‘Why I insisted on Muktar as APC candidate for Zamfara’

Immediate past governor of Zamfara State, Abduláziz Yari, has broken his silence on why he insisted on his former commissioner for Finance, Muktar Shehu Idris, becoming the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last general elections.

Fielding questions from journalists at his residence in Talata Mafara, yesterday, Yari said he wanted Idris to succeed him to complete the development projects he initiated.

When asked what he was unable to accomplished while in office, the former governor said: “What happened actually, more especially the way it happened to me, was that I thought I am going to hand over to a person who knows where I stopped and who is going to continue from where we stopped, as party.

“Unfortunately, that was not how God designed it to be. I left a lot of things I wanted to accomplish, such as the state university. I wanted the project to reach 60 to 70 per cent completion stage, so that the young person will complete it. The Anka Bagega road is one of the projects I wanted to achieved 100 per cent, but I couldn’t because of the financial crisis.”

The former governor also identified persistent insecurity in the state as one of the things he was unable to tackle, despite huge amount of funds invested by his administration and called on all stakeholders to give the present government the necessary support to ending armed banditry in the state.

“I have inherited insecurity challenges in Zamfara and I have never wished to leave office with security challenges. So many resources were spent, many lives were lost and many properties were damaged due to insecurity.

“I call on the people of Zamfara State to cooperate with the security agencies and support government policy that will bring security in the state and Nigeria in general. Without that, I don’t think there would be any meaningful development.

“We have to come together and support the government, irrespective of political differences, for the sake of a prosperous Zamfara state,” he said.

Yari assured that the state chapter of APC would play credible opposition to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, pointing out that APC, as an opposition political party, would offer constructive criticisms that would assist the PDP-led state government in delivering dividends of democracy to the people.

“Ours is not going to be the type that only criticises against even the best of the decision by government. Zamfara politics is one family, even though we have our resolved and unresolved differences. We are organising ourselves for a stronger political party come 2023,” he added.