Senator Kabiru Marafa represented Zamfara Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly between 2011 and 2019. In this interview monitored on Channels Television by FELIX NWANERI, he speaks on his resignation from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the 2027 presidential election, among others issues

You led President Bola Tinubu’s campaign in Zanfara State and all of a sudden it does look like some people are saying that because you were unable to benefit or you didn’t get the kind of attention you wanted from the President, hat’s why two years after the election, you are jumping ship. Is that the case?

I thank you very much for acknowledging the fact that I worked vigorously to ensure the success of Mr. President in the 2023 general election in Zamfara state.

Thanks also for alluding to the fact that because I didn’t get what I wanted I jumped ship. I want to ask you is politics slavery; why do you think I’m in politics?

Why is Mr. President himself in politics? If Mr. President didn’t get the opportunity, he got to be the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, would he have been able to allocate over N3 trillion to Lagos State as reported by a national newspaper recently? Would he have been able to appoint the number of aides he did from Lagos State, where he lost election but won in Zamfara State? What is politics all about?

I’m not in politics to serve anybody. My parents were not slaves; I have never been a slave to anybody. I am in politics to impact on the lives of my people. and I can only do that if I am able to hold a position. That is the hallmark of politics and nobody can intimidate me about not getting what I want.

Whether it is for selfish or whatever reason, I am tested and trusted. I have been around. This is not the first time I’m going to hold a political appointment in Nigeria. I was a commissioner in my state and the records are there. What I did is there. If I used the commissionership to advance my selfish interest, Zamfara State people would be able to say.

I was chairman of the Federal College of Education, Yola and I was a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for eight years and I represented my people in the red chambers and what I did is there for everybody to see. If I used it to advance selfish interest, the people of Zamfara State are be in a better position to say.

What your group is saying is that there’s only one minister from Zamfara State and that’s the former governor, and there are those who say that Marafa also wants to be minister. Is that what you wanted and were you able to put this request to the President directly?

The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria says every state must be represented in the Federal Executive Council. That is to say that there must be at least one minister from each of the states of the federation. But that is the minimum the constitution talked about.

What we are saying here is that in the seven states of the North-West, Mr. President was able to secure victory in only Jigawa and Zamfara states but what we have seen is that whereas Mr. President gave most of the states in our zone, two ministerial slots, we were left with only minister of state for Defence.

And don’t forget, the person he made the minister of state, if not for the baggage he comes along with, was a member of the House of Representatives for 12 and governor of Zamfara State for four years.

Mr. President promised that he was going to change the reward system of the APC only for him to now entrench and institutionalize it and it becomes a state policy

So, we felt slighted by that position regardless of who it was given to. We felt that the efforts we put to secure victory for Mr. President deserves a cabinet portfolio and heads of agencies for Zamfara State. Now, compare this, like I said, with Lagos State. Mr. President lost Lagos State but how many slots did Lagos State got? Also, look at Ogun State; how many slots did the state get?

So, what we are saying is that looking at the treatment meted on Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje and myself, we are convinced that Mr. President is a use and dump leader. Anybody can call me any name but I am in politics to get positions in order to impact on my people.

Abdulaziz Yari, who was on the other side of the divide during the National Assembly politics, is now with the President and is also leading the state and the region as far as those who are supporting President Tinubu is concerned. In fact, the Minister of Information has reeled out all of the benefits the Tinubu government has served every region and every state of the federation, and he said this government has been very fair to all. Now, your own people are saying that Marafa is selfish as what he wants is, if he cannot get it, let the house come down. How true is that?

Let me start with the Minister of Information. I was not privileged to hear what the minister said but I hope he has been able to tell Nigerians, what the North-West zone has been able to corner because we have seen how Mr. President has been able to corner the whole of the financial sector of Nigeria for just one particular tribe in Nigeria.

I hope he has been able to say that. Unless he is able to say that, then all he is saying is one section of the country is given crumbs, while the other section of the country is given the real meal.

What do you call it that heads of entire economic sector – Minister of Finance Central Bank of Nigeria, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Customs, Pensions Fund and Accountant General – are from one particular geopolitical zone.

That is all I have to say to the Minister of Information. I didn’t hear what he said but we know what we have gotten in the North-West and we know what the South-West geopolitical zone has gotten in terms of appointments. So, it is left for Nigerians to judge. About Senator Yari; with due respect to him, I’m not the kind of politician he is. Yari is in the Senate for the first time and he contested for the Senate presidency and he lost. I think that is what you will call personal interest.

And when he lost, he called out the President, saying ‘I didn’t know that I was contesting with Bola.’ I was there and there was nothing he didn’t call Mr. President but he has this pedigree of how to get money from the state coffers. I don’t want to go into personal details but Yari cannot do less than what he is doing today.

What he is doing is what you can call personal interest. I have never been a person like him. Today, he is back in the corridor of powers. He is back with the President even when the President knows exactly what Yari did to him in 2019 and how I fought Yari on behalf of both Mr. President and the former President Muhammadu Buhari and how Yari treated me because of Mr. President who was the party leader in 2019.

I was denied almost everything because I was fighting to protect the interest of the APC. Everybody in Nigeria knew when the APC zoned the Senate presidency to North-East at that time, and Yari, then as the chairman of governor’s forum, at the 11th hour after discussing with Buhari after the agreement with APC turned back to renege and turned back on his APC.

I was the lone figure that fought what you call the system in the National Assembly at a great personal risk and everything but I did. I defended the APC and I lost my seat because of that. Mr. President today, Tinubu, knows what happened. He had to intervene at various points.

He had to call Yari to ask him to do this and Yari will tell him yes but at the end of the day. he will not do it. So, I don’t care what name anybody gives me. But let me make this point very clear to everybody that I am in politics to hold position to be able to help my people.

Are you saying that you don’t care when people say you’re a selfish politician; you don’t care about that kind of appellation that you’re in politics for selfish reasons?

I don’t care. What matters to me is who I am internally and I am the only one, who knows who I am. And by the special grace of God, people are not animals; they are watching, they are seeing. They said actions are louder than voice. My records are there as a senator for eight years are there. The records hold by Mr. Bello Matawalle and Mr. Yari in Zamfara State are also there. Whether I am a selfish politician in the eyes of outsiders, it doesn’t shake me.

What are the implications of your resignation from the APC because there are those who say that you are a lightweight, politically speaking?

I think that is exactly what I want to hear from people. That is why I moved out, so that we would be able to see in 2027, whether I’m a lightweight or a heavyweight. And we would be able to see that whether the people that are there and whom Mr. President thinks can deliver the state or even the North-West for him will do so.

So, I like that name, and like I told you, peoples’ comment doesn’t shake my coat. I don’t care about what they say So, are you headed to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)? I have been in the trenches now for six years courtesy of the APC because of all I did in defence of APC. So, I’ve been in the trenches for six years now but I felt it is time for me to come out and draw the battle line, so that I would know who my adversaries are and they would know who they are facing. Let us face one another and let the people of Zamfara State judge.

On which party I’m going to; I will tell you that already the APC is laying landmines everywhere in the political parties, waiting for well-meaning people that want to defend their people, those that want to advance the cause of their people to come in and they will engage them in unnecessary fight in the parties. That is why we said we are not in a hurry. There is still time. We are going to study the political parties and their members before we take a final decision.

You’ve made up your mind that you are leaving APC but there are those who are saying whether you leave or not, the assurance of President Tinubu winning Zamfara and also winning re-election in 2027 is guaranteed. How would you respond to that?

Like I told you earlier, I don’t care what people say. I also don’t care how people describe me. The most important thing to me is who I am and what I can do. I have proven my point. Let me put it this way; Mr. President is comfortable having people with a lot of baggage around him and the people of Zamfara State and the NorthWest indeed know who these people are.

That is why, maybe Mr. Yari is there to do his bidding, buy rise and everything. But the fact of the matter is that Yari was offended when he came into the Senate and contested for the Senate presidency but he could not do what I have done today because he has a lot of baggage. If he does what I have done today, he would not spend the next seven days seeing the light of the day.

You also know what happened to Mr. Matawalle at the inception of the government. The President had to come down very heavy on the then chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to the extent of sacking him to shield Mr. Matawalle from the baggage he was carrying. Whether Mr. President would win or not is not the question, but I want to assure you about something today. I am going to deduct one million votes out of the votes that Mr. President got in 2023.

Mark my words; I am going to do it. I’m going to work for it and by the special grace of God, I’m going to do that. Now, whether somebody says I’m featherweight or I’m a lightweight, 2027 is going to determine who is a featherweight. And again, let me tell you something, in 2023, all people you can call of substance in Zamfara State were on one side but those who have never been in politics were able to secure victory against all of us.

This is the same type of sentiment that people canvassed at that time; that Dauda Lawal, who is now governor cannot do anything, but the only election that we were able to win was that of Mr. President courtesy of the message we took to the people that Mr. President promised that he was going to change the reward system of the APC because people were not happy with the then Buhari’s government. Mr. President promised us that he was going to eradicate that but only for him to now entrench and institutionalize it and it becomes a state policy of the APC.

So, for avoidance of any doubt, Zamfara State politics has come of age and the people are free, so when the time comes in 2027, they are going to do justice and the people of North-West in particular are not going to forget this selective thing that Mr. President has done. Like I told you, if you look at the allocations to the South-West and offices given to the zone, everything is to the disadvantage of the North-West that cast the votes. So, we are not going to forget.