Lagos — Alhaji Yusuf Adamu Biu is the Borno State Secretary of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). In this interview with AHMED MARI , he bares his mind on the achievements and challenges of Governor Sheriff. He also declares that the governor will not choose his successor in 2011.

Governor Sheriff will clock six years in office come May29 2009 , in what areas do you think he has done well or impacted positively on the lives of the people of the state?

Yes, when our great party, the ANPP came to power in 2003, we inherited a lot of problems which was created by our predecessors. One of these problems was in the area of the dilapidated structures of our health institutions. . All the workers in the health sector were on six months strike without giving necessary consideration of calling them back or meet their demands. So our governor made a bold step after he was sworn in on the 29th May, 2003 and quickly addressed the situation. Secondly, it would interest you to know that this government had inherited a debt of over N10b from the previous government without proper justification of what this huge amount of money was used for, but to allow the sleeping dog lie , i.e say, not to witch-hunt anybody, this government quickly settled all these debts.

One good think about our governor is that when he said something, he really means it. It would be recalled that when we came in Governor Sheriff said that this government would not take loan from any financial organization or enter into agreement with anybody to collect money in the sake of loans/credit before it embarked on any state projects, and we are now clocking six years of our administration and this government has not received even a kobo from anybody or any financial institutions as loans or whatsoever. Using the limited resources at our disposal, we embarked on massive construction of hospitals across the state. One of these hospitals constructed and equipped by this administration is that of 300 bed space of the Bullumkutu General hospital, the Askira/ Uba General Hospital , the Bayo General Hospital among others, the overhauling of the State Specialists Hospital and the construction of Health care centres in Kawtikari, Ashigashiya and several others.

In the area of road and drainage construction, this government has strove hard to construct roads and drainage network in Gomari, Bullumkutu, Jajari, Umarari, Bolori, Gwange, G.R.A, Polo, so numerous to mention within the Metropolis. We have equally constructed the Biu township roads and drainages, the Bama township roads and drainages, and Damboa, Gwoza among other Local Government areas received the same positive transformations. Also the 28KM of road that links Yimirshika- Sakwa- Marama- Kidang communities which has always been in the state budgets for the past twenty years has been re-awarded and fully completed by this administration, in addition to the ongoing N7billion road project in Dikwa/Ngala Council areas.

In the area of housing, we were able to construct and furnished the 777 Mailamri Housing estates, the 555 Abba Gana Terab Housing units, the 20 Housing units in each of the 27 Council areas, in addition to the nearly completed 1000 Housing units along Maiduguri- Damaturu road. Infact, this government has done wonderfully well in all the sectors of the economy, be it education, agriculture, poverty alleviation, social infrastructure and so on.

Having done some of the projects you enumerated, what is the focus of the government in the next two years?

No, no, no. Our governor as I have said earlier has vowed not to take loans from anywhere before he finances any state project. Government is just about good planning and justifications. The fact is that we would continue to render selfless service to humanity . I want to confidently tell you that it has become a policy- thrust of this ANPP Government not to take loans, and this development would be sustained in the next two years of our tenure. We would continue to judiciously utilize the little resources we collected from the Federal Allocations and that of the revenue we generated within the state to execute more meaningful projects in the state. And this is one of the legacies we are going to leave behind, InshaAllah. Sometimes I begin to wonder when I see some states collecting loans of about N40 to N50 Billion from other financial/ business organizations in the name of executing projects . And what baffles me much is that, after they collected these loans there are no practical work on ground to justify. So in such a situation, what kind of democratic government is that? But here in Borno everything is practical for every doubting Thomasse to see . And that is what a democratically elected government should do for his people.

We all know that your ruling party, the ANPP has silenced the opposition in Borno state, how were you able to withstand the pressure coming from Abuja -based politicians who accused this government of non- performance and corrupt?

Please I want to tell you that our party the ANPP is not an occultic party, it is a party of the good people, a party of people with integrity and people that have the interest of their electorate at heart. There are parties that even if you want to join them, they will tell you that you are not in their circle and so there is no room for you. ANPP is an open party system irrespective of where you come from or background. If you critically look at our party's open door policies, we don't discriminate, we cooperate with each, we exist as our brothers' keepers and we work collectively for the interest of strengthening the party, not for our personal interest. That is how a good political party is supposed to be.

If you look at Hon. Abdulrahaman Abdulkareem who mistakenly left ANPP to the PDP, some couple of years ago, up to now they have not incorporated him into their fold, if you look at my good brother, Musa Inuwa Kubo who is a very resourceful person, since he left our party to the PDP, he has no where to place himself in that party.

But we in the ANPP are not like this PDP people, for example, when you look at Ambassador Baba Ahmed Jidda, he was formerly in PDP, and when he defected from that PDP to our great party the ANPP, he is now our Secretary to the state Government (SSG) in Borno, Dr. Asabe Vilita Bashir was also in PDP, and when she came to our fold, she is serving as Commissioner in the state, Former Governor Maina Maaji Lawan was in PDP, and when he joined our fold, he is now serving as Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the platform of our great party. So ANPP as I told you earlier is a party of collective interest, a party of carrying everybody along, a party of greater opportunity, in as much as you are very dedicated and responsible. Unlike the other parties that operate segregation, discrimination or act on hierarchical basis, which is not part of our set goals and objectives.

So don't you think that this Abuja -based Politicians can one day defeat your party and make impact in the state?

That is absolutely wrong. How can you stay in Abuja , and be looking for a political position here in Maiduguri , when the people who are going to vote for you are in Maiduguri while Majority is from remote villages of Borno state. Our people are no longer fools. So they should leave Abuja and come back to Borno or Maiduguri if at all they are even serious. So by mere saying that this unserious Abuja-based Politicians can defeat our party in any elections is really not possible. After all, our party is a party that has the people of the grassroots at heart.

Your government claims to be for the grassroots but why has it been difficult for the administration to open up rural areas?

If you critically look at Hawul Local Government, it is a local Government that is very important to the development of Borno state, it has the largest number of manpower needed for the development of the state. In the health sector alone, we have a cream of experts in that sector who are from Hawul Local Government. For example, people like Professor Sunday Bwala and Professor Dili Dogo among others are people who are recognized all over the world in relation to health matters. But above all, our governor does not segregate; he has done many good things all over the state irrespective of political differences. The hospitals he built is for all the good people of the state,it is not that when going to that hospital you must have a card carrying member of the ANPP before you are allowed to enter.

Would you say the government has delivered its campaign promises to the people?

You see when former President, Olusegun Obasanjo came to Borno some couple of weeks ago, he was surprise seeing what is on ground. You are quiet aware that when he (Obasanjo) was in power, he was on several occasions invited by the state Government to come and commission some of these laudable projects executed by this government, but because of the pressure he received from the Abuja -based Politicians who do not want the president to come to Borno and see good things happening in the state, his mind was always polluted . He was told that the state lacks proper security "so to say" among other baseless allegations formulated against this Government by the oppositions. But when he left office, he came to Borno and he said, he was surprised and equally regretted not coming to the state during his tenure to commission these projects. So all I can say is that we in the ANPP can leave everything for posterity to judge us, and nothing else.

Come 2011 the second term of will come to an end, how do you see the political development in the state more especially as regard to who succeeds Governor Sheriff

Well we had a meeting yesterday and he was still emphasizing that it is we collectively in the ANPP that can choose his successor and not himself, and that is to tell you that whoever is saying that our governor will choose his own candidate who is going to succeed him come 2011, knows where he/ she got his/ her misinformation. We in ANPP respect our constitutions; there must be a primary election to determine who contest any political position on our platform, and so many processes are involved. We strongly believe with our reliable Governor and he keeps on telling us whenever we had a meeting with him that, it is left for us in the party to choose his successor, and not himself as some are wrongly saying. But all I know is that a good person will succeed my Governor come 2011.

As a young politician, what is your aspiration come 2011 general elections?

My aspiration in my political career after I left office as the Borno state Secretary of the ANPP is go to the limelight at the National level of our great party, and with the support and cooperation from the good people of Borno state I believed my dream would be actualized. There are many insinuations going round that I want to contest for the state House of Assembly, some are insinuating that I will contest for the House of Representative among other insinuations, but I want to use this medium to let the whole world know that my next aspiration is to contest for a position at the National level of our great party, the ANPP.