Politics

By Uzair Adam Imam

A Police Constable, Nura Mande, has been honoured by Katsina State Police Command for finding and returning the missing 800 dollars to its owner in the state.

The Daily Reality learnt that the money belongs to a female intending pilgrim, Hajiya Hadiza Usman.

Mande was reportedly presented with a letter of commendation and N30,000 by the Commissioner of Police, Idris Dabban.

SP Gambo Isah, the Command’s Spokesperson, disclosed this in a statement, stating that the constable was on official duty at the state Pilgrims Welfare Board Hajj camp when he found the money.

He added that “while discharging his duty at the Hajj camp, PC Mande found the 800 dollars on the ground and returned it to the board’s Director of Administration, Alhaji Sada Salisu-Rumah.

“PC Mande disclosed that it was his fear of God that made him to return the money to the board’s official so that it could be returned to the owner.

“Salisu-Rumah commended the police constable for his good behaviour and honesty,” he added.

Isah added in the statement that the Police Commissioner was very excited over the display of honesty by Maude.

He, however, called on other police personnel in the command to emulate him.

By Adamu Abubakar Kumo

Mentorship has been the way through which a more experienced, more skilled and usually more elderly person passes his experience, expertise, knowledge etc. to the younger ones. From education to politics, business to occupation, mentorship is instrumental to the continuance of the flow of wisdom from one generation to another.

The history of Nigeria’s founding fathers is undoubtedly that of heroes and legends who wrote their names in gold in the books of history. But, looking at today’s Nigeria, one would be right to say that the wisdom of those great men has not been successfully passed down to today’s generation.

Among the six geo-political regions of the country, South-West has distinguished itself. The region seems to uphold the principles of mentorship. From Sir Herbert Macaulay, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Samuel Akintola, Aare M.K.O. Abiola and now Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Yoruba leaders have been producing leaders who subsequently would take over from them. They deliberately ‘build’ people; they sow the seeds and look after them until they grow into large formidable and strong iroko trees that can hardly be trampled or tempered with by just lilliputians if I were to borrow Shattima’s word.

The successful emergence of Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu is a testimony of the presence of mentors and the continuance of political mentorship in Yoruba land.

Asiwaju, for the past two decades, has been working, influencing the appointment of some of his mentees in strategic government positions, politically supporting his allies and subordinates to attain power and building political bridges and structures across the country. The man waited patiently until when it is time, the time for the Jagaban to reap the fruits of his labour, the time when Amaechi has support from within; the time when Lawan seems to have the blessings of some party juggernauts, the time when some northerners feel that only a Northerner can defeat the opposition’s candidate. At this precious time, Bola Ahmed ‘summoned’ his mentees across the length and breadth of the country and alas, they answered! They come in their thousands with all the vigour and support the Jagaban needs.

Despite the eloquence of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, the grammar of Ayade, the bluntness of Yahaya Bello, the doggedness of Rotimi Amaechi and the ‘appeal for sympathy’ of the aspirants from the South East, Bola emerged victorious, defeating them hands down.

This ‘political war’ fought and won by the  Southwesterner may compel one to ask, where are the Asiwajus of other regions? Can somebody from North-East, North-West or North-Central brag about having the capacity to do something similar to what this septuagenarian did?

The likes of Sirs Sardauna and Balewa don’t exist anymore in the North. Moreover, nobody is following the footsteps of Hassan Usman Katsina, Sir Kasim Ibrahim, Malam Aminu Kano and many other patriots – the mentorship thread is broken. Though North has been boasting of having great and influential leaders, the problem remains that none is willing to ‘nurture’ his successor.

While Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was busy contesting to become the president right from 2007, Kwankwaso was busy fighting Ganduje and so on. On his part, Bola Tinubu was busy, making sure his candidates become governors in Ogun, Oyo, Lagos, etc. He was influencing ministerial nominations, making sure he appointed Vice President. He was equally working to bring Dimeji Bankole, Ahmed Lawan, Femi Gbajabiamila etc. In other words, Tinubu was busy ‘building’ people. Because he believes even if some choose to betray him, many others will not.

The lesson Asiwaju taught most of our leaders, especially from the North, is that, if you have a plan of twenty years, start mentoring people who will help you achieve it right from today. More importantly, look beyond your family and kinsmen when choosing your proteges.

Another point of note is that you will mentor a person who may rise to a position that you have never attained. This is normal. Don’t get upset when the person tried to rub shoulders with you. Instead, be focused, determined and strategic in your dealings.

Dear Northern leaders, make sure you mentor another person who may likely take over from you. Succession is natural, if you did not breed anybody, someone may grow on his own and come to fight and overtake you one day. Mentor your proteges today to have loyal mentees that will always be proud of you tomorrow.

Adamu Abubakar Kumo wrote via akumo89@gmail.com.

By Muhammadu Sabiu

Three All Progressives Congress (APC) senators have resigned from the ruling party.

Senators Ahmad Babba Kaita (Katsina North), Lawal Yahaya Gumau (Bauchi South), and Francis Alimikhena (Edo North) are the defecting lawmakers.

Gumau defected to the New Nigeria Peoples Party, while Babba Kaita and Alimikhena joined the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, read three different letters in Tuesday’s plenary in which they announced their defections.

Senator Alimikhena’s decision to leave the APC was motivated by the “ongoing and complex crises that have plagued the APC,” particularly in his Senatorial District, “that has formed parallel executives that have weakened internal discipline, coherence, and commitment.”

Explaining the reason for his detection, Babba Kaita was quoted as saying, “As Senator representing Katsina North Senatorial District, I write to formally notify you of my resignation from the All Progressives Congress (APC), and registration declaration for the Peoples Democratic Party.

“My resignation from the APC was born out of the marginalisation of critical stakeholders by the State Government and Leadership of the Party in Katsina State, where small people like me do not have a chance.

“I have since been joyful and graciously accepted into the fold of the Peoples Democratic Party in Katsina State.”

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP, has made a clarification regarding reports that the party’s presidential candidate and former Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, would accept to be the running mate of the Labour Party’s presidential candidate and former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, in the 2023 presidential election.

This was made known on Sunday, June 19, 2022, in a statement by NNPP National Publicity Secretary, Agbo Major.

According to Major, there was no time such discussion or negotiation was held.

“NNPP has never at any time said its esteemed presidential candidate, His Excellency, Engr. Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso could accept to be Labour Party, Peter Obi’s deputy. The report is misleading and embarrassing to our great party, its Presidential Candidate, Kwankwaso and millions of supporters in Nigeria and in the diaspora, and urges journalists to crosscheck their reports before publishing them to avoid national disaffection ahead of the crucial 2023 general election.” He said

However, Major acknowledged the possibility of an alliance with the Labour Party in the interest of Nigeria and democracy.

“As a mass movement, NNPP acknowledged alliance talks with Labour Party that would consolidate and boost the nation’s frail democracy as we collectively strive for a new Nigeria which the party champions,” Major stated.

This is coming amidst the rumour of a merger of the NNPP and LP to unseat the ruling party, which was confirmed to be true by Kwankwaso in an interview with BBC Hausa on Saturday.

By Aliyu Nuhu

There is no way Nigerians will vote APC back to power if the country is a normal society with normal people. But the people voting our leaders are not the ones reading this write up. They are the people who vote with their stomach instead of their conscience. Stomach infrastructure is very much around and it is the reason why governors will be the deciding factor in who becomes the Nigeria’s president.

Here are APC failures and why Nigerians are not happy with it. But first let’s mention the areas the government made some progress.

This government built infrastructure. It is the best in Africa by regional standard. More are needed but within its two terms it completed Kaduna-Abuja railway and kept it running. It completed Itakpe-Aladja rail and it is operating. It built in record time Ibadan-Lagos railway and it is running. It has started Kano-Kaduna rail, Kano-Katsina-Maradi rails. It has almost completed second Niger bridge. It has almost completed Lagos-Ibadan express. It has gone far in building Kano-Kaduna-Abuja express. It has almost completed Kano-Maiduguri express. It has expanded and improved all the international airports to very high standards. Aminu Kano international airport, Nnamdi Azikwe international airport, Murtala Muhammed international airport, Portharcourt international airport and Enugu international airport. There are many roads that cannot be mentioned. In terms of infrastructure, APC has developed Nigeria.

Economic development is about infrastructure. That has been achieved to a modest standard. The next government will build on it. That is how societies develop.

However, the areas of failures are here but not according to their importance though.

1- Electricity: APC did not build power plants and did not build transmission infrastructure. The Siemens $2.3 bn power deal is still on paper. The government inherited 4000mw Electricity generation and today we have national grid collapse and abysmal 2000mw generation. Nigeria can never grow without electricity. Any claim of growing the economy is simply preposterous.

2- APC did not build refineries. The country is still shamelessly importing fuel. Petroleum products are the country’s biggest import and biggest waste of foreign earnings. Whatever the country gains in exporting crude oil is wasted in importing refined petroleum products in the most corrupt and dubious style. Nigeria will never grow by importing a commodity it has in abundance and has comparative advantage over 160 countries. Because Nigeria imports fuel the commodity is never enough nor available.

3- Insecurity: by any standard, Nigeria is among the most violent countries on Earth. The whole country is circled by terror so much that killing of 40 worshippers is quickly overshadowed by more violent events. Most of Nigeria’s roads are taken over by bandits. People no longer travel for normal living. A journey from Abuja to Kaduna is becoming a suicide mission.

4- Bad economy: the economic health indicators are level of poverty, inequality, corruption, hunger unemployment, inflation, interest rates, foreign exchange rate and volume of international trade. There is no space to take each of them but in a nutshell Nigeria is simply facing economic crisis.

5- Education: APC inherited university strikes and is bequeathing university strikes. Primary school enrollment is at its worst level with 12 million children roaming thr streets. Child education is the telescope used in looking at the future of a nation. If the children who will be around in the future are not getting education, then it is easy to know the kind of Nigerians in the next 20 years.

6- Health: the hospitals are still what they were before APC or even worse. No equipments, no trained personnel, no drugs and no electricity. Nigerians travel outside for medical treatment and those that have no money stay and die.

7- Corruption: this government is gradually overtaking PDP in official stealing. The little gain made in jailing few governors has been reversed by the departing president who made fight against corruption his cardinal goal.

These are just few areas critical to nation’s life that makes APC a terrible choice for Nigerians. But unfortunately and very sadly APC may still remain in power because of a weak opposition. If the small parties don’t merge and present a single candidate in PDP there is no way APC will not form the next government. Mark my words. No political party can take on APC alone.

By Muhammad Aminu 

The Kano State Chapter of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) has condemned the Kano State Government’s plan to secure a loan of N10 billion for CCTV installation in the State.

The party, in a statement signed by Kano State Chairman, Hon. Umar Doguwa described the loan as mortgaging the future of Kano children by the incumbent Governor.

The statement read: “The New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), condemned in totality, the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje’s fresh demand of N10 billion loan request from Acess Bank to install CCTV cameras in the State. 

Governor Ganduje seems to be using his seat of power to mortgage the future of the State and that of our children.”

Hon. Doguwa stated that despite the acute water shortage in Kano, the Governor chose to fund insignificant projects.

“Ignoring the fact that the State is experiencing widely increased water scarcity, the Governor chooses to borrow to fund a project as insignificant as CCTV installation.

“The NNPP can’t sit down to watch this clueless administration stockpiling debts in the state without a commensurate achievement on the ground,” he added.

He lamented that the administration refused to settle secondary school students’ examination fees, which led to students dropping out despite taking loans in the name of reforms in education.

“Due to the failure of Ganduje’s government to pay their Senior Secondary School examination fees, countless students have been forced to drop out of school, and others are on the verge of dropping out.

“Kano people can vividly recall that Ganduje had borrowed the sum of fifteen billion naira on education reform, but the money was diverted to something else, and today, a significant number of our students dropped out from schooling as the government cannot cater for their common interest examination and senior secondary school examination,” he said

While appealing to the State Assembly to desist from granting such approval in the future by putting Kano’s interest ahead of Governor’s desire, Doguwa warned that should NNPP win the 2023 gubernatorial election; it will not honour the agreement.

“We wish to categorically draw the attention of all commercial banks and other financial lending institutions within and outside the country to be cautious with the Ganduje’s demand for loans as the next administration will not in any way honour such reckless borrowings.”

He stated, “Our great party is urging the State House of Assembly to refrain from granting trivial demands from the Governor like these.

“We implore honourable members to put the needs of Kano’s good people ahead of the Governor’s insatiable desire to wreck the future of the State before we defeat them in the 2023 election.

“We also call on the Access Bank to resist any temptation to advance any loan to the borrowing Governor Ganduje, who is hellbent on mortgaging the state to satisfy his self ends.”

He chided Ganduje’s administration for its failure to maintain CCTV installations deployed by the Kwankwaso administration only to plan to borrow funds for the same purpose.

“With a sense of nostalgia, the general public remembered that in the past, our party’s presidential hopeful, Engr, Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, deployed CCTV in strategic locations throughout the State.

“However, the current administration, that seeks N10 billion loan to install new ones, failed to handle them, and the good people of Kano can’t trust a governor with the installation of new ones at their detriment,” he noted.

It can be recalled that The Daily Reality reported that the Kano State House of Assembly had approved a loan request of 10 billion naira for Gov Ganduje’s administration to install CCTV installation in Kano to tackle security challenges.

By Amir Abdulazeez

When President Obasanjo carelessly picked Goodluck Jonathan to serve as Umaru ‘Yaradua’s potential Vice President in 2007, little did we know that the politics of choosing running mates would later become complex and problematic. The death of Umaru, the ascension of Jonathan, the surprising emergence of Namadi Sambo and Patrick Yakowa becoming the first Christian Civilian Governor of Kaduna State would all combine to later add more relevance to the politics of running mate selection. In 2014, APC had more headaches picking a presidential running mate than the presidential candidate himself. It took them so much time and effort that one thought they would organize a new convention for that purpose.

Today, the Muslim-Muslim ticket debacle is the bane of Nigerian political discourse. While clamouring for fairness and balance, which are needed for a fragile system like Nigeria’s, we should also remember that from 1999 to date, no religion can claim any net gain from this Nigerian version of democracy. Ordinary followers of all faiths have been victims of bad governance, even pagans. We have suffered so much that if a pagan/pagan ticket will eradicate insecurity, fix the economy and bring development while being fair to all interests and affiliations, we should allow it. Therefore, the choice is between searching for solutions and satisfying sentiments; we seem to favour the latter.

A section of public commentators and spectators are already suggesting a walkover for Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 polls. That is the biggest complacency I have ever seen in contemporary Nigerian politics. How can you be facing a ruling party with almost 65% of political stakeholdership in the country and be expecting to have a walkover? Atiku is an institution, but his successes in the last two PDP primaries are more financial supremacy than political dominance. That aside, barring a Buhari-like scenario, Atiku will make a good president. He is perhaps the only fully independent candidate with a clear and accessible blueprint since 2007. In 2011, he had a better manifesto and approach than President Goodluck Jonathan; he only lost the PDP primaries to the power of incumbency. By the way, what happened to the Jonathan 2023 candidacy?

From 1992, this is Atiku’s 7^th attempt at the Presidency, with 2019 being his closest to success. Many believe 2023 is his year, and so many apparent factors call for optimism in his camp. However, two fundamental things may haunt Waziri; (in)consistency and (un)popularity. Buhari and Tinubu are successfully reaping the harvests of consistency and perseverance; they stuck to opposition politics all their lives. Atiku should’ve remained in opposition when he decamped to Action Congress in 2007 or should’ve stayed in the ruling PDP when he decamped back in 2011. Ambition had kept him running from one place to another, making him neither establishment nor anti-establishment. The second question is whether there is a single state in Nigeria in which Atiku can secure one million votes or more in 2023? I hope we all remember Dr Rabi’u Kwankwaso’s 3-K States theory?

Tinubu’s boast in Ogun State over his role in the emergence of Buhari as President needs some revisiting and clarification. To avoid doubt, Muhammadu Buhari did not lose the 2003 presidential elections; it was brutally rigged to return Obasanjo for a second term. 2003 will easily enter the list of the worst elections in modern world history. In 2007, the results of the presidential election were simply written, so we can’t even call that election not to talk of who won or lost. I have never relied on 2003 and 2007 election figures for research or serious analysis because they are primarily fabricated. The 2011 elections were relatively fair, but at least 40% of the vote was rigged, written, or inflated, especially in the South-South and South-East.

In the circumstances like these, we cannot comfortably declare Buhari a loser of all the previous elections he contested and only became a winner when he met Tinubu. Although 2015 was indeed the weakest version of political Buhari, it was confirmed that he had lost hope and that the APC merger spearheaded by Tinubu was what brought him back to life. But it is also true that so many other factors other than Tinubu contributed crucially to Buhari’s victory. One major one was the abysmal performance of Goodluck Jonathan. One, however, is that, without Tinubu’s support, it would’ve been near impossible for Buhari to emerge APC flagbearer against the financial powerhouses in Kwankwaso and Atiku.

This brings us to the argument that access to public funds is why some candidates (not aspirants) are stronger than others. Supporters of a particular presidential candidate even claimed that if their man had equal access to public funds, he would be better than certain candidates. This is laughable; a debate like this will take us nowhere. Just campaign for your candidate and persuade people to vote for him. If we are talking about the abuse of people’s trust and the utilization of our commonwealth for personal political development, none of the prominent politicians in Nigeria will come out clean. So, let us not deceive ourselves and others.

Where are our smaller political parties who had spent most of their last four years fighting INEC over deregistration? This is a reasonable amount of time they would’ve spent coming together to form a strong bloc. In case we don’t know, 74 of them were deregistered for failing to meet the requirements to continue to exist as political parties. About 10 to 15 of the currently existing will be due for deregistration by this time next year. Instead of them to consider merging to form a decent alternative, they’ll rather hang on only to be fighting a legal survival battle with INEC next year. As the strongest and largest intellectual organization in West Africa, I don’t even know why ASUU is yet to form a political party or adopt any of the smaller parties to set up a path towards satisfying their own demands all by themselves instead of waiting and hoping for a hopeless Federal Government.

Why is nobody talking about the enormous task ahead of the next president, whom credible international reports suggest will have to use 100% of his revenue in servicing (not repaying) debts by 2024? To execute projects or even pay salaries, the next government may have to borrow further. Nigeria is in trouble. We are drowning in the ocean of foreign debts. Meanwhile, we are concerned over a presidential candidate’s religion more than his ability to bring us out of this mess. Buhari has failed because Jonathan had built a solid foundation for that failure. Now he has built a worse foundation for his successor. The possibility and danger of the next president, irrespective of his affiliation and preparedness to economically be worse than Buhari, is imminent. May God help us.

All of the political dynamics of today are closely related to 1999, some a bit earlier. Suppose you have not directly experienced Nigerian political development from 1999 with a mix of some pre-1999 historical knowledge. In that case, you will find it difficult, if not impossible, to connect specific dots that you see today. Extensive and intensive reading may help, but politely interacting with veterans will do better. Unfortunately, social media, where most of the political debates occur, is dominated by youths who knew little or nothing pre-2011 and don’t invest significant time in reading but trying to engage or even confront the same veterans that would’ve been their best opportunity at understanding the genesis of the current situation.

There are some visible changes in Nigeria’s socio-political spaces, although not new but have taken a different twist from the previous. The renewed order is the attempt to criminalize certain political choices against others. Between 2014 to 2018, discourses were dominated by hate, campaigns of calumny, fabrications and outright abuse. Today, political promoters are trying hard to make it appear that only their candidates are good enough, and any other choice is treason. This is extremism. Let’s be careful, everything is a matter of opinion, and everyone is entitled to his.

Twitter: @AmirAbdulazeez

By Sumayyah Auwal Usman

The Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa, has been named as the vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for the 2023 presidential election.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who emerged the presidential flag-bearer of the main opposition party made the announcement on Thursday at the party’s national secretariat.

Born 8th July, 1959, Okowa attended Edo College, Benin City (1970–1976), and later proceeded to the University of Ibadan where he studied Medicine and Surgery, graduating in 1981 with an MBBS degree. 

He served as a Commissioner in the Delta State government for Agriculture and Natural Resources (July 1999 – April 2001), Water Resources Development (April 2001 – May 2003) and Health (September 2003 – October 2006).

He resigned to contest in the 2007 Delta State PDP governorship primaries, but did not win the governorship primaries. In June 2007, Ifeanyi was appointed Secretary to the Delta state Government.

He was elected Delta North Senatorial candidate in the January 2011 PDP primaries and won the election. He clinched the ticket for the gubernatorial election in 2015, and won the Delta State Gubernatorial elections.

By Usama Abdullahi

I’m not actually driven by religious extremism, nor do I consider politicians based on their religious leanings. One’s religion or region shouldn’t determine their politics. When we look at politics through the prism of faith, we do ourselves no justice. I understand that the APC’s presidential nominee, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is conflicted with the idea of picking a running mate. 

Because Nigeria is a multi-religious nation, people suggest that the slot of the Vice-President for the APC presidential candidate be given to a northern Christian. According to them, a Muslim-Muslim ticket is abominable in Nigerian politics. And some people are endorsing Plateau State’s Governor Simon Lalong for the VP slot.

People are unaware of something. It’s easy for people to say who should the APC pick as running mate to Tinubu. But do we deem our favourite candidates suitable for such a seat because of the blind love we have for them? Or should we only nominate a person because of his ethno-religious affiliation? These are critical questions which need not be left unanswered. However, we all know these aren’t the criteria for selecting a genuine leader. 

Leaders are best chosen by how competent they are. Competence goes beyond our myopic views. Another big blunder we should avoid is choosing a leader because of his background. Now back to the equation. Is Lalong suitable for the vice-presidential seat? Well, I don’t think so. 

One thing people ought to acknowledge before they consider Lalong fit is his performance so far in the state he runs. What has he done remarkably to attract public attention? His performances are all that must be examined before we leap to a conclusion. Honestly, Simon Lalong hasn’t done that much that will earn him such a high position.

I’m not trying to de-market him, but for fairness’ sake, Lalong isn’t the right man for the job. A person whose tribal bigots administer the Local Government Council (LGC) doesn’t merit the title of a Governor, let alone aim for a much higher position. If you aren’t from his tribe, you lose the chance of winning an election for credible offices in his LGC.

I come from the same LGC as him, yet I can’t risk getting a mere indigene form. This is so because I’m not from his tribe. So to even have myself appointed by the local authorities, I must renounce my pedigree.

He knows all this. As an incumbent governor entrusted with the care of  people of diverse beliefs and ethnicities, he should have done something different. But, worst still, he chooses to go mum over such unfair treatment. He never talks about it. His silence isn’t golden. It either suggests his approval or his lackadaisical attitude towards that. 

However, before his ascent to power, he had sworn to install a village head in Yelwa during his campaign. Yelwa is a very popular village that contributed massively to his votes which saw his ascension from a dethroned speaker to a governor. The town is thrice the size of his hamlet and is within a shouting distance from his. Unfortunately, his first tenure ended without him making everything alright in that village. So my people decided to trust him again by voting for him for the second term, thinking he would redeem their precarious state. And now, we are just a few months away from the expiration of his tenure. Yet, he remains uncommunicative and insufficiently active.

Lalong has failed the people who helped his rise to power. So, how would you wish a ruling governor who silently fuels tribal prejudices among his people to be singled out as a running mate for the party with high chances of winning?

I won’t be worried about any other person that will be cherry-picked as a running mate to Tinubu as long as he is capable and has good track records. It isn’t that I seem purely envious of Lalong. On the contrary, I fear having a VP who has been speechless for the past seven years over the growing ethno-religious bigotry in the state he governs.

Usama Abdullahi can be reached via usamagayyi@gmail.com.

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.