Letter to the Governor of Bauchi State… ‘Six months later, whither our fate?’

By; Abdul-Rahman Baban Saibo

babansaibo@gmail.com

Dear Governor Muhammad A. Abubakar Esquire,

I hope your six months in office were as hectic as never before in your previous ones, and would never come to being in your future ones as well. I know well the state in which you are experiencing your current seat is still not a bit neither cozy nor comfortable, so, it is assumed natural that you find it rather tiring, even disturbing.

I apologize for my extending the same salutations I used in my first letter to you, well, that would be the result of the circumstances remaining to be the same. The truth is Sir, I like being honest with you; so I’d have to confess that the state in which you assumed the leadership of this State has in no way bettered, neither are there still, any signs of it bettering. I shall be more elaborate in the following lines.

The 5^th of September 2015 marked exactly your 100^th day in office. You, like other State leaders celebrated that day and had a speech to address your people with. I keenly followed your address Sir, and I had these extracts to digest:

-“Fellow citizens of Bauchi State… we have marked the 100^th day since we took the oath of committal to work assiduously for the progress of Bauchi State and its people; counting each day as an opportunity to serve our people to the fullest…” you continued the self-praise till the end of that item. I am obliged to say here Sir that since you assumed office, you did not spend a whole month in Bauchi State, -not for once. How then do you attest that your committal oath of assiduous work in office is honored?

-“Since we took the oath of office, our administration has not looked back on its promise to restore the dignity of Bauchi State and enhance the living conditions of our people…” with all due respects Sir, I do find that statement quiet ironic.

-“… assess the status of our system after the horrendous abuse it suffered in both its structure, staffing, process management and most especially resource management.” I must complain at this juncture Sir, this has been your trademark ever since you took oath.

-“Indeed the relative quiet that has characterized our initial days in government should be taken as enough evidence that precious time has been deployed literally to the task of cleaning the rot left behind by the previous government.” Well I’ll assure you Sir, six months later, we still take the silence for the same reason. Lest it takes the rest of the tenure, we hope its for the best.

-“Our government has received the reports of the main Transition and Technical committees, those comprehensive documents enriched our government to strike towards the attainment of an educationally enhanced, economically advanced, and Constructively Vigilant population. These have helped us outlined priority programs in line with our campaign promises, emanating impactful programs that will portray our preparedness to leave Bauchi far better than it was bequeathed to us...” honestly, I am obliged to ask here Sir, “what happened to ‘Rebranding Bauchi program’?” and if impactful programs have emanated, ‘why are there nothing to be seen three months after that hope-boosting speech?’

-“Government has just broadened the terms of engagement and reference of the recovery committee and accordingly mandated them to their searchlight to the State’s ministry for Local Government affairs, SUBEB, and the case of the Central Bank of Nigeria N2Billion micro, small and medium scale enterprise loan.” As it appears, this so called ‘Recovery Committee’ will have some recovery work to hold them for quite a while.

-Recovering and locating the State owned “Ebraer 145 aircraft” in morocco. I wonder what could be the new story behind that now.

-Health: the famous ‘Lafiya Garkuwa’ was again praised here. I must say Sir, this project is not more than the usual talk-project most politicians do. I went to the Bauchi State specialist Hospital to see for myself how effective this project was so I can come back home and ‘write home’ about it, unfortunately, I met the unexpected; a total scam that was. When I asked a doctor about it, he told me “they came and collected data of things and left, up till now, nothing.” He also added that they never received any monthly grand ever since you assumed office. And that Sir was just a month ago.

-Infrastructure: (i) Commencement of Misau-Bulkacuwa-Udubo road. (ii) CBN round about-Federal low cost Railway road. Quite unfortunate I was on Misau-Bulkacuwa road just two weeks back to attend a wedding ceremony, and I can assure you Sir, nothing was commenced there. Whilst I am a settler in Federal low cost, I must also dwell on the same road you mentioned formerly, I can confidently tell you the same goes there.

-Fire Service: well the latest here is you’re proposing a “Fire Fighting Academy” I really found it amusing how efforts were put into advertising that proposition. I had a chat with one of your apologists about that and I asked “could that be a priority project?” he replied “I am not the Governor. How can I know what a priority project is?” Of course, like leader like sycophants, right?

-Environment: about 420 youths employed as cosmopolitans. I wish to remind you here Sir, the methods carried out for environmental sanitation is just the same old methods formerly used by the previous administration, that is quite unhealthy  for the people –for the state; plus if a more technical strategy would be innovated, more job opportunities and IGR could be garnered just from the State Environmental Protection Agency.

-Agriculture: ‘(i) Subsidizing Urea and MPK for farmers. (ii) visit to Czech republic was intended to partner in areas of Agriculture, implement acquisition, enhance Agricultural produce, operational as well as technical capacity development’. I actually couldn’t see Sir how partnership is needed to vegetate the lands that are said capable to feed the entire West African Countries. We have the lands, we have the man power, and we have the financial buoyancy, what more do we need?

-You mentioned the reconstruction of 15 major feeder roads leading to markets Sir. I was compelled to ask dwellers of these roads, am sorry to report that, it’s a disappointment.

-Tourism: rehabilitating the Yankari Games Reserve. I also heard in town that you bought ‘white monkeys’ from Czech, how thoughtful Sir? Perhaps that would encourage outsiders to come to our dear State; who knows, may be enhance our economy too?

-Water: You mentioned improvement in water supply within the Bauchi metropolis by “Reconditioning 3.0MVA power transformer to serve as back up to 5.0MVA.” Sincerely Sir, since last six months I only see water running my tap on Mondays, only if I am lucky, I see it sometimes on Fridays as well. I must confess that water comes three days weekly during the last administration, that any residents of my neighborhood could attest to. You need a recheck of this new ‘power transformer’ you claim.

-Security: Government and security agencies have been working together and that Bauchi State is the most secured State in the North-East. May be you should read the news more often Sir, for there has been an incessant dilation of thievery, burglary, and robbery lately; it is becoming quite scary.

-You concluded your speech with your favorite stanza which has been mastered by almost all whom are conversant to your speech.

“The silence from Bauchi is so loud,” said Aminu Gamawa a while ago. Its six months Sir, and yet, none of your promises has been fulfilled. Just one glance on your 100 days anniversary speech and one could tell you’re headed towards failure. After 100 days in office I must say a government should have given some attention to the State’s Economy, Education and possible means of Job creations and Internal Generating Revenues; not a single mention of these imperatives was made -quite unfortunate.

Six months in office, and yet a cabinet is not in place. Talks are that you are intending to set aside politicians and work with technocrats. I agree that is not a bad idea, but I also must urge that you give that another thought Sir; for politicians are the reason behind your victory and at this point, your success can only be guaranteed with them. Trust me, one can’t stand the rigorous turbulence of political hostility in Bauchi politics without the help of them (politicians).

It’s a bit eccentric, to say the most, to have your administration ran by a number of Special Advisers. May be that is for reasons that you hardly exhaust a month in the State. Sometimes back your Special Adviser wrote on his twitter post “Bauchi’s GMA Governor Muhammad Abubakar now AKA the Alerter for filling texts with Bank alerts in Bauchi.” And that Sir, is your “Scheduler” as he refers to himself. I actually felt a surge of shame when I saw that for what would people from other States say about your administration when they see such? Everyone knows that salaries are paid when their dues are in check, so why should that call for such childish ‘brag’?

Remember in my last epistle I shared my fears that “your phenomenon may come to be known as ‘a sudden swift rise of a long slow fall?’”, well, 2019 is barely 3 years to come; I caution that you use them well.

I hope you find the due time to read this, and also the due time to reply. I shall await your response with a fervent expectancy. Thank you.

                                                                                     Yours’ in Earnest

                                                                            Abdul-Rahman Baban Saibo