No Governor Has Done As Much As Sheriff - Adamu Dibal

Oba AkandeOnly those who visit Borno State can give a true testimony of Governor Ali Modu Sheriff’s style of leadership and what he has to show in the almost five years of his administration. In this interview with our Correspondent, JAMES BWALA, Borno State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Adamu Dibal, gave a scorecard of his boss, stressing that no other governor has out-performed him in the country. Excerpts:

You were in the maritime business before you joined politics; this means you have tasted two worlds – the world of business and the world of politics. What can you say are the differences between the two?
I think the first one you mentioned, which is maritime, was basically a personal business. I mean everything we do means that either we are making profit or we are losing. But we thank God, over the years, we have been making profit. However, this time around is not about making profit; it is about service to the people. And you know when you are tired, you could say it is my own business or you can delegate and say ok, let me go and have some rest. Your doctor can at least ask you to go and rest; but here, it’s a different thing altogether.

Somebody that is in the village, that has no water for example or has no road to his village; or that has no hospital in his village or that is even sick – is looking at you as the cause or as somebody that is supposed to provide some sort of help for him. So, the difference is indeed too much. You cannot even compare the two.

In private business, like I said, you know you are working for a profit. When you are tired, you can take a break. You can go anywhere, and nobody controls you – especially when you are the managing director of that place. And here again, I mean in the public service, it means that you really have no time. For example, some people were there as I was coming out of the mosque; they want to see me. They are not on appointment, but they want to see me, and I cannot turn them down.

We are aware that last year, the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, was to come to your state to inaugurate some projects, but for the politics involved he couldn’t – which President Yar’Adua later performed. What is the significance of Mr. President’s visit to your administration?
Believe me, even some of the opposition party members with whom we were together at the Bullumkuttu Hospital could not believe what their eyes have seen. They could not hide their feelings and I want to say that the medical doctor that was attached to Mr. President, when he saw the equipment at the Bullumkuttu General Hospital, said that these equipment were about the best in the country. Mr. President was happy to hear that, and he wanted to know the equipment was going to be maintained, and we said we had a maintenance agreement for one year with Siemens, where we bought the equipment in Germany.

Mr. President was quick to say that before allowing this one year to elapse, we should make sure that there is a concrete service agreement between the state government (or the hospital, so to say) and Siemens for the maintenance of these equipment. I have never seen my boss, the governor, so happy. He was almost break-dancing at the airport when the plane was landing, you know. For two weeks before the President’s visit, we hardly had good one-hour sleep. When you are having a presidential visit for the first time in five years, you know that means a sleepless night for all of you – including your driver and cook. But in the end, it was not a stressful kind of Presidential visit; it was a one-day visit and we had to give it everything.

We were indeed very happy, and all of us – even those who are not democrats but who love democracy; those who love Borno State, who love humanity – should believe that the presidential visit to Borno State was an excellent one and indeed long overdue. Everybody was happy.

Why some of these projects were not inaugurated by another person was because of the politics that was involved. A lot of things were said about the former president because of the difference in party affiliation. We just had to wait for the next president – whoever would be the president – to come and inaugurate the projects. And believe me, it has been a milestone. I mean, we believe it is a plus for democracy.

Mr. President during his visit could not hide his feelings. I remember him saying that he was indeed proud and he congratulated the government and people of Borno State which Sen. (Dr.) Ali Modu Sheriff is leading. I believe the president’s visit will indeed be remembered for a very long time in Borno State.

The hospital which some of them (opposition) felt was not a good place, somebody even went and set it on fire. It was unbelievable. Somebody said even in the war front or in any riot anywhere, there is no place where you would see hospitals being vandalised. When actually the incident happened, I was not in Maiduguri; I was on an assignment by my governor in Kaduna, and then I had to move on to Delta, and some of our colleagues were asking me what happened. How can a hospital be set on fire? How can somebody just set a hospital ablaze? But these are questions you cannot just answer.

That was why the governor said that we should be able to put a smile on Mr. President’s face by doing something about it, so that when he comes, he would see that there is fire but at least some people were not sleeping. Thank God for everything, the road which we were able to provide at the early time of our administration was inaugurated by the President officially. I am talking about when you come from the Airport junction up to even after the 777 housing estate. It is a federal road, but the governor said he would do it because it was the people of Borno State who were using it. And if I heard Mr. President right, I would say my governor has been justified; because he told my governor that if he (Sheriff) came to Abuja, they would sit down to discuss on issues.

If you ask me about Mr. President’s visit to Borno State, I can talk to you for the next one hour; because this is a visit that has been sabotaged more than five times. Even this one somebody said Mr. President should not come. I have been told that when the SSG and the advance team from Borno State went to Abuja, somebody said Mr. President could not come to Bullumkuttu, and the SSG said what do you mean that President cannot come to Bullumkuttu? The Airport is in Bullumkuttu; the 777 housing estate is in Bullumkuttu; the Trailer Park is in Bullumkuttu, the Hospital is in Bullumkuttu. Therefore, if the president cannot come to Bullumkuttu, that means the President is not coming to Borno State at all.

That was again another problem at that time; but I could see some of the senior opposition party leaders that are in this government people like Amb. Babagana Kingibe. Sanusi Daggash was even clapping and we believe that no governor would come and do such a thing within the shortest possible time as Governor Sheriff has achieved.

When we came, like my governor said, we were heavily indebted to the tune of about N10 billion and the whole medical workers and civil servants were on strike. And even with that, we were able to achieve what the President inaugurated without borrowing one kobo anywhere. We were able to settle the 10 billion naira debt. I told my governor one day that I was not really crazy about power. The fact is that we are moving. Some of these projects, if students of history come to write the history of Borno State in the next 10 years, even if I am not alive, they would say that somebody ‘Dibal’ was there when all these things were happening. This alone I am happy about.

You see, we are going to have more than 1000 families in the 777 Housing Estate, and they will live to remember us. We are going to have more than 1000 families in the 500 Housing Estate; they will live to remember us. If we go round Maiduguri, you will see that there is solar powered. This is the first time we have had something like this in the North-east subregion; and believe me, my governor once said if we had opportunity to do anything in the last four years, then the next four years should be more transformatory.

Mr. President also said I am looking towards another time when I would come to spend two or three days and we all clapped, because that opportunity is indeed coming and that alone made me to be very proud.

Like I said, if I continue to talk on this issue, it would take much time, because it was indeed a visit that was so fulfilling. The man that was beating drum at the Ramat Square was not doing that to get money being ‘sprayed’ on him. That culture had long been stopped; but he was sharing his joy with the people that finally, the president had come.

Let me add that I was with the chief protocol of Mr. President, and we had to remove more than five places from the programme that Mr. President was expected to inaugurate.

Again, I was at the Ramat Square a day to the president’s visit, and I saw something that amazed me – powered transformers that we had provided, which cost more than N1.7 billion was not there. I asked the people: ‘Why didn’t you bring those transformers? This is because if you add the value of these vehicles together, it cannot be up to the value of those transformers; but I realised that the people were so tired and those transformers were heavy. But all the same, the president has come and that is the most important thing for us.

How did you eventually convince the president to come to Borno State despite the opposition’s plans to stop him?
I have been able to represent my governor several times at some meetings where Mr. President addressed some of us as governors. Before then, I had had the opportunity to work closely with Mr. President in some sub-committees that has to do with state when he was a governor. Somebody was cracking a joke when Mr. President came, that in every disappointment there is a blessing; because Obasanjo would not have appreciated the level of transformation Governor Ali Sheriff was able to achieve, because he was never a governor.

I remember when we met him about the kind of excess crude oil money we were asking for, and some people from this angle were saying all sorts of things. In all these, you could see the zeal in Mr. President in trying to transform Nigeria. I also remember him addressing the 36 governors. It was a well-attended meeting, and it was only about five of us that were actually representing our governors. That was the first time he broke the news to us that he was going to constitute a committee to transform the Police Force.

He had already spoken to the Metropolitan Police, the American police and they were ready to help us. He had already spoken to M.D. Yusuf, who was going to chair the meeting and some other retired police officers.

The President has also told us of the zeal in him, and he would want the governors to support him. He also challenged us on projects significant to the people in terms of development. He said go back home, and at zonal level, meet as governors and see what is peculiar to your people. See that together you work towards the benefit of your people – whether it is drainage, bridge, common market or anything – that would link your states and bring happiness to the people. These are the things Mr. President was telling us. He spoke to us for more than two hour and he was very happy with the kind of understanding he was getting from the people.

In addition to that, he asked us to go and set up a kind of committee that would contribute to the Electoral Bill. If we could make these three things, we believe it would go a long way in building trust among our people: that is energy, Police Force and Electoral Law. He said the reason he had yet to declare a state of emergency in the energy sector was that when he came in, he was then campaigning. He did not know what the problem was. The experts are now trying to tell him the entire problem of the energy sector in Nigeria; so, there and then he would kick-start it and declare a state of emergency. If that is done – I mean Police Force, Electoral Law and energy, I believe Nigeria will be one of the most developed economies.

But talking about energy, what is the motivation behind your choice of solar energy to power your street light?
This part of Nigeria has been the worse hit in terms of weather, but for the massive tree plantation in 20 or 30 years ago. If you have been watching some of these home videos, they would tell you that there is one Kanuri adage that says ‘the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the second best is now. Thirty years ago, when we were in secondary school, I am telling you that you could not stand anywhere in Borno State. I remember I was in BTC; that was in 1982 or 1983, when they wanted to dualise the Airport road. They cleared all the trees. I was weeping and asked myself when these trees would grow back. However, I would tell you that we have more advantages than any other state; and before now, from the roundabout at the Government House to the Airport, we spend more than N12 million a month on diesel to power our street lights.

Most of the factories we have here are now even shut down. Somebody said since the day they said the President was coming, Power Holding Company has been giving us light; and they asked whether it was a magic. But for us now, I think this improved technology about the solar energy is better for us.

You have spoken so much in glowing terms about your governor. That somehow gives us the impression that there is a lot of rapport between you and the governor. What is responsible?
For a very long time, I have been saying that there can be only one captain in a ship. There is always one person that is in charge, and the people who made the constitution are so responsible enough to say that a governor is supposed to be a normal person. Therefore, he is supposed to have somebody that would also work with him. He is not a magician; rather, he can have time to rest and can delegate from time to time. So, he has always been the one that is in charge and that is not disputable. I used to tell my colleagues that some of these problems between some governors and their deputies are avoidable. Now, most of us are beginning to understand. If you look at it from the beginning of 1999 to 2003, it has been very rough between governors and their deputies across the country. But now, there is this understanding, as all of us want to keep a record now. We now have respect for each other.

What motivated you to go back to school, and how did you manage to combine this with your official duty?
I decided when I came in that I did not want to go to a field that would require me sleeping in the streets. If you look at it, I went to study Public Administration to update my CV. That requires humility. I believe one has to be humble, no matter how big, to acquire additional education as an adult.

There was a time during my course of study that I was walked out by one lecturer. I was in the school to represent my governor to inaugurate the Students Union Government of the University of Maiduguri. I was on my way going home when suddenly my lecturer texted me to inform me that a test had been fixed for that same day at 7:00 pm. I am not the kind of person that would miss classes and people would not know. That is one disadvantage. And the professors were giving me encouragement. I felt on top of the world whenever I was in the class.

When I came for the test, the classroom was already filled up, and there was no more seat. Some were even writing the paper standing. I sat down on the floor using my thigh as table. At this moment, one vibrant young lecturer came and asked me, “Are you writing the test with us?” I said ‘Yes!’ Then he said, “No, you are late,” and asked me to go out, refusing me to participate in the test. It was a 200 Level course. Although I could not write the test, my friend, the vibrant lecturer made me even more popular unknowingly.

Sometimes when I travelled, I went with my lecturer, to teach me on the way. That has been my life. I always told my lecturers that I did not want to have the certificate without having the knowledge, and I thank God today that my determination has paid off.