Prince Abdullahi Musa Agwai spoke to a team of Factfile News Magazine Editors in Lafia, Nasarawa State, about some important issues in the state. Below are the excerpts
Factfile: Who is Prince Abdullahi Musa Agwai? Popularly known as Alhajin Turaki?
Turaki: Let me say a little about my self, my name is Prince Abdullahi Musa Agwai, I am popularly known as Alhajin Turaki but at times the elderly people call me Alhaji Dubagari, especially people from the age bracket of 55 years and above and by now they call me Ojika Khalago. A name given to me by the people.
so in a nutshell, I went to school locally and afterwards I went to school in the U.S.
I have had my fair shares of life.
Factfile: Sir, What is the meaning of Ojika Khalago?
Turaki: I am among the very few people who happens to be a grandson, a great grandson and a great great grandson of the Alago nation, which includes Keana, Obi, Assakio, Doma, am a grand child to all the people living in these places, both paternally and maternally, both from my grandmother side and my grandfather side too. That why they call me Ojika Khalago. Meaning the grandchild of the Alago nation.
Factfile: Can you give us a brief history of your political antecedents?
Turaki: Am not a green horn in politics. Fortunately for me I grew up in a political family, my late father was the first Senator from Lafia and my cousin the late Yahaya Sabo, was a prominent politician during the Sardauna and Aminu Kano era and a force to reckon with then politically. With that you can see that politics runs in my blood. I had been a politician for a long time, I have contested for elective posts in Nasarawa State. In my last contest for elective post for Nasarawa South Senatorial District I made some people jittery and scared. So I have been in politics since. I believe that in politics there is no permanent friend nor permanent enemy but only permanent interest. And if you are voted into power by the people, you are the servant of the people and not the people your servant. That how I believe it is.
Factfile: Sir, the political race is on now, even though the ban on political activities has not been officially lifted yet. Being a key player in Nasarawa State politics how do you think the pendulum will swing, especially in the governorship election? Because we have political big wigs contesting for the governor of the state.
Turaki: From the looks of things from the Federal to the states in Nigeria, everything is turning into a one party system, with one party trying to take everything, I don’t know how the pendulum will swing politically this time around and with the issue of the coalition going on, it is a hard guess to make, we are watching. In Nigeria you can’t be a politician without being rich, especially if you are contesting for an elective post or without having a god father.
The good thing is that all the people coming out for the seat of the governor are people with integrity and have administrative experience, they have been working for the government or had worked for the government. Which is a good thing.
Factfile: Among all these aspirants who are you likely to support?
Turaki: Support for now? When the aspirants have not even won the primaries of their parties yet? Even the political parties have not conducted their primaries yet. If the time comes we shall cross that bridge. Even the aspirants themselves will tell you that they are still consulting the people.
Factfile: Sir, you have contested as a Senator despite not clitching the seat but you caused a lot of uproar and unsettled all the aspirants and send jittery down a lot of people spine. Your political train was spectacular. How did you do this? Did you have a godfather then?
Turaki: This is a tough question, but I will try my best to simplify it. I attribute all this to Allah and the people. The support we got was massive, the people were behind us, from Lafia, to Doma, to Assakio, to Obi, to Keana just name it, the people of Nasarawa South were solidly behind us. But our mandate given to us by the people was stolen by the Powers that be in Nasarawa State in conjunction with INEC by removing our logo from the ballot papers on the day of voting.
I have never had a political godfather or a money bag to sponsor any of my elections, I always do my things alone. I was a loner in the political field, what I was lacking then was a political godfather. The people believe in me, they love the message I brought, because they were disappointed in the people in power then at that particular time. Even me I couldn’t explain it, the massive love we were getting everywhere we went to was over whelming. I can only say Allahamdullilah for everything.
Factfile: Sir, how can you rate the achievements of Engr. Abdullahi Sule led administration in Nasarawa State?
Turaki: I want to tell everybody and I want everybody to know that Engr. Abdullahi Sule is God sent to Nasarawa State. His coming back to Nigeria is devine. I have known Engr. Abdullahi Sule, for almost 30 years now, right from our days together in America, he was a one time president of our organization in America called The Northern People in America, also know as Zumunta. It was through that Zumunta that Engr. Abdullahi Sule happened to come back to Nigeria, when he was our president then, we had a wonderful relationship. During the conversion of our organization the and the handing over of power of the Engr. Abdullahi Sule as the president of Zumunta which coincide with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar visit to the US then as the Vice-President, he was telling Nigerians in Diaspora to come back home and contribute their quota to their fatherland. He was introduced to Engr. Sule, he told Engr. Sule to come back home that after his education and with his wealth of experience that he was really needed in Nigeria, which he accepted. At his handover as the president of Zumunta during his handover speech he said “I am going back to Nigeria, I am from you people, am going to contribute my quota to my fatherland, I will show the people back home that we can also do it”. So we all prayed for him and today the rest is history. When he came he was offered a job in Sadiq Oil and gas where he contributed his own quota where he rose to the Pinnacle of his profession. When he was campaigning to be the governor of Nasarawa State I wasn’t in the same party with him but I believe that he was going to be the game changer and I worked for him tirelessly. If am to rate Engr. Abdullahi Sule administration I can only say that his administration has done wonderfully well in all sphere of Governance in Nasarawa State.i have seen other administrations in Nasarawa State but I can tell you that none of them is comparable to Abdullahi Sule’s administration in Nasarawa State. In terms of infrastructural facilities, security, human endeavors etc. Engr. A.A Sule has really impacted in the life of the people of the state. And we are with him and he is carrying us along. He has and is doing well for the state. Today Engr. A Sule is building a world class Secretariat, we have our first flyover bridge, and there are roads all over the states, courtesy of A.A Sule administration.
Factfile: You are a social critics, you have spoken on some issues in the past, for instance the deplorable state of some public schools in the state and the issue of water supply within the state all these the government took action on, recently we haven’t heard anything from you sir? What is happening?
Turaki: When you are a critic, you don’t allow personal sentiments in your judgement. I spoke about the deplorable states of some public schools in Nasarawa State both secondary and primary schools, I told the state government that it is nonsense if you are building new schools and the old ones are not maintained, how can you justify the goodness of what you are doing? In his wisdom the governor looked into what I said and now as we spoke there is a tender being opened, it about the rehabilitation of those schools, the building of headmaster offices, administrative blocks, rehabilitation of those classes in need of renovations and building of toilets in these schools, instead of building new ones. Now there is an improvement on the training of teachers, which is very important. When A.A Sule came, he put Nasarawa State on financial monitoring, which curb reckless spending. He made sure that he paid off every penny the state was owing in his first tenure as the governor, today he has made the state debt free and to his credit he has improve IGR of the state. Nasarawa State is the first state that is debt free. That is a great achievement. Today Nasarawa State is on the verge of having uninterrupted water supply like every other state. If you don’t have financial independence you can’t achieve anything. I believe everybody should understand what that means administratively and how to run the state. It not about going around and be shouting on social media, making noise, because you don’t like A.A Sule or something like that. It doesn’t make sense. Today go to the hospitals there are drugs that weren’t in the hospitals before but they are now in the hospitals in the state now. What at I want to talk about on behalf of the people is that the government should try and subsidize some of these drugs so that the people can afford them, because the people can’t afford them because of financial constraints.
Factfile: Some people are talking about the 2027 governorship election in Nasarawa State, based on indigenous line. What do you have to say about this?
Turaki: What I always say is this, these people that always talk about this indigenous thing, I always ask them this questions? who are they? What is their contributions to Nasarawa State? These people are just bunch of young men, who are just sitting doing nothing and not contributing meaningfully to the state, there is a saying in hausaland, when you see Kudo (there is this tiny insect called Kudo, it always stays in clean places), when you sing for this insect you will see it dancing under the sand, but you don’t know who is beating the drum for him. I liken what is happening to the dance of the insect Kudo, those young men talking about indigenous governor or so, have elders because even in every family there are elders, since they been talking about this indigenous thing, what have the elders say? Who have called them to order? Nobody. So I challenge those elders from those communities to bring it to an end. It is not good for anybody. They don’t have the powers or numbers to get what they want. I think that these people talking about this indigenous thing are taking the template from the old Plateau State, where the Berom people brought the issue of minority and majority. Here today in Nasarawa State some tribes have bought into that theory believing that it will work, I tell you that is not going to work here in Nasarawa State.
Because, Lafia is the stabilizer to all this things happening, we have the electorate numbers. I believe that your goodness should give you what you are looking for not by thinking that you are from this tribe, or this religion, or that you from this family, all these won’t work. We will continue to accept any person from anywhere, with a good heart and intentions in Nasarawa State.
Factfile: Who is an indigene in Nasarawa State?
Turaki: To me an indigene in Nasarawa State is anybody that comes to the state, pay his tax, invest in Nasarawa and live peacefully is an indigene.
We must become one. Whoever wants to rule Nasarawa State must be a good person, a person that will carry everybody along, the Muslim, the Christian, and everybody tribe along. Pls anybody talking about indigenous thing, should be called to order, no matter the tribe, the religion, the political party and I believe there are elders in their communities too to call them to order, if not, it means that they are supporting what this boys are talking.
Factfile: Sir, politically where are you now and what do you want for Nasarawa State?
Turaki: Am a politician, don’t worry when we reach that bridge we will cross it. Am glad that all the aspirants are very much qualified for the post.
Am not choosing anybody for now because we haven’t reached that stage yet, when we reach that stage you will know who I am backing, for now nobody has won his party primaries yet. But there are people that I like. Am not giving you a name for now, that is too personal.
What I want is that I want Nasarawa State to be one, I want us to remove remove religion out of it, tribal sentiments out of it. So that we can have a peaceful a Nasarawa State of our dreams.
