Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger state in an assessment tour of local governments few days ago stood at a podiums at Mashegu, Mokwa, Agwara and 10 other local governments and dished out promises of fixing the roads, education, health, water, agriculture and other catalogue of complaints against lack of basic amenities in the villages presented by the people. However these promises have now become issues in the debate on the performance record of the Governor in the two years of his All Progressives Congress (APC)- led administration.
Heated debate has taken the front burner in appraising the score card and performance rating of Governor Sani Bello the administration marks two years in office out of its four years tenure on May 29 this year. Many analysts have made issues from the promises made by the governor, wanting to know what had happened to those promises he made in 2015 when he took over the administration of the state and what differentiated the 2015 promises from the new ones he dished out in his midterm assessment tour of the state. Not a few residents of the state have been scrutinizing the score card of the governor to ascertain the level at which promises were unfulfilled starting from day one of his administration, but the findings appeared to be characterized by mixed feelings and reactions.
Presenting, the administrations scorecard in an interview with our correspondent in Minna, the state Commissioner of Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr. Jonathan Vatsa, credited excellent marks to the governor in both tangible and intangible infrastructural development of the state in the past two years. He enumerated long lists of achievements of the administration with emphasis on road construction, revamping of health and education facilities, improved water supply and the resuscitation of the state owned media organizations which he said were almost dead at the inception of the administration.
He said, “The administration has so many projects to show for this period of two years in office. Let me start from my ministry, before the coming of this administration the media sector of the state was a trash and nothing to write home about. Radio Niger, Niger state Television and Newsline Newspapers were dead when we took over government in 2015. However, Governor Sani Bello in his wisdom on assumption of office deemed it necessary to revive the media organizations for the people to be well informed and educated on government and individual programmes.
Today as am talking to you, the reception of our FM station in Maitubi is as far as katsina, Sokoto and all the neighboring states”.
Vatsa argued that the administration has also rescued the education sector from the state of comatose and total decay by building infrastructures, training and building human capacity in addition to feeding and creating conducive environment for students in public schools. He said, “We have introduced new innovations in the provision of infrastructures in our schools. Under our whole school renovation approach, nine schools have been completely reconstructed and equipped with modern teaching and learning facilities.
These projects are ready for commissioning by the governor”. Still on the two years report card, the commissioner recorded the construction of feeder roads in Minna, Bida, Kontagora, Suleja and other township roads as major achievement that surpassed the 16 years rule of the PDP in the state, adding that water equipment have been procured from Germany for improved water supply in the state hoping that the problem of perennial water scarcity in the state would be solved with the installation of the equipment.
However, not a few disagreed with the Information, Culture and Tourism Commissioner on his allocation of excellent marks in scoring the administration in terms of fulfilled promises and execution of people oriented projects.
Analysts faulted the yardsticks used by the commissioner in awarding his marks to the governor, insisting that the administration was parading score card that ran short of the expectation of the people. A political analyst and former Chief Campaigner for former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida 2003 presidential ambition, Alhaji Mohammadu Shuaibu Badegi said in an interview with our correspondent in Minna that the best of the governor was far from enough to meet the expectations of the people on the APC government which promised a lot of things in the 2015 elections but failed to fulfill them.
According to him, “Governor Sani Bello is doing his best but his best is not enough. He needs to wake up in the administration of the state. It is true that Niger is large and having small allocation from Abuja while the internally generated revenue is nothing to write home about. This means that he has to be very prudent in management of resources. But where you think that you have to give contracts to your household and cronies, the people will wait for you at the polling booths”.
He said that people had expected to be carried along in the APC administration both at the state and federal lever but the reverse is the case presently. He lamented that Governor Bello’s administration has been characterized by nepotism while sidelining indigenes of the state in the award of contracts.
Badegi, a strong man in Niger political arena said although he can give President Buhari 50 percent in performance rating based on personal efforts at bringing sanity and security to the country, the same cannot be true of Governor Sani Bello whose dream for the state has been killed by sycophants and hypocrites around him. Apparently following the path of other analysts that had criticized the administration for not embarking on priority projects that would have direct bearing on the citizens, Badegi argued that the attention the administration has paid to interlock of roads and construction of roundabouts in Minna when the people were suffering for acutely scarcity of water, was highly misplaced.
However, a former member of the Niger state House of Assembly in the sixth legislature, Honourable mohammed Gawu preferred a milder approach in appraising the administration performance while speaking with Blueprint in Minna. He explained that peoples’ expectation on the change agenda of government was high at the inception of the administration.
He said, “Of course, so far so good but we still believed that there is still much to be done especially against the backdrop of the high expectation of people when the government came on board”. Hon. Gawu however disagreed with those who believe that the state legislature was a stooge of the governor”.
However, Governor Sani Bello’s Chief Press Secretary, Jibrin Ndace, was quick to dismiss allegations of nepotism and failure to prioritize in running the affairs of the state leveled against his boss in some quarters, describing them as baseless and unfounded. He told Blueprint that most of the critics of the administration refused to see the good works of the government.
As the debate on the governor’s score card gets hotter, a pro-government group has emerged in Minna leading underground subtle campaign for the governor to have a shot at second term in office.
The ultimate desire of residents of Niger state is to enjoy dividends of democracy through good governance and this should be the focus of the administration as its gears up for the final half of the tenure.
