From Yakubu Busari, Jos
Prof Sheni
The Former Vice Chancellor, University of BOKKOS, Prof Doknan Sheni has joined in the race for the Plateau Southern Senatorial district on the platform of the All progressive Congress, APC. In this interview with Yakubu Busari in Jos, the Plateau state capital, the scholar- turned politician says he wants to bring his wealth of experience garnered in the academia to empower his constituents through people orientation projects.
Why are you vying for the senatorial position of Plateau south senatorial zone?
I believed after serving as the Vice Chancellor of the state owned University, Bokkos, I have a lot to offer my people at the Southern senatorial zone of the state giving my understanding of the challenges of all the senatorial zones in the state, particularly my senatorial district.
I had travelled through the length and breath of the whole senatorial zone and was amazed to find that despite that the zone has produced several senators in the time past, it cannot boast of portable water , that is just one item in it. Look at the agricultural backwardness of the area.
Our people are merely subsistent farmers ; they don’t even known how to go about getting loans from the bank to boost their agricultural produce and nobody is mobilising these farmers in any way.
I wouldn’t blame the past senators for not putting in their best, but for me, I have a passion to assist people who have been disenfranchise. l have a passion to help the poor, the orphaned, the widowed and disadvantaged. So when I look at them, it pains me to the bone marrow. And I asked myself why not offer to help them through service as a lawmaker?
One of the unsettled issues in plateau politics is that of zoning. Now there is this call for Quan’pa to complete their tenure in the zone. How do you react to that?
That is very simple, without insulting anybody, l would say I am part of the stakeholders of APC since the last six years from 2014 till date. There was no time it was decided for the zoning of any district or local government.
The first person to win the senatorial seat in the constituency is from Qua’pan, and the other person is from Shandam , if I am not mistaken. Despite that, people seem to have easily forgotten things. Does that mean we should continue with in ignorance ?. One thing I known that should be taken as normal in my understanding of the question is that if a governor comes from a particular zone, no senator should come from there also.
We have three federal constituencies in the Southern zone which are Mikan, Shandam, Quan’pan , Wase and Lantang North and South. If you look at appointments into the present government, you would discover that people holding political positions are from Mikan Shandam and Quan’pan. They dominate the other federal constituency, too.
What are your plans for the people of your constituency if you are eventually elected?
Since going around the senatorial zone, I have learnt that the people grieve that the past senators never spend their constituency allowance on any visible projects. I want to change that narrative, which is going to be between me and the people of my constituency. As I am going around the constituency, I will ask them to identify any project that is most important to them so that I can avoid what happened during the tenure of other senators. The project so identify by them would enable me to deploy my constituency allowance productively for the people.
Secondly, if the project is beyond me I, will lobby for it at the National Assembly using my position as a federal lawmaker.That will be my contract with the people of my constituency. I want to go to the National Assembly as an ambassador of my people .
By the Grace of God, I don’t need any money to feed myself and my family for the rest of my life from anybody. The little God has blessed me with, I am contented with it.
When l was the Vice Chancellor of the Plateau state University, Bokkos, I saw money but refused to dip my finger into it. I just wanted to developed the University and leave an enduring legacy for children yet unborn.
Your party APC would be clocking years in power soon. What would you say is its score card?
If you read the news paper recently, you would seen the achievements of Mr President Mohammadu Buhari and our amiable Governor Simon Bako Lalong published in bold relief .
In the state there is the “Lalong Legacy Project”, which is to complete the manifestoes of the APC as a party in our state.
In our APC manifesto, we have seven major areas including infrastructure, agriculture and transportation, where efforts are been deployed aggressively. What is more important is human capital development, but in my zone there is no presence of federal institutions like the university, polytechnic and so on. As a professor, this is one of the easiest thing for me to do for my people. I think it would very easy for me to bring a branch of open university to the zone, for example.
I think that will be the first project I will pursue if I am voted in as the senator of plateau senatorial district.
The other aspect of it is skill development. These days, nobody cares about the chains of certificates you have if you don’t have skills.
How did you hope to cope in the rough and tumble of Nigerian politics considering that you are coming from different background, which is academics.?
According to our former president, chief Olusegun Obasanjo, ” If good people don’t join politics, do not complain when the bad people rule.” I may not have quoted him correctly but that is the essence of his message. Politics is a social contract with your people. Nobody is born a politician, you learn on the job, I hope my sincerity of doing things and my manifesto would make attract the electorate who are yearning for Change. When I went round one of the districts recently, I heard people complain that those you refer to as politicians vanish after election and come back when another election is a few months or weeks away. Well, I told them that I am not their conventional politician. That is how I developed the concept of making the people determine and supervise the constituency project that as a senator, I would be entitled to sponsor.
