 The Independent International Electoral Commission has issued certificates of return to the governor of Canoes State Abercabella Yousif and his deputy, both of the new Nigeria People's Party, NNPP, following their victory in the just concluded 18 March 2023 humanitarian and state assembly polls. All 26 Canoes State Houses of Assembly members elected were also given the certificate of return by the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Ambassador Abdul Zango. The governor now, of course, in his acceptance speech promised to use democratic tenants to revive all sectors in Canoes State, especially infrastructure, in order for the people to enjoy the dividends of democracy. He said, the party recognised the challenges ahead and will do everything possible to surmount them. He also commended the media for the neutral role they played during the politicking before and after the elections. Joining us to discuss what lies ahead for the Canoes State governor is Ladikwell Johnson. He is spokesperson to the presidential candidates of the NNPP, Senator Robin Musaq Cwankwa. Thank you so much, Mr Johnson, for joining us. Good evening. Great. It's interesting that we're looking at Canoes State, a stronghold of the presidential candidate of the NNPP, Robin Cwankwa. Interestingly, inauguration day had some hiccups for the governor in Canoes State. We saw the state collapse, which was very scary for many who were watching. But then, of course, that's just a tiny little worry compared to what he has to deal with when it comes to Canoes. But let's talk about his predecessor. The former governor was known for a lot of things, including cases of corruption that had not been dealt with, maybe because of the immunity clause. But what can we say is the first thing that the governor of Canoes State will have to deal with as he assumes office? Thank you. Well, I think he has a lot of things that he has to do. You can't do everything at the same time, but he made the initial appointments. He did that immediately. I think he's gone to the, I think it's the NDLA or about the drug problem that they have in Canoes and in the North as a whole. And he spoke to the immigration dinner that already they had started on the first day to restore some of the street riots, et cetera, et cetera. So, and then I think yesterday he made appointments into, well, he had done into the Pilgrim welfare board. He made appointments into the urban renewal board and different things. So things are moving very quickly. He will have to do that. Unfortunately for us, we know where we left Canoes some eight years ago before Gwbdnogandirge took over. And we know where we are at at the moment. I think the debts profile at the moment is about 240, something beyond Naya. A lot of government properties were sold apparently to friends and cronies, things like that. So the government has to do those things and as well face a growing sort of insecurity in the states from people who unemployment is high and different things. So there's a lot to do and I assure you that he has already hit the ground running. He will do that and he will face it. He's a very experienced person and he has an experienced team around him. I'm sure that in the next few days we will begin to hear his appointments as for commissionerships into the various ministries, etc. So they're going to hit the ground run. Let's break down the conversation. Yes, you've talked about his experience, but then of course in a state where the major political parties have always held the reins. So he, whether we like it or not, is the first time in this regard. It's the first time for the NNPP. Of course I'm guessing that there will be a lot of roadblocks because people are not used to a different party, whether it's the APC or the PDP holding the reins in kind of state. But let's start by looking at education, which was a stronghold or rather a forte of the presidential candidates of the NNPP. This is one of the things he boasted of when he ran the state. He talked about also making sure that the state had money in its coffers. How well do you see the governor dealing with the issue of education, especially knowing that the education statistics is low when it comes to the North? Especially for the girl child and not just having education but safe spaces to study. It's one thing to try to encourage people to go to school. It's another to make sure that going and coming back from school is safe. What's the governor going to do in that regard? Yes, but firstly let me just say. Yes, it's the first time for the NNPP. It's not the first time for Abercabir Yusuf. If you recall, Rabbi Concozo was in the PDP and was one of those that led the exodus from the PDP into the APC. At that time it was the first time for the APC. Abercabir Yusuf was a commissioner for works at that time. The flyovers, the bridges, et cetera, that were built around that time were his handworks, the master plan and everything. So he's well experienced, very experienced about it. Now as you say, education is the forte of the Cwamposia movement. They believe in empowering the people and one of the major ways to do that is through education. Now especially, as you mentioned, girl child education. When Concozo was there, his second term, he did a lot with the girl child. Free school uniforms, dedicated buses to get the girls from home to school and back. Of course free feeding, things like that. And I see that, I definitely feel that the new governor, Abercabir Yusuf, will probably follow in the footsteps of what Concozo did regarding education and maybe he won't take it further. I do know that with the debt burden, it will be slightly difficult. But it's about priorities. I believe that overall you will see that infrastructure will increase maintenance of the existing secondary schools, primary schools and what have you will be done. And you'll see that they will go into the human capital aspect of it. Employing more teachers and ensuring that there's continuing education for the teachers and those who are going to train the students. One of the things he's done immediately that I forgot to say was that I think a few days ago, he said he was going to reopen the training institutes, there about 40 something of them that Concozo had established, that they had established before they left government eight years ago. And those institutes were totally abandoned by the erstwhile Governor Gandujay. So I think that with that you see that primary school, secondary school, tertiary education will be going on. Then you have also had emphasis on training schools, entrepreneurship schools, institutes, training institutes. And because one of the things the governor realizes and has said is that they realize that they have lots of people in the population that need retraining so that they can be employed. And that is why you see that they're going to work on ensuring that these institutes are there to retrain people who are elderly people or who have worked before to give them and equip them with new skills so that they can be employable or re-employable. And with that as well comes a lot of work towards investments coming into counter states. They have a lot of work to do. Thank you for leading me to my next question because I was going to talk about foreign direct investment and of course bringing, I do not know if there's a, because the states that have investments, burews or their departments, sometimes agencies of government who try to bring or attract investments, investment promotion burews, yes. What do you think the governor is going to do in terms of attracting investments to Cano state again knowing that Cano is, whether we like it or not, one of those states to be watched, especially when it comes to electoral or politicking. And the fact that states now have to, one way or the other, try to see how they can raise their revenue one way or the other, how is he going to also look in that direction or do, I mean, what would he be doing? Well, one of the first things I think he will do is to move swiftly to improve, to broaden and improve the revenue base of Cano. I believe that Cano, we all know that Cano used to be, used to be the gateway to the north, to northern Nigeria. It was the commercial capital of the north. Now, unfortunately, if you look at the IGR or what was declared anyway, it's about two billion a month and for Cano that is just not good enough. For the projects they want to run, for the way they want to empower their people with healthcare, Medicare and also education, they're going to need funds. So he has to do that. The fact that you have a market there and a market of millions of people is something that will attract investors. Improving the security of the state will also attract investors into Cano. And then, as I said, it is a gateway state into the rest of northern Nigeria, especially when you remember, recall the textile industry and all the industries that they had there. So they have a lot of work to do in trying to improve infrastructure so that these businesses can begin to come back into the state. I know that he has started already to talk to people, to talk to investment blocks, to begin to try to entice people to come into the state to do a lot of work. He did a lot of work after he was elected even before the swearing in. And I'm sure that people will begin to see effects or results of the background work that they've done, the team in Cano. So I am positive. I am positive. I pray that Nigeria as a whole begins to turn around. But I am positive that even as the country turns around, you will see that the positive indices regarding unemployment, regarding growth, regarding security or insecurity and then gradually education and whatever. I think that gradually we will see these things going up. The indices will improve in a positive direction. Let's talk about something that's very important to us because, you know, when we were growing up, we were told that we will be the future. Most people are still waiting to be, but then let's talk about our youngsters here. You mentioned briefly at the beginning the drug problem, which Cano is really associated with. And most of the people who are the corporates are young people, young stars. And you cannot talk about it because I heard the NDLE talking about the fact that the drug related issues are now tying to insecurity. And so you can't separate that. You also, it's intertwined with unemployment and underemployment because you know what they say about an idle mind being the devil's workshop. And most of these young idle people have taken to drugs. Aside from just palling with the NDLEA, how does the Cano government hope to make sure that these young people are not walking around idle? Because, I mean, it's not just the issue of unemployment or underemployment. It's not just a Cano issue. But if we have this high number of people who are addicted to drugs, then of course the state does have a problem. So it's a three-pronged issue. You're going to have to deal with the idleness of underemployment and underemployment. You're going to have to deal with the insecurity that comes with it. And of course dealing with these people who are, you know, drugies for the want of a better way to describe it. Where does it even begin to start from? If you were opportunity to advise the governor on how to go about this, what would it be? Well, the first thing is a sort of a zero, almost zero tolerance, as we say. Don't just go for those who are the users or the victims, but you also look at the supply chain and try to make sure that you empower the NDLEA. I know it's a federal body, but you encourage them, you empower them, give them incentives to crack down on those who are distributors and sellers of these hard drugs. Now, the other thing we mentioned earlier is the various training institutes. And then you have to spend a lot of money on rehabilitation. Either for psychiatric institutions or drug rehabilitation institutions that government has to invest in. And there must be a lot of orientation. He has to make sure that families do not feel too ashamed to come up to say that we have a son, we have a daughter who has a drug problem. It must be seen as a societal problem, one that the community must face together. Because as you said in your question, Maria, it is tied directly to the turning around of the economy of society and many other things as well. You have someone who is brilliant, who is meant to contribute positively to the economy and to society and to the community, and that person is a drug addict, that person becomes hopeless. So these are very important issues that must be faced. And you need money to face these things. You need the will. I know they have the will to face these things. And you need the cooperation of society as a whole. That's why I said that a lot of orientation has to go into it. And I'm sure that it's a thing that you don't really have to do a lot of things at the same time. Gradually you begin to see the improvement within the community. Well, all of these things that you have, of course, speculatively spoken of, we're hoping that these will be able to begin to tick some of the boxes for Canusthe. But I want to say thank you. Llyr Gruffydd Johnson is a spokesperson to the presidential candidate of the new Nigerian People's Party, NMPP Senator Rabiu Mosoqankoso. Thank you so much for speaking with us. Thank you. All right. And that's the show tonight. Thank you so much for being part of the conversation. Don't forget you can also catch up on our previous episodes of the program Plus Politics. Just go to Plus TV Africa on YouTube, subscribe, like and follow all of our programs. I'm Mary Anna Cunn. Have a good evening.