2023: AVM Audu-Bida Reveals Plans for Niger as Guber Candidate
The gubernatorial candidate of the Action Democratic Party, ADP, in the 2023 Niger State governorship election, Air Vice Marshal, AVM, Mohammed Audu-Bida (rtd), has said that ‘The Power State’ is yet to fulfill its true destiny and purpose.
Audu-Bida, however, attributed the pathetic condition of the state to bad leadership by successive administrations.
The erstwhile senior officer in the Nigerian Air Force, NAF and former Director General National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), also lamented the level of decay in the infrastructural and human capital resources endowed the state.
But he vowed to restore its lost glory, if elected as the next Governor of the State, in March, next year.
“To help correct so many wrongs in the polity is the reason I joined partisan politics. And without being a politician or getting involved in politics, no one will listen to you,” AVM Audu-Bida told Politics Digest in an exclusive interview.
The former NAF senior officer disclosed that his overriding concern is to change the ‘horrible’ narrative on Niger State for good.
According to him, the two major political parties – the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP – fortunate to have produced governors in the state since 1999, have performed woefully.
He said the two parties did nothing to better the lot of Niger State and its people; the reason why he decided to throw his hat in the ring.
“We have never had it so bad in Niger. We lack motorable roads. Our educational and health systems have totally collapsed. In fact, everything is in disarray.
“Nothing seems to be working in our dear State. That is why I don’t expect right-thinking Nigerlites to be bothered about APC and PDP, again. It’s time they try another serious party,” he said.
The retired Air Vice Marshal maintained that he possesses the requisite leadership qualities and experience to transform Niger State, calling on the electorate to throw their weight behind competent and trusted candidates ahead of the 2023 general elections.
His words: “I am passionate about reforming the education sector in Niger State. In fact, it is my top-most priority. As a governor, I will make sure every child in the state attends school.
“And for those who will become graduates from various tertiary institutions in the country, I will ensure they are thereafter engaged productively. I don’t want Nigerlite graduates to remain unemployed. “
