‘My passion for humanity drives me to serve’

Hon. Joshua Izam Madaki is the immediate past Speaker of Plateau State 8th Assembly who represented Jos East Constituency. In this interview with CELESTINE ATTSAR, he barred his mind on topical issues and the upcoming All Progressive Congress (APC) Chairmanship elections:

WHY do you aspire to be the chairman of All Progressive  Congress (APC) in Plateau State?

In the first instance, my aspiration after I left the Speakership position is in line with my passion to serve humanity. I want to serve the people of Plateau State in that capacity. As a person that served as  Speaker of the State Assembly, I think I am familiar with the state as a whole. And again, the position of the chairmanship of the party has been zoned to the Northern Zone of the state which I belong to. I asked for the blessings of my people and at the end of the day, I came out to be the sole candidate vying for the position in my constituency. Though there are still some constestants from the zone but we are still talking. Maybe we will have an understanding and broker a consensus. But I have a good mission and vision for the party if given the opportunity to serve.

There are a lot of complain arising from the local government congresses and also the local government primaries which have threatened the unity of the party. When given the mandate to serve come October activities, how are you going to reunite these aggrieved members?

In fact that is one of the major issues that is pertinent to my heart. As a political party, our actives are defined by our constitution and these are what guide every procedure and active ties of the party. It is very unfortunate to some extent, how some issues are cropping up after the primaries and ward congresses. When given the opportunity, I will do everything to address all these grievances, arising from the congresses at the local government level. In addition to that, my intention is to make the party stronger than any individual. When we succeed, that is when its activities will flow successfully devoid of any unnecessary rancour.

But today, we have people who have made themselves stronger than the party they belong to. And definitely as an individual, if you are the one that decides the fate of the people, is that going be a true democracy? Democracy is all about you going out there to test yourself and assess all those that are willing to go for various positions. They on their make their good intentions known by allowing them to select the most credible person they need at a point in time. That is when the loyalty of the followers would be the tested for the person occupying that position. So those are some of my visions and mission to the  party when elected. My approach will be guided by what the rules of the game permit to do.

What is your take on the recent misunderstanding between the state governor and the state assembly?

Well, actually that was an unfortunate happening that took place in the trinity of governance where we have the three arms of government. First and foremost, there are defined roles that each of these arms of government play in the act of governance. The constitution has given the legislative arm the power to make laws for the smooth running of the other two arms, that is the executive                                                                                                     and the judiciary. There is also need for synergy between these three arms of government, if there is misunderstanding it is state and the people that will be at the receiving end. Now to me the reason why these issues broke out was due to lack of understanding between the executive and the legislative arm and as at the time, the legislative arm was confronted with the recent challenges of the moment that prompted them to do what they did. They could have solicited for an emergency audience as people of the same family to brook an understanding over the challenges of the moment by placing on the table their demands as the representatives of the people. And if their demands are  met, the executive must have taken care of their challenges. But that did not work. And you know, of course, every other issue that was  mentioned on the floor of the House has its own limitation. Constitutionally decided cases, motions, resolutions passed before the House are not binding on the Executive but must be persuasive trying to draw the attention of the other side that is supposed to implement the resolution. And because it is not binding on the other side, it is now left for the person to decide to implement it or not.

But the dialogue table leaves no stone unturned. The Executive cannot operate successfully in our democracy without the support of the legislature, in like manner, the legislature cannot achieve its desired goal without the executive arm and that is the issue. If the two arms of government are fighting, who will be at the receiving end? That is why I see it as a family issue. This also plays out at times at the National Assembly. Periodically, leadership of National Assembly goes to the Villa to intimate the Executive about some of the things that are before their table and they get the view of the Executive and they settle their differences. Now when they come, they will discharge the functions as legislators. But in our own case, I think that kind of synergy was absent that was what fueled the situation to the extent that it became glaring that there was a problem between the Executive and the Legislative arms in the state. And of course, it is unfortunate the man at the helm of the affairs of the state is a product of the Legislative arm of government. I believe there is need for them to discuss issues with him or to bring him into reasoning, he understands issues faster because he is a product of that arm. So why the need for this kind of rancor?

So , I will encourage periodical dialogue. And where there are issues of importance, that is indicting the representation mandate of the legislators, they should be able to seek an audience in other to ratify the problem before they go  to the Assembly floor.

What is your take on the statement by some section of the country that power must be given to them” come 2023.

This  started when the military was in power in this country. If you look at it from the creation of the country called Nigeria, there was a lot of imbalance, geopolitically. Ordinarily, I would have bought the idea that whenever issues of national interest arise; they should be looked at from the southern block and the northern block. But today the imbalance widens. People are calling for consideration across other geopolitical entities.

This is not going to be healthy for this nation; whoever is at the helm of affair should identify the priority of the nation across all political divide and see how he can fix them. Leaving the person in the position of the presidency of this country to handle the challenges of his own geopolitical zone is a challenge of impossibility. So, as far as I am concerned, if we decide to tow the line of ‘this one must have it’, then our unity is under threat. It means that whoever comes from any geopolitical zone, his priority should be his people. What we should do is to look at this country wholistically as an entity. Now you can see the security challenges and it varies across all the geopolitical zones. The security challenge in the North East is not same in the south West. Every geopolitical zone has its own peculiar challenge in almost all aspects of human endeavour.

In other to solve this challenges, we must come to the round table and define our priorities as a nation, know how to fix them it respective of our geopolitically inclinations. But for the clamour for geopolitical recognition in terms of presidency is going to ruin us as a people, it will not even give us the ideology of looking at somebody that has this country in mind.  This is dangerous for us to choose someone because it is our own turn and because you are part of the turn ‘you can go for us’.

The economic spread is not the same, wealth of the nation is one geopolitical zone compared to the others. In the early 70s-60s when agriculture was the mainstay of the country; now it has become an expensive enterprise, you cannot go into agriculture without having much money. The soil is no longer fertile, what you need to launched into mechanize agriculture is nothing less than millions of naira. How do you get in?

We should have been in a position where one man would be able to feed more than 3 geopolitical parts of this country because he has identified with agriculture at an advance or sophisticated level. But the economic balance is not there and that is also another area of challenge.

Plateau State has had its share of conflicts that seem to have no end to it. What do you have to say as regards to that challenge?

As a state, our security challenges have lived with us for more than two decades and it is not a healthy situation. We have tested the era that we don’t want to identify ourselves as Plateau people due to what we passed through. The security situation that is bedeviling this state is unhealthy. Within the limited time of this administration that peace returned, everybody was happy.

The statistics before 1999 when we transited into democracy proper, the population density of this state was not the way it is today. There were areas at that time that nobody thought houses or development could reach. But today within the lifespan of this democracy, development has taken over every corner of the state and the crises that bedeviled us have caused a lot of damage. Lives were lost, property destroyed. Imagine you built your house after retirement and you expect to enjoy your life. Then suddenly, it got burnt the people you suffered to raise and train are killed. It is devastating, but the truth is we all have the legislature that can guarantee peaceful coexistence in the state. It is the enforcement of these legislations that matters. I have kept saying it many times when the state Assembly legislate and its  been accented to by the governor  it becomes an existing law in the state. Apart  from the law court, who will decide a matter based on a law that exists in that state. Sometimes when the government wants to use the security agents to enforce a law, they will say it is not part of their assignment like the law banning the operation of commercial motor circle riders and open trading in streets. Several enforcement agencies have gone into enforcement of the issue but it has refused to be addressed. That goes to say we need   an internal mechanism security to handle such things. So many states have done it. Look at Lagos and Kano, they have an internal enforcement body who will be enforcing every law that the state Assembly   passed and is accented to by the governor. Be it wrong parking-be it illegal trading for as long as it will attract revenue for the government and it’s within the ambit of the law. When you have an enforcement agency that is working, people must comply with the law. They will become diligent in observing the law.

So the idea of civilian taskforce has worked in several states where they have come to control the excesses of the citizens and the citizens themselves have come to terms with laws and enforcement. The unfortunate thing in this state is that when it is passed, it is only exercised in some parts of the state not in others.

So, you are in support of the call for state Police.

Yes, state Police is key.  Beyond the state Police, civilian taskforce should be on ground, those that will monitor activities within the city metropolis. And the state Police can cover the entire state, because the city center needs this taskforce. Look at Kaduna State. they have state security; they have contributed in the generation of their revenue. But they need the compliment of the conventional security to make them carry on with their responsibilities. We can use them to tackle our security challenges. Also deliberate efforts must be made to see that the youth who are abusing drugs are made to understand what they are into is not good. Because whenever there are any security challenges, it is these types of youths that are engaged in carrying out dirty work.

We need to put a lot on ground to restore peace on the Plateau permanently.