2019: Governorship aspirant stands with party on Direct Primaries

A Governorship aspirant under the umbrella of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Kabiru Mafara has indicated his support for the Direct Primaries envisaged by the National Working Committee (NWC) as approved by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.

Senator Mafara representing Zamfara Central Senatorial zone in the Senate also said as a party faithful he wants his party to win the 2019 election at all levels through the direct party stipulated by the party.

Speaking tojournalists at the party secretariat in Abuja on Friday when he came to collect his nomination and expression of interest form, Senator Mafara said: “If the APC headquarters say they want direct or indirect primaries at all level in the forthcoming election, it’s okay; it is for the APC headquarters to determine what manner of primary to be conducted as its in accordance with the party constitution.

“If APC says go for indirect, I will do my direct with my set of executive, they will do their indirect with their own set of executive. So, when the time comes for the court to rule, if they say Marafa is right, I am going home to retire. Thank God I have done business before I came to the Senate.

“So, we opted for direct primaries and the reason is simple. We don’t want to be like them, we don’t want to be selfish, we want APC to win Zamfara, they don’t want APC to win Zamfara, and they don’t want APC to win Nigeria. There are some of the technicalities on those things but it don’t matter”, he said.

According to Mafara who said he is not overly ambitious noted that he doesn’t talk until it is necessary adding, “However, I understand the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which says every Nigerian – man or woman has the right to vie for any elective position in Nigeria.

“The driving force behind my ambition this time is the condition under which my people in Zamfara state live today. The issue of insecurity in Zamfara state is a matter of concern for everybody let alone somebody like me whom his ancestral home of Zamfara State has done a great thing, which I am representing”.

The Governorship aspirant who said the incumbent Governor, Abdulazeez Yari whom he said has been described variously as ‘Absentee Governor’ is not always on ground and so, does not know the yearnings of the people.

“Like I said earlier, the governor has been variously an absentee governor. As I am talking right now, he is not in this country. Imagine, the Chief Security Officer has been absent in his country for more than 9 days. In his absence, Zamfara people are dying; men and women fleeing their hometowns.

“When the governor came back last time, he went straight to Villa to attend National Economic Council meeting. He was on air talking about the illegality of freezing of Benue State account. Not his state. In a civilized society like I said, you members of the press are supposed to chase him out. It is criminal! When your people are being killed in thousands, see what happened in Benue! 73 people were killed.

“Honestly speaking, with sincerity of purpose, that is what is lacking today. And the answer to this is clear. That is why the Minister of internal affairs once had course to say that if you like, deploy all the Military in Nigeria to Zamfara, they can achieve nothing, because the government of the state is not on ground, uninterested in anything”.

He further stressed that as one of the longest serving Senator in the ‘Red Chamber’ today, he has all it takes to put Zamfara State on the right path.

“This is my seventh year in the National Assembly, I got to the senate in 2011 and like I said, I have nursed ambition to contest with my governor in 2011.

The attitude of the government in Zamfara state dictates that all sons and daughters of Zamfara must put their hands on deck to ensure that we deal with the issue of insecurity decisively because one can say without fear of any contradiction that as we live today, there is no government in Zamfara state.

“It is a common knowledge that the governor should tackle the insecurity and other problems in the state but he absconded; he should come out publicly to say that he is resigning his position as Chief Security Officer of Zamfara State. In a civilized democracy, he was supposed to resign or be forced to resign”, he said.