2023 Elections: Count Me Out Of Any Contest — Governor Masari

The Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari said he has no intention or plans to contest for any political office in 2023.

The Governor disclosed this while entertaining questions from journalists in commemoration of this year’s Democracy Day.

He said it will be unfair for him to jostle for any political office considering all the offices he has occupied in the past.

Similarly, he said Katsina State has had its fair share in leading the country having produced three different times men calling the shot at the nation’s most exalted office.

“Common sense, first of all, I was in the house of representatives, I was speaker for four years. So, I have no intention of going back to the National Assembly by contesting the Senate seat or any other seat.

“I was Deputy National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress when it was created. So, I am not interested in party office.

“I think Katsina is lucky to have produced three Heads of State. Before President Muhammad Buhari, we had President Umaru Musa Yar’adua.

“I think for anybody in Katsina State to say that he is looking for something, I don’t think we are being fair.

“So really, I have no plans, neither do I have intention of contesting for any political office in 2023.

On the assessment of his six years at the helms of affairs in Katsina State, Masari said it has not been easy because of the prevailing security challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic.

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However, he said his administration is working hard to see that they fulfil the campaign promises they have made.

“I have gone round the state, I made promises during the campaign. How far l have been able to meet those promises I have made is what would give me sound sleep when I leave office.

“This has been one of the toughest period of government in this country. While we were battling with insecurity, then came COVID-19. It did not only affect Nigeria but the whole world.

” It is now that we are recovering from the negative effects of Covid19 and we are trying to meet some of the obligations, some of the promises we have made to the people.

“So, I think internally we feel satisfied but people should understand, we want people to understand the difficulties that we find ourselves into.

Masari further said that his government will focus more on education for the remaining two years of his administration.

“For the next two years, our priorities will always be on education.

He lamented the high level of decay in primary and secondary education when they came on board in 2015.

“If you see the level of decay in the education sector… those of you who were with us in 2015 when we went round would have seen it.

“The level of decay was so much. Some of the schools that were built 20 to 30 years ago, not a single block of classroom were added to them and the communities were growing.

“That has accounted for most of the children you see roaming about.

“What we have been trying to do is to restore the classroom so that if you go there you know it’s a classroom.

But there are still areas we have not been able to touch and from 2015 up to last year, we have assessed and contributed through UBEC.

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“So, I want you to imagine the billions we have spent on primary education and if we can spend double of what we have spent, we still may not be able to provide enough classrooms, furnitures and teaching aids to all the primary school people.

He equally decried the over bloated number of students enrolled in Primary and Secondary education when they took over the mantle of leadership in the state.

“When we came, even in the register, what we saw was 1.2 million registered pupils but when we counted physically, what we were able to get was 700,000 and something.

“So, we thought maybe it is because of lack of teachers, classes are falling down and nobody cares and children were no longer attending classes.

“But today you go to our register, those who are going to school in primary school, /we have over 1.8 million in primary 1 to 6 in Katsina State. You can see the addition and these are pupils that are in class not on school register. I don’t believe that we should use school register. I work with physical records of people attending primary education.