Samaila Dahuwa Kaila

Samaila Dahuwa Kaila is a Nigerian politician. He currently serves as a Senator representing the Bauchi North Senatorial District in the 10th National Assembly. He previously held the position of Commissioner for Health in Bauchi State. Quotes Let me first of all correct that notion that I lost election in APC. I did not lose election in APC. There was no election in APC. There were no primaries in APC. What we experienced was flagrant disregard to procedures, flagrant disregard to processes. And people went and just wrote the results as they so wish. And they had, let me use the word, buy-in of the national chairman. And so, they did what they want. So, we left before the election was concluded. In fact, up to today, there was no official announcement of any result. This is to tell you how bad that election was. So, I left before the election was concluded and I joined PRP. Actually, it is true I left PDP because there were unending crises in PDP. And it is hindering my ability to deliver my responsibilities. Interview response to the question 'You left PDP for APC in Oct 2025, saying PDP’s “unending crisis” constrained your duties and praising Tinubu’s “bold reforms”. Eight months later you’ve moved to PRP after losing the APC return ticket in May 2026. What changed about APC that made you reverse that position so quickly?' So, I went to APC. And I went because I strongly believe that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is on the right track. At least, I am supporting some of his reform programmes and so on, which I do up to now. But when it comes to party politics, I find it very, very appalling how APC of all parties would behave the way it behaved in this recent primary election. So, I left because I was not given the chance to present myself to the electorates, to get the electorate to vote or not vote for me. If there was a level playing ground and I lost the election, I don’t think I would have left the APC. Interview response to the question 'You left PDP for APC in Oct 2025, saying PDP’s “unending crisis” constrained your duties and praising Tinubu’s “bold reforms”. Eight months later you’ve moved to PRP after losing the APC return ticket in May 2026. What changed about APC that made you reverse that position so quickly?' But I do not think it is fair for democracy. It is not fair for Nigeria to have that kind of election and consider it an election. I think it is not an election. I think it is just a flagrant disregard to processes and procedures. And I cannot accept it. Interview response to the question 'You left PDP for APC in Oct 2025, saying PDP’s “unending crisis” constrained your duties and praising Tinubu’s “bold reforms”. Eight months later you’ve moved to PRP after losing the APC return ticket in May 2026. What changed about APC that made you reverse that position so quickly?' Well, PRP is the oldest party at the moment in the country. And yes, it was a party that was very strong in the 1979 election. They had a governor in Kano and Kaduna, and they have a very strong presence in Bauchi even then, because they even have some legislators. And they have legislators from almost most places in the North. Yes, but they only have two governors, which is not a bad outing then. Interview response to the question 'PRP is historically strong in Kano but has little presence in Bauchi. Why PRP and not ADC, PDP, or NNPP? What guarantees did PRP give you that APC didn’t?' But truth of the matter, most of these parties are the same. We just go for the one that we think is better for us in terms of manifesto. It aligns with what we want and the one that we can easily work with. So, I think PRP is so far the best. Interview response to the question 'PRP is historically strong in Kano but has little presence in Bauchi. Why PRP and not ADC, PDP, or NNPP? What guarantees did PRP give you that APC didn’t?' And we do not want to bring in too much rancour to other parties, because it was a bit late at the time we were coming in. So, I think the parties are almost the same. Unfortunately, we are not doing politics of manifesto nowadays, or politics of ideas. All we are talking about is just how to win the election. I do not think that is an issue. Interview response to the question 'PRP is historically strong in Kano but has little presence in Bauchi. Why PRP and not ADC, PDP, or NNPP? What guarantees did PRP give you that APC didn’t?' Exactly. I was the last, the senator that gave them complete two-thirds majority in the Senate. And I am also very proud about that. And as I said, I am glad some of the decisions that were taken were taken with that kind of majority. Interview response to the question 'APC secured a two-thirds Senate majority after your 2025 defection. That helped pass key Tinubu bills. Do you regret giving APC that majority if you now say the party lacks internal democracy?' And I was also part of the decision-making in the Senate, or at least part of those that voted for those decisions. I am not regretting any decision that I took. Interview response to the question 'APC secured a two-thirds Senate majority after your 2025 defection. That helped pass key Tinubu bills. Do you regret giving APC that majority if you now say the party lacks internal democracy?' But I still think we should allow him to continue because the future is at least brighter than it was before. Don’t forget, this man came and took this country when it was almost bankrupt. And up to today, most of our budgets are on borrowed money up to today. Interview response to the question 'APC secured a two-thirds Senate majority after your 2025 defection. That helped pass key Tinubu bills. Do you regret giving APC that majority if you now say the party lacks internal democracy?' You understand? So, we have to allow him to sort it out. I think he has a strong economic team, and I think he is doing it with good intention. Whether we will get it immediately or we will get it in the long run, posterity will say it, but let me tell you, posterity will judge him as a leader who is able to take a decision. Because posterity will judge you badly if you take a decision that is bad. But it will judge you badly if you fail to take any decision. And I think he is a decision maker. Interview response to the question 'APC secured a two-thirds Senate majority after your 2025 defection. That helped pass key Tinubu bills. Do you regret giving APC that majority if you now say the party lacks internal democracy?' You see, the primary election was manipulated by APC abinitio. This is not the first time we are doing primary elections. We did primary elections in PDP and APC. We know how primary elections are conducted. This is the first time you hear the national office saying they will be the only people that will announce primary election results. From that action, the election is already compromised. Interview response to the question 'You and Senator Shehu Buba Umar both cited “absence of internal democracy, lack of fairness, marginalisation of genuine party members” in APC as reason for joining PRP. Can you give specific examples of how Bauchi APC primaries were manipulated in Bauchi North?' Because the Electoral Act gave them the power to do what they want. Unfortunately, we as legislators gave them that power. But it is unfortunate that this thing is happening in the tenureship of the present president of this country. Interview response to the question 'You and Senator Shehu Buba Umar both cited “absence of internal democracy, lack of fairness, marginalisation of genuine party members” in APC as reason for joining PRP. Can you give specific examples of how Bauchi APC primaries were manipulated in Bauchi North?' Because this is a man that almost gave his life for democracy to exist in this country. We all know what happened during the NADECO time. We all know how he fought the army because he did not believe in dictatorship. He believed in democracy. Interview response to the question 'You and Senator Shehu Buba Umar both cited “absence of internal democracy, lack of fairness, marginalisation of genuine party members” in APC as reason for joining PRP. Can you give specific examples of how Bauchi APC primaries were manipulated in Bauchi North?' And this is the man that, as I said, he almost gave his life to democracy, to be entrenched in this country. And now, he is sitting, right in front of him, these type of things are happening. I do not know, is he aware? Is he not aware? I cannot say that, but I am sure as a president, whoever is briefing him is not giving him the right information. Interview response to the question 'You and Senator Shehu Buba Umar both cited “absence of internal democracy, lack of fairness, marginalisation of genuine party members” in APC as reason for joining PRP. Can you give specific examples of how Bauchi APC primaries were manipulated in Bauchi North?' And yes, we left, I and Senator Buba in Bauchi. You know, Bauchi, in the first place, is one of the largest voting power. If not the largest voting power of the Northeast. We have the largest votes in Northeast. And I cannot understand how a party like APC will not take Bauchi very seriously. Interview response to the question 'You and Senator Shehu Buba Umar both cited “absence of internal democracy, lack of fairness, marginalisation of genuine party members” in APC as reason for joining PRP. Can you give specific examples of how Bauchi APC primaries were manipulated in Bauchi North?' And you know, Bauchi is always a volatile state politically. But that does not mean we are not doing APC. Yes, people were actually doing APC. We support the president. We support his second term bid. Interview response to the question 'You and Senator Shehu Buba Umar both cited “absence of internal democracy, lack of fairness, marginalisation of genuine party members” in APC as reason for joining PRP. Can you give specific examples of how Bauchi APC primaries were manipulated in Bauchi North?' But to see people coming to flagrantly disregard procedures and processes, not in the interest of the APC, but in their own personal interest, so that they will entrench whoever they want because they have the ear of the president and the national chairman. I think that is unacceptable and I find it difficult to understand whether the president is really, really aware of this, what is happening. Interview response to the question 'You and Senator Shehu Buba Umar both cited “absence of internal democracy, lack of fairness, marginalisation of genuine party members” in APC as reason for joining PRP. Can you give specific examples of how Bauchi APC primaries were manipulated in Bauchi North?' First of all, as I said, I did not participate in the election of the APC. Because up to now, the APC did not even finish their election. So, we switched party long before that. We did not even participate in the election. We did not accept the procedures and we decided not participate in those elections. Interview response to the question 'You and Senator Shehu Buba Umar both cited “absence of internal democracy, lack of fairness, marginalisation of genuine party members” in APC as reason for joining PRP. Can you give specific examples of how Bauchi APC primaries were manipulated in Bauchi North?' And up to now, the election is not concluded. So, I don’t think we have broken that law in any way. And we have consulted our legal experts, including people that know the process, and they told us that yes, it is within the law. Our action is within the law. Interview response to the question 'You and Senator Shehu Buba Umar both cited “absence of internal democracy, lack of fairness, marginalisation of genuine party members” in APC as reason for joining PRP. Can you give specific examples of how Bauchi APC primaries were manipulated in Bauchi North?' And we are happy that we are in PRP now. We are happy that we have a party that is not only the oldest party so far in the country, but a party that can allow us to showcase our capabilities, to tell the electorates who we are. Interview response to the question 'You and Senator Shehu Buba Umar both cited “absence of internal democracy, lack of fairness, marginalisation of genuine party members” in APC as reason for joining PRP. Can you give specific examples of how Bauchi APC primaries were manipulated in Bauchi North?' Let me first of all correct this notion that when you are in the Senate, you are there to deliver projects. That is first of all a wrong notion. And unfortunately, almost everybody is going with that notion, including you who are supposed to know it better. Interview response to the question 'When you joined APC in 2025, Bauchi APC members rejected your defection bid, saying your PDP track record was “underwhelming” and you failed to deliver projects to Bauchi North. As a first-term senator, what tangible projects have you delivered to Katagum, Jama’are, Giade, Shira, Zaki, Gamawa since 2023?' He is there to represent his people. He is there to ensure that whatever is appropriated is properly oversighted. And the third job is to legislate, to enact laws for the country. Those are the three major, if not the only, constitutional responsibilities of a legislator. Projects are not his duty. Interview response to the question 'When you joined APC in 2025, Bauchi APC members rejected your defection bid, saying your PDP track record was “underwhelming” and you failed to deliver projects to Bauchi North. As a first-term senator, what tangible projects have you delivered to Katagum, Jama’are, Giade, Shira, Zaki, Gamawa since 2023?' And again, it is very unfair, not only unfair, very wrong to say you will judge a legislator based on projects, bearing in mind that it is not the legislator that is doing the projects. This is an executive arm of government procedure. Interview response to the question 'When you joined APC in 2025, Bauchi APC members rejected your defection bid, saying your PDP track record was “underwhelming” and you failed to deliver projects to Bauchi North. As a first-term senator, what tangible projects have you delivered to Katagum, Jama’are, Giade, Shira, Zaki, Gamawa since 2023?' You see, let me give you an example. Yes, there is what we call constituency projects. These are not constitutionally backed projects, but they are just conventions that were accepted. Interview response to the question 'When you joined APC in 2025, Bauchi APC members rejected your defection bid, saying your PDP track record was “underwhelming” and you failed to deliver projects to Bauchi North. As a first-term senator, what tangible projects have you delivered to Katagum, Jama’are, Giade, Shira, Zaki, Gamawa since 2023?' Some governments do accept them, some may decide not to accept. Some accept and do not fund it, like what we have now. The present government, they accepted constituency projects, but in the 2025 and 2026, even the last 2024 budgets, they refused to fund it. Interview response to the question 'When you joined APC in 2025, Bauchi APC members rejected your defection bid, saying your PDP track record was “underwhelming” and you failed to deliver projects to Bauchi North. As a first-term senator, what tangible projects have you delivered to Katagum, Jama’are, Giade, Shira, Zaki, Gamawa since 2023?' So, how are you going to judge a legislator based on a constituency project? He has no control over implementation. He has no control over the funds. He cannot release the funds. Most of the funds are zero release for the whole year. Interview response to the question 'When you joined APC in 2025, Bauchi APC members rejected your defection bid, saying your PDP track record was “underwhelming” and you failed to deliver projects to Bauchi North. As a first-term senator, what tangible projects have you delivered to Katagum, Jama’are, Giade, Shira, Zaki, Gamawa since 2023?' So, how are you going to judge him? So, I think it is very wrong to say a legislator should be judged based on projects that he brought to his constituency, because it is not within his power to control those things. Interview response to the question 'When you joined APC in 2025, Bauchi APC members rejected your defection bid, saying your PDP track record was “underwhelming” and you failed to deliver projects to Bauchi North. As a first-term senator, what tangible projects have you delivered to Katagum, Jama’are, Giade, Shira, Zaki, Gamawa since 2023?' External links Category:Living people Category:Politicians from Nigeria Category:Physicians