Kaloma Dahiru Musdapha is a legal practitioner by training but chooses to venture into politics to serve his people. In this interview with MOHAMMED ALIYU, the Jigawa-born politician speaks on the need for Nigerians to look beyond the ethno-religious realm in picking their leaders in 2015. The philanthropist also gives his take on the ongoing national conference and cautions that those with the agenda to tear teh country apart should be watched closely, just as he lauds Governor Sule Lamido for people of the state good governance
Are both PDP and APC not going against INEC rules on campaign?
Well, it depends on what you read into it. It is okay for politicians to do their normal activities which are not necessarily direct politicking. But of course, because the political atmosphere is charged, it is very easy to draw inference that certain activities might be translated into early politicking. But if you ask me , I will tell you the whistle has not yet been blown, and therefore full politicking cannot be said to have started. All the political movers are already strategizing meeting their
constituencies behind the scenes in preparation for 2015 general elections.
Political activities amidst some gruelling challenges
The political atmosphere in Nigeria is charged and is brought with uncertainties. Ethno-religious issues appear to be taking the centre stage, and it is not an abnormal thing in Nigeria , giving the history of the first republic. Whenever elections are coming up in Nigeria, our diversities are always played up by politicians to put ordinary people at the loggerheads. They whip up these sentiments for support.
This is bad for a country like Nigeria whose people have been together for over 100 years now after amalgamation and 50 years after independence. The peoples expectation as elections draw nearer is that real issues on governance should take the centre stage rather than primordial sentiments. We should let issues determine the political swing or the political pendulum and not guided by the ethno-religious sentiments that have been whipped everywhere. The complexity of our nation today calls for real ingenuity on the part of anybody aspiring to lead. We cannot afford to be blinded by the factors of ethnicity and religion.
Advice to politicians
I would want members of the political class to work very hard to make our politics issue based. We should not have politics of ethnicity, tribe or religion.
We should have an all inclusive kind of political movement which recognizes the purpose for which a political process is being put in place for the betterment of the Nigerian state to improve social welfare, enhance security, better education and better economic development, peace and security.
Voting for leaders at all levels should be about capacity, about ideas. The battle should be about how an aspiring person intends to deliver on the promises
that he has made to the people. You don’t need to be a Ph.d holder or a
professor in the university to know the problems with Nigeria. Anybody you stop on the street will tell you the problems with Nigeria. Anybody you stop will tell you the problems are, insecurity, poor power supply, bad roads, lack of good infrastructures and unemployment among others. So the debate should be about how a prospecting president or an intending contestant seeks to deliver these things to Nigerians.
Assessing our democracy 14 years after
Well, I believe that democracy is a social phenomenon because it is something that aims to regulate the conduct of people in the society and arrange the relationship between the governors and the governed to bring about necessary social change. It is evolutionary as it happens over a period of time. This is the longest period we have had democratic experimentation in Nigeria. The legacies of the military rule are still affecting the political landscape in Nigeria.
The military have something which we call the command structure or they call the command structure which means that, instructions and the rules of governance happened from top to bottom, but democracy is supposed to be from bottom to up. However, there is still some semblance of military rule in our democracy which I think with time, we shall overcome. .
National Confab
This is a difficult question to answer. I do not want to pre-empt the result of the exercise that is just beginning to happen. Of course there is a lot of complaints, across the board about the necessity of the conference itself, but this issue of having a Sovereign National Conference has been in the offing for a while. Nigerians have been clamouring more or less to have a better organization, in terms of how the political system ought to be organized.
Some people argued that, the current political system is something we inherited from the military establishment and for that reason it is important for the civilian administration to be the one to usher in a transition of a system of government that is best suited for Nigeria. So, from that perspective, having a dialogue among different interest groups and ethnic nationalities for the purpose of fostering better peace and understanding and possibly coming out with solutions to our political problems of the country or the structure of government or the form of government that is best suited for us as a people, is a very, very welcome idea. This however should be ,managed very well because there are many unpatriotic elements that are poised to create divisions in the country.
The delegates should act according to the dictates of their conscience. They should do what is right and they should realize that they are representatives of the people and they should try as much as possible to be fair, and honest and also be patriotic and think about not their own personal or sectional interest.
Any political ambition for now?
I have interest in the political system and I have been participating in my localities In different political activities. I am a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and I believe I have a lot to contribute if given the chance to run for an elective office or to contribute my quota in any way. As per the office, naturally as a lawyer by training, I have an inclination may be towards legislative work, either at state or federal level. Notwithstanding, I am very sure that by my training, I can function very well in any capacity.
Rating Governor Sule Lamido
Jigawa is relatively a new state compared to the old ones. So, one of the major issues affecting us as a state are in the areas of infrastructure, especially in the state capital. In this area he has done exceptionally well. Anybody who has not been to Dutse for a while, will be impressed with the roads, with the public building ,like the state High Court, befitting Secretariat, Airport among others. These are apart from the medical facilities which are also very fantastic.
Further to that, in my own area of interest which is education, Jigawa State
has consistently budgeted about 23 to 26% of its budget on education which is part of UNESCO standard. The performance of our students had improved significantly over the number of years. So, as an indigene of Jigawa state, I would say, Governor Sule Lamido has really lived up to his billing.
