SUNDAY INTERVIEW

By

Managing Editor
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Abdulmalik Garba Gajam is a young politician from Zamfara state whose political history is full of innovation and hope for greater change. His greatest ambition while in politics was to see that he work with the network of people of like mind to effect the needed changes in terms of instituting quality leadership and good governance especially in fighting poverty, unemployment, and job creation.

He recently bought the APC gubernatorial nomination form to contest the seat with the serving Governor of Zamfara Bello Matawalle before he was pursued to step down his ambition in the interest of ensuring the unity of the party.

In this interview with the Managing Editor of the Thunder Blowers, he shared his experiences in politics and how he was pursued to step down his ambition of contesting for the post of Governor of Zamfara under the ruling All Progressive Congress.

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You have been an active voice in the Zamfara politics and before the recent development many people may like to know, what has been your experiences in politics?

Firstly if you remember I made my first declaration in your studio sometimes in 2020 and if you could recall again, I told you my reasons for being into politics is to work with critical minds to change the fortune of things in Zamfara State .

I was never happy with the way things are happening in my state, and my understanding of the problems associated with the under-development of Zamfara is purely a leadership failure. I decided to join the gubernatorial race in 2023 because I believe I have what it takes to change the narratives and I believed there are many stakeholders on the ground that are ready to support this ambition.

When I started, I realized that there are thousands of potential youths that I can use to form a strong network to challenge the current leadership and that encouraged me further, and we started in an excellent note.

The journey for me was full of lessons that I will have to carry over again and continue to engage people of like-mind so that we can continue to pursue an aspiration of changing the fortune of things in Zamfara.

What are those experiences, can you share them with your readers?

I learned that why Zamfara state is in shamble because there is no strong leadership institution which understand the true picture of Zamfara problems. I also learned that, the public service system which is supposed to be the engine room of development has died a natural death in the state and this is the more reason the civil servants cannot help the political elites to initiate new ideas that will help address the nagging issues confronting Zamfara state.

Furthermore, I also learned that excess poverty is buying deep into the political conscience and behavior of Zamfara people because from experience in politics, what matters more to the majority of Zamfara people is money majorly credibility, competency or integrity are essentially not an issue of concern to the majority of Zamfara people .

Another experience I gathered in politics is that the people in Zamfara who constitute the majority had clearly understood that, things are not working well and are ready to work with anybody who has a solution to their socio-economic issue. I also learned that the political class have clearly understood that they have failed the people and that is why they’re afraid of political competition with young actors like us.

But to sum it up with you, we have a task ahead of us if really we want to change things for the better in Zamfara and our greatest challenge now is how to fish-out the so-called political elites because they constitute greater percentage of the issues faced by our society.

To what extent can you say money influenced Nigerian politics using Zamfara State as a case study?

To be honest with you everything about the Nigerian politics is money and the biggest issue is the political behavior of average voter in Nigeria on how he will get money from a politician without asking for the source and integrity. To visit your state and interact with the people money matters if not majority you will target will not be available for you.

No matter the quality of your idea if you does not have money as a politician people will not listen to you and people will not have regard in you this is how bad the situation has become.

In fact, at a point into my political journey I almost backed out because of the pressure for money. While you are trying to salvage the people and bring an array of hope for them, their thinking is what to get from you. No matter how hard you tried to put sense in them, they will not see reason in supporting you to change their situation, what matters much for them is money and nothing but money.

So this is how bad the situation has become, but we shall not lose hope things may get better with the coming together of the people of like-minds to struggle collectively.

People were shocked when they heard that you stepped down your gubernatorial ambition, can you tell your readers what actually happened?

You know we had been interacting from time to time since I started my political journey, and you knew and understand my political principles, but you know in everything you do you cannot rule out chances of appeal.

It will interest you to note that, I have passed through a silly experience even at the party headquarters before I was given a nomination form and even after paying my money and submitting my draft to the office of the National Organizing Secretary. But believe me I stood my ground and I succeeded in scaling through the hurdles.

I undergo the normal screening exercise, and I was cleared. However don’t forget with all these experiences I am mindful of the pressure being put in me to step-down, but I insisted I will proceed because I believed I am into this game for the people.

After the screening exercise I have begun consultation with the stakeholders particularly the delegates and the result I was getting were fully impressive. Up to the last hour we have resolved to step-down, delegates were asking us to remain in the race considering the fresh hope we are bringing to the system which is seen by many as a failure.

But when the Governor realized that I am becoming a threat to his candidature, he began to reach-out to the stakeholders who matters much to me and begged me to step-down for him. I initially objected but because of the intervention of my parent I have to respect their wish and step-down my ambition because of some convincing reasons they have advanced to me.

But there have been speculations ongoing that, you were paid money worth N300,000,000.00 to step down for the Governor and beside that, they have bought a house for you at Maitama in Abuja and also dashed you a 2020 model of Toyota Lexus what are you going to say about these speculations that are ongoing?

I have heard a lot of these speculations going on that I was given money and so many things to step-down, but it is normal in politics you cannot stop people from saying their mind about your movement or political antecedent. But in all honesty, none of the allegations or speculations were true.

I stepped down for Governor Matawalle based on the appeal by my parents and other concern stakeholders, and he knew there was never a condition attached to our agreement.

I looked at Zamfara and the stake of those who appealed to me and I believed in every decision you took there should be someone that matters to you and that can ask you to reverse such decision in the overall interest of peace and unity.

So, I called on the people to ignore the speculations and rumors going on, there are no iota of truth in it and money or whatever material thing was not involved in our collective agreement between me and Governor Matawalle.

And moreover, people have listened to my speech on that fateful date and I have asked the Governor and his team to reconsider some of his decisions in the overall interest of the development of many sectors in the state.

You have teamed up with the Governor to carry on with the Zamfara project, people said you have become invisible since after the Governorship primaries and things are happening in the politics of APC Zamfara without you what happened?

Honestly I am not satisfied with the political development in Zamfara under the current Governor and to be candid with you I don’t think I can continue with these people under one political umbrella.

I am still making consultations and in few days time I will announced to my teeming supporters where our political direction will head-on because like I told you there are people that believed in us and are ready to support our mission and we shall not betrayed them because we have stepped down our ambition.

So why I remain silent on the political development of the state for now is to enable me watch and see if the political sense of direction of the APC under Governor Bello Matawalle will bee too good for us to join collectively but if things continue like this I think we have to take the most appropriate political decision in the interest of our people.

So by implication are you opting out of the APC?

Soonest I will tell you our position and like I said this is a decision we shall take collectively with our people because I am not playing the game alone. If the decision is for us to change a new political direction so be it and we shall collectively fly and succeeded together.