ADC Coalition Will Not Survive APC Intrigues before 2027

In this interview with Nahum Sule our Taraba State correspondent, he spoke with Chief David Sabo Kente, the former governorship aspirants of the All Progressives Congress APC in Taraba, and a stalwarts of APC on the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Taraba State 34th year of creation, and Governor Agbu Kefas administration in Taraba

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, If you listen to me recently, I always emphasise I’m remaining in the APC, because as far as I’m concerned I’ve not seen a major challenge in the APC, not to even talk about a new coalition of a very strange bird fellow. You can see the coalition is tearing apart, virtually on a daily basis. I’m sure you know, the coalition will not survive APC intrigues because we’re up to the task, and we’re prepared to deal with any coalition. Even when the PDP say they will be in power for 60 years, we manage to remove them. So I don’t think any coalition will survive our onslaught.

Yes, two years is a good time to access a government, but many changes can still occur. Basically, the APC had some issues, the removal of the fuel subsidy, floating of the currency, and the tax reform. This three items are very strategic, they’ve brought a lot of suffering to Nigerian, but the assurance I’m giving you is that ,the tax reform is one of the best thing that has ever happened to Nigeria, the floating of the currency is a policy that has already been abducted by many countries and it has worked, but once you have your naira in stable it will be easier for investors. We were paying trillions in subsidy, and we’re paying for the benefits of this small country around us. They were the beneficiaries of our fuel subsidy . We subsidised, and our products are taking over to their country to be sold. So they were the ones enjoying the subsidy. So in time we’ll see the benefits. So our advice to our government is they should provide palliative. In over all the APC government have done good. It might not be very good, but they’ve tried.

If someone doesn’t win election in a place and he started winning election, you should asked yourself how has it changed? It also shows you that many things are wrong and the coming days, unless measures are taken, the election will take a new dimension. We in the APC we’re not joking. We’re very serious this time. We’ll give it whosoever wants to give it to us. We will win our election as it where. It’s because of our internal issues and wrangling we had, that we lost most of the elections, bit I assured you if we put our house in other, which i want to assure you that our house is now in other , we will win election before 9 am on the election day. So the election in Karim shows you how serious we want to be, and how serious 2027 is going to be. I think 90 per cent of the by-election were won by APC, that is to show you we’re not joking, whoever stands in our way we will remove the person

As you asked, I arrived in Taraba yesterday after a long stay away from the country. I came basically for three things. My former office was taken over by the Taraba State government, and it is now an agency. I think it’s now a Taraba State investment promotion agency. So I’ve to get another office for my political program. So I’m here to inspect my new office, the view to furnished the place and preparation for the next coming political activities. Secondly, to inspect a piece of land I’ve acquired earlier for a project I’m proposing to bring to the state, as an investor, I’m coming as an investor. Lastly, since the deputy governor was ill, you know he has been my close political associate. He was my deputy governor when i ran for governorship in 2015, before my brother, the governor, inherited him. He’s been ill for a while, so I contacted the family they said he was OK and they are back to Taraba, so I took the opportunity to come and see him and also interact with journalists.

Back to your question, Taraba is 34 today, so far so good, having gone around the city, I’ve seen quite an improvement in times of facilities, shopping malls, hotels, schools. So the private sector has done very very well in the state. Because I grew up here, and I knew what we had here before, even though we’re still far from where we want to be.

Ok, this is a very sensitive one, I’m not aware of any meeting by such association, even though I know about the existence of that group. I’ve been in the game of this politics for a little while, even when I was still in service. A lot of groups have been agitating such, but buying form for me is not the issue, because I’ve bought form three times I’ve not won election. So I think we should be thinking beyond buying forms. You know the role I played in this current government. I play a lot of roles to ensure he comes on board. As per the Jukun culture, for to run against my junior brother, it will be a very funny situation, except if it’s a general consensus by the whole Tarabans. I can only run for governorship if everyone is calling me to run, and you will bring the ticket, because I’ll not go running for tickets to my table and you will provide the resources, that’s the only time I can come. Now, what I want us to do is to see how we can assist the governor. We’re lacking behind in quite a lot of things. We’re just two years in this government. My thinking is that we should find a way to assist those in power because they owe us. So, in summary form, I don’t think I’ll contest

SIR, WHAT IF THERE’S A GENERAL CONSENSUS FOR YOU TO CONSTEST? AND THE LAST TWO YEARS OF GOVERNOR AGBU KEFAS, BASE ON THE RESOURCES THAT HAS COME TO THE STATE, WILL YOU SAY THE RESOURCE THAT HAS CONE TO THE STATE COMMISERATE WITH THE WHAT WE’RE SEEING AS DEVELOPMENT IN THE STATE?

To be honest, even though I work to bring this government on board, I myself have been engaged with my business activities. You know I’ve not been in the country for a while. So, I wouldn’t know how much resources was received and how it was deployed. I don’t have enough knowledge or statistics. But I’ve heard a lot of complaints. Remember, during the 2 years civic reception in Wukari, Governor Susuwan stooped up and said the governor had 6 years old, and I was bold enough to say no, your Excellency he is part of us and we want him to succeed but he has only 4 years mandate. In 4 years, we’ll access him and now decide either to give him another 4 years. All I can say is that there’s massive improvement in the private sector, and the private sector thrives only if there are securities and a conducive environment.

YOU TALK ABOUT THE IMPROVEMENT OF PRIVATE SECTOR IN THE STATE, WHAT WILL YOU TALK ABOUT THE INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE STATE?

Yes, I made that clear in a church in Wukari that more need to be done. I repeat again that a lot needs to be done in the next two years for him to get the next for years. That’s to say, we are falling short of the performance and result expecially in infrastructural development, we’re a bit very far behind. I’ve also spoken to quite a lot of people in the government. They’ve told me they are doing a lot of repackaging, remodelling, and restructuring some certain infrastructure. To honest most of those things things actually went down, and if they are focusing on bringing dead structure to life, I think they’re doing good then. In times of roads, we’ve fallen short in times of road infrastructure.

NAMNAI BRIDGE, NUMAN ROAD. THE STATE HAS A MINISTER DURING ONE OF MY ENGAGEMENT WITH HIM, HE SAID IN TWO WEEKS TIME WORK WILL COMENCE, IS GETTING CLOSE TO A YEAR NOW NOTHING IS DONE. IN A MEETING IN ABUJA, YOU HAVE A FORUM OF APC STAKEHOLDERS, WHERE HON. JERRY MANGWE IS THE CHAIRMAN, HAVE YOU EVER DISCUSSED TO THEM FORUM THE STATE OF NAMNAI BRIDGENUMAN ROAD?

To be honest, when a government official visit a construction site, especially those who have not been in government and don’t know the working of the government, they will make a statement that may be flipped. But you can not come and inspect a bridge and say that within two weeks, work will resume on that bridge. Bridges in many parts of the world last for 50 to 100 years, and this bridge has been constructed for a long time. So, for every old bridge, there are processes to follow. So I can tell you efforts have been made to reconstruct the bridge and I’m sure in a short time construction will start. And again, this is the height of the rainy season. You don’t go and build bridges at the peak of raining seasons. We’re very sad about the state of the Brige.

To be honest I’m now a dieheart APC stalwart in Taraba, I visited the deputy governor with my team, they’re here , they can testify that the man is stronger that we thought, very healthy, so for me I knew we were putting pressure for nothing, but we don’t want to use human feelings to access situation but he’s back to work so what pressure to you expect from APC again? He’s back, he’s strong I’ve seen him physically, he hug and shake me.