2 December 2008
interview
Lagos — Political debates in Borno State with regard to the build up to 2011 elections suggest that the state has come of age and the people are determined to change the old form of politics by substituting money politics for intellectualism.
Ambassador Saidu Pindar may not be vying for any political post but people believe that he can make some to vie for seats in the next election. Recently, the former Nigerian Ambassador to Sao Tome and Principe was in Biu Local Government to launch a non-governmental organisation (NGO) and also award scholarship to students of higher institution.
He spoke to journalists and AHMED MARRI was there for Daily Champion.
We understand that this scholarship award you are giving to students of higher institution is the first of its kind in this part of the state. What motivated you to embark on a project like this?
One of the main reasons we decided to embark on this award of scholarship is based on the fact that my late father was a renowned teacher and during his life time he had sponsored many people by taking into his house and making sure that they go to school until they reached a certain stage and many people have benefitted from his magnanimity.
We felt that we should continue that trend but most important of all is that there are a lot of indigent young stars around that cannot afford to pay their tuition fee. They cannot afford to pay their registration and in the last couple of years I have been paying for about 27 students and it is very, very informal. Some of them were able to finish school and others have dropout and the demand has been increasing so decided to call my brothers to formalize this by forming an NGO that we could really have an institution that can carry this forward so that we could dedicate some certain amount of money, not just by myself but all the siblings of my late father can make a contribution and we can now keep his name in the same educational field that he has been renowned and also make our mark by our little contribution to our community.
But sir, when you look at the problem of such project in Nigeria particularly, it has always been the question of sustainability. Now, how are you going to sustain the project?
Well, it is true that sustaining such a project is a herculean task but first things first. What we have decided to do, I mean all the children of my late father is to make a contribution. We had a meeting and we agreed that everybody would have to make some annual contribution. Secondly. this morning our bankers, the bankers of this NGO had also given us a proposal on how we can sustain this NGO by investing the resources that we have right now so that it could make more money for us and then next year we would be able to give more scholarship to more people so we would explore all modern ways on how we can sustained it.
I want to tell you also that by the end of this year, we intend to launch an appeal fund for this NGO.
We have a big event coming up by December 27, 2008 and I want to use that opportunity also to ask my friends and well wishers to come in and help so that we can give what I call a supplementary scholarship because we are not giving full scholarship, but what we are doing is to complement government in her efforts in awarding scholarship to students. Our point here is that we know that there are some students like I mentioned earlier who cannot afford to pay for their registration.
Apart from the launch of the appeal fund in December, do you plan to call on the sons and daughters of southern Borno and Biu in particular to join you in this crusade for the betterment of this zone?
Yes, we are doing that and not only on this NGO which is named after my late father but I think what we started today should be able to encourage other people also to embark on the same exercise. The more NGOs we have the better because we don't want to be the only one to be doing that. I hope that I have provided the stimulus for other people to be able to embark on such project because Biu is renowned for education.
My father was not the only educationist here in Biu. There were many people who contributed to the educational development of particularly, northern Nigeria and I think that there are children that have grown up and are blessed by God that they can also now spare some cash to help those who are less privileged.
In his speech on the occasion, the chairman of Biu local government said that this was the first of its kind. How do you feel to be the first to make such a mark in this part of the state where it is on record that it is the most intellectual tribe perhaps in the northeast part of this country?
Yes, it is true that this is the first of its kind that is being embarked upon, and I feel very humble that the chairman of Biu local government really showered such a sentiment on me and my family, but like I said, I hope this would be the stimulus for other people to emulate what we are doing so that more people would benefit from this token contribution that we are making.
You are a politician, and a very renowned politician in Borno State and at the national level.
How do you intend to make this NGO different so that people do not see it as a platform for launching your political image?
Well, one thing is that the NGO is not named after me, but after my father, and my father was not a politician and also in my family not all of us are politicians. I think there are just two or three of us who have ventured into partisan politics. I am not a full time politician, I am a part time politician and you know that, but politics is all about serving the people.
I mean if you cannot serve people what is the point of being in politics?
I am not doing partisan politics to enrich myself but I am doing that because I feel that I can provide leadership. I can open doors that have been closed to other people so that other people can pass through those doors. That is why I am into partisan politics but you could see this event today, is not political, there is no politics in it, the NGO itself is not profit oriented, is not political.
We started with only five local governments, Biu Emirate and Shani Emirate and we hope by next year we would be able to extend to the remaining nine local government in the southern Borno and maybe subsequently even extend to more local government because it is good to start something small, make it a success and then you can expand on it.
We don't want to embark on something that we cannot sustain and so hopefully in the few years to come we would be able to expand and cover more local government and be able to give other people the opportunity to because the level of poverty prevailing in the country is enormous. There are many people that cannot afford to send their children to school or even pay tuition fee or registration fees so that is how we want to help other people and it has nothing to do with politics, believe me it has nothing to do with politics.
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