Our Plans for Borno State.

(From Vanguard (Nigeria) - AAGM)

Byline: Kashim Imam

In this session with journalists, Kashim Imam Ibrahim, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, gubernatorial candidate for Borno State makes it clear that in the event that he becomes the state governor, he would re-invent the state.

Excerpts:

You contested in 2003. As you said, there were certain things you didn't do right. Can you share some of those problems with us?

For starters, the PDP of 2007 and the PDP of 2003 are fundamentally different. That time, we went into the contest divided. The division was not my making. The problem that is now out in the open and is on the pages of newspapers everyday now, that is, the rift between the President and the Vice President. It started before they were sworn in and some of us were victims. I in particular, I found myself in the middle partly on account of the job I was doing then. It was a very sensitive and delicate assignment. I was handling the Presidential relations with the Senate.

Partly on account of my closeness to the President, the Vice President felt that those of us from the North should have no relationship with the President. My case was worse because we also come from the same North-East zone. And he went out of his way to undermine our aspiration. Adamu Maina Waziri in Yobe, Senator Abdullahi Wali was our candidate in Sokoto. He was our Senate Leader. Senator Mohammed Alkali, our candidate in Jigawa in his case was guilty by association.

There were a number of us he was determined that we must be defeated by all means. I am saying this simply as an explanation. I put that behind me a long time ago.

Even before the …