Former Executive Direction, Rural Electrification Agency, Sanusi Ohiare, in this interview with a select media, moments after he appeared before the APC screening committee for the November 11 governorship election in the state, spoke on his vision and what stands him out among other aspirants.
OGUWUIKE NNADI was there for the The AUTHORITY
How did it go
It went well, as you know I resigned my appointment as an executive director at the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) on the 17th February, 2023 to pick the expression of interest and nomination forms for the governorship of my state. And running for governor is not a tea party so it wasn’t a decision that I take lightly. I look out at the outcome and what it takes to offer myself to run and continue on the work that the current governor Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello is doing in the state and I feel that this is the right time for me to go in and consolidate because different times requires different set of skills and leadership to make progress in the life of a country or community or state.
A state like Kogi looking at our background where we are coming from, we have a governor that has come and stabilise the state and secure state and is peaceful now so is ripe for investments. From my background as somebody that managed the fund; the poorest fund in the country we were able to turn it around and attracted a lot of people and private funding into the rural communities. I think, it is time for someone that has my own kind of skills to come in and consolidate on what the governor has done, make sure that we have security in place and attract a lot of funding and investments to come in and help us generate employment and increase our revenue going forward.
What were most challenging moments during the screening
It wasn’t really challenging. The question that has to do with my experience, the manifesto of the party, and the mission that we have for the state. And at this time I feel we also need someone that is young, energetic, that has the capacity, integrity and the vision that can move the state forward. The vision is for us in Kogi to move towards industrialisation so that we can solve our unemployment because we have a lot of young people out there, they have been to school, they studied, worked hard and there is no job for them and Kogi has what it takes for us to open up space for private investors to come in and I have what it takes to lead this vision.
What stood Sanusi out among other aspirants
Check our profiles. I am not trying to downplay anybody’s efforts but if you look at our profiles, the kind of leadership we need now is to move the state forward you will know that none of them come close to me.
How prepared are you for the primaries.
I am prepared for the primaries because I have hope and faith in our delegates to know the right person and leader at this time. A lot of us have being in touch with them, we have been very close to the party, we have done a lot of works at the grassroots. So we have a track record we not just coming up to ask for their support. The party also knows the best for them fly because we still have PDP to meet. So, someone like me with the projects I have done in the past I have traces in every local government; every community in Kogi state and we always stood for the party. Part of the message to the delegates is for them to look beyond the usual ways that things are being done; where handouts are given to them to vote, look at track records, look at people that have impacted their lives positively and look at the vision that we have and the capacity of everybody to deliver on this vision and make their choices based on that. I will still be sending a direct message to the delegates. But in the nutshell, we need to move beyond that kind of politics.
How do you intend to increase the IGR of Kogi state
Kogi has some certain advantages, for instance the River Niger and River Benue it used to be an trade zone so we have plans to work with the federal government and private sector to build an inland port. This inland ports come with a lot of other benefits and investments. We have railway that running between Itape and Warri we want to connect it to Abuja, effectively to Kaduna and Kano and build an airport.
The idea is to make a Kogi as the logistics hub of the country…Kogi can serve the northern part of the country in terms of business and trade. So, if we are able to do this, we have the Ajaokuta- Kaduna-Kano rail line that is being built and hopefully in the next one year or so it will ready. We want to tap on that to build industries along this route. This will help to generate jobs, it will help to increase our revenue. In the meantime before all of these investments come in, we want to close the loopholes in terms of what we receive as internally degenerated revenue, open the tax net not necessarily increase but widen taxes so we can get more people to pay taxes and of course use this money judiciously so that people can what we are using the money to do in terms of infrastructure and their welfare.
