A former lawmaker and civil rights activist, Sen. Shehu Sani, says his major political interest in 2027 is to see Gov. Uba Sani of Kaduna re-elected for a second term in office.
Sani, who recently defected from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to his former political party, All Progressives Congress (APC), stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
“By virtue of political equation in Kaduna State, if I happen to get ticket to return to the Senate in 2027, I will be glad, but if I am not, certainly I will be at peace that we return Uba as governor.
“I am very much glad that Kaduna State has gotten rid of the tormentor that bedevilled the state politically, and that was the reason most of us who left APC to PDP had to return en masse to APC recently,’’ he said.
Sani, who represented Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the Eighth Senate, described power as “ephemeral,” advising those in position of authority to always learn how to treat people well.
“If God has blessed you with power, try and impact positively on the masses. But when you get intoxicated with power by abusing it, arresting people, unleashing terror on people, a day will come when you will be out of power,’’ he said.
The former senator said that Kaduna had never been badly governed like it was between 2015 and 2023, saying that a lot of things went wrong in the state.
“There was very sharp division between the Muslin North and Southern Christians in the state and that fuelled the problems of insecurity, terrorism and other challenges that dragged development down.
“In Birnin Gwari area of Kaduna State, farmers have started returning to their farms, where they hitherto used to pay millions of naira fine to terrorists before going to farms.
“Though the state has not achieved all that it is set to achieve, it is far away from where it is coming from.
“Since Uba Sani took over as governor, things have improved significantly, in that we hardly hear of cases of mass abduction of people in Kaduna.
“People are now freely moving from Kaduna to Abuja and we are thankful to Nuhu Ribadu as the National Security Adviser and President Bola Tinubu,” he said.
Sani, while assessing the security situation in the country, particularly in the North, said that it is better now than it was during the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
“I must say that Tinubu’s security measures are 1,000 times better than that of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The problem of the North now is that our own (Buhari) was in power for eight years, he could not do a number of things.
“The Mambila Hydroelectric Power project, River Niger dredging, the Baro River Port and ending insecurity in northern Nigeria were not done.
“And yet, Buhari appointed Northerners to head all the security agencies in the country and the slaughtering and killings of our people still went unabated.
“There are four roads linking the states in the North to Abuja (Lokoja-Abuja, Kaduna-Kano-Abuja, Keffi-Abuja and Minna-Suleja-Abuja). All these roads were not completed for the eight-year tenure of Buhari,’’ he said.
Sani queried the rationale behind calling Tinubu into account by some northerners when, indeed, they were silent during the time of his predecessor.
“Many of the challenges plaguing the country today, if the right actions had been taken by the last administration, things wouldn’t have been the way they are today,’’ he said.
The activist-turned-politician, however, urged the president to ensure that his administration’s various reforms have human face.
“Nigerians are suffering; they are facing extreme hardship. There should be reliefs for the people; they should not be over-burdened.
“People are finding it difficult to pay school fees and landlords have raised rents; there should be intervention on school fees and house rents.
“There should be availability of public transportation system, while our teaching hospitals should be equipped and funded to ensure that our people don’t depend on poorly equipped health facilities,’’ he said.
Nonetheless, Sani stated that anything that would take Nigeria to a higher ground should be done for the future and interest of the country.
“This is the first time we are having a president that is beating his chest and saying that he is not controlled by any cabal. We should appreciate that and work with Tinubu,’’ he said. (NAN)
