Why APC Won Kaduna – Dep Gov Elect

Hon Bala Barnabas Bantex is a former House of Representatives member, Local government Chairman and current Kaduna State Deputy Governor-elect. In this interview with journalists in Kaduna, the first elected All Progressive Congress (APC) Party Chairman in Kaduna State attributed the victory of his party to the formidable team they have. He also spoke on the performance of APC in Southern Kaduna and other National issues. SUNDAY ISUWA was there.
Excerpts:

What is your observation about the just concluded elections?
My observation is that more people are now surer that their votes truly count. Here I want to give my kudos to Professor Jega and members of INEC. I want to give kudos to the security agencies. More importantly, I want to give kudos to the electorate who exercised a lot of restraint and have been patient and have followed the rule of law in the process with some element of trust and believe in the system. The peaceful nature of election was encouraging. A lot of people before the election thought that it was going to be crises ridden. But it went peacefully, we thank God and pray that our dear president elect, Gen Muhammadu Buhari, God will give him the wisdom and the strength to be able to meet up with the expectations of the largely poor and traumatised Nigerians who voted massively for him. For El-rufai in Kaduna State, I also wish that the skills God has given him will be instrumental in bringing Kaduna out of the present sorry state. The state is into a massive debt profile. I pray that God will give him the wisdom to pull the state out of this serious debt pro9file. For me, as someone who has the singular honour and privilege at this time to work with an expert such as El-rufai. I hope that God will also give me the opportunity to contribute my little quarter to the development of Kaduna State.

Was there any security bridge?
No, there were some minor issues but in the southern part of Kaduna State, the election went well. But my friends from the Northern part of the state told me there were some few incidences but generally, it
was peaceful. What the enemy wanted for Kaduna State, was to create a magnitude of crises that will probably leads to the declaration of a state of emergency, God averted that and we are very happy.

What will you say to the people of Kaduna state especially those from the Southern part?
I want to express my happiness that some have realised the need for change. There were some cynicism about the party, about what it represents, about what her background was but it was not unusual for people who have been caged for about 16 years by a very deceitful party. I appreciate where they were coming from, and what they were doing, but I also appreciate the strategic move some of the Southern Kaduna people made just on good time to bail themselves out. It would have been a political catastrophe. They would have become marginalised in the Nigeria Nation and the state in particular. Pulling themselves particularly out of misdirection to a proper place is a good thing. I’m proud of them because the APC is here to stay in Southern Kaduna and it will bring about things that will be truly a lot better than what the PDP have offered to the region for over 16 years. My belief is that at the end of our tenure, by God’s willing, rather than come flying the flag of religion and ethnicity, we will come up with a stewardship report as a basis for asking for support.

Were you impressed by the turnout?
Yes, I know that there was low turnout. It was quite unfortunate because the closer the government is to the people, the more concerned they will have. If you look at it, in the United States, what happens in Washington is not a concern to somebody in Texas because they are not close. Democracy is evolving and for anybody to imagine that to care less about the people but the election, is a wrong notion. But the wind of change has already decided for everybody to redirect everything and a lot of people saw that direction in the presidential polls. Once a direction is taken, and a mandate given, it was like fait accompli at the state level particularly the PDP members who lost out in the presidential election and they knew the effect of a bandwagon and its implication. They didn’t wait to be declared as supporters of losers and they just decided to stay back and be better off. I think, largely, the absent of PDP members at the polling centres was because they believe strongly on the candidate of the APC President elect. Am a lot happier, being the state chairman of the party that transformed
the opposition into the leading party. I said leading party because our president elect said APC is not a ruling party, but a leading party. That is what I’m most proud of. When I became the first chairman of the party, in our inaugural meeting, we only had a prayer and left. Our prayer was that God should make the leadership of the party great. We pray that God should give her the opportunity and placed her in the history books and transform her from an opposition party to a ruling party. That has happened. God answered our prayer and we are truly very happy. I hope that whoever will take from me as the party chairman, if need be, let him raise the bar for party leaders in such a way that whoever finds himself in the position of a chairman of a ward or a local government, must bear the same qualification with someone holding an executive position. Preferably, even more educated because by my own judgment, that is where a lot of work should be done.