Orubebe: I’m Being Persecuted for Supporting Jonathan

Governor Idris Wada

    •     Expresses confidence in PDP winning  poll
  
By Jaiyeola Andrews in Abuja


    Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State has said there will be a limit to President Muhammadu Buhari’s factor in the November 21 governorship election in the state, adding that the credibility of those running would be the determinant factor.
  
The governor who said he did not feel threatened by the emergence of former Governor of the state, Prince Abubakar Audu, as the All Progressives Congress (APC) standard bearer in the election, also enthused with confidence that Audu had been defeated in 2003, 2007, 2008, and 2011 by his predecessor, former Governor, Ibrahim Idris, and as such, would suffer the same fate in the November 21 by losing to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
  
Wada spoke yesterday in an exclusive interview with THISDAY.

Asked if he feels threatened by the emergence of Audu as the APC candidate in the election in the state, Wada said: “First of all, I am not scared of any human being who has blood, he is just a human being, you don’t know whether we are going to live or die tomorrow so I am never scared of anybody, I have never been and I would never be.

   “I am certainly not scared of Audu who is the standarded bearer of APC. Yes he is a former governor, but we have beaten him before. We beat him in 2011, my predecessor beat him in 2007 and a repeated election in 2008, we also beat him as an incumbent governor in 2003.

    “He is a known factor, we know his antics and we would counter them.  We know all the desperation and all the antics that he is doing with some of his cohorts, we will deal with them appropriately on the day of the election.

    •    “I am very confident that if a level playing field is provided by the federal government, if the security agencies do their job, if it is based on issues and campaign that we are doing, we are ahead of them.

    •    “I have that confidence and the issue of fear of human being does not exist in my view, but only the fear of the Almighty God and in everything I do, I put God first and governing the state with the fear of God because leadership is a trust by God Almighty for the people of our state.”

    •    The governor noted that he had been running the affairs of Kogi State transparently “and people can see what I am doing.”

    •    Wada added that the governorship election is about the future of the state in moving forward along a sustainable path his administration had put in place.

    •    He said the electorate would decide either to move forward on a clear path of five pillars of development his administration had put in place or  “to go back to the era of dictatorship, arrogance and the days of somebody who claims to be smarter than everybody else and knows everything?

    •    “Do we want to go to an era when as a citizen, you are scared of your governors and leaders? No! I want us to move to the modern era where people will have confidence in themselves and contribute their own quote and knowledge to the development and transformation of our state.”

    •    On whether Buhari’s factor will play a major role in the election, Wada explained that “in terms of Buhari’s factor, Buharimania was a major factor in the presidential and National Assembly elections.

    •    “It was like a movement or euphoria in the air because everybody wanted change and we are in the change now and people can now see that these things do not happened dramatically, but then what you have to remember is that the state election is not a national election, it is a localised election to the state.

    •    “Our people will judge the performance of our government, the profile of the candidates and their programmes. What are the issues, what are they going to do for the people, is it about the candidates or about the people? “ he asked.

    •    He added that “these are the factors that would come into play. Yes Buhari is the President of Nigeria and he is the president of all of us, I am totally loyal to him and I will support the programme of his government to succeed for the benefit of the people of Kogi State.

    •    “That is my commitment and I swore to the constitution to do that and I will do so, but his direct impact on our election is not the same on his direct impact on his own election in the presidential election.

    •    “If people will judge the candidates running for the election  irrespective of the parties, who are the candidates, what is their attacedent  are they honest people, do they mean well, are they coming to impact their lives or they coming to steal government money? These are questions people would be asking.

    •    “It is no longer about Buhari as president, he is president and he is running the country as president. People are not going to look at him now to judge us in Kogi State, they are going to look at who are these leaders coming to impact our lives, because how many people feel the direct impact of the federal government of the federation?

•    “People feel impact of their own state and local government. I think there is a limit to the Buhari factor in this Kogi election and other state elections.”