By Tajuddeen Ahmad Tijjani
All political parties’ primary elections have come and gone, leaving a slew of gladiators in the political arena plotting to sway the electorate into their camp to win the general elections.
From the return of democracy after a long military rule, Bauchi State had Adamu Mu’azu from 1999 to 2007. There was massive infrastructure in every nook and cranny of the state with little human development. However, many of these capital projects were concentrated in Bauchi, the state capital. When Isa Yuguda came on board from 2007 to 2015, he shifted to human development. Nevertheless, there was some infrastructure that would stand the test of time, like the Bauchi State University Gadau and the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa International Airport.
Indeed, there appears to be no better time when the good people of Bauchi State seek a governor who will serve them all than now. Certainly, there is a leadership vacuum regarding equal opportunities and the distribution of meagre resources. Not only that, I bet you, anything that leadership entails is comatose.
Nonetheless, there is still time for the current administration to make amends, and it is up to the people to decide their fate on who will take the mantle of leadership. As the election of 2023 approaches, who is the best candidate for the job?
What’s at stake is the ambiguity surrounding the payment of civil servants’ salaries. Unfortunately, no one on the state government payroll can be guaranteed that they will not be “deliberately omitted”. As a result, people have families under their control, and their only source of income is routinely squandered.
For instance, a credible report was that a particular ministry lodged their complaints to the state Accountant General. He bluntly told them it was beyond his power to make amends for the simple fact that the number one citizen is the architect of the lingering crisis. Shall we continue this way? It is left for the civil servants to seal their signatures if they are comfortable with the recent developments.
We’re not calling for people to vote based on primordial sentiments but rather to look for a competent hand who will never joke with workers and pensioners that have expended their energy on the development of Bauchi State. Yet, ironically, the end of their reward is to deny them their entitlements while the leadership is living flamboyantly with taxpayers’ money.
However, we will consider changing the narrative. The state is more significant than any individual to have a mindset of doing as he so wishes to the detriment of the larger society. Indeed, our people are waiting for the appropriate time to give him a dose of his own medicine.
Recall that Governor Muhammad Abdullahi Abubakar was unceremoniously voted out for the same offence that the current administration deliberately neglects or refuses to tackle.
There are insinuations that some power blocks or powerful forces are fighting the government of PDP in Bauchi. This fictitious or imaginary claim is far from the truth and can’t hold water. When a leader does the right thing, no one can stop or sabotage him. Therefore, I can boldly affirm that we are good at speaking the “language they understand”.
We hope that the good people of Bauchi will resolve to vote for a candidate who will treat all segments of the states as his constituency rather than focus on working for a single local government as if it were the only one that gave him votes. Even other sectors such as health and commerce are not receiving the attention they deserve. Thus, the internally generated revenue is not healthy, and our industries are left unattended. We need a governor who has the competence to address these issues head-on. The ball is in our court to take us out of the wounds or retrogress in the party of failure.
Tajuddeen Ahmad Tijjani writes from Galadima Mahmoud, Kasuwar Kaji, Azare, Bauchi state.
