Nigeria Has Not Given Lokoja Its Due - Wada
Governor Idris WadaGovernor Idris Wada of Kogi State, to
commemorate Nigeria's 53rd Independence anniversary, had a chat with newsmen over the weekend and said Lokoja, the Kogi State capital has not been given its due as Nigeria's former capital. Excerpts:
What is your own assessment of Nigeria at 53?
For a country composed the way Nigeria is as a multi-ethnic, multi religious, country with a climate that spreads from the swampy forest from the south to the desert climate in the north and the inherent complexity, I think as a nation we have done well. If you look at the context of our broken phases in leadership, changes in leadership, tribal, regional conflict and all that. I think we have done well to be quite honest. I think sometimes, we under assess ourselves or we underrate what we have achieved. But some of the recent happenings in the world show us that we done well as a nation. So for me, I think Nigeria has done well and my prayer is that the democratic experiment that started 14 years ago should be sustained so that we continue to move steadily towards full development.
Many say Nigeria would have moved farther than where it is today but for the kind of leadership we have had. Do you agree with this?
Yes I agree with that. I think that again, our political leadership have been frequently interrupted by military regimes. Even in the past 14 years of democracy things have not been easy, because of the nature of our politics, you are required to balance so many things in everything you do. It is not straightforward. For example, if you become a governor or minister, you cannot just appoint people the way you like. In other climes, you do that. But here you have to balance with what local government the persons comes from, is he a Christian, a Muslim, which ward, which tribe, all those issues. So I think in our own context we have done well. The leadership has some blame, just like the citizens too, have some blame.
Lokoja played an important role in Nigeria's formative years. Will you say Lokoja has attracted the due attention it is supposed to considering the role it played?
Lokoja has not attracted the kind of attention that it should and it is very unfortunate because Lokoja is a special city. Is a city that has special blessings from God Almighty. It is a confluence city. The two biggest rivers in this sub-region both confluence in this city. Historically, as you said, this was the city of Lord Lugard. This was the city on top of the mount that Lord Lugard's partner, Flora named Nigeria. She looked at it and said look, the best name for it is Nigeria. It was named in 1847 and then we had the 1914 amalgamation.
The nation should pay more attention to Lokoja. And to me as governor, I am focusing on renovating and refurbishing of all colonial relics, trying to give Lokoja a new face. We got Lokoja adopted by UN habitat as one of the 10 cities in the world that the UN wants to work with to develop into a world city without losing its cultural value. So we are working with UN habitat to see how we can transform Lokoja into a world city without losing its cultural value. So I think the nation needed to have paid more attention to Lokoja, as a symbol of our country, symbol of unity, centre of Nigeria, the heart of Nigeria. Every Nigerian should feel part of Lokoja, because 23 states cross us from north and south. So I think during our own time, we would try to make it a home for all, make it a hospitable and try and project the image of Lokoja in the scheme of affairs of Nigeria.
The security situation used to be bad in Kogi, how have you been able to address this?
Well, when I came in, I said no to thuggery and I practicalised it. When young people came and started causing rancour looking for money, I said no. We provided a youth empowerment program that will provide opportunities for youths to stand on their own. I let them know that thuggery is not going to pay, if we catch people doing that we punish them according the law. We said please organise yourselves and we provided them with empowerment. We empowered the security agencies as much as we can, supported them to do their work and in me they have a listening governor, we hold regular security meetings. They come with strategies, we implement them. People can see practically. We are straightforward, we are focused and we mean business. When the security agencies and the government are working hand-in-hand, the executive arm of government is working hand-in-hand to pass anti thuggery law by the House of assembly. And with the various opportunities available in agriculture and some of the small businesses, the youth are now seeing that crime does not pay, it is better to have something to do. And this is what has helped us.
In the Okene where there was a lot of violence, again we mobilised police and military into the place and made example with the few people. We are able to bring peace there with the cooperation of the leaders. The elders there were tired of the violence and they could see that they have a partner who is sincere about stamping out this violence. I told them that my own political ambition is not worth the life of any individual. So I will not tolerate violence or encourage such things, never. I thank God that the message has gone across, and with the cooperation of leaders and the youth groups, women groups, everybody working hand in hand with the government and security agencies, we have been able to bring the situation under control.
Sir, can you share your experiences as governor in the last over one year
It is been very interesting, very challenging experience. I came with a clear clear perspective of where I want to take the state. There were many challenges, particularly financial for us. After we pay salaries, we have very little money for other things. I am working very hard to see whether our tax collection can increase, because if you don't have people working you can't tax them . We are encouraging people to do something with their life so that we can have a tax revenue, encouraging industrialization, promoting agriculture, unity of our people, peaceful co-existence, all of these we are working. Kogi is a melting pot. But because I have a clear blueprint, that is on the path of development, which I am pursuing, I can see that things are improving gently, not as fast as the people want because of lack of resources because of the time it takes to settle down in government. I came here from a private sector perspective. And in private sector, everything is straightforward. You select the best, the resources move in. in government is not like that. In government so many considerations. I think, for me, we have made a satisfactory progress in the last one year or so.
You were reported as saying you would complete the works of your predecessor before starting your own, have you finished doing that?
What I said was we would not abandon projects started by my predecessor due to two reasons; one my predecessor was a PDP government, I am also a PDP government, so there is a form of continuity. Secondly, if I decide to abandon the projects, psychologically, it is the people of Kogi who will lose. I sustained the key projects, many of them are completed now, before we started thinking of new ones. That is not to say that we are not doing new projects. Things like providing water, some rural roads, electricity for villages, health facilities, schools, and building, tourism, things like this. We are doing a lot of things. But projects like N3b, N4b, we cannot afford them. We had to pay a lot of money o ongoing projects, which we believe are of benefit to the people of Kogi state. So abandoning them will be great disservice to the people of Kogi state. That is why I did it. And I think it good thing for the people of our state. And also in our country, if we can adopt this, because it the people who matter, so complete such projects. We have done significant work in completing the projects that we met.
There is this perception that the federal government has not done well. How will you react to that?
The federal government has done well. Let's be honest. Let us be realistic. That is the talk of the opposition. You saw the president's mid -term report. It has never happened in our nation. After two years, he said 'this is what I have done put it together for you to see.' So if you have time to read or watch its presentation, I think it is impressive.