He said to address security and economic challenges, competency should be the watchword
Air Vice-Marshal (AVM) Napoleon Binkap Bali (Rtd) is an astute retired military general who has attained prominence through absolute hard work, resilience, and forthrightness.
He is a gentleman of inestimable
ingenuousness as he blends with both the prominent and low in the society
without discrimination. It is this his unchanged capable spirit that steered
him to continue seeking ways of serving humanity wherever he found himself
Napoleon Binkap Bali has in his
military career traversed in life and has left an indelible mark in the sand of
time. He has held various appointments in his career in the Nigeria Air Force,
NAF. Some of these appointments include; Emergency Procedure Officer and
Commanding Officer of Ground Academics Wing in 303 FTS, Kano between 2000 and
2003. He was Staff Officer 1 Operations and Coordination in the Directorate of
Operations, HQ NAF from 2003 to 2005. Similarly, he was Planning Officer Air
Operations Cell, United Nations Mission in DR Congo (MOUNC) from 2005 to 2006.
Napoleon was also Wing Chief Operations and Fleet Operations Officer 011 PAF
from February 2013 to May 2015. During this period, his tireless contributions
to the Fleet earned him the Air Officer of the Year Award in the Year 2013. AVM
Bali was appointed Commander 011PAF from May to August 2015. Thereafter, he
served as the Command Operations Officer (COO) Headquarters Tactical Air
Command (HQ TAC) Makurdi from August 2015 to February 2016. His great skills in
coordinating the operational activities of TAC, particularly in the support of
the mission in the North East earned him a "Letter of Commendation"
from the Air Officer Commanding (AOC), TAC. This is just to mention a few of
his sojourn in the military.
Aside from his military life, he has demonstrated an impactful and profound talent in maintaining a partisan relationship and he is passionate about Human capacity, women, youth, and community development among others.
In a chat with media men in his Jos
residence, he displayed that he is quite versatile and well informed about
political issues within the country, the state, and his hometown.
The Two-Star Retired General said
his inspiration to join partisan politics was informed by the fact that having
served meritoriously in various capacities in the military and with the current
security challenges bedevilling our country, there’s a gap which he strongly
believes that instead of him to retire and go and sit down in his farm, he
strongly believes that he can still use his vast experience to serve his
fatherland at this perilous times.
He said the National Assembly is the
very vital organ of democracy where he believed, as a member he will have the
opportunity to fill in those gaps he said ‘If you check very well, the Military
is overstretched and the magnitude of violence of what these non-state actors
are doing let’s be sincere to ourselves, not all Police can handle the kind of
firepower some of this bandits have. So in essence, what are we going to do? The
equipment and technology President Buhari has bought are enough to defeat these
bandits. One of my motivations is security. Insecurity appears to be rearing
its ugly head taller every day and I think I have a lot to do with security. He added
To achieve that, he said ‘the only
way I can go about it is through representing my people in the southern zone
Senatorial seat because you know zoning is a hot issue and I believe very well
that Plateau people have gentleman agreement and so the best way is Senate’.
‘When I go in there by the grace of God, I guide my colleagues on the best way we’ll
appropriate money and channel it in a way that it will give results.
AVM Bali further said ‘I realized that a lot of my people are in need of hospitals, Primary Health Care, ‘my cardinal objective why I joined politics is that I want to contribute to add value to the security of this country, to contribute and add value to the Primary Health Care of my senatorial district and also the education of my senatorial district amongst others.
Commenting on his military integrity
and the alleged filthiness of politician AVM Bali said the issue of politicians
dirtiness is just perception, he said ‘if you say the politics is dirty do we
all sit and watch the dirty people determine how much tax we pay, how much the
electricity bill we pay? We’ll watch the dirty people, allowing insecurity to
knock on our doors?. ‘I don’t believe and I have prayed over it as a Christian.
Remember God in His infinite mercy has given us grace and He is in us and I
think I cannot just sit down and watch your alleged dirtiness that is leading
me why can’t I go in there. ‘I think I’ll be able to wash and clear the ground
for people like you to also come and see, he added.
AVM Bali also said he welcome the
issues of direct primaries, he said ‘To me, as what the speaker House of
Representatives said and I quote him he said if I want to be selfish and I vote
for indirect primaries, I have all my delegates intact and unquote, I don’t want
to be selfish, that’s why I’m supporting direct primaries to open the doors for
the youths because direct primaries give powers to people to choose who they
want to represent them. ‘You don’t need to be a godson to a godfather that will
now carry delegates and go and hide somewhere to determine what those delegates
will do. for me, direct primaries are very explicit. So to me, I support direct
primaries and I think it opens the door for young people with the capacity and
the competency to lead.
He said ‘because we’ve always been
glued to this issue of integrity “ba Mai sata ba ne” when somebody has
integrity, but he doesn’t have the capacity to rule honestly, the people surrounding
him will steal. So let’s elect leaders with capacity and competence because
democracy cannot build competence and capacity, but democracy can check made
integrity. If you are a leader and you’re competent and have the capacity and
you’re stealing, institutions will check you. But you are a leader that only
has integrity you don’t steal how the institution check will people around you
because they always said “wannan Mai gaskiya ne” meanwhile they are stealing.
AVM Bali said all along he has been
working on this issue of delegates having meetings with stakeholders to try to
see how many delegates are unground, but with the recent amendment bill that
was passed into law for direct primaries, I told my campaign council, let’s us
change strategy. We’re now working on direct primaries. I’ve introduced another dimension; I’ve
inaugurated Ward Coordinators in Qua’anpan, Shendam, and Mikang. As I am
talking to you now, we’re inaugurating Wase, Langtang North, and Langtang South
today. The essence is that, since these direct primaries will be done at the
ward levels, let me have coordinators then God’s willing around January when
the timetable for the primaries must be out, all the One thousand and something
polling units in the entire southern zone I will call them polling unit
mobilizes. So with these kinds of structures I have, by the grace of God, I
think I will be able to pick the ticket of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
AVM Bali said ‘If by the grace of
God, I’m able to pick the ticket of PDP and I win the main election itself in
2023, one thing I’ll do even as Senator-Elect is to ensure that I have a
functional senatorial liaison office in the entire six local government areas.
Honestly, youth and women are my priority. What I have for youth and women is
to empower them. Through CBN intervention, we have a lot of federal government
loans here and there. I’ll try and enrol a lot of them. Then, on the issue of
securing them jobs as a Senator, I’m sure from my background, no matter what it
takes, I’m sure I will be in a committee around defence and security forces, so
I’ll try as much as possible to get as many youths as possible, provided they
are healthy, from Wase, Langtang North and South, Mikang, Shendam, and
Qua’anpan, into the military.
He added ‘If I’m able to convince my
colleagues and we agree on this issue, to nip this security, of course, I’ll
try and give them jobs, and at the end of it all, I’ll discourage thuggery. How
am I going to do that? That’s why I have these liaison offices and I’m going to
have things like monitors and there will be soft loans for women to start their
business. They’ll be training these boys on skills acquisition such as laying
of tiles so that instead of going to Togo to get those to do the job, people
will be going to Wase and the Southern Zone to get those that can lay tiles for
them. These are some of the plans I have if I am given the mandate to represent the good people of the Southern Plateau.
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