In his recent analysis, the deputy editor of an online publication, Daily Nigerian, Abbas Yunusa, mentioned some APC governors in some northern states who may lose the 2019 re-election bid. The writer attributed his assertion to intractable internal diff erences, disloyalty and simmering disagreement in the party in the seven states. Th e good thing about it all is the write-up is no more than the opinion of an individual, and his motive could well be questionable. Similarly, one could choose to pick out those same states, namely, Kaduna, Kano, Kogi, Katsina, Benue, Jigawa and Bauchi and say they stand the best chance of winning the 2019 election and justify it.
It all boils down to superior argument and personal opinion. Interestingly, all the states mentioned are being governed by the APC political family. However, it might be energy and time burn up scenery to respond to the issues raised but it has become compelling and de rigueur to clear some points attributed to the present government in Bauchi state. Th is is because all the allegations and allusions directed at the administration of Governor Muhammad Abdullahi Abubakar failed in all elementary indices of objectivity, substance, factual presentation and political accuracy. Th is lends credence to the suspicion that the testimonies were a crude hatchet job meant to satisfy the whims and caprices of certain shadowy crips and foes of the government in power.
Based on the writer’s opinion and the responses of the people he interviewed, it was alleged that the governor isn’t level-headed, is at loggerhead with some National Assembly members, his appointees foment problems for him, the Yusuf Tugga factor, salaries verifi cation, pension arrears, and odds and ends matters. Only a mischievous observer or unreconstructed pundit can accused Gov. Abubakar of not being level-headed, non-performance and failure to deliver crucial democratic dividend to the people. Th e records are there for the whole world to see as evidence and proof of his sterling achievements in infrastructural development, which are abundant and visible throughout the length and breadth of the ‘Pearl of Tourism’ state. Interestingly, it was reported that the governor dosn’t have any problem but his appointees. If that was taken as a threat to his reemergence in 2019, then the governor’s cabinet was recently dissolved including special advisers. The issue of verification, which was deliberately over flogged, has since been settled with the payment of the outstanding one month salaries owed the state government workers and the two months owed local government staff of the state. Howbeit, it was done in good faith and for the benefi t of not only the civil servants whose salaries were previously delayed and accumulated as backlog during the erstwhile regime of Gov. Isa Yuguda but to the entire people of Bauchi State whose funds have been siphoned through orchestrated ghost workers and padded vouchers. It requires a bold mind and committed leader to get Bauchi State out of the woods and to Gov. Abubakar, where a serious business of governance and state development need bold steps; level-headiness is an alien word which is only applicable in a comfort zone.
It will interest all to know that Bauchi State, under the leadership of M.A Abubakar, has settled the backlog of salaries he inherited from the previous administration while some states including oil rich ones are battling with salaries nest eggs even after receiving huge sums from the bailout and excess crude savings. On the widely reported cold to full-fl edged war between the governor and Hon. Yakubu Dogara, Gov. Abubakar has said on several occasions that he wasn’t in government to fi ght but to deliver the dividends of democracy to the good people of Bauchi State and anything short of that, he should be counted out. Th erefore, the political jobbers and political apple-polishers who seem to be igniting the fl ame of discord for gain should seek another avenue.
Th ose who gave the governor and speaker their respective mandates are expecting a return in their political investment not political cacophony. As far as the governor is concerned he has done much for the people of Bauchi State to justify his re-election. At the same time Gov. Abubakar is reversing the long years of neglect of the critical sector of infrastructural development cum road construction by initiating tens of thousands of kilometres of macadamized roads of the best quality to link the urban townships with the rural areas. Th is is crucial to the movement of goods, services and persons and fast track economic development while acting as a catalyst for rapid industrialization and commercialization of population centres within and outside the state. It is quite laughable to consider Yusuf Tugga as a threat to Gov. Abubakar. Even when Tugga was in CPC, he never won the gubernatorial ticket but got it through connivance with few self-centered party offi cials vegging out in Abuja.
He wasn’t on ground as far as Bauchi politics is concerned and that was the reason he tried to adopt the same tricky strategy in APC. Th is failed and his promulgated popularity starts and ends in Abuja and the pages of newspapers but not in the state. However, rather than engaging in endless blame game that will do nobody any good, the resilient Gov. Abubakar took the decisive steps of entrenching good governance through his policies and strategies which are geared towards economic revival of the state. He has not allowed grass to grow under his feet because apart from infrastructure, he moved into other critical sectors like education, health, agriculture, power, water provision, manpower development and women and youth empowerment. Therefore, nothing can change the facts on ground; not even the disgruntled, mischievous and patently biased ranting pundits. Lukman is S.A. Communication, to the Governor
