Bago: We’ll Awaken Niger State, the Sleeping Giant

Three-term member of the National Assembly and Niger State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Hon. Mohammed Umar Bago insists that the Nigeria’s largest state should be the nation’s first in development as he shares his vision with Louis Achi on how to actualise the transformation and awaken the sleeping giant

You are aspiring to transition from being a national legislator to the governor of Niger State. What is driving this aspiration?

First, you have to understand the condition of our state and the need for us to also project our state beyond what it is. If you compare Niger State to its peers like Bauchi, you will see that we are lagging behind. Again, as a citizen of Niger State, I don’t have any other state outside Niger. I have been a federal legislator for 12 years. I have worked in the banking industry for about 15 years. If you add that up you’ll understand I have spent about 27 years in the system.

I have seen how smaller states have become giants just because they have been able to sit down and understand the peculiarities of their states and even their strengths and their weaknesses. Based on that, I see in  Niger State the potential to become a really great state. It is the only state to-date that is housing entire hydro dams but the overflows from those dams are not used for irrigation. We have so much arable land – 76,000 square kilometres of arable land.

We are supposed to be a giant in agricultural production but we are still living on subsistence agriculture. There is a need for us to go beyond what we are doing now to become a great state. Again, we are the highest producer of rice paddy but we don’t have rice production at the scope we should. Even Kebbi State is dependent on the paddy we produce in Niger State to feed its own industries. We have gold and hydro-carbons. We have the population. Even the proximity of Niger State to FCT is enough.

About 75 per cent of the entire landmass of the FCT was carved from Niger State. So, you can imagine how close we are to FCT without tapping the potential from Abuja. We are looking into these dimensions. We have seen what Ogun State has done being neighbours to Lagos State. We have seen how El-Rufai has transformed Kaduna State, from an old colonial setting to a very modern city. These things are practicable and can be done. These have inspired me. With my experience in the legislature and the banking sector, I can take Niger State to Uhuru.

You have laid out developmental possibilities. Can you share the nitty-gritty of your vision to transform Niger State?

Cut to the bone, our vision is to provide good governance to the people of Niger State through accountability, equity, innovation, provision of state-of-the-art infrastructure and an enabling environment for businesses and investment to thrive.

My charter with the people of the state is to build around four cardinal programmes. These include: Creation of a state with a sustainable economy driven by massive agricultural development, investment in tourism, renewable energy, solid minerals, innovation, technology and services, free trade zones, industrial parks, and creation of economic cities to serve as hubs for development and employment.

 Secondly, we will create a state with state-of-the-art infrastructure achieved through a deliberate urban renewal plan, which includes but not limited to the provision of quality road network and rail infrastructure, urban transportation, and city surveillance systems. Additionally, we will develop modern trailer/lorry parks, bus and car parks, commercial sport centres and recreational parks.

Thirdly, we will create a state where its citizens have access to basic social amenities and infrastructure to make life meaningful, including quality healthcare, access to quality inclusive education, security of life and property, food security, potable water, affordable housing, recreational facilities and sporting pastime.

Lastly, we shall create a state established on the principles of good governance characterised by equity, accountability, an efficient civil service, maintenance of law and order, an enabling business environment, good financial governance, optimised internally generated revenue, technology for governance, and inclusive governance and policy making.

We are supposed to be the agricultural giant of Nigeria, given our land mass, cash crops and more. The numbers are there. It’s just to cross the t’s and dot the I’s. Niger State has the greatest deposit of shear nuts and there is no single shear butter processing plant in the state.

Much of your analysis of Niger State’s development quandary largely applies to many other northern states. Do we then locate the problem in the structure of the current federalism or leadership?

It’s both ways. If I had my way, I would say let’s revert to the Constitution of 1963. I have studied that Constitution closely and seen that the crafters of that constitution were very sensitive to the diversity in our culture and people.

However, now we are in the federal system where it is different. Now leadership plays a significant role. You cannot eat your cake and have it back. In terms of leadership, we need to see leaders do much better than they are doing. I don’t want to belabour the issue of federalism. Rather, how do we use what we have to make the best for our people? And that is to have a very robust leadership.

When you talk about leadership you also need to work with the local system. You cannot come up with a different policy without understanding the traditional institutions. For example, with regards to the issue of insecurity, if there is a partnership of the state government with the traditional institutions honestly speaking about 80 per cent of these security challenges can be addressed.

Niger State youths and women represent a critical part of its demography but appear to be under-engaged. What will be their place in the new Niger you have envisioned?

The psyche of an average youth is that he wants to be employed by the government. This is wrong. There must be a reorientation of the youths and peoples’ psyche. Secondly, you must train and retrain these youths so that they can be very useful and thereafter be appropriately engaged. When a state like Niger is lamenting that it is under-resourced you start to wonder. If Niger should complain of being under-resourced then every other state should also be lamenting. This shouldn’t be so. We have ways of generating revenue but you have to engage these people very well, much of which I captured in my vision.

So, we are going to engage the youths very positively, both as artisans and others. We are going to revive vocational education for people to understand there is dignity in vocational jobs. Now, there is a stereotype – when people say you are a plumber some people bring you down. They don’t know that a plumber earns more than even that person on Level 8 or 9. That stereotype is wrong. For example in Abuja, you can see that a lot of youths are doing Uber. They are taxi drivers but they are happy because there is no stereotyping in terms of that type of engagement. So, we need to also change the thinking and psyche of our people.

On women, it’s our intention to give them about 40 if not 50 per cent representation in the system. We will give them equal representation because we know that when women are engaged the families are stronger. For example, if you give a man N10,000, maybe N2,000 will go home and N8,000 will be spent outside. But when you give a woman N10,000 the opposite scenario plays out. She will take N8,000 home.

So you can imagine that. We are going to empower women. I was talking about shear nuts. In the first year we intend to engage 400,000 rural women to pick shear nuts. It has a three-month cycle in a year. We will pay them for a year. We will engage them positively. So, we will give our women and youths priority.

The next governorship election appears to be very competitive. What are your chances?

 By the grace of God we will surmount the competition and come out very strong. We are not worried because we know what we have on the table. We understand what our people want. So far, we have a free and fair election but we don’t have any cause for alarm. However, you don’t take your opponents for granted. We are not taking any chances. We are campaigning ward by ward, unit by unit. We will not stop campaigning till the election.

What message do you have for the people of the state?

In an attempt to build a new Niger, we want every hand on deck irrespective of party lines. After about 42 years of the creation of Niger State, we are still where we are. We have to forget party lines, unite and transform Niger. Bago is the best way to go.