Senator Ahmed Aliyu Wadada (SDP, Nasarawa West) has barred his mind on his plans to return to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2027 gubernatorial election.
Senator Wadada, a leading contender for the seat of governor of Nasarawa State come 2027, chatted with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday. He said only time would tell if he would return to the APC.
Recall that Senator Wadada at various times contested for the ticket of the APC for Nasarawa West senatorial district, as well as the governorship ticket before leaving the party to contest and win his election under the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to represent the zone in the Tenth Senate.
Opening up following his rumoured plans to return to the APC, the lawmaker, who doubles as the Senate Committee Chairman on Public Accounts, said he is presently studying the situation on the ground before he finally makes a decision to rejoin the APC.
Investigations revealed that supporters of the lawmaker are agitating for his return to the APC so that Senator Wadada can succeed incumbent Governor Abdullahi A. Sule, who is completing his second term in office.
“I have nothing to say about that other than to continue to thank my God. Because all the good seen around me are destined to me by our Creator. I’m listening to all of them. We are watching events, and time shall tell.
“I have not decided when I am coming back. Of course, you know, I am a Muslim. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said that whoever is called by the people and refuses to answer that call is not with Prophet Muhammad (SAW). And we have always wanted to be with him.
“First and foremost, the call was from the number one citizen of the state. The first call and then the letter that followed. But we are looking at the situation and events. That is why I said time shall tell. We are here. What is key is to continue to live in peace with people. You cannot be loved or appreciated by all, but do it in such a way that a greater percentage of the people appreciate you. We shall get there. We shall cross the bridge when we get to it,” he said.
Senator Wadada said the magic wand giving him success in all his political sojourn is that he has always kept fate with the people either in or outside the elective office, unlike some politicians who only become visible whenever there is an election.
“I kept fate with the people. I’m one politician who never disappeared from the people. Some only come and go. You see them only during elections. Elections or no elections voted or not voted, I remain with the people.
If you want to know my secret, that is the secret,” he stated.
Senator Wadada responded to the veiled efforts by some APC politicians to persecute him by making it appear they were more rooted in the party.
He dismissed such claims, insisting that, as a top-notch member of the defunct nPDP, he contributed to the APC’s success in the 2015 presidential election.
“In 2013, PDP was engulfed in crisis. nPDP was created. I was the National Financial Secretary of the nPDP. The governors of PDP that moved to nPDP made it possible for APC to win the election in 2015. No APC member will look at me to my face and say I did not contribute to the survival of his party because I was part of the engine room that made it possible. After all, the nPDP governors left the PDP to join the APC and made it possible.
“My hands and my contributions played a role in the success of APC in 2015. Nobody can take away that from me. After I joined the party, APC became fully alive in Nasarawa State, particularly in terms of the executive members of the party at the grassroots level. Nobody was doing anything with them. By joining APC changed the narrative,” he said.
Senator Wadada, who recently emerged as the lawmaker who sponsored the highest number of bills from Nasarawa State, spoke on his motivation to effectively and efficiently represent his people.
“I know what took me there. And I know what representation vis-a-vis lawmaking is. That is my primary responsibility. The primary responsibility of a lawmaker is to make laws. And not just make laws but laws that would turn around the fortunes of his district or the area he represents. And the larger area as well,” he stated.
Wadada emphasised that every bill he sponsored met the needed meaning.
“First, it’s the one on aquatic science, which has been passed into law. It has passed all through the processes of lawmaking and is now awaiting the president’s assent. FCT Satellite Towns Development Commission. I sponsored this while I was at the House of Representatives for the second reading. Somehow, it couldn’t go beyond a second reading. Because I still feel strongly about it, I presented it again before the Tenth Senate.
“What that bill seeks to establish is a commission that would serve as a common coffer where FCT would contribute, FG would contribute, and the contiguous states of Niger, Kogi, Nasarawa and Kaduna would also be contributing. That common coffer, the funds in the common coffer, would be utilised to care for the socioeconomic problems of the nearest contiguous communities or the communities of these contiguous states to the FCT. Because of the influx of people, Nasarawa State alone cannot handle the socioeconomic challenges in Mararaba. Neither can Kaduna State handle that of Tafa. Neither can Niger handle that of Suleija down to areas before Bwari. Neither can Kogi take care of Koton-Karfe. Of course, if that is done, you know the benefit that would accrue, the employment, social hazards, insecurity and the rest would all be taken care of,” he added.
Senator Wadada used the opportunity to clarify the air surrounding his newest bill, presented last week. The bill seeks to upgrade the Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa to a Federal University of Mining Engineering and Technology.
“I saw some comments, some people saying that Nigeria today needs polytechnic education more than university education. I am a product of polytechnic. Who told such a person that upgrading the institution would remove the polytechnic structure from there? That is why it ends with technology.
“Nasarawa State is called the Home of Solid Minerals. The government and the incumbent are now bent on diversifying the country’s revenue sources from oil to non-oil. Mining, because of the endowments in Nigeria and particularly Nasarawa State, I think we should have a University of Mining Engineering and Technology. This should be the first of its kind. No university in Nigeria is called holistically a university of mining engineering and technology,” he explained.
