By Sule Aliyu Bauçhi
Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Muhammad, reiterated that he stands by his criticism of the Federal Government led by the APC control government.
Senator Bala said this at the opening of the State Executive Council meeting held at the Council chamber, government house Bauchi, where he stated that he has no apology for criticising the policies that have inflicted untold hardships on Nigerians.
He said that as a leader at the national level, he had the responsibility to say things that later generated some controversies, adding that it was not meant to cause pain or insult anybody, or to cause any controversy but to put the situation in its right context.
Governor Bala said the recent protest is a wake-up call to every Nigerian, not only to the presidency but to the sub-national. “All of us here, as leaders, members of councils, commissioners representing local governments, know what is going on there, you represent them here. Of course, we know we had to listen when the cries of Nigerians were raised loud against bad governance in areas of limitations and inadequacies where the expectations of our people have not been met for whatever reasons” “We have scarce resources to manage, that’s why I said we must use the little resources that we have to do so much."
Nobody cares, nobody will listen to you if you begin to pass the back to complain and say this and that. “In our style of leadership, we don’t blame our predecessors, that is why God brought us here to manage the situation, to make it better.
"We know we are not in charge of national policies and programmes, but we must be able to implement national programmes as loyal federalists while at the same time looking at our challenges and making sure we are connecting with the people”
“Certainly, when something is so spontaneous as a protest, you cannot be spared no matter how good you are and so we are not just blaming the federal government for everything, we also have to look at ourselves and make sure we do things that will put food on our table and make things easier”
“We have seen the spatial inflation, the macro-economic indices even globally not favourable and the national policies brought under this administration are not favourable for us because we have the blame. We are not on our own and that is why I spoke, I spoke as opposition constructively and somebody who means well to the president and the government and people of Nigeria”
“Having said that, whoever made any blaring and very bad comment on me, that is the cost of leadership and I have no apology for that. I am not doing it to cause any disaffection or to insult anybody. Precisely, we are not also spared in what I said, it is not about partisan politics, it is about responsibility” “So, we will continue going forward to connect with the people. We will come with policies and programmes that will better the lot of the people irrespective of the scarce resources, the challenges and problems we have”
Rimawaglobalnews gathered that Former Speaker Yakubu Dogara criticizes Governor Bala Muhammad for castigating the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, over the recent nationwide protest against bad governance tagged #EndBadGovernmentinNigeria, which later turned violent, particularly in the Northern States.
Dogara in a Press release he signed on Saturday faulted gov. Muhammàd’s speech when he launched the PDP campaign for the 20 LGAs election next Saturday 17 August, On Wednesday, where the governor, knocked the President.
Muhammàd said, “I said with humility and courage that what he (Tinubu) said was empty. It did not address the problems and challenges. And that is why, amid this protest, we came out to show you that Bauchi is different. The youth are with us, we are with them. They are we and we are them.”
Muhammad restated that the crisis in the country could be traced to the policies of Tinubu’s government.
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Barr. Yakubu Dogara opined that the Governor’s recent utterances were uncalled for and unnecessary.
According to him, “No doubt, these are trying moments in Nigeria, with lots of nerves in the air and lots of spitting into the political wind.
The job of leaders, irrespective of the political tribe they belong to, is to ensure that we bring this crisis to a responsible end by appealing to governments at all levels to scramble to meet some of the legitimate demands of the protesters, most especially hunger and pervasive insecurity in the national interest.”
Yakubu Dogara stressed that “it is certainly not a time to engage in blowing all the dog whistles at once in the irresponsible manner Gov. Bala Mohammed did.”
The former Speaker declared that, “For me, it didn’t come as a surprise because I had long ago, both in writing and on live TV, denounced him as a thug who speaks in the manner of thugs and understands only the language of thuggery.”
“I am penning these lines to further disavow him and to tell those who don’t know that, although Gov. Bala Mohammed is one of us, he is not all of us. Bauchi State is home to tested leaders who were not raised like mushrooms and who will not dare speak or operate in a manner that reveals contempt for rules, precedent, order, stability, and national cohesion. But Gov. Bala Muhammad does not only do so; he thrives in it,” he added.
According to him, “Not long ago, I said of him, ‘any time the Governor speaks either by himself or through his aides, it is always an outburst of profanity which debases and demeans all of us.’”
He also stated that “A leader is supposed to nurture and inspire the people he leads into positive action as opposed to indulging in wanton self-adulation and praise.”
Yakubu Dogara stressed that “Bala Muhammad has run Bauchi State for a little over six years now with no functional social amenities. Bauchi State under him is one of the states with the highest number of out-of-school children in Nigeria, yet he has built no functional school.”
According to him, “Just one example: my Alma Mater, the famous Bauchi Teachers College, located right under his nose, now lies in ruins. Let him tell the world which of the hospitals in the state is fully functional and how many doctors he has employed. The list is endless.”
“Yet, in the midst of the destitution and squalor that Bauchi State found itself under his watch, he has built the biggest government house for himself and his family and the best family house in Northern Nigeria, if not in the whole country,” he added.
The former Speaker continued, “Next, he wants to build flyovers in a city that has no traffic congestion, albeit for KEKE and OKADA riders. If anyone has ever wondered what the bottom of misgovernance looks like, this is it.”
Former Speaker Yakubu Dogara has predicted that the people of Bauchi State will pay a huge price for what he describes as misgovernance.
This statement comes amidst a renewed war of words between Dogara and Governor Bala Mohammed, two of the state’s most prominent politicians.
Dogara believes that prioritising physical infrastructure over human development in education and health demonstrates a lack of vision that will stifle the state’s growth.
“If Bala Muhammàd government prioritises construction of private mansions, flyovers, and government houses over education in a state that bears a 64.67% burden of out-of-school children (OOSC), which is the highest in the country, and they call that transformation or development, then good for them,” he stated.
“But it is as unfortunate as it is tragic because the state will continue to pay the price for decades.
“I have reproduced the statistics of OOSC to prick his conscience in case it is still not seared.”
Dogara then shared statistics from UNICEF (2023) showing Bauchi State having the highest percentage of OOSC in Nigeria at 64.67%.
Percentage of OOSC:
Top 12 States
1 ⚫Bauchi: 64.67%
2 Kebbi: 64%
3 Zamfara: 60%
4 ⚫Yobe: 58%
5 Jigawa: 56.33%
6 ⚫Borno: 53.33%
7 ⚫Gombe: 53%
8 Sokoto: 52.33%
9 Niger: 40.33%
10 Katsina: 39.33%
11 ⚫Adamawa: 32%
12 Kano: 31.67%
NC ⚫NE NW
#Statisense
(UNICEF, 2023)
The former Speaker also challenged the Governor’s claim of building primary healthcare centres in his constituency:
“Nothing can be more ludicrous because these are places where he won’t take even his sick puppy for treatment.
“Bauchi state’s healthcare system has totally collapsed under his watch to the point that presently we don’t have up to 25 doctors in the entire state’s public hospitals. If we have them, let him produce their names and the hospitals they are manning. He can keep on taking the sophisticated Bauchi people as fools.
