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Murtala Nyako has
warned President Goodluck Jonathan to be wary of some Abuja-based
politicians. Mr Nyako, a former opponent turned staunch supporter of
Mr. Jonathan’s presidential ambition, said when he delivers his state
to the PDP, the credit will not be that of politicians staying in
Abuja. His spokesperson, Aminu Iyawa explained the position of the
governor. Excerpts:

Conning the president

These Abuja-based
politicians normally do not go round to canvass for votes for the
president or anybody. What they do is that they just try to get the
attention of the president to get whatever they can get. Most of them
are just 419 politicians. They go and tell Jonathan that they will
deliver Adamawa to him. But the fact of the matter is that these people
have no influence in Adamawa politics. They always want to associate
with the winning party but they do not work for the winning party. You
only see them when they smell victory, its only then that they will
come and congratulate the winner. But the fact of the matter is that
they are not with Jonathan, neither are they with Nyako nor the people
of the state. Mark you, Nyako will deliver Adamawa State to president
Goodluck Jonathan. If you have been on this campaign trail, you would
have seen the massive turn-out indicating his popularity.

Why Jonathan got Adamawa support

No any other
candidate will get that kind of reception from the people of Adamawa
State. For anybody to say that there’s a party that can beat the PDP in
Adamawa State, well it is democracy. It is normal for anybody in the
opposition to blow his trumpet his own way and to claim that their
party is the best, that PDP will be defeated. But we all know all that
is sheer wishful thinking. Adamawa State is a PDP state. Government is
now responsive in the state. Roads that were not motorable, the
governor has reconstructed and provided more access roads to villages
and towns in the state. The Adamawa people are with their governor
because he has been working tirelessly for them.

Buba Marwa and CPC challenge

Marwa is not a
politician. All these noise and hype about Marwa, anybody can make the
same noise. It’s a matter of printing posters and going to newspaper
houses and broadcast stations to make some noise. Even though
politicians are not born but made, Marwa would never make a good
politician, especially here in Adamawa State. If you are a good
politician, you will not have to stick to your party. It is never done
like that. Jubril Aminu covets being a senator for life, but the people
of Adamawa decided otherwise. The so-called opposition can do whatever
they like, but the Adamawa electorate knows what kind of politicians
they want.

Government decision to start repaying WAEC fees

It is not a
reversal. What is happening is that some candidates who do not have
anything to offer to the people, think they can cash in on the WAEC
thing and get some votes. Unfortunately, the parents know the stand of
the government. What the government agreed to do is to stop payment
while we urge parents to pay for their children or wards. Then after
the results of the children are released, they can bring along the
result for us to ascertain and then we re-fund the parents whether the
child passes or not. What has been happening is that before governor
Nyako came to office, some people in the state ministry of education
have been inflating the figure of the number of candidates that are
sitting for WAEC. They use ghost candidates in order to get money out
of government.

Because of such
sharp practices, the government stopped accepting the names of
candidates given to it by the ministry. But that stoppage was temporary
to enable government determine the exact number of candidates and to
avoid paying for ghost candidates. The government was paying over N300m
as WAEC fees, the amount has reduced by over N200m. This confirms that
over half the candidates are ghost candidates and the money used to
line the pockets of officials in the system. It is even in the interest
of the parents and the state that the money the government is now
saving, would be used for other developmental projects instead of it
going into the pocket of a few government official in the ministry.

Working for the state

Nobody, not even
the federal government has been thinking and putting in place a plan
for the development of its people more than the Adamawa State
government. Since Nyako came into office, it is part of the plan that
our youth should be empowered. Since government cannot provide gainful
employment for everyone, what it can do is to empower its people so
that the creative energies of the youths are harnessed.

This has been the
approach since coming into office. And since Adamawa is an agrarian
state, government has been encouraging the youth to get into
agriculture as a way out of poverty. To do that, government has
established 21 farm skills acquisition centres in the state were they
are equipped with modern farming techniques.

Not only that, the
government also established three technical vocational training centres
in each of the senatorial district to train the youth on technical and
other mechanical skills.

The governor, Nyako
has been encouraging some of the other governors to participate in the
construction of a rail line that would link Adamawa, Taraba, Benue,
Akwa Ibom to Cross River State. This is because it would be easier if
we can have our goods transported from here to Calabar port and it
would be cheaper.

He has also undertaken to address the power challenge faced in state
by its planned evacuation of power from Lagdo dam in Cameroon and the
conversion of Kiri dam into a hydro-electricity generating dam to
provide power. He is somebody that has giving his time to improve
Adamawa and the lot of its people.