Radda: APC Will Present a Presidential Candidate that Will Match Abubakar

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Katsina State and the Director General, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN), Dr. Dikko Radda  highlights how he intends to turn the state around. Excerpts by Adedayo Akinwale

How do you feel about picking the ticket for the governorship seat in Katsina State? Have you reached out to your opponents?

Nine of us contested for the ticket. It was keenly contested and one of the most transparent elections that have ever been conducted in the state. Even at that point, it was ongoing, you can hardly say who was going to win the election. All the opponents have played a key role and they have shown their strength and capacity. I am very glad to say I became victorious. This doesn’t mean I will fold my arms and start feeling superior to others. I have started reaching out to them. Almost all of us come from the same political family. We have been in politics together for over 20 years. We are friends. Some of us even have personal relationships, and family. All the aspirants have declared their support for and they will work for the party and the state. 

Political stakeholders in Katsina State believe that before you can contest you must have the support of Alhaji Dahiru Mangal. Do you have his support?

I won’t say that I do not have his support. Because even after the primary, I have reached out to him. We have been together for so many years right from Yar’Adua’s time. I see him as a father and as a senior brother. All of us playing politics in Katsina see him as a commander  who commands the war for the party. We still give him that respect. We still accord him that respect. We have reached out to him. And he has promised to work for the party.  

What are those things you want to embark on as governor if given the opportunity?

I have started building areas of focus because I have been a player in Katsina and I know what is going on. I was Chief of Staff to the governor and I know how the state is being run. I believe the major stake the state has right now is the issue of insecurity. I will put more emphasis on security. I will spend a lot of resources to make sure people are secured.  It is only when you have security in the state that your children can go to school, that your people can go to the hospital and people can travel. I think the major area I will want to focus on at the moment is security. What I intend to do is to involve the use of the locals to gather intelligence in the communities. The locals will now work with the conventional security; police, the army as well as other security apparatus. We will try to give them all the necessary support in terms of equipment, vehicles, and moral support. And what kind of moral support can I give? It is for me to lead the war to the war front and confront the bandits together with the military, police, and the locals. And, again for you to succeed or any government, you will need a public service reform.  You will need to reform the machinery of government that you are going to use for the reforms because once you don’t have the machinery, once there is no bridge for you to cross, you cannot achieve anything. You will want to encourage public service reform by giving them the necessary training. Placing civil servants where they need to be placed without favoritism. Whoever deserves to get whatever, he or she needs to get it. We will try to digitalize the system. We will try to have biometric capture of all the staff and all the structure so that you can send instructions through email to your staff and then get the things working for the state. We have to be IT conscious in running the state. 

Many Nigerians believe the emergence of Atiku Abubakar is a threat to the APC. What do you think the ruling party should do to defeat the PDP?

I don’t think it is a major threat because Abubakar has been running. He has run elections for many years. And I think this is the 6th time most especially for the presidency. I think attention has always been there. APC is in government now. And we have 22 states or more that are in the control of the APC. And, I want you to wait till next week for the person that will emerge as the presidential candidate of the party. I believe the party will bring somebody who will match Abubakar from the beginning to the end. And then you will understand you can’t play politics of regionalism, ethnicity, and religion under whatever guise anymore. Nigerians are becoming wiser now. What they are looking for is competence. People who can deliver; who can give Nigerians the kind of leadership they need. I don’t need a Hausa man to be president. What I need in the North is to have the security of life and property. If it is an Igbo man or Yoruba that will bring peace and security to my people, why not him? Why must it be a Hausa man? Or a Muslim? Why must he be a Christian? We must go above board in Nigeria and try to think rationally and be able to bring leaders who have the capacity to transform the Nigerian society. 

Some people have attributed the insecurity in Katsina to people from neighboring countries. Do you agree with that?

All these hypotheses are true. Because these people are from neighboring countries. There are about nine local governments in our state which go straight to the Niger Republic, Cameroon up to Central Africa. There are two issues; the issue of people coming in, the local people  are also perpetuating these acts through the use of these foreigners. They take their weapons through these channels. I have headed SMEDAN for six years now. I know the problem of micro medium enterprises in this country. I know that the majority of the challenges we are facing in Nigeria are due to the unemployment of our teaming youths. Because the bandits cannot come and kidnap any person if they don’t have an informant who must be among the people. What drives him to be an informant is because of the money he is  given. When you engage the youths in gainful employment, they will not have time to  give information. It is not their wish to do that to their brothers and sisters.  Whoever says he is going to become a governor and provide employment to the people through the government is a lie. Where are the vacancies? You can only get the vacancies when somebody dies or retires. So, the issue of getting a white-collar job is no longer available. What you need to do is to provide an enabling environment. Give them all the necessary support for them to be gainfully employed or even be an employer of labour not necessarily waiting for somebody to employ them. 

APC failed to conduct its special convention to elect its presidential candidate as scheduled, before INEC subsequently gave political parties one week grace to submit names of the parties’ candidates. Some people believe the ruling party is arm twisting INEC, and that the 2023 elections won’t be free and fair. Do you share that sentiment?

I don’t think so and will not share that sentiment. I think the 2023 general election will be the most credible poll. Why? There is a new electoral law. And the new electoral law allows the transmission of results from the polling units to the central collection unit. That makes it impossible for people who block roads to collect result sheets and change everything. Even if you block the roads and collect everything and change the results, it will not change anything because the result is already on the website. And everybody in the world has access to the result. I think it will be one of the most credible elections. Even from the party primaries, you cannot contest an election under two political parties at one election. That has stopped people from coming to the party. If they cannot find their way they would have to go to another party. But that is bringing a lot of sensitivity, and credibility to our political process. And I know if we continue in this direction, we will be able to get to a certain stage. All the political parties including the main opposition parties have been clamouring for an extension of time. So, it is not APC that has been clamouring. PDP clamoured for it more. 

How popular are you in Katsina to win the coming election? 

Have you seen anyone winning a primary election who is not popular? I think the onus is on you now to go to Katsina and find out from the people who are the most popular. Or you can conduct an independent survey now and then give me the result. And if you find I am not popular, I will resign from contesting this election. 

Are you the candidate of  Mr. President?

The President doesn’t have a candidate. Whoever knows Mr. President knows that he has no candidate in whatever elections. Again, in Katsina state, the governor has declared publicly that he doesn’t have a  candidate.