What is your position onthe proposal by theFedral Government to remove fuel subsidy'Where is the effect of the subsidy on Nigerians and the common people' It is only the cartel that is benefiting and so I fully endorse the removal of fuel subsidy. The fear of who is going to take the money should not be the issue. The main argument and worry is about the money, but it is better ther money go to the state governors and then you hold them accountable. Today, the debate on subsidy removal has veered away from commonsense-from the real issue-to the issue of blackmailing and of maligning people. At times, people were speaking without watching their statements, mostly for selfish interest or just to be popular without considering its danger to the peace and unity of the nation.Some people, whether known or unknown, are inviting anarchy while they know the truth. Just recently, one Shehu Sani (an Abuja-based human rights activist) spoke on the radio, calling all the governors thieves. This is not justice; he is inciting people against their leaders to disobeyed them. This kind of talk is simply to invite anarchy and thus endangering the peace, security and unity of the country for his on personal interest. Just recently one Shehu Sani (an Abuja human right actives) who spoke in Radio calling us all the governors thieves, this is not justice he is inciting people against their leaders to disobeyed them. Shehu Sani said that if subsidy is removed, the money accruing from it would be stolen by the governors because all of us are thieves. Is Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, the former governor of Kano State who he took Professor Wole Soyinka to for endorsement, also a thief' Such general condemnation that all of us are evil is wrong. You think it is easy to have a revolution. It is better in democracy as every party keep talking because the more we talk, the more we get solution. We are simply inviting anarchy as there is no mutuality in what we say. We are simply trying to use the subsidy debate to insult some people because I don't think my colleagues are thieves as they were elected by their own people. I know that the Peoples Democratic Parry (PDP) governors are not thieves; may be others are.What do you mean when you said some persons were behind the false allegations brought against you at the Tribunal'We seem to have lost faith in one another because of our history in this country. What we do or say no longer portray us as a people that understand what democracy or political maturity is all about. We must begin to set standards. When we go to the tribunals it should be based on convincing reason before doing that. You don't go there for the purpose of embarrassing the person who won an election, either to deny him or his party and, at the end of the day, you embarrass and belittle yourself and so the action can have a concomitant effect. I thought that after election, a person going to the tribunal must go with a clearly investigated petition and get himself debriefed. The elections in Jigawa State were very clear from the onset. The first election was a real democratic contest involving the three main parties; the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), PDP and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). Remember CPC and ACN are a latter day invention; they were not foundation parties of our democracy in 1998. They are a creation of convenience that offers sanctuary for political desperados because PDP has been the only party which has remained so from 1998 till date. All others are either amalgamation which means they are smaller parties that came together to form a bigger one. CPC is a party for political nomads because in 1999 and 2007 there was no CPC; it only came in to being after the 2007 elections. The CPC members and followers are people who were in other political parties in 1999 and who have lost their relevance. So, CPC aggregates desperation, ambition and is a sanctuary for political failures. While CPC was an invention of political nomads who lost out in other parties, ACN was a metamorphosis of the Action Congress (AC).Coming to Jigawa State, all those in these parties were nowhere in 1999. For example, the ACN candidate was not there in politics in 1998; there was no CPC. It was only the former All People's Party (APP) and PDP in Jigawa State in 1999; there was no AC in Jigawa. Now in 2011, they came to contest with a party which is anchored on the ground. Saminu Turaki was in PDP before he left; Farouk Adamu, the CPC candidate, was in ANPP in 2003 and 2007. He fought Saminu and went out. So, the election in Jigawa State was a no contest; it was only people who were venting their frustrations and failures. It has all been a wide allegation and an attempt to arrogate extra powers to themselves, powers that should only be accorded to God.The first election for the National Assembly was a clean sweep by the PDP. The following election was a contest between General Muhammadu Buhari and President Goodluck Jonathan. Jonathan was the symbol of national stability and unity; he was not just a candidate of PDP. So for us in Jigawa, we envisaged a more stable Nigeria under the presidency of Jonathan because it was the national platform and character. So, the contest was between Buhari and Jonathan, but Buhari is a person who they claim has honesty and the monopoly of all human attributes. Then the ordinary Nigerians like us believe that whatever has to be done must be done to secure a stable Nigeria. So, Buhari won in Jigawa because the environment was manipulated. In essence, it was not PDP that lost but Buhari who won. In the first election in the state, his party came third while PDP swept everything and ACN came second.Then what made the gubernatorial election different'The last election was a local affair with the PDP, first as a political party that is well rooted with my humble self as the candidate; Farouk Adamu was for CPC. And with all modesty, it amounts to insulting me to equate me with these characters; I am not being proud or arrogant but I am only being honest. So, in the election while they were dealing with the party they were also dealing with the phenomenon called Sule Lamido simple. So, nobody doubted the victory of the PDP, but because in Nigeria we don't have standard in trying to forge our democracy some people keep on pulling us back. They went to court with flimsy allegations that I gave money. Saminu Turaki was a governor for two terms; if he said I gave money he was simply seeing his misdemeanor in me. We are devaluing our political standards by going to the tribunal to make wild claims on what is clearly established.The other allegation that I did not finished from Barewa College or that I was expelled; that I forged my certificate, that, to me, was a personal insult because Barewa is not a roadside secondary school but unique by the Nigerian educational standard. Therefore, it would be easier to do that with a local school in any other part of the North, but you cannot come up and say you finished from Barewa College when actually you did not and you cannot do that. I mean it is a lie you can't even afford to make because it goes with a particular standard. So, I think their petition at the tribunal was not on the account of trying to make any case, but they were just trying to embarrass me. Secondly, for them to win support which is evaporating by the day, they end up in destroying our efforts to entrench democracy.Again, I think they have the right to be stupid because there are so many rights; right to be stupid, right to be a thief and right to be anything. These are people who see Nigeria at their own level. Nigeria today is far beyond their level and, therefore, there is huge gap between them and the Nigeria of today. So there was no doubt about the PDP victory. The person challenging my educational status was my special adviser for four years when I was a Foreign Affairs minister, Dr Hassan Abubakar Fulata. Everywhere in Nigeria they laugh at him. My special adviser took me to court that I was not qualified to be the governor of Jigawa State but I was qualified to be his own boss'What is your reaction to the the attempt to embarrass you'I am left with so many options, but I don't like taking an action that will portray me as being out for a personal vendetta; I don't like it because I am beyond that. But again, I have to also, as a governor, begin to lay some standards for our people, no matter what. There is this dilemma of being perceived as being vindictive and if I fail to do so, we will end up lowering our levels and end up having more Fulatas as human beings. Since that is the lowest level of human species, it is my intention to take him to a Sharia court, not because I am hurt but to set a standard to serve as deterrent to others.As a governor, I would not want the younger generation to begin to behave in the evil way by telling outright lies just to embarrass people. It is I, as Sule Lamido, not PDP; it is about my own qualification, and it is about Sule Lamido. Trying to remove my personal feelings on the issue in relation to it would serveg as a kind of lesson for others. It is true that people forge certificates and names, but there are some certificates you can't forge; there are some things you cannot forge. You cannot claim to be Obasanjo when you are not Obasanjo. You can't do that because he is a huge phenomenon; you can't be him. So, it means there was an intention to malign or really harm a reputation.Since some of those who are in opposition now were your former colleagues, don't you think it is better to reconcile with them rather than going to the court'I like your talk about reconciliation but who is a colleague' I think somebody who is your peer' I don't think I have what I can call political colleagues in Jigawa State; I have no colleagues, to be honest. There is no way Fulata, who was my special adviser when I was a minister of Foreign Affairs can turn around to become my colleague. There is no way Saminu Turaki, a creation of Ali Saaddu, the first executive governor of Jigawa State and who is also our own making can be my own colleague because Saminu Turaki was a singular creation of Saadu Birnin Kudu. He was nowhere politically in 1991/92 when Ali became the governor. Saminu could not have been my own colleague. Who else'So, what we have here in Jigawa politically is a political family of Jigawa people, first under the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and then the Social Democratic Party (SDP) because most of the key actors today came on board during SDP. In 1978, they were nowhere to be found. Very few of them were around but it was mainly the composition of the PRP which went in to the SDP when I was then the chairman of the old Kano State with Jigawa inclusive. The key players in Saminu's government under ANPP between 1999 and 2007 were all my political children; I was mentoring them. So, I think the phrase or the word, colleague, is wrong. I have no colleagues here; they are my own political children. Therefore, when I became a governor, I had to carry everybody along because it is a big family, coming from a very clear tendency of the NEPU background with a clear vision and role in life. We have now found a way of coming back. That they have taken a personal position was because of their failures and they want to vent it on me. What do I want in life' I am 63 years old and I have no ambition whatsoever. When I finish, I am going to go to my village in 2015 because I will be too old. I am only trying to create an environment whereby our collective strength will be able to save Jigawa and so I am opened to reconciliation. I mean not only reconciliation per see because you can't fight your father; you will go and come back to the house.What will be your advice for the judiciary in respect of steps to be taken against people that bring up frivolous allegations which they cannot prove or substantiate'May be the tribunals, on their part, should be able to make a report after a case must have been disposed off and there is an obvious indication that the purpose was to malign or tarnish the image of the accused; they should give a report upon which the accused can go to court. Beyond the level of being wrong or right, what are the imports, the level of injury done the parties and even to our system' What type of dangerous legacy are we bequeathing to upcoming generation' I think the tribunals should be up and doing for the purpose of establishing the facts of the conduct of the election in terms of what is right or wrongAfter your tenure, who next and what qualities do you think will qualify such a person'I am only an Allah's creation and there are a lot of people who are better than me. So, I cannot hold the monopoly. I was rejected on two occasion; I attempted in 1982 but I was disqualified; in 1999, I contested the gubernatorial seat, I was woefully defeated. So, I am just like any other person. In essence, the same God who produced me will produce somebody better for Jigawa State.Despite the implementation of the N18, 000 minimum wage, yet your administration is executing projects that worth billions of naira. Where are you getting the money from'There is budget which is normally send to the House of Assembly and when passed, it becomes a law. The most important law in democracy is the law of budget. In each annual budget, you make your estimates and then what you are going to do will be captured and sent for passage by the legislators so whatever we are now implementing is based on that law that was passed in January, this year. The minimum wage has not been captured in that law and I can't take any money outside the law. It is as simple as that; anything I do outside the budget is illegal. In any case, I have always said it that Jigawa workers are not wage earners; they are partners and stakeholders. The service they are giving is for their own kit and kin; they are part of it. So, they will do anything to support their state because it is their own state. So, it is not really the amount of money they take; it is the satisfaction they get in working for their people. To them the reward and the feeling of fulfillment is in the service they give to their people, it is not to Sule Lamido. To them, that is more rewarding than the material reward. They cannot afford to see Jigawa declining, so they can make any sacrifice. If we have the capacity, I will make Jigawa to earn the highest wage. Here people don't sell their services; rather, they give their services to their own people. Whatever we do, for all of us it is Jigawa first, as a collective interest. You see, the orientation here is totally different. In other states, it is about debate; give me this I will not give you that. Here it is, we are in together, how do we forge ahead' You cannot pay somebody who is serving his own people. So Jigawa worker is a dignified honourable worker who wants to serve his own people and is fulfilled working for them; so, we are bonded.
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