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| Miri |
Plateau Guber race: I will abolish
school fees in Primary Schools and divide Plateau state into 400 economic zones-
Godfrey Miri
This is the concluding part of African
Drum interview with Godfrey Miri, the Plateau state gubernatorial candidate
under the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Happy reading.
Sir, taking a look at politics and
democracy, would you say that has been a blessing or a curse to Plateau State?
For
now as far as I am concerned, the kind of politics that we play on the Plateau,
it’s a curse. This is because we have allowed less than a hundred people to manipulate
us for the past years and we know that. We also know who these people are. Look
at Gov. Lalong’s team; the same people; the same sycophants who contributed in
the down fall of Dariye. You see the same old group that has been projecting
their interest in the past years. These are the characters you see around the
governor today.
The
idea of Jerry Useni is all about money. He won the primaries with money.
Everybody knows that without money he wouldn’t have won. So, he bribed the
people the get the ticket. Do you want a corrupt leader? Useni himself admitted
to the people of Nigeria that he is corrupt. When he was asked how he got the
money for all the property he has; he said it was from the allocation of fuel
given to him by Abacha. That shocked me yet the Christendom kept quiet. Here is
somebody telling you that they were doing illegality because he was opportune
to serve the nation. So, from day one, you see where his money was coming from.
It was coming from corruption and the Bible says, money is the root of all
evil. I once told Jang, Dariye and Sango in Jang’s house that I wanted the
three of them to know that the sins of the father shall go for generations
because that is what the Bible says and they are not exempted. If you ask for
forgiveness you must pay restitution. But Jang even tried to have asked for
forgiveness. Useni never asked for forgiveness from anybody. I am yet to hear Lalong
ask for forgiveness from the people for Plateau. I contributed to his victory
and he knows it. He knows the number of meetings that we held between some of us
in the PDP and the religious leaders in other for him to emerge as a governor.
He knows I was part of the coalition that brought him as a governor. And I did
not stop there; I went to see him, sat with him for one and half hours and told
him the problems of Plateau state and how to go about correcting them. When I
finished, I gave him a ten – page write-up on the issue we just finished
discussing with him. He got up and was very appreciative. I waited for one year
before I started criticizing him. So, as I said earlier, the kind of politics
that we play on the Plateau, I would say it’s a curse.
Let’s look at this issue. It was alleged
that you were one of those who brought thump printed ballot papers to Plateau
which aided the victory of Jonah Jang in the 2011 governorship election. It is
also said that because there are certain policies you wanted him to implement
but he refused that is why you have fallen apart. What do you have to say on
this?
Anybody
who told you that does not know what he is saying. From where? I never served
as a REC in Plateau…. Cuts in….
It was said from Gombe.
How can
I bring it from Gombe when every ballot paper has the name of the State on it?
How can I take ballot paper written Gombe and bring it to Plateau? It’s not
possible. And how would I leave Gombe when I am conducting election? That is
what people don’t understand. For your information I was the Resident Electoral
Commissioner that was attacked in Gombe during the 2011 elections.
What I did was very simple. When we went for a
meeting in Abuja, the then REC in Plateau is from Gombe, and I, the REC in
Gombe from Plateau. Now, Gombe with a population of 2.3 million had registered
850,000, voters while Plateau with a population of 3.4 million had registered
slightly above 500,000 voters. So, I asked the REC, what is happening? He said
to me it’s your people. I came to Jang; I asked him what is happening? I told
him that the correct thing for you to do is to make sure you employ technical
people for the Resident Electoral Commissioner, so that when the machines gets
spoiled in the local Governments, they don’t need to put them in a car and
bring them to Jos for repairs. That I did for Jang. The second thing I did for
Jang was my refusal to support Pauline Tallen because I felt it was wrong of
her to challenge her boss while she remains deputy Governor. That if she truly
wants to challenge him, she should resign her position and contest against him.
But for the stupid story that I brought ballot paper is clear that whoever said
that does not know how elections are being conducted. Starting from 2011, you
cannot even in the same state take the ballot paper of constituency A to
constituency B because every constituency is clearly written and marked on each
ballot paper so you cannot even transfer ballot paper from one polling unit to
another polling unit let alone carrying the ballot paper from one state to
another. All these lies they tell you about bringing ballot paper from other
states however, it might surprise you that no state has ever recorded above 45
percent of its total registered voters. So, why are you carrying ballot paper
from one state to another?
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The rate of poverty in Plateau State is
very high. What policies do you have towards changing the story of poverty in
Plateau in the event you are given the mandate to be Governor?
First
and foremost is to have an economic policy that would touch the lives of
everybody. From 1999 till today, all the governors we had on the Plateau have
been talking infrastructure, infrastructure because, that is where they can
steal money. That is where they get their 30 percent kick-back. They are never
interested in policies that would touch the lives of the people because no
percentage comes from it. That is what has killed us. So, if I am given the
mandate to be the governor of Plateau State, the first things I would do is to
abolish school fees in all primary schools in the State. Second, I would feed
the children of the poor in primary schools, one meal a day. That would create
over 400 jobs. If you feed them it means women would be given jobs. Third, I
would divide Plateau State into 400 economic zones of ten thousand people per
economic zone. By doing that, you would remove tribalism and religious
sentiment. I will have a stimulus package of six billion for the zones through
the banks and not through government because anything that goes through
ministries is stolen. I will use the private sector. I will re-organize PIPC.
As a former Managing Director who was very successful, I understand how I can
use that organization. The six billion naira would be share equally to all the
400 economic zones and I would provide a firm of chattered Accountants for each
20 Economic zones to guide them; an investment officer, one in every 20
economic zones to guide them because the biggest problem on the Plateau is lacking
the entrepreneurship ability. So, these two groups are the ones to teach, to
assist people. I would do that. Again, every contractor on the Plateau must
channel 5 percent of the 30 percent mobilization fee to their social
responsibility and if you add that in two years, there would be about 4-5
billion naira. I am an accountant, and I know that in other for the economy to
grow, you must get people productive. I will not construct roads and streets in
any of our towns with coal tar but with inter-locking stones. Go to Bayelsa,
Lagos and other places. Roads are being done with inter-locking stones. We
would employ youths in the quarry. We would employ youths in the factories that
produce these stones. We would employ youths in laying the roads. Three, I
would sell all government houses to the people living in them. The monies that
I would be raised from that exercise, I would go into massive construction of
houses on mortgage; I would work with the Federal Mortgage Bank. I have done
that as a Managing Director, so, it’s not a new thing to me. You do that, you
get people in the building industry. We must turn Plateau into a construction
site with the little we have. You may ask; where would I get the money from?
They don’t collect taxes on the Plateau. For every rented house, for every shop
that you have in every village in Plateau you are suppose to pay government 10
percent of the rent as withholding tax. The entire landlords on the Plateau
don’t pay that tax. I will collect it. Second; certification of every profession. That is
what Lagos state has done, that is what Ogun state has done. That for you to
practice any profession on the Plateau, you must be certified. And of course,
if you are certified, you paid for it and it is done annually which runs into
billions of naira. You can imagine all the teachers, all the lawyers, all the
doctors, all the plumbers, all the electricians all the engineers all the
profession being certified. In Lagos, even if you are selling ground nuts, you
are certified because they collect taxes from that. So, the problem is that we
have people who have no idea of how to succeed in doing anything. All of those
who have been governors all they have learnt is to spent and spent. They have never
thought of creating wealth. We consume alcohol on the plateau. There is no
reason why Plateau State should not be working towards raising enough
internally generated revenue that can meet its over head cost and salaries of
staff so that whatever that comes from Abuja goes into other projects and the
development of our people. Good, introduce the consumption tax on alcohol and
cigarette but you don’t collect it from the poor hoteliers, rather, you collect
it directly from wholesalers. This is as simple as ABC. I have done it.
I
have succeeded in starting a company and turning it into a multi-billion naira
company. That’s what you need to do with Plateau state. There is a lot of money
on the Plateau. Mining too has not been fully tapped because our people don’t
have the initial capital. It is the responsible of Government to provide them
with capital. For God’s sake, Barrack Obama took 1.3 trillion dollars and
pumped into the economy as stimulus for America to come out of recession. What
is stimulus? Taking government money and given it out to the private sector in
other to boost production. Without our people being productive, there is no way
Plateau State will change.
Thank
you very much Sir,
You
are most welcome.
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