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Former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa, has announced his retirement from politics.
Bafarawa was governor of the North West state between 1999 and 2007.
In an interview with The PUNCH, the ex-governor said after 45 years, he no longer has the will to be in active politics.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant said he will never contest for any elective office or accept a political appointment.
“There was a time I was in politics, the will to do it was there. Now, I don’t have it. I feel I have done my best based on the opportunity given to me and I am grateful for what God has done for me.
“Therefore, I will never go for any elective office for the rest of my life and I will never accept any appointment for the rest of my life. But I will always give my advice whenever it is needed,” he said.
Bafarawa said it is an “abuse of privilege” for someone who served as a governor to vie to become a senator.
He said: “Why would you serve eight years as governor of a state and then you come again and take one part of the state and say you are going to the national assembly?
“After serving for eight years, why don’t you allow others to go to the national assembly? As a former governor, the only thing you can look forward to is the presidency. Anything less than that is an abuse of privilege.
“Out of 200 million people, you are one of the few chosen to become governor, and after two terms, you come back again and say you want to go to the Senate. What are you going to the Senate to do? As a former governor, ask somebody to go and represent the people there. Then you give the person your wisdom.”
I share ex-governor Attahiru Bafarawa’s sentiment about former governors trooping to the senate after eight years of being governor of a state. As governor of a state, you are exercising power on behalf of the people over the entire state. If after your term as governor you still now insist you must go to the senate, that means you’re going to represent a third part of your state at the senate. If you evaluate it this way you may immediately get the sense that it isn’t right, that something is just wrong with the idea. Why must the representation of a third part of the state be done by a former governor? Why should a former governor even put himself forward instead of leaving the field for others while he jostles for the presidency or a ministerial position where the entire country will be his constituency, rather than just a part of his state?
And in case we haven’t noticed, there’s a correlation between the ever-rising cost (it’s actually greed and avarice) of running the senate and the National Assembly and the increase in the number of ex-governors who are going there?