Politics
MUSTAPHA Othman-Bakano, the gubernatorial candidate of African People’s Alliance Party (APAP) in Kaduna State has pledged to introduce decentralised governance in the state, if elected.
He disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) shortly after paying homage on the Emir of Zazzau, Dr Shehu Idris, in his palace on Wednesday in Zaria, Kaduna state.
“We want to ensure social justice, the first agenda in the social justice is to decentralise governance in Kaduna State.
“We want to give the Local Government 101 per cent autonomy, we want to make sure that there is no anything like joint account or whatsoever,” said the candidate.
He also promised to abolish the State Independent Electoral Commission (KADSIECOM) and allow INEC to conduct all local government council elections to give everybody a sense of belonging.
“People should have the capacity to hold somebody responsible, you can’t be a governor and have 23 local government areas and everybody surrounded by you and nobody at the lower level knows who is the governor.
“When you decentralise governance, then at the centre, you will have no money to play with, you have to be creative to be able to come up with the kind of resources required to develop,” he said.
He recalled that a lot of people had promised a greater chance and a greater development for the state, yet so far people have not seen anything.
“In view of this, we decided to come-up with new development that will actually give Kaduna what we are expecting it to be.
“That is what actually motivated me to contest, I have a key important vision for the state.
“This vision include: integrated development programmes; cottage industrial development; create medical tourism for the state which will not come from the state resources.
“The fourth one is education, of course apart from the decay in the infrastructure, we are looking at how we can improve in human capital development, and the fifth is social justice,” he promised.
On the recent crisis in the state, Othman-Bakano attributed to it to joblessness among unemployed and restive youths, saying from reports, what triggered the crisis is “something very-very little’’.
He, however, promised to use his Cottage Industrial Development Plan to as from May 29 engage not less than 100,000 youths off the streets.
“When you have people especially youths gainfully employed, somebody don’t need to go back to join any violence or engage in social vices anymore,” the candidate said.
Othman-Bakano therefore appealed to electorate to vote for candidates with credibility, integrity and vision.
The candidate had earlier told the Emir that he was in the palace to seek royal blessings and to formally inform him of his intention to contest the governorship of the state.
Othman-Bakano lauded the efforts of the traditional ruler toward ensuring that peace prevails across the state.
He said his aspiration was informed by his desire to bring positive development to the state apart from taking Zazzau emirate to the next level of development.
Responding, Idris thanked him for the visit and advised the candidate to go round and seek support from people across the state by notifying them of the good things he has for the state.
He charged all politicians to continue to relate with one another in harmony and ensure that peace remain their watchword.-NAN
– Oct. 25, 2018 @ 9:57 GMT /
Tags: Guber candidate promises to decentralise governance in Kaduna
