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| Hon. Sauri |
LANGTANG
SOUTH: 1000 PDP MEMBERS DECAMP TO APC-SAURI
Many
People Are Decamping to the Ruling APC – Nanzing Sauri
NANZING SAURI is the Transition Committee
Chairman of Langtang South Local Government Council of Plateau State. In this
interview, he says he supports local government autonomy because financial
constraints facing the third tier of government would be removed if funds come
to directly to them from the Federal Government. On the acceptability of the
APC in Langtang South, he said within three months, he has received more than
1000 decampees from the PDP to the
ruling APC. The Chairman further spoke on a number of other issues. Enjoy the
excerpts:
Sir,
being the Chairman of Langtang South Local Government Council for the past
three or four months, what can you say has been your achievements and
challenges so far?
Thank you very much for this question.
Actually, there are so many challenges and also so many accomplishments
recorded. When I assumed office, I noticed that the whole secretariat was
waterlogged. So I filled everywhere with laterite because during the rainy
season, you could not walk and pass through the secretariat without being
soiled by mud. So as a chairman, I tried my possible best to see that I ordered
for laterite and the whole premises was filled with it. I did not stop there. I
registered 65 candidates for the WAEC and NECO examinations.
You know when we came on board; we
were given the mandate to deliver the local government to the APC. So, I and my management have been
going round the electoral wards to create more awareness and that has yielded
the much needed result. We started in my ward, Lashel and we received more than
300 decampees We went to Talbong and
received almost 400 decampees. Thereafter, we went to Magama Ward and
incidentally that ward is where our House of Assembly member comes from. We
received another 400 decampees there.
These are basically all that we have
been doing since our assumption of office. To add to it, when we came on board,
the salaries of our ad-hoc staff (you know we have ad-hoc staff here),
traditional rulers and village heads (76 of them) who were not paid for about
one year five months. But as I talk to you now, we have cleared them all. We
also have volunteer security staff, corpers and others who were not paid for
some months, but I have also cleared them and we are not owing them anything
now.
Now, the challenges; you know, people
don’t like to see you doing something good. We have people who are just there
hanging around to antagonize you and try to sabotage your efforts. Some people
are not happy to see you doing good things and touching the lives of other
people positively.
For instance, on the issue of the WAEC
and NECO registration, we discovered that the actual people that were supposed
to benefit did not because when names had been compiled, some names disappeared
along the line and were substituted by other names, thereby making our efforts
futile. We tried to make this gesture go to the rural areas most especially and
also making sure that all the wards benefitted, but our efforts were also
sabotaged.
The major challenge here again is
financial constraint. Unfortunately funds that are meant for Langtang South are
nothing to write home about. We try our possible best to meet the needs of our
people according to our resources.
You know, Langtang South used to be a
PDP local government, but with my coming, we have actually reduced them to the
barest minimum because of the attention we gave to various wards. By the
intervention and support we gave to decampees, we discovered that each time we
have people who are willing to decamp and we fix a date to receive them; the
opposition party goes there at night and induced them with money.
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It started in my ward. When we went
there, we discovered that an aspirant from the opposition party had gone ahead
of us and asked some of the decampees to meet him in Shendam and when they got
there, they were asked to proceed to Jos to collect money from him but on their
way back from Jos they had an accident. A lot of them were hospitalized but
thank God there was no loss of life. We still visited them on their sickbeds
and even rendered assistance to some of them.
So, each time they get to know we are
going somewhere, they either go at night or earlier before we do, but God has
been on our side and we are still getting a lot of decampees more than I had
envisaged. Basically now that is the major challenge we are facing.
Notwithstanding, we are doing our best to see that we overrule them. We are not
fighting them; we are only encouraging them to come and join the ruling party.
When they were in power, they asked us to come and join the ruling party and
today we are also asking them to come and join the ruling party.
What is
your general assessment of the APC administration at the federal, state and
also local government levels?
Really as we all know, APC is the
largest party in West Africa. At the federal level, we can all see how
president Muhammadu Buhari is striving hard to make sure the Nigerian citizen
enjoys the dividends of democracy. He has also tried to see that Nigeria
diversifies her economy, not living or relying on crude oil alone. That is why
Langtang South entirely believes in the government of President Muhammadu
Buhari. As we all know, we cannot rely on crude oil alone and it is the reason
why we in Langtang South relies on agriculture because agriculture is actually
boosting our economy. In my environment, if a farmer gets 50 bags of rice, then
he is not a big-time farmer. Before now, I don’t engage in rice farming, but
because of the diversification, I now farm rice and in large quantity. Our
resources and means of revenue mostly in places like Qua’an-Pan, Shendam,
Langtang South, etc. is agriculture. We do not need to rely on crude oil. So
with that, I give the president kudos for handling the country well, because
when he came on board, he discovered that our economy was rotten because the
last administration squandered the country and left it in ruins. So he tried
hard to see that he diversified the economy and also curbed corruption which is
evident in the sacking of Babachir Lawal, the SGF and other top government
functionaries.
During the past administration, even
if one was caught in act of corruption red-handed, they were still covered up.
But our president has demonstrated he believes in transparency, accountability
and genuineness by exposing and relieving them of their duties. You cannot be in
the APC and be found wanting in anyway.
Now coming down to the state level,
Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong has complemented the efforts of the president by living
up to expectation. He recently received
an award for maintaining peace in Plateau State despite all the challenges.
When he came on board, the issue of peace became his topmost priority and that
is why even we in the local governments are using the guidelines or rules of
operational conduct of the local governments which is geared towards his
yearnings.
On the issue of agriculture, most of
the local governments of people of Plateau State are fully involved in dry
season farming which in the previous years was not practiced. And that is why
the prices of food have dropped drastically. In fact the governor has tried a
lot in the area of food and security.
Talking
about agriculture and coming down to your local government, as you said, your
people here are farmers. What have you been able to do to assist these farmers?
Yes, you see, when we got our money
from VAT, we bought fertilizer for the farmers and gave them at government rate
of which all the farmers in my locality benefitted. They really enjoyed using
fertilizer on their various farms and up till now we still have fertilizer in
our stores amounting to about five trailer-loads, both liquid and solid, stored
for dry season farming.
With
the local government election around the corner, can you assure the people that
there is going to be a peaceful election, if so, what measures and/or
modalities have you put in place to achieve this?
We have been sensitizing the people
about the issue of peace and right now we have started preparing the various
security outfits to see that the election does not lead to crisis. Elections
must come and go peacefully. Based on the mandate given to me by the executive
governor to come and conduct a peaceful election. Like I told you, I have
succeeded in drawing most of the people from the opposition party to the ruling
party. It means a lot to me because the rate of violence is decreased and
reduced drastically because those in the opposition party are now for us, so there
will be no crisis. We will also do everything we can to make sure security is
beefed up. All modalities for a crisis-free election are on ground.
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| Hon. Sauri |
With
what you are saying, you mean you are sure to deliver?
APC is 100% sure in the forthcoming
local government election in Langtang South Local government.
Are you
assuring the people that the election is going to be free and fair?
Very free, fair and credible election,
I assure you.
Are you
in support of local government autonomy?
Of course I am a hundred per cent in
support of local government autonomy and this is because though I know that
some states will not concur, because at the state level the local man here
knows that all the constraints, I mean financial constraints in the local
government, is fifty percent caused by the state. What is released by the
federal government to the local government is being cornered and tampered with
by some governors and at the end of the day, only fifty percent or less gets
local government. You know there is this spirit in money that I myself don’t
understand. If it stops somewhere before its destination, it must be tampered
with..
This is why some local government
chairmen are finding it really difficult to contend with this. If allocations
meant for local government go directly to them, there will be enough to do a
lot for the people. You can’t imagine that at the end of our Joint Accounts meetings
some of the local governments in most cases go with zero allocation and some
even had minus. Only a few local governments went home with something and this
is mostly caused by the deductions at the state level.
Most of the local government councils
have been running their local governments in deficit. I am actually in support
of local government autonomy because of the advantages attached to the system.
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