Kaduna State APC Youth Leader, Malam Aminu Lawal Na-Anty has said that Governor, Malam Nasir El-rufai is a focused leader who does not join issues with his detractors.
Malam Na-Anty, in this interview with Saturday Sun, noted that those who are trying to distract El-rufai from making Kaduna great are wasting their time because the governor will not pay attention to them.
As the APC youth leader in Kaduna State, can you tell us how politics in the state has been since Governor El-rufai came to power in 2015?
Well, the politics in the State for now, is about how the governor will fulfil his campaign promises to the people of the state. The governor deliberately refused to join issues with those who are trying to distract him. And I can tell you that Governor El-rufai is too focused to be distracted. Those who are trying to distract him are just wasting their time because Malam is not going to reply them over politics of distraction and misinformation. When it is time for 2019 politics, the governor will play, but for now, he is working day and night to deliver the dividends of democracy to the good people of Kaduna State.
There is a splinter group in the state called APC-AKIDA, do you also have same division in the youth wing of the APC?
We don’t have any division or faction in APC. We only read about factions on the pages of newspapers, but on ground, we don’t have any faction in APC in Kaduna State. We have only one APC .
But the splinter group under APC-AKIDA is insisting that they are the authentic APC in Kaduna. How will you react to this?
How will I know? You are a journalist, find out their office and tell us where it is located; where their secretariat is located, and who do they deal with at the national headquarters. So, as far as we are concerned, we have only one APC in Kaduna State and everybody knows where our office is located, near Lord Lugard roundabout in the city centre. So, we have only one APC in Kaduna State.
The other APC, if at all there is anything like that, it only exists on the pages of newspapers solely to distract the government of the day. In politics, even two or three persons within their house, they may decide to create factions in order to get unnecessary attention, but in the real sense, in Kaduna State, from the wards level, local government level to the State level, APC is one house and one entity, and it is intact as a political party in Kaduna State.
How do you intend to mobilise the youth to support the governor in 2019?
In 2019, youths will be mobilised 100 percent to support Malam. The most important thing is that the governor did not disappoint us in the first mandate we gave him. We are satisfied with the governor’s performance in the first mandate that we gave him, he did well, and he is still doing very well. So the second mandate is going to be a walk over for him. We don’t have any fear about any other political party coming to take victory from APC because the governor has earned the confidence of the electorate. Everybody is seeing the good work of the governor across the state. Go to any local government area, you would see one or two projects being sited by the governor.
What role do you think the youths can play to ensure that the political feud between the governor and Senator Shehu Sani ceases, because as it is now, the fight appears to be affecting the development of the state since it is said that a house divided against itself cannot stand?
Well, I always tell people whenever they ask me about my impression about this political fight between Senator Sani and the governor, that Malam El-rufai cannot be distracted by anybody. He was elected to run the first term of four years, and the other Senator that represents Kaduna central, that is zone 2, he has his own mandate, what has he done? What constituency project has he introduced to the people? We see many other senators across the country, building hospitals, schools, giving scholarships to the people of their constituency. What has our own Senator contributed to his own constituency? Let him use his mandate for the betterment of the people.
We will not join issues with him because we know his antecedent; he wants to be followed rather than follow the leader. He wants to be the leader at every given opportunity. He is a Senator, El-rufai is a governor, so what is his problem? He should join hands with the governor and work for the State rather than fighting the governor and this will not augur well for our dear state.
In the light of what is happening between Governor El-rufai and Senator Shehu Sani, will you work for the Senator in 2019 election as a way of making peace between the two?
How will I work for somebody that is not yet in our party because he has been suspended from the party? So, we will not be able to work for him. But any time he shows remorse and is back to our party, we should be able to work together. But for now, since he is still on suspension I cannot work for him. I don’t even think that any APC member in the State can associate with him.
What is your advice to Governor El-rufai on how to handle Senator Shehu Sani?
I advise that the governor should concentrate on what he is doing for the state in order to make Kaduna great again. He should not be distracted by negative things people are saying about his leadership style, that is the prize of being a leader. You cannot please everybody. Let the governor deliver on the mandate given to him by the people. He should not be distracted.
Barely a month after Governor El-rufai’s memo to President Muhammadu Buhari was leaked to the press, similar memo was written to the governor by the APC Caucus chairman, Ahmed Tijjani Ramalan, saying that El-Rufai has no justification to write such memo because what he (El-Rufai) accused President Buhari of, he too is guilty of it. What is your take on this?
I don’t know what is happening in the State that is similar to what Governor El-rufai wrote about to President Buhari at the national level. If APC Caucus chairman wanted to advise El-rufai, he shouldn’t have ‑made it public.
It should be a private memo, not public because if you make it public, it is no longer an advice. So I think Ramalan has his own agenda for making the memo public.