Niger deserves special reward from Buhari — Dr. Dooba
What is your position on the ministerial list? First of all, we thank the president for nominating Ambassador Zubairu Dada as a minister to represent Niger State. Our people are known for their education and competence. Take that and add to the fact that Amb. Dada has had a rich career. He was a permanent secretary, Ambassador to Poland and Mozambique, and very recently a federal commissioner at the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC). But we want more.
However, we must first thank the president for what he has given us so far. The Qur’an says if you’re grateful, you will get more.
What more do you want?
We feel that the additional ministers the president nominated per zone, that of the North Central should have come to Niger State. It appears that the president gave the additional slots to the states which performed best in their zone in the 2019 elections. This thinking is consistent in three zones: North West, South West and the Niger Delta.
The state with more votes for APC in the North West is Kano (1.4m for APC vs 391,000 for PDP). In the South West, it is Lagos (580,000 for APC vs 448,000 for PDP).
In the Niger Delta, Atiku won with two million votes against PMB’s one million. PMB didn’t win any state in the Niger Delta - including Edo State, despite the fact that the party chairman comes from there. Yet Edo got two ministerial nominations; probably because they gave more votes to APC in the zone than any other state. Edo gave 267,000 votes to APC, but gave 8,000 more (275,000 votes) to PDP. Yet they got two nominations; which means that they have more national presence now; with two ministers and the national chairman. We were expecting that PMB will follow the same logic and give the North Central’s slot to Niger State, because we performed best in the zone.
Buhari has been consistently winning in Niger. In 2015, we gave him 80 per cent of the votes, and this year, we gave him 71 Dr. Ibraheem Dooba is an APC chieftain from Niger State. In this interview, he calls the attention of President Muhammadu Buhari on the need to reward Niger State in keeping with his well-known tendency of rewarding loyalty. per cent or 612,000 against 218,000 we gave Atiku even though Atiku is our in-law, but the additional minister for the zone was given to Kwara (308,000 votes for APC vs 138,000 for PDP); which breaks down the entire logic.
I don’t begrudge Kwara. They have been our good neighbours and the people impressed us all by kicking out Saraki. So, they deserve it. But Niger State deserves more. Indeed, Niger’s votes for APC alone is twice the South East’s votes for APC (300,000 votes).
Further, Anambra which got two ministerial nominations gave Buhari only 33,000 votes. Yet, we are happy that Madam Sharon Ikeazor was nominated from Anambra. She is an amazing administrator.
Therefore, I’m only using this numbers to give context; because if you don’t reward performance, you’re sending a signal to the future that performance doesn’t matter. We want PMB to go beyond the constitutional requirements of one minister per state and give us more because we went beyond the call of duty to stay with him.
But some people may argue that PMB has rewarded Niger State for its loyalty. You had an Inspector General of Police (IGP). And you now have the Comptroller General (CG) of Civil Defence and a Deputy Governor of the Central Bank…
While I concede that is a valid point, pursuing that thinking will not lead
to a sound conclusion. But let me respond with two points. One, Bauchi has the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and the Chief of Air Staff and a former GMD of NNPC, yet they got two ministerial nominations. Likewise, what doesn’t Lagos have in this administration - in both appointments and projects? Yet they got two nominations - even though the votes coming out of Niger (612,371) are more than those from Lagos (580,000).
So, what do you want now?
We don’t want him to give us a junior minister this time. But it would even be better if he gives us additional minister.
However, more than anything, our people want projects. The Federal Government should fix its 1,500 kilometres of roads in Niger - almost all of them are bad. The one between Suleja and Minna is threatening to cut us off from the world. The commendable work on that road now is being done by the state government, but the state has its own 3,000 kilometres to fix. To boot, whenever the state government fixes the roads, the trailers and tankers destroy them before they are completed. The FG should protect us and our resources from them.
President Buhari should also help fix the Baro Port, because there’s nothing in the port, even after the president’s visit. Fixing Baro will not only energise the economy in the North, but also the South.
The Bobi Grazing Reserve, with 30,000 hectares, is also where we want FG’s help through grants. Although CBN is doing its best to help fund the infrastructure, it’s a loan we are going to take; and if Bobi is going to be the pilot of the grazing reserves in the country, we need more than a loan from the FG.
Above all, our people know that the president loves them; even about the things they complain, they feel the president isn’t aware, if not, he wouldn’t have left them alone.