Yar’Adua’s 7-point agenda achievable - Mande

Col. Bala MandeThere have been various suggestions as to how best the 7-Point Agenda; the pet project of the present administration could be implemented. Former Minister of Environment, Colonel Bala Mande believes that there is nothing wrong in its current form. He spoke with Assistant Editor, LEON USIGBE in Abuja.

How is life after Ministerial office?
It has been fine. You know I came from somewhere to be a minister and I have gone back to that place. There is nothing strange about it. I am happy to have gone back home to my base to interact with the people at home and the various stakeholders of the party and with the coming of the Zamfara State Government into PDP, we have been working together to form a party structure which is formidable, which is strong and which is capable of winning election any day in the state.

You have just submitted a harmonization report on the rebuilding of the PDP structure following the decamping of the state governor to the party. What went into that rebuilding effort? How did you manage to get the ANPP governor to decamp to the PDP?
We are one people. We know ourselves. It is just because of the political divide. Some people were in party A and some people were in party B. We are from the same villages, we have been neighbours and when our brothers expressed the desire to come into PDP, we welcomed them and the report that has been submitted is a by product of intensive consultations, negotiations and making consensus at all levels and we have come up with this report. This report has been evolved through democratic process giving the people at the grass roots level, which means at the ward level, to meet together and elect their officers at the ward levels and giving the local governments’ members of the party the opportunity, their rights to bring out their party officers, their executives at local government levels. The same thing was done at a state level. That is why you see people that have come to present this report represent all shades and political character in the state. So, we have a unified, harmonized and consensus structure in the state that is capable of winning election any time in the state.

So much has been said about the former governor, Sen. Ahmed Sani Yerima and the PDP in the state. What is his relationship with the party?
Well, we are a party. We have our membership under the leadership of the state governor, His Excellency, Alhaji Mamuda Aliyu Shinkafi and we have been able to evolve and become so unified, and we are running a party that is capable of winning election. The former governor, Ahmed Sani Yerima Bakura decided to stay in the ANPP and so, he is there. He is there in his party and we are in our party, we have different programmes. We in the PDP in Zamfara State are working based on the 7-Point Agenda of Mr. President and we are assiduously working to ensure that we make the 7-Point Agenda of Mr. President successful in Zamfara State. As for the ANPP and Yerima, I don’t know what agenda they are following. Maybe their party has their own but we are following what the President has outlined for the party.

Now that the ANPP government has fused into the PDP, what is the situation in the opposition in Zamfara State at the moment?
It is just a few remnants of the ANPP that is still in Zamfara State. You can see that they have been weakened; they have been so affected by the move of the larger ANPP into the PDP. We have a large population, about 80 percent of the ANPP moving into the PDP which has remained intact. So, you can imagine if an election is called today who would win. You don’t need a soothsayer.

Are you saying Yerima’s influence has been whittled down considerably to such an extent that he would no longer constitute a threat to the PDP in the state?
As far as elections votes are concerned, the people that would cast their votes, I believe the PDP, as constituted today, would sweep 93 percent of the votes in Zamfara State. I cannot say we can get 100 percent but we can get 93 percent of the votes in Zamfara State.

What does that say in terms of democracy? Some people believe that with the rate politicians are defecting into the PDP, the country may be heading for a one party state. Does that not worry you?
We are having fresh experience at democracy which is about 10 years now and democracy is a very big phenomenon and it is not static but people have their right to choose the association to belong to. If the whole of Nigeria decides to join the PDP, it doesn’t mean that there is no democracy because there is still internal democracy. The classical example is the brief which the caretaker committee of the Zamfara PDP gave to His Excellency, the National Chairman of the party, giving him the rundown of the processes that were followed. The list of the structure of the PDP in Zamfara State was brought out. So, it doesn’t mean that because there is no opposition,there is no democracy because there is internal democracy within the party.

Nigerians complain that not much has been achieved in the two years of the present administration because they have not seen any visible sign of progress. How do you react to that?
Well. Nigerians always want manna to fall from heaven immediately. When they are hungry, they want food to fall on their table and when the weather is hot, they want rain to fall immediately, when the weather is cold they want it to get warm immediately but these things cannot be so. I believe the administration of President YarÁdua has achieved a lot.

Irrespective of what other people may say, I am telling you from the bottom of my heart that I know there has been improvement in the road sector, new roads are being constructed. Recently, contracts have been awarded for upgrading, maintenance and construction of roads. That is evident. I saw the Minister of Works giving a brief on that and I know some of the roads that are affected. In the power sector, there is notable improvement. There is more steady power supply now where I stay and it is a remarkable improvement and I believe that as work goes on, in the next couple of years, there would be more improvement. And in agriculture, I come from an area that is basically agrarian and for the first time, we have gotten fertilizer and farmers have accessed this fertilizer even before the rainy season began and that is a complete departure from what happened in the past. You can see for a long time we have not had disruptions of the academic processes in the universities, secondary and primary schools. So, there is improvement but it is only God that can meet the needs of everybody. There is improvement.

Talking about the 7-Point Agenda, some have suggested that it should be streamlined. What do you think?
The 7-Point Agenda is subject to a number of interpretations and views. If you ask some people, they will tell you it could have been eight, it could have been nine or it could have been 10. Some people will say it could have been two, some will say it could have been 20-point agenda to cover all sectors that they can think of. But if the President decided to sit down and carefully bring out seven out of 20 that people would wish, I think that is not too much. It is achievable. 7-Point Agenda is achievable. If it has been as bogus as 50-point agenda, people will say how can he achieve that? But it is only seven and these seven are achievable.

We have less than two years to the end of the present tenure. Do you project a drastic change of pace in terms of the execution of socio-economic development programmes by this administration before the 2011 elections?
Socio-economic development of Nigeria is also interrelated with the world’s economic development. Today, the world is going through a recession. At first, people did not want to accept the word recession. They used to call it so many names like meltdown, economic meltdown or slowdown but now it is being acknowledged as a recession and Nigeria is not an exception. Our economic activities whether imports or exports are directly related to the economies of other countries of the world and since there is a slowdown in the economies and commercial activities in the world, definitely, it will affect Nigeria. But every nation and every region in the world are trying to put heads together to see how they can come out of this recession. So, Nigeria is working, ECOWAS is working, AU is working, the Asia Pacific region is working, North Americans are working, South Americans are working, the Middle East are working and every region is working because this is a serious issue. I believe when all this regions work together under the United Nations, I believe together with Nigeria, we will gradually ease out of this recession. So, Nigeria is not in isolation.
What do you think about the idea of a mega party being muted by some politicians to confront the

PDP in the 2011 presidential election?
Our constitution has given every individual the right to associate with another individual or with groups of individuals to form a political party with people of like minds. So, it is a welcome democratic development. It is constitutional. They can form their party but we shall remain in the PDP and we shall work as PDP. We are ready to face any electoral challenge in whatever form. We, as a party are ready to face any electoral challenge and so, they are welcome. We shall do our work and they would do their work.

Do you think they would be significant enough to give the PDP a run for its money?
We don’t know them. We will wait for them. We know ourselves, they know us, but we don’t know them. So, we will wait for them. Let them come. There is a level playing field. Let us play together and see who will score the goals.