Engr. Marcus Gundiri, was the defunct ACN candidate in the last governorship poll in Adamawa state. In this interview with BODE OLAGOKE, the politician among others, speaks on his defection from APC to PDP which he believes has transformed and changed for the better
Why did you leave APC to PDP?
I was requested by my people to come into politics to salvage the situation we had and we still have in Adamawa state. That is lack of development, security, employment and proper education among so many other things that were actually kicking against the socio-economic development and empowerment that is needed for the people of Adamawa state. At that time, we registered with the PDP, hoping that we are going to contest on that platform, but at the end of it, someone was foisted or forced on the people and that was and still the governor of Adamawa state. So, a lot of us now decided to go somewhere else where we could make impact.
As a politician, some of us that were just starting, we wanted to have that experience and that feel of being a politician. We would not just sit down and look at things just happening without us partaking in it. So most of the people in Adamawa state decided we had to join a political party and we did. We now went into ACN and at the primaries, by the grace of God, I was elected to be the flag bearer of ACN in Adamawa state and we contested the election against among others the PDP represented by Nyako. We had Marwa who represented Congress for Progressive Change CPC among others. After all, we thought we won the election but things just happened and we went to the Supreme Court and Nyako was declared winner. We feel that is politics. Some people will win while some lose. I think politically speaking, the election won by Nyako was offside and we took it as mere, being new democrats in this country trying to build a new type of system.
Reconciling the two PDP factions
There is just one PDP in Adamawa state headed by Joel Madaki. The other part of PDP headed by the other person was with the present governor, who went to the All Progressives Congress (APC). We therefore do not have any type of friction in Adamawa
What in your view has changed about the PDP you left ?
With the present situation, there is not going to be any form of imposition of candidate on the people. PDP is now more democratic than what it used to be, especially, the present federal government that we have, things are done according to the rule of law. It is not just the PDP but the government itself today is running the government based on rule of law. Therefore, where there is rule of law, which is where any sensible person will go. If there is no rule of law, that means there is a problem. It is not out of place for me to go back to PDP, it was not just me, including some of the people that contested the governorship position in 2012 with me.
Coincidence of your defection to PDP with that of Governor Nyako to APC
What we said was we cannot work with someone who has served Adamawa state as a governor and he did not do anything for seven years he has been in power. I can argue this with him in anyway. It has actually stained his integrity as a man, even being in the same political party with him. He is not a democrat per say. He is somebody who has institutionalised rulership in Adamawa state based on family values. You can imagine that his son, who was a military man, resigned as a lieutenant colonel to become the cashier for him. That action is never thought of. Now, everything called government in Adamawa state is actually run by his people in the same family, same house and same blood. There is no democracy and the people in Adamawa state are not going to vote for anyone who associates with this kind of person. So for sure, he will not have any democratic principles in anything that is associated with him. You won’t be able to exercise your right.
Impeachment move against Nyako
My position is clear. Anybody who does wrong that goes against the constitution of this country must be punished. No matter who he is. If it is Marcus Gundiri who becomes governor of Adamawa state and I do anything wrong, they have the right to impeach me. Actually there is no need for anyone to fight. If you know you have done wrong, then get out. So I honestly support what the House of Assembly of Adamawa state is doing today. But if he is able to defend himself of all he has been accused of, then he can exonerate himself. But I support fully, what is been done in Adamawa today.
PDP’s role in the impeachment saga
They are giving moral support to the House of Assembly. Remember that the House is now 100 per cent PDP. All the 25 members of the House of Assembly defected to the PDP. Therefore, we are going to give all these young men and women the morale support they need with prayers.
Ours is to support the lawmakers but whatever the lawmakers do, will be determined by the law. So, whether it will succeed or not depends on whether the constitution of the country is actually respected.
Do you still nurse your governorship ambition?
As I told you initially, I did not force myself into politics. People of Adamawa state saw me as a man that is able to lead them, man of integrity that can stand for development, freedom and welfare of the people. The man they believe will be able to give them education and improve the infrastructure in that state. They called me and sent representatives to me. Not less than 10 times, before I now decided to do it. If those group of people come to me and say this is what they want, so be it. But I am still waiting for that opportunity to come. If they say otherwise, I cannot force myself.
Backwardness of the state despite high profile personalities
Actually if you look at it, the backwardness of Adamawa is probably in the last seven years. When the whole of Gongola state was under military rule, it was one of the states that were largely edged among the northern states in terms of education, infrastructure, sports etc. Later, Adamawa became one of the leading states and up to the time that Boni left as a governor, we were still holding onto that leadership. But all of a sudden, we have an anti-democrat that came in. He made the state a pariah state. A state that was formerly looked at as a foreign country but now, things have gone so bad. You don’t have roads. Even in the capital city, there is no road, electricity or water supply. Also, the education that we cherished so much is no longer there. That is because he has failed to support the poor people by paying their examination fees. This was done by Governor Boni Haruna’s administration and so many of our children were going to school. But today, only the highly privileged attend schools. Let me tell you, even the civil servants are not being paid their salaries. Some of them are owed nine month salary. Assuming these civil servants have children in schools, that means they won’t be able to pay their wards tuition fees, so, we have been going backward and backward while some people are advancing.
Adamawa’s security challenge
See, if a man is not educated, he would not know the value of life. He would not actually know what government is doing to him. If you are not educated, you will definitely be unemployed. Even if in you are employed as a labourer and you are educated, you will be respected. But if you have no education, you have a problem. So lack of education is one of those things. Bring all these Boko Haram people, educate them and you will see that most of them will not go back to Boko Haram. If you look at the 75 per cent of the young people that cannot go further than secondary school, they are all in their villages, roaming the streets. They do not do anything apart from smoking India helm and all sorts of vices including killings, and they can be easily recruited to become agent of wickedness. These are the type of things that happen if basic amenities are lacking.
How do you curb all these if you emerge as governor?
What you need to understand is that, no matter the situation you are, you have personal matters. That governor is a different personality from who I am. I don’t think there is other PDP governor that existed or that will later exist that is as callous as Nyako has. Therefore, we cannot just sit and push the blame to PDP. No, it’s the man himself.
On excessive use of security in Ekiti
I think we have to look at the security of Nigeria holistically before you can comment on this. One has to be very careful. When you have threats and counter threats, when people say they are going to bomb where people congregate, it’s always better to protecting this kind of people. Some people will even tell you there was not enough security in Ekiti state; more should have been added to make sure people have the freedom to move around on roads. I don’t think there was intention of the Federal Government to intimidate. In fact, they have not actually forced people to vote for any political party, all they did was to make sure people were protected.
