Ambassador Moses Kyari is the Publicity Secretary of All Progressive Congress (APC) Gombe State. In this interview with Sola Shittu in Gombe Kyari said the ruling party will have an overwhelming victory across the northeastern state during the forthcoming 2023 general elections.

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It’s been three and a half years of APC rule in Gombe State. What can you say has changed in the business of government?

Certainly the coming of the government of APC in Gombe State under the leadership of Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya, has brought fundamental changes in both the acts of governance and politics of the state. Before he came into government, he had already prepared a document which he presented to the people of Gombe State as an agreement of what he was going to do if elected. I believe the people of Gombe State were confident and were at home with the document and that was why they voted for him.

I can say that thus far he has been able to achieve 96 percent of those things he promised and even those he did not promise because the impact of his government is felt across all stratus of lives; from roads, health, education, and to the general well being of the people of Gombe State. Most importantly, he has been able to secure the lives and property of the people despite the fact that the state is surrounded by neighboring states facing the issues of Boko Haram insurgency, banditry and so on.

He realized the importance of security of lives and property; that was why on coming into office he created the Ministry of Internal Security. He has been able to collaborate with other security agencies and that was why he created a multifaceted and multidimensional security outfit called Operation Hattara, where vehicles were bought and properly equipped to carry out surveillance and intelligence. He also organized the first security summit in Gombe State. The Inspector General of Police was here alongside other security experts and they discussed the need to have a secured Gombe State.

Not just that, he has been having constant meetings with the Chairmen of local government areas and traditional rulers as well as eminent citizens of the state and funds are made available for this committee to be functional and proactive in dealing with security issues. Remember that when he came into government there was an outbreak of COVID-19 and there was locked down all over and the world economy suffered. Yet, he was able to go through without necessarily borrowing heavily to be able to take care of all that is expected of the government. It is also to the credit of Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya that an internationally recognized body called BUDGIT rated Gombe State as the first in the North East as far as prudent financial management is concerned, the third in the entire North and 7th in the country.

That wouldn’t have been possible unless you have a governor that is more versed in managing the resources of Gombe State. The parameters this organization used in arriving at this conclusion is by juxtaposing internal revenue with expenditure and internal or external borrowing. The Governor was found to be very prudent and that is why he has been able to impact positively on the lives of the people of Gombe State.

Recently there was internal wrangling in the party, what impact do you think this can have on the 2023 election?

What is the wrangling in the party? As far as I am concerned there are no internal wrangling in the party. What we have previously, was an attempt by a former Governor and the Senator representing Gombe Central Alhaji Danjuma Goje not to accept the leadership of the party because he claimed that he was not carried along in the formation of the party forgetting that the leadership of the party as enshrined by the constitution is headed by the Governor.

Therefore, he made an attempt to disrupt the peace of the state by invading the state with thugs that he was known for, but for the sagacity and prudence, patient and maturity of the Governor, he was able to tackle the problem and he has accepted the leadership of Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya which eventually resulted in his emergence as the senatorial candidate Gombe Central Senatorial District. If you remember, the Governor was there when the primary was conducted and he was the one that raised his hand as the winner of the primary. So as far as APC Gombe State is concerned, we are one united family well focused to face our opponent in the 2023 general election.

You are aware of the internal wrangling within the opposition party Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) both at the national and state levels. We have a situation where a former gubernatorial candidate is the one accepted by the presidential candidate and another situation where the gubernatorial candidate does not agree with the presidential candidate because of his affiliation with the former Governor, Hassan Dankwambo who has openly identified with the Wike camp and do not support Atiku Abubakar camp as the presidential candidate of the party. So that is the party that is in crisis, as far as APC in Gombe and indeed Nigeria is concerned we are one united family and we don’t have internal wrangling.

Recently, a committee was set up to look into complaints that emanated after the party primaries. How about that one?

The reconciliation has gone very smoothly. I want to tell you that Gombe was the first APC chapter to set up a reconciliation committee to reconcile those party members who lost out during the primary elections. The committee came out with a resolution that the money of those who contested and loss were returned and in addition, political appointments were given to them. Yes, there are one or two persons that went to court but by the constitution of the party, anybody that take the party to court without exhausting internal party mechanism is expelled from the party but the Governor in his magnanimity has asked that we don’t expel them but wait and see the outcome of the court cases.

Whatever the outcome may be, I can assure you it is going to be in favour of the party because the party carried out a true transparent primary election. It is however normal for Nigerian politicians to think he has been sidelined after losing an election. So let them go and exhaust the court process, they will come back and meet us in the party.

Do you think that after the court things will return to normalcy again?

Of course yes, one of the aggrieved persons that went to court, Senator B. K Amos, was nominated by Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya as a member of the Presidential Campaign Council and he emerged as the secretary of the finance committee. The reconciliation process is already taking place.

Don’t you see the recent increase in the use of thugs and Kalare boys by politicians as a threat to the relative peace enjoyed by Gombe, especially as we move closer to the 2023 general election?

I want to say for record purpose that APC is a very peaceful party. Violence is a strange phenomenon to us in APC. There has never been any time where the Governor, had cause to use violence or thugs. We had a meeting with the state Commissioner of police where we all agreed and he gave a code of conduct for campaign in Gombe State. The commissioner of police made it abundantly clear that anybody who carried any type of weapon; whether it is a stick, Dane gun, a sword or any of such things will be arrested. For the purpose of campaign, nobody is allowed to carry any of those things. The Commissioner of police also advised that our campaign should be issue based.

It is to my greatest surprised that when the former Governor of the state, Alhaji Hassan Dankwambo in company of the PDP gubernatorial aspirant, Jibrin Barde came into Gombe with hordes of thugs carrying all manners of dangerous weapons in the name of welcoming the duo into the state. In the course of that, some of the billboards and property of the APC were destroyed. It is on record that PDP members because they know they cannot win the election is preparing for violence but I want to assure them that this government is up and doing and anybody who is going to threaten the peace of the state will be dealt with. So I want to call on the opposition party to know that politics is not war and politics is a game.

Some politicians recently decamped from your party to the opposition PDP. Don’t you think this can affect the fortune of your party?

It can not in any way affect our fortune. If I can recall very well when this supposed APC politicians decamped, I addressed a press conference where I said those people that are living are political merchants. I mentioned the likes of Jamilu Gwamna and Jibril Dan Barde, they all left APC not because the party was not performing but because they want to contest for the governorship position. If they are to remain in APC certainly the first right of refusal is for Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya and from all indications, he has done creditably well and we felt there was no need to change the goalkeeper while the game is still on.

That was why they left for the PDP to give vent to their aspiration. Most of them were disappointed and because of that they are not working for the party. For us in the APC, those who decamped into party believed that the governor has done well and he deserved to be given a second term. That is why the likes of Walama, Umar, Danjuma Mele, Haruna Samanja and so on decamped from the PDP to the APC These are the kind of quality people that are coming to our party. We have intelligence report that all those that left are trying to find their way back to the party again.

As far as we are concerned, APC in Gombe State will be returned not only as the winner of the 2023 Governorship election but also the entire general election. Probably the opposition might win one or two seats in the state assembly election but I can assure you that we are going to have overwhelming majority members in the house.

First, we are going to have a smooth sail as far as Governor Inuwa Yahaya is concerned. I don’t know what is going on in the mind of the opposition but if they are nursing violent election we are going to disappoint them. We are going to take every step to ensure that the elections in Gombe State are peaceful. In spite of the crisis in Biliri, APC will win the election because a lot of water has passed under the bridge. We have mended a lot of fences and a lot of people are coming into the party. Our Senatorial candidates are second to none. We have in Gombe South a former member House of Representatives, former Deputy Governor and two terms senator.

In Gombe Central, we have a former governor and three terms senator and we have in Gombe North, a three terms senator. He was the same person that defeated Dankwambo in 2019 and I can assure you, he will defeat him again because the people of Gombe now know who loves them. Dankwambo was away from Gombe for three years. He only came in recently because he wanted to contest for an election. You just wait and see.