Professor Muhammad Sani Yahaya, a former vice chancellor of Taraba State University, was the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 election in the state. In this exclusive interview, Yahaya who lost to incumbent Darius Ishaku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at both the poll and tribunal, expresses optimism that he will win at the appeal court.
How did you get into the Taraba State governorship race?
I became the candidate of the party after the disqualification of His Excellency Abubakar Sani Danladi, a former deputy and later acting governor of Taraba State, by the Supreme Court. I replaced him as a result of being the second runner up during the primaries of the APC in the state.
I am now fully engaged with litigations arising from the election. We just finished the first lap of the tribunal, judgement has been given and we have appealed the judgement at the Court of Appeal and we are waiting for the ruling.
At both the poll and tribunal, Governor Darius Ishaku emerged victorious. Why do you think you will win at the Court of Appeal?
First of all, we went to the tribunal because we were not treated fairly during the governorship election in Taraba State. We saw that we won the election and by virtue of the declaration we were not given all our votes. Votes that should have been allocated to us were not counted. We felt the need to go and redress the injustice meted against us by way of rigging, over voting and other acts that took place during the election.
We brought all our witnesses, over 53 people while our opponent, PDP brought just three and out of the three, two persons agreed with us that the election was rigged and the true process was not followed in accordance with the Electoral Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We proved without doubt that during the tribunal ruling, 21 grounds were given to us by the tribunal but we were surprised after the judgment three somersaulted and it was turned against us and given to our opponent.
We felt it was not a good judgment and since there is room for appeal, we went to the Court of Appeal and we are waiting for judgment.
We believe the final verdict will be to our favour because Tarabans need change and it is leaders like us that can bring about the change. If you have been to Taraba in the last 10 years and still go there today, nothing has changed, everything is still the same, there is no improvement in infrastructure, insecurity is the order of the day and kidnapping is still rampant there. Even in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa, kidnapping has subsided but in Taraba it keeps increasing.
Talking about social welfare, not every worker in Taraba gets his or her salary as at when due. Even the pensioners, there is no positive report from them. We Tarabans are not happy with what is going on. Every month, money is released to state for development but Taraba is still underdeveloped. Adamawa State for instance is developing.
If you succeed in ousting Governor Ishaku, how do you intend to tackle the challenges facing the state?
People who know me well, can speak of my capability from what I have done in the past. One of the negative issues in Taraba is that of tribalism, sectionalism and other social ills that tend to impede development. I advocate for fairness. Leaders do not treat Tarabans with fairness. As a leader, if you treat your subordinates fairly, nobody will complain that you are biased.
Ten years back, Taraba was peaceful but now Taraba is the most insecure state in Nigeria because of lack of fairness. We will try as much as possible to be fair with people, making sure that we treat one another as siblings. So if we win this case, we will make a new Taraba. We will make sure people get their salaries at the right time and ensure that we do what is needed for a developed state.
What hope can you give ‘Tarabans’ in view of the grim picture you have painted?
Let us unite; let us treat one another as siblings. I will improve on the issue of security. Let’s stop stoking ethno-religious fires that may end up consuming us.
As a good leader, I promise to bring a new Taraba. We will ensure that this project is achieved not only for Tarabans but also for Nigeria.
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