You sound so confident that the PDP governorship candidate would win the November 21 polls, why?

We are credible; we are not carrying any fraud cases. Our candidate is transparent; he is not a guest to EFCC, ICPC or Code of Conduct Bureau. If you look at the two candidates, you will know who is coming back to rescue or to loot. We believe that our own candidate is very honest, transparent and prudent. We have had a taste of the APC candidate and we know that Kogi state is still battling to get some of our funds that are supposed to have been missing. That is not the case with Wada. So, we are bringing to the people of Kogi, honesty, transparency, prudence, humility and above all the fear of God. All these characteristics I have mentioned, you cannot find in the candidate of APC. Again, we don’t want Kogi to be up for sale to somebody outside Kogi. We are in Kogi to work for Kogi. We cannot entrust our destiny to somebody outside Kogi or at the end of the day, you will find that Kogi starts paying some tollgates or some tolls to some political godfathers that we don’t know, as we heard that is happening in other places. Whatever it is, as the saying goes, the devil you know is better than the angel you don’t know. We know Wada,, we know his capability. We know what he can do but we don’t know what somebody who is outside the state can do. Is he going to sell off our state, sell off our resources? Somebody from outside? No, and I’m sure Kogites will not allow that.

But critics say Governor Idris Wada has performed abysmally in developing the state,?

As a PDP member, I will work for the victory of the PDP. As regards the performance of the governor, if the truth is to be told outside politics, I’m sure the greatest critics would applaud the performance of the governor bearing in mind the resources available to him. Don’t forget that the governor got into office with some liabilities from the previous government and government as continuous entity, he had to oblige to some of these baggage. The governor has done very well within the available resources. He has been able to pay salaries unlike in some states; he owes salaries of not more than a month. Whereas in some states you find nine months, six months, people have no salaries. I think he should be commended. He has managed the resources available to him well and he should be praised. There has been dwindling resources accruing to the state and having paid some obligations, you find that money available for him to carry out development projects will not be there and that is what is happening. But you see that bye and large, there are projects that are being done. I will say that the media under report the activities of the governor.

In the state, there are roads being constructed, buildings going on and other things, which are worth reporting. We have brought this to his notice and I’m sure things are being done to showcase some of these things. He is a silent achiever, but in politics, there is nothing like silent achiever, you need to blow your trumpet for people to know. The era of allowing people to blow your trumpet is over. By and large, the governor has done well within the available resources. He has been prudent in the management of resources and has been current in the payments of salaries. May be one thing you don’t know is that the governor is paying pension and gratuities as far back as 1999 which was left by previous administrations. I think he’s paid up to around 2004 or 2005 and he hopes to pay more. These are baggage of other people who didn’t think the civil servants matter. People who didn’t think about development of human resources. But this governor is taking everything totality; in as much as he is trying to carry out development projects he is also ensuring that civil servants and retirees get their benefits. I think there is nothing as good as that.
We will encourage the governor to ensure retirees and pensioners get their benefits now, not when they die.

What do you consider as the unique selling propositions of the PDP for the forthcoming election in the state and what is the party doing to reconcile aggrieved parties in the fallout of the governorship primary?

I think the process is on, Wada is already taking foremost position to reconcile all parties involved and at the local government level, we are trying to reconcile all party members as well. But one important thing is that as democrat, nothing stops you from expressing your wish and desire. But having done that and it passes through credible due process, you must come to terms with the results. So we are hoping that Echocho and his supporters will turnaround and support the PDP candidate. And I think that is what politics is all about, you don’t move about like prostitutes if you lose here, you move to another party and if lose there, you come back, that is not what politics is all about. As democrats, we must be part and parcel of the democratic process and adhere to tenets of democracy. Yes, nobody wants to lose but losing is still part of the game. Now Wada has won, all PDP supporters should queue behind him. The issue of going to other parties means that you did not bring yourself to terms with the democratic process. In democracy, you must be ready to win and also ready to lose.

What made you support Governor Wada, which led to his victory at the PDP primaries?

I supported the governor on principles and antecedents. Considering the options available to PDP, he (Wada) remains the best option.

There appeared to be stiff oppositions and a sudden U-turn in the support for governor Wada’s aspiration, which led to postponement of the primary, what really happened?

I wouldn’t say there was a noticeable turnaround against Wada; after all, we had only two main aspirants. If the situation were totally bad, you would have had an avalanche of aspirants as it happened in APC. We had only two and the other aspirant who is popularly known as Echocho, may be, had the zeal to carry the media along with him, so there was a lot of hype about his aspiration. My understanding on why the national leadership of the PDP postponed the primary was to see if an understanding could be reached amongst the aspirants to avoid going into the primaries.

The intention was to see if there could be an agreement for one aspirant to step down for the other. Eventually, it was not so, the aspirants agreed that they would all stand for the election and that was what happened. The postponement was to buy time for more negotiation, which did not happen.