taken such rumours seriously because to the best of our knowledge, like I have stated earlier, all organs of government and the party have an excellent relationship and things are going on smoothly. If you speak to any of the state legislators in Bauchi, he will tell you that he is not even aware of any friction between them and the executive. First of all, when the rumour started, the state assembly was in recess and a good number of the members had travelled for Hajj at the time. You know that there will always be detractors peddling rumours in order to bring about confusion and disaffection between leaders and followers. We were not surprised about these things. What is playing out was an old known strategy by some elements in the state, whose stock in trade has always been to blackmail any administration in Bauchi State. Some past administrations had succumbed to their blackmail and had given them money to shut them up. But this administration refused to succumb to such blackmail and will not do what the previous administrations had done.