Why I chose PRP for Reps contest – Balarabe Musa Jr.
Kashim Balarabe Musa is a son of former governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa. He is the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) candidate for Kaduna North Federal Constituency for the House of Reps. Born in 1978, he was recently an Information Technology
Daily Trust: The PRP is more or less your father’s party. Is that why you’re running on the platform?
The PRP is a party with a difference. It participated on the struggle for the independence of Nigeria. It also participated in the struggle for the liberation of Nigerian masses. If you look at the projects done by PRP in the First Republic till date I can boast that no government either at the state or federal level has achieved it.
In the two years of Alhaji Balarabe Musa’s administration in Kaduna he did so many projects among them 14 industries representing 14 LGAs of the old state then, which include Kaduna and Katsina.
Since then we have not had any state or federal government build 14 industries within two weeks. This is just the reason why I chose to contest under the platform because I believe in the party.
DT: If elected, what changes do you intend to bring to people of the state?
I intend to go along with the party’s ideology. If I’m elected I have some bills to sponsor, and one of these bills is the Anti Corruption Bill, and the Agricultural Crime Bill, as well as a bill on the control of state resources so that we diversify the economy, and not rely on crude oil alone.
DT: How would you rate the current National Assembly; has it done well in its legislative duties?
Yes, they are trying their best but there’s more to be done. So we want to see how we can bring new ideas into the National Assembly to help our country. Currently, there’s too much dependence on oil. We can go into telecommunications, where we can generate our revenue. In other countries when you recharge your phone part of the money goes into validity period which are ways of generating revenue while in Nigeria when you recharge everything will be given to you hundred percent.
DT: If you were in the National Assembly when governor El-Rufai approached it to approve a World Bank loan, would you have approved it?
We will not approve it, because as part of our party’s ideological principles we have what we call state control of the economy and total liberation from imperialism. Imperialism in the sense that IMF loans, World Bank loans, are all not acceptable in PRP.
We have all the natural resources in this country, but the problem is that they don’t belong to communities, local government and states. They all belong to the Federal government. This doesn’t make sense. We should allow states to control their resources and pay taxes and royalties to FG. That is when you will see massive industrialization and massive development.
DT: How did your father’s influence help you in securing the PRP ticket?
Well, I didn’t depend on it, but it might have played a role because those who know him and also believe in his ideologies for the masses may also have sympathy for me.
DT: What are your plans for the constituency?
What I intend to do for my constituency if elected is to find a way to evacuate all the refuse dumped by way of recycling them into fertilizer. Same will be done to polythene and plastics so that our people can have jobs, especially youths.
I will make sure that we convert River Kaduna for irrigation farming. We will sit with the farmers to find a way to assist them by producing scientifically, by involving agricultural consultants and information technologists.