In this interview, a leader of All Progressives Congress (APC) from Ankpa local government of Kogi state, Hon Ayuba Nana, shared his views on the ongoing battle between the anti-corruption agency and a former Governor of the state, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
You have been a bit inactive in the polity for a while now.
I have been around trying to concentrate on survival. The economic situation in the country right now necessitated my absence from the public glare and as a politician that knows his onions, the elections are over and it is important to allow the authorities to concentrate on governance.
The country is going through a trying period and as a member of the ruling party what is the way out?
The times indeed calls for patriotism of the highest level from all citizens. No government, no matter how vindictive, wishes that the citizens are made to suffer. We must realize where we are coming from as a nation both economically and politically. The present realities in our country was not caused by the present administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu but it is the aggregative long term effect of our years in the wilderness when we had successive bad governments implementing voodoo economic policies that brought our country to its present state. The times indeed calls for patience and understanding with the present renewed hope administration and the harsh economic prescription which is well intentioned and involves some bitter pills we must swallow is our surest way in reviving our economy for the long term happiness of our people. We shall overcome because this present government led by President Tinubu is the beginning of the end for maladministration in Nigeria and he shall succeed.
How will you rate the administration of immediate past Governor of Kogi state after eight years in office?
I will, to the best of my knowledge and as a citizen of Kogi state who is very proud about this state, give you an impartial and candid opinion about the eight year tenure of Yahaya Bello as governor of the confluence state. Firstly, throughout history no nation or state have achieved any substantial leap without a leader who gives it his visionary, altruistic and actionable plans. Yahaya Adoza Bello is the father of the modern day leadership of this state. Prior to the administration of this young man, all the citizens of this state would agree totally with me that the state has been wandering in the wilderness and running in a circle because of the activities of our leaders who pays attention only to the whims and caprices of their godfathers. Today, go to Kogi state and call the name of all our former governors, except the late Prince Abubakar Audu of blessed memory, and even a small boy in the street would tell you the names of their godfathers. Yahaya Bello killed the notion called godfathers in the state because he has none. He brought a new direction to the state and you can see it with the plethora of development projects scattered throughout the state. To me, he performed absolutely well.
But today, the EFCC had accused him of laundering the sum of 84 billion naira from the state allocations and he is evading arrest.
You all are men from the fourth estate of the realm because of your importance to the society and so educated and enlightened to know the difference between persecution, victimisation and actions made only to embarrass. Of late, the methodology employed by the EFCC is anything but an aberration. The laws creating the EFCC did not in anyway allow the commission to be a tool in the hands of anyone to simply embarrass a political opponent. The EFCC is not above the law and I want to correct the impression that Yahaya Adoza Bello is trying to evade arrest as in the face of a subsisting court order and pronouncements by a competent court of competent jurisdiction that stopped the commission from arresting or inviting him till the case before it that bothers on the fundamental human right of the former governor is finished. Ask yourself why the EFCC is in a hurry and why it is not obeying a court of law? It is simply because it was compelled by somebody only known to them to embarrass the former governor. The EFCC is playing to the gallery and it must be told to stop because nobody is saying that Yahaya Adoza Bello is above the law and above been invited to answer any charges but the method employed to achieve this is laden with suspicions. On the issue of laundering 84 billion naira, I will say that it is laughable for you to accuse a man of laundering such humongous amount of money by September 2015 when he assumed office by January 2016. Technically and legally, the case against Yahaya Adoza Bello is a charade abvinitio because in the face of the law it cannot fly.
Some analysts have asked why EFCC is not actively pursuing past celebrated cases and now focused on Bello.
The answer is there blowing in the wilderness. Now, I think you the press knows why we are crying wolf. The Yahaya Bello case is a dramatized case and well rehearsed in order to intimidate and bully him. Let’s call names because they say history is replete with examples. What is the fate of lawsuits filed by EFCC against the likes of Alhaji Bello Maitawale, Gabriel Suswan, Ayo Fayose, Willie Obiano, Atiku Bagudu and several others today? Dead on arrival and you are only following a man whom you accused wrongfully and you think there is no God?
