why i want to be governor of taraba state-darius ishaku

Why I want to be Taraba State Governor – Ishaku
Category: Sunday politics Published
2014 05:00 Written by Muideen Olaniyi

The immediate past Minister of State for the Niger Delta,
Architect Darius Dickson Ishaku, has said that his mission
in Taraba State if voted into power as governor in 2015 will
be to move the North-East state forward from being crisis-
ridden to economic emancipation.
Architect Ishaku, last week, obtained the governorship
nomination form of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),
and spoke with journalists at his residence on why he quit
the Federal Executive Council to pursue the gubernatorial
ambition.
He said, “As you’re aware, Taraba State is one of the
troubled states in Nigeria today. Since Governor Danbaba
Suntai was involved in a plane crash in 2012, things have
not been the same in my state any longer. Peace has
eluded us. What we hear now is war, war, war. There has
not been infrastructural and economic development. The
state is indebted to the tune of N10 billion, and you can’t
point to what the money has been used for. There is,
therefore, the need for an intervention, and I want to
intervene by taking the bull by the horn. In summary, what
I intend to do is to change things. We want to bring back
peace. We have to do things that would be of benefit to the
state. We have to redirect things.”
According to the former minister, in the last few years, the
state has been in a state of conflict of all sorts to the point
that tourism, which should have been a high network
income earner for the state has been neglected. Several
industries, he added, have been abandoned, to the point
that no one could talk about setting up new ones.
Giving the reason why there is so much conflict in the
state in recent times, Architect Darius said, “The acting
governor has lost a lot of goodwill. Nobody from the
Southern part of the state is happy with him because of
the wars. There have been as many as six wars fought in
Taraba State in recent times, and this has affected Taraba
Central Senatorial District negatively. The PDP will have a
problem winning the next election if the ticket is given to
acting Governor Garba Umar. That is the situation we’ve
found ourselves.”
He added that he stood a chance of winning the PDP
primary election for the governorship in a democratic
process, saying, “We’re praying that everything is allowed
to go under the normal democratic contest. I’m sure I will
be favoured to pick the ticket.”
On what he would do to end the current bloodshed in
Taraba State, Architect Isyaku said, “We’ll dialogue with the
people to ensure that the war ends in Wukari and other
places. The battle would have ended by now if the current
government had engaged in genuine dialogue with people.
But that has not been done, and our people keep fighting
and killing each other frequently.”
Challenged that he belonged to a ‘cabal’ that is bent on
bringing ailing Governor Suntai back to the governorship
seat in spite of his ill-health, the governorship aspirant
argued thus, “It’s not true that we’re hostile to the
government. In a friendly atmosphere, Suntai can still run
Taraba State. But the environment now is very hostile to
Suntai and his political associates, that is why there is not
cooperation. For you to understand the situation, you need
to know that the PDP fought to win the governorship
election in 2007, but those who are running the
government now are of a different political party. That is
injustice, if you understand politics. You can’t fight to win
an election and some other persons enjoy the fruit of your
labour.”
Speaking about his experience as Minister of State in the
Ministry of Niger Delta, Architect Isyaku claimed that a lot
was achieved because relative peace had returned to the
Niger Delta region. However, he regretted that the nagging
problem of environmental degradation has not been
overcome, and the government would need to do more in
that