Even blind people can see silent revolution in development of Bauchi by Abubakar – Umar

Ibrahim Umar Sade is the Bauchi State Commissioner of Information, in this interview with journalists in Bauchi, he shed light on the activities of the government in the state, under the leadership of Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar Esq, his effort to take the state to greater heights in terms of development. SAMUEL LUKA was there and reports;

Your party, the APC has just won the Bauchi South Senatorial Bye election. What can you say about the success?
Alhamdulillahi. We first of all thank the Almighty Allah who in his infinite mercy gave us the victory. The just concluded Bauchi South senatorial bye election had manifested Governor Abubakar’s overwhelming grip on Bauchi politics, my governor is vindicated,

Bauchi people are people of APC and this clearly shows that the people of Bauchi South Senatorial District have spoken their mind, and it clearly shows that our people are satisfied with the efforts of Governor Abubakar towards the development of the state, and he has repelled all the negatives against his administration.

The election served as a litmus test to APC and it has a resounding hope towards 2019 election, which by the grace of Allah, Bauchi people will vote for APC and I believe our governor will not fail the people of the state that gave him their votes in order to better their living condition.

Our people understood the zeal and vision of our amiable governor to take development to all nooks and crannies of the state despite its lean resources.

But the opposition alleged that the election was marred with irregularities?
What are they saying?

There is electoral mal-practice, rigging, inducing voters with money which led to the cancelation of election in so many wards, even the electoral body said election was cancelled in many polling units, you are not aware?
Let me start with the opposition, all these allegations are words of the losers. Do you think if the electoral body had declared any of the complainant winner of this election under any circumstance that they will reject the result? The answer is capital No.

They lose, they want to have a place to hang on, in other to show to their supporters that they are still relevant, but to be candid, people of Bauchi have spoken their mind and the election was conducted peacefully without any rancor,

their agents signed all the election result, you journalist were at the headquarters of INEC when the returning officer invited all the representatives of the political parties to sign the final result submitted and all of them signed.

Advertisement

If they have any genuine complaints their agents would not sign. The election was peaceful, free and fair, and thank God there is a Tribunal, whoever is aggrieved and feel he cannot be patient he can challenge the election in court.

Some people accused the administration of not doing enough in the provision of infrastructure?
Who are these people? Are they people of Bauchi State or our political opponents? Even blind people and hypocrites knows that there is a silent revolution of putting Bauchi State on a proper path through rejuvenation of abandoned sectors by His Excellency Governor Abubakar.

Whenever you enter Bauchi, you will know that you are entering a befitting state capital because of the brand new dualisation of road networks across the city.

Before the coming of the administration, we don’t have such roads in the state, the governor during his electioneering campaign went to rural areas where he understood the real problems of our people, majority of them are peasant farmers, and they are looking for road network to enable them transport their farm produce to markets and the agitation of our people and their quest for development.

As a result of that the governor gave priority to road construction across the state, many road construction contracts were awarded in both urban and rural areas and government is making effort to open up these communities to development through the provision of road networks to boost their socio economic development.

Also, since inception the government gave priority to agriculture, education , Health care and addressing the problems of youth restiveness inherited from the previous administration, and a lot has been done to boost the economy of the state by resuscitating Bauchi Fertilizer Plant, Bauchi Furniture companies, Yankari Game Reserve.

Other areas include, prudent management of Bauchi State resources, blocking leakages in governance and above all jerking up the state’s IGR through the State Board of Internal Revenue where there is a remarkable improvement in revenue generation of the state and blocking leakages that my governor did,

because if left unblocked that will lead to financial embezzlement and mismanagement of state resources, just to mention a few, but we are committed to reposition the state in all aspects of live, that is the focus of this administration.

Has government achieve anything substantial in the focus areas you listed?
Yes, government has achieved a lot, but let me give you in brief. You see, in the area of education, government always allocate 25 percent of its budget to education, and it collaborates with Federal Government agencies in education.

Advertisement

Many class room blocks have been constructed in all the 20 local government areas of the state, school lab projects, you may wish to visit Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic and see what government is doing,

physically we gave it a new face, most of their courses have been accredited, they will now start awarding Degrees, you may wish to see the FM Station of the institution, it’s the only institution that has campus Radio in the entire Northern Nigeria.

Itas Gadau University and other tertiary institutions all of them have benefitted from the government effort to provide infrastructure, modern ones in the schools, you may wish to go and see it for yourself.

So also secondary schools, government is doing a lot, we have even recorded success because many Bauchi State students today pass their Exams, NECO and WAEC and government paid their scholarship allowances.

In the area of agriculture, you may wish to ask farmers, they get fertilizer and all farming inputs every year, our fertilizer company is working now, we even sell the commodity to other neighboring states.

Not only that, agriculture have been given the priority it deserves with the recent procurement of 500 tractors, we have done a lot. Recently we have accessed N5bn loan from the Central Bank ,out of the N8bn to boost mechanised agriculture in the state, government procure and distribute fertilizers to farmers annually.

In the area of road construction, the administration has achieved a lot despite all the challenges involved in doing quality jobs, you just go round Bauchi metropolis, even a blind person knows that something called quality road construction is ongoing everywhere.

And you see, in our effort to do a quality job the contractors dig and remove sands, fill the holes with rocks to strengthen the new road so that it will last for over 50 years.

And I have told you sometime before now, we are also committed to procuring about 60 busses to boost commercial activities of Yankari Express Mass Transit, so also in the area of rural electrification, government has earmarked over N350m to provide electricity to many rural communities in the state.

Advertisement

In the area of revenue generation, we have introduced e-payment of taxes. We have achieved a lot; we have done more in the area of poverty alleviation and self-reliance programme.

We have instilled discipline in the civil service, in the provision of road networks government awarded many historic neglected roads, like in Jamaare Local Government; Jamaare -Hanafari-Itas-Garin Babani, in Ganjuwa Local Government;

Kamfanin Kutare-Guyaba in Misau-Hardawa-Chinade-Madara-Bulkachuwa-Udubo-to Gamawa about 110 Kilometres, so also in Toro Local Government; Mararrabar Ganye-Gwalfada-Bakin Kogi

Your area of assignment is Information and Tourism Ministry. What are your plans for state owned media?
Under my Ministry, the governor last month bagged an award as the best governor in Nigeria in Tourism Development and the state government is fully committed to digitalise our media outfit.

I can recall that because of the interest of our governor, he visited the headquarters of Startimes, accessed what they were doing, after he was satisfied, he arranged with them to come and modernise the Bauchi State Television so that it will become like CNN.

N2 billion was earmarked for the project, they will be in the state any moment; they will be here to start the digitalisation of BATV. We are also working round the clock to reposition the Bauchi Radio Corporation BRC, by the grace of God it will be like BBC .

in fact we have plans of training and retraining of our staff in the media industry in Bauchi, and we are ready to provide them with all they required to make their work easier.

Are you confident that your party will win the 2019 Bauchi governorship seat?
Ah! have you seen any candidate in Bauchi better than Mohammed Abubakar , Bauchi is for Abubakar, even though the governor is not talking about 2019 all you have been seeing are agitations of his die-hard supporters and well-wishers,

but the governor is committed to fulfilling his electioneering campaign, he is working hard to provide quality living standard to our people in the areas of water supply, health care, education, Agriculture, rural electrification, road networks and many other areas,

in fact he want to make sure that every citizen of Bauchi benefits from the dividends of democracy in front of his doors.

Quote
Whenever you enter Bauchi, you will know that you are entering a befitting state capital because of the brand new dualisation of road networks across the city. Before the coming of the administration, we don’t have such roads in the state, the governor during his electioneering campaign went to rural areas where he understood the real problems of our people, majority of them are peasant farmers, and they are looking for road network to enable them transport their farm produce to markets and the agitation of our people and their quest for development.