2019: We await PDP’s miracle on Buhari – Masari

Katsina State Governor Aminu Masari in this interview says, among other things, that it will be a miracle for the Peoples Democratic Party to get a candidate that can defeat President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 elections. Excerpts:

The opposition PDP appears to be gaining ground in Katsina ahead of the 2019 general elections. jumping from pillars to posts, fortune hunters or power hunters, if you're talking about those kind of people, I'm not the spokesman of the president, but I assure you the president is ready and willing to confront them any time, any day and anywhere.

As a former speaker of the House of Representatives, how do you assess the relationship between the National Assembly and the executive?

First, to understand the current relationship between the executive and the legislature, you've to go back to history on how the leadership of the two chambers emerged. The way and manner the leadership of the two chambers emerged is the root cause of the friction between the National Assembly and the executive. of the budget. That is in terms of capital, but the recurrent is an ongoing thing.

So if you're taking the budget till the end of May, it means you're taking it to the end of this tenure. It means for the 2019 budget, the legislature will not have the time. And if the trend continues, what will be the purpose of passing the 2019 budget at the end of May. It'll only serve the new government.

Really, we need to look at the nation first. If what we do will please majority of Nigerians, the National Assembly should look at the nation. If they have misunderstanding with either the party or the executive, it should not impact negatively on the people they represent.

What are you doing to reduce poverty in the state?

Poor leadership created poverty. We never had a severe drought that stopped production nor any earthquake or disaster, but because our leaders did not apply what they had, they created poverty. To fight poverty, we need to go back to the basics - give people free and compulsory education because you cannot fight poverty with illiteracy. If you make education available, people will work themselves out of poverty.

Nigeria is not a poor country, but it is poor in leadership. Look at the challenges we had with Boko Haram, the country did not grind to a halt because of the resourcefulness of the people and the natural endowment of the country.

How are you addressing girl-child education in the state?

We're giving special treatment to women to allow their children go to school. Luckily UNICEF has come out with a programme through the World Bank where women are empowered principally to let their girl children go to school under the programme, and we, as a state, through the feeding programme, 100% of those participating are women and we're doing it to increase their economic capabilities to allow their girl children go to school.

Presently, we're training over 1,000 rural women in primary schools. We train women in localities so that they will be able to teach in that locality. Through that, we're addressing deficiencies in the area of girl-child education.