Bauchi State

By Tajuddeen Ahmad Tijjani

In a democratic setting like ours, leaders are expected to set guiding principles from which followers are expected to learn good conduct and moral behaviour. Sadly, the Bauchi state government is setting a bad precedent, which won’t augur well for the unborn generation.

I was compelled by a video going viral on the internet at the instance of the Bauchi state governor, his commissioners, and top government appointees watching as a car painted with the pictures of APC presidential candidate Bola Ahmad Tinubu, the Bauchi State APC governorship candidate, Ambassador Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar rtd. CFR and his deputy, Aliyu Musa Barden Gabas, were destroyed while they were watching with admiration.

Electoral market volatility makes them susceptible to negative campaigns since “voters have loosened their ties with their party.” Not only that, the people of Bauchi are tired of the misrule of the PDP, yet they resort to diverting attention to their abysmal failure. Education is comatose, infrastructural decay, salary has now become a privilege, pensioners are crying wolf etc.

 As patriotic citizens of Bauchi, we strongly condemn the ruling party’s abysmal attitude. However, it’s expected that they set a pace for the younger generation while noting that Bauchi, as a civilised state is much aware of the happenings in the city. What we desire is a rancorous-free campaign, and we, therefore, urge the APC not to tear the line of the ruling party; let us emphasise to our supporters to shun violence in whatever guise while, at the same time, mobilising people to turn out in mass to vote for the APC at all levels.

As a people-focused grassroots party, APC has continued to champion the cause of issue-based politics while snubbing every temptation by the PDP to lower our standards by joining them in their infamous style of uncouth politics fraught with crass incivility. To put the records straight, Sadique had never been found wanting in such negativity.

As the leading opposition in Bauchi state, we are conscious of our responsibility to be law-abiding and concentrate on the issue-based campaign. We shall do everything possible to discharge that responsibility with total commitment to the rule of law and the sanctity of our nascent democracy. Often, we call on Bauchi State not to be deterred by the lawlessness of the PDP; it’s imperative to use our PVC and send them out of Ramat House because this irresponsibility has no place in our nascent democracy.

The many ills that bedevilled our state include corruption, economic underperformance, abject poverty, and a dysfunctional educational system derived from the action of the ruling PDP. How does a government that benefited from the freedom of expression and association to rise to the highest echelons in the state become so insensitive and uncaring to free campaigns? 2023 we need a purpose-driving and visionary government with a mission to transform the state for the benefit of all and sundry. With Sadique as the 2023 governor, the above is assured. 

Tajuddeen Ahmad Tijjani writes from Galadima Mahmoud Street, Kasuwar Kaji Azare, Bauchi State.

By Ibrahim Garba.

Since the announcement of the success of oil discovery by the Muhammad Buhari-led administration through Nigeria National Petroleum Company, NNPC Ltd., people from different parts of the country rejoiced over the milestone achievement.

However, the development came with many controversies by the citizens who are, in one way or another other, have a direct or indirect connection to the development that is from some groups of people and individuals from the host community.

Immediately after the ground-breaking ceremony, which was attended by his Excellency President Muhammad Buhari, Bauchi State Governor Bala Muhammed, the Group Managing Director NNPC Mele Kyari, among other dignitaries in Nigeria, an argument broke between the neighbouring states, Gombe and its mother state Bauchi, about who owns the Kolmani oil well.

Besides, Bauchi may be right to claim the ownership of Kolmani oil because the oil well is located in Barambu, a village under the Alkaleri local government area of Bauchi state. Bauchi cites the presence of their governor at the breaking ceremony as one of the reasons that they own the oil well.

Gombe state, on the other hand, has more than a reason to claim the ownership because of their closeness to the point where the oil was drilled. Therefore oil as liquid stuff cannot just be for Bauchi alone.

Unfortunately, farmers operating within the host community of MaiMadi, Kwaimawa, among the other 7sevencommunities, complained that they were not paid for the damage done to their farmlands during the oil drill.

Among them, one claimed the ownership of the Kolmani oil well, which according to him, was inherited from his father and yet to be compensated. Also, the report indicates that workers who served during the seismic operation were not adequately paid but only promised to be paid on unspecified dates.

Farmers and other people from the host community should be well informed about the operation of that kind to seek entitlement associated with the oil drill operation in their localities.

With the allegations above, one must note with dismay challenging the Public Relations section of that particular for failing the Social responsibility service expected to render to those communities.

Above all, what Nigerians need to know is how much we need to poster national development above our interest to build Nigeria of our dream. We should also learn from the experience of our people down the south. There is a need for cooperation and mutual understanding between the two states, the farmers, and the entire host community to benefit from such a remarkable achievement. 

Ibrahim Garba writes from Bauchi.

By Mukhtar Jarmajo

Surely enough, one of the banes of our society is that, in most cases, whom we have at the helm of affairs, whether in power or at the community level, are rulers, not leaders. There is a clear distinction between rulers and leaders. Rulers do not listen to their people. They rather authoritatively give directives that must be obeyed without any hesitations and whether or not the result of taking such action will be in the best interest of the greater majority.

While leaders are good listeners who walk and work together with their people in the greater interest of society. And as John Quincy Adams, the 6th US President who served between 1825 and 1829, would say: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

Thus, by the words of John Quincy, leaders are motivators who not only reposition the society to greater heights but also make the people become better in themselves. And that is why it is said that one of the functions of a leader is to build more leaders. Thus, if building people is rightly one of the functions of a leader, then Mallam Isa Yuguda is a true leader.

Deliberately, the Matawallen Bauchi has, over the years, built people as he journeyed from the banking sector through the federal executive council to the Bauchi state government house. Without putting much emphasis on how he transformed the defunct Inland Bank from regional to national and indeed his excellent performance at the aviation and transport ministries as well as in Bauchi state when he held sway between 2007-2015, Yuguda is also an excellent team player who coaches the people that work with him. With the needed dose of confidence characterized by conviction and determination, he is humility and modesty personified. This is why Isa Yuguda is imparting positive behaviours to many and, thus, a role model.

Today, Mallam Isa Yuguda stands tall on the ladder of success. But unusually, Yuguda`s success is, among other reasons, simply because of the number of people he has trained and built. He is second to none in Bauchi state in this regard. In the tripod stand, either directly or indirectly, the Matawallen Bauchi has positively impacted the lives of as many people as possible. For instance, including the incumbent governor Bala Muhammed of Bauchi state, Matawallen Bauchi has played essential roles in the lives of almost any shining star in the Pearl of Tourism.

And while his virtues are extolled in appreciation of Isa Yuguda`s immense contributions to the growth of humanity, it is also right to urge other community and political leaders to emulate the Matawallen Bauchi. After all, as Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American philosopher and essayist, would say, the essence “of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”

Jarmajo wrote from Wuse 2, Abuja.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The Bauchi State Commissioner for Education, Aliyu Tilde, has resigned from the Bauchi State Executive Council.

Mr Aliyu Tilde announced his resignation as the State Commissioner for Education in a Facebook post on Monday.

According to Mr Tilde, the Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Muhammad, has approved his letter of resignation and same have been communicated to him through the Secretary to the Bauchi State Government.

Stating his reason for resignation, he said he resigned in order to attend to a call of an associate who direly needs his services.

Part of the statement reads : “A few minutes ago, Today, 5 December 2022, I received a letter from the Secretary to the Government conveying my release by His Excellency.

“In it, the Secretary conveyed ‘the appreciation of the Executive Governor for your contribution to the Education Sector and wish you well in your future endeavor…’”

“With this, my tenure as Commissioner of Education has come to an end. I am happy to see the peaceful ending of what have been very exacting but fruitful years and will ever remain grateful to God who stood by me until the last minute.”

By Muhammadu Sabiu

A 12-year-old boy has been detained by officers of the Bauchi State Police Command for allegedly abducting a three-year-old daughter.

The girl’s father informed the police that his daughter had been abducted after receiving an anonymous phone call notifying him of it.

The caller demanded N150,000 from the father of the girl as a ransom before releasing his daughter.

These were revealed in a media statement issued to journalists in the state on Saturday by Ahmed Wakil, the public relations officer for the Bauchi State Police Command.

After questioning the suspect, SP Wakili stated that the kidnapper teenager confessed that he learned about kidnapping when his friend was kidnapped some years ago, and money had to be paid as a ransom before he was released.

“Upon interrogation, the suspect stated that he is from Kano state and came to Bauchi state in search of petty business with his siblings. From the little he earned while hawking fried yam in Magama Gumau, he raised money and bought a mobile phone, the Tecno Camon model.

“The investigation also revealed that the suspect got to know about kidnapping when some time ago his friend was kidnapped in Kano state until a ransom was paid before he was released from his captors, that is how he learned about kidnapping and money must be paid to set a victim free.

“He also said he would have used the ransom money to buy his desired clothes and phones, but cut short upon his arrest by the Police operatives,” the police said.

By Muhammadu Sabiu

Police in Bauchi State have apprehended a teenager, 12, for allegedly kidnapping a 3-year-old kid in Magama Gumau, Toro Local Government Area.

The police spokesman for the state, SP Ahmad Wakil, made a statement on the incident on Saturday in Bauchi.

The suspect was said to have lured the victim into an isolated area and phoned to her father demanding N150,000 as ransom.

SP Wakili said in the statement, “A discreet investigation revealed that the suspect lured the victim to an isolated place near a football field at Kara Area of Magama Gumau and called the victim’s father on phone and made the demand.

“On hearing the demand, the victim’s father hung up and refused to take subsequent calls.

“After a while, the victim’s father called the suspect and identified him through his familiar voice.”

By Ibrahim Sambo

On Tuesday, President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the drilling of two oil wells on Kolmani OPL 809 & 810 at the Kolmani field sites in the northeastern states of Bauchi and Gombe. The two sites have about 1 billion barrels of crude oil reserves based on initial figures by the NNPC, with the potential to produce N32 trillion over 10years (at crude price of $73 per barrel).

From many angles in the North, this sparked a euphoric roar. This euphoria is quite understandable. Who would not want to have, at their disposal, tremendous quantities of the most traded commodity in the world, the mighty magical black liquid?

And even with all the green-economy and climate-smart drive by the West, the exit of the fossil fuel era is some distant away. Some months ago, the most foremost and practical evangelist of renewable energy, Elon Musk, stated in a conference in Norway that “civilization will crumble” if the world stops the use of oil and natural gas and called for continued drilling and exploration of fossil fuel sources.

Further, the concerns that the two sites where the reserves are located (Gombe and Bauchi states) are far from port terminals (at-least 700km away), hence a potential difficulty in exporting the crude oil has been laid to rest by the NNPC as they announced the plan to refine the crude oil around the oil fields by building a 120,000 barrels per day refinery. This is in addition to gas processing facilities and a power plant that could generate at least 150 megawatts (MW) of electricity.

But even with all these, there is still a great deal of pessimism as to whether we can derive the juices from the oil revenues, or we will be struck with what economists called the “resource curse”, a situation where a region has valuable natural resources but are still steeped in poverty.

A question that will linger on the mind of every discerning and concerning northerner would be, what future does this hold for the states involved, or the region, or even the country in terms of economic prosperity. A superficial answer would be that the oil and its byproducts will drive more revenue to the government for social and infrastructural development, provide employments for the youths and improve standard of living. While this is true on paper, it would not necessarily be so in practice.

For one, the resource-curse phenomenon is real. When the first oil wells in Nigeria were discovered in Oloibiri in 1958, jubilations filled the air, and it was assumed that within few years, this precious commodity will pick Nigeria up from the gutters of poverty and put her on the elitist list of wealthy nations. But 65 years down the line, Nigeria is still stuck deep in that stinking gutter. Similar thing is happening with oil-rich countries like Columbia and Venezuela for instance where they produce humongous volumes of oil but are still poor.

The second frightening thing is environmental concerns. Uncontrolled oil spill is a major threat in oil-producing areas, and a perfect example of these devastating effects we have seen in Ogoniland, where some 2.1 million barrels of oil was spilled into the land, adversely affecting their water, farming and fishing activities. Here too, this environmental fear was allayed—at-least verbally—by Gombe state governor, when he remarked during the flag-off ceremony that the region “will avoid mistake of the Niger Delta.” “With regard to the issue of the environment,” the Governor remarked, “our ministry of environment is working hand in hand with the Federal Ministry of Environment and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) so that we will avoid all the mistakes and pitfalls that have been the big challenge of oil exploration and implementation in the southern part of the country.”

But as oil has been a curse to some, so has it been a blessing to others. Petrodollars has created immense wealth in the middle-eastern Gulf countries such as never seen in history. There is nothing that can stop northern Nigeria from doing exactly so. Oil can turn the North, and indeed Nigeria into an incredibly virile economic powerhouse.

The two northeastern states of Bauchi and Gombe will now, potentially, have a share of the 13% oil derivation fund pie. And this fund is quite huge. For starters, in just 11years, the 8 oil producing states pocketed a whopping N6trn from this fund. This share of the 13% oil derivation fund, a petroleum refinery and a gas plant, a powerplant, a fertilizer plant, all exude odor of economic merriment.

The question now is how do we make these seemingly tremendous economic potential translate into real time prosperity. The answer lies in adopting the classic model that has worked for the middle eastern countries which is great, visionary leadership.

Leadership—and not an abundance of resources, is the foundation upon which prosperity lies upon, as we have seen time and again. It is that simple. Without good leadership, a society has zero chance of prosperity even if bars of gold gushes down the gutters of its towns and cities.

When Sheikh Muhammed Al-Makhtoum put a tiny desert nation, the UAE, on to the world map, it was through sheer vision and strategic implementation. The North needs to have Al-Makhtoums who would properly manage the money gotten from this venture and channel into well-crafted visions of development; of erecting technology infrastructures for a digital economy, of building mega industries that provide jobs, of constructing roads and state-of-the-art health facilities, of building modern schools and laboratories, of building structures for hospitality and tourism, and all the things that make for a modern economy. The money will be there and in abundance.

As the first oil drill takes place in the Northern region, can we get into power the leaders who would properly use the money from this venture into longterm projects that will finally liberate the North from extreme poverty that has so much traumatize us, and turn it to a modern economy, full of wealth and possibilities and opportunities, or are we leaving the money to go down the wire, into the pocket of the privileged few elites, just like our southern brothers, and just be bragging that we are now oil producing entities, with nothing to show? It is now left to us. In the words of the Hausa man, dabara ya rage wa mai shiga rijiya.

Ibrahim Sambo writes from Lagos. He can be reached at ibrahymsambo4@gmail.com

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

President Muhammadu Buhari is all set to flag off the exploration of oil exploration in Gombe and Bauchi states. The historic event is the first of its kind in the northern part of the country.

Amidst very tight security, the president and his entourage arrived in Bauchi on Tuesday, 22nd November, 2022 for the ground- breaking ceremony and inauguration of the first oil drilling in Northern Nigeria.

The ceremony is set to take place at the OPLs 809 and 810 sites in Kolmani, a border community between Bauchi and Gombe State.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, had announced the discovery of oil in commercial volume in October 2019. Crude oil, gas were said to be discovered in the Kolmani River region at the community between Bauchi and Gombe State.

By Mukhtar Jarmajo

Indubitably, Bauchi State is one of the hottest political spots in Nigeria. With a very volatile electorate, the state has remained one to watch whenever Nigerians are to go to the polls. More so, especially in recent times, the opposition in Bauchi state is hardly passive. In most cases, the government in power is challenged by a strong opposition which, from recent experience, the latter defeats the former at the polls. 

For instance, in 2015, the then-opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) defeated the ruling Peoples` Democratic Party (PDP), culminating in the emergence of M. A. Abubakar as the governor of Bauchi state. And in 2019, the now-ruling PDP succeeded in ousting the APC from power. Such is the case of Bauchi State, where the electorate is apparently democratically well exposed, so much so that the political landscape is as undulating as it is sophisticated.  

And as Nigerians walk to the polls next year, the political temperature in Bauchi state is already rising, with the two main governorship contenders working hard to outdo each other. However, instead of issues to characterize the electioneering campaigns where the government in power will try to convince the electorate that it has performed well, just as the opposition APC will try to show the electorate how the former has not done well, it beats even the wildest imaginations that politicians in the state have resorted to destroying the billboards of their opponents. There is obviously no need for that.

The PDP-led government in Bauchi state can present its performance sheet to the electorate with a view to convincing the people how it delivered all the promises it made ahead of the 2019 governorship election. It should tell the world how it impacted the lives of the people. On the basis of indices, let the world learn how governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed has not failed to transform education, agriculture, healthcare delivery, transportation, roads, security and the civil service in the almost past four years. 

And for the opposition APC, let it convincingly tell the good people of Bauchi state how the PDP-led administration has failed. Also, on the basis of indices, it should prove that it can do better by presenting reasons, amongst which should be the credentials of its standard bearer, Sadique Baba Abubakar. Let the world know how the erstwhile Chief of Air Staff met the Nigerian Air Force in almost the same situation Bauchi state is in today and turned around matters only to leave it a better place. 

In essence, rather than develop primitive tendencies, politicians in Bauchi state can focus on issues so that the electorate can know who is the best and can therefore make informed decisions on election day. After all, democracy is about the people in terms of their well-being and general development. 

Jarmajo wrote from Wuse, Abuja. 

Muhammad Sabi’u

Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed has ordered the 20 local government council chairmen, as well as their assistants, councillors, and secretaries to resign.

This is contained in a statement signed by Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Mukhtar Gidado, in Bauchi on Saturday.

The development is in accordance with the Local Government System Establishment and Administration of LG Councils Law of Bauchi State, 2013 as amended. 

He said that on Tuesday, October 11, 2022 the affected officials had been instructed to turn over control of their offices to the heads of administration of their various councils while new elections would be held or caretaker committees would be formed.

The Local Government System Establishment and Administration of Local Government Councils Law of Bauchi State 2013, as modified, was cited by the governor’s aide as the legal basis for the action.

“His Excellency, the governor thanked the outgoing chairmen, deputy chairmen, councilors, and secretaries for the services rendered to the state and wished them success in their future endeavors,” the statement said.