… Ardo says it is a misplaced priority and a foolish venture
…. Enan says it is an obsession with anti people agenda
By Tom Garba
Stakeholders of the Social Democratic party (SDP) and Labour Party (LP) in Adamawa State have condemned the construction of third flyover awarded at a whooping sum of over Nine Billion Naira by the Governor of the state, Rt. Hon Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri.
Dr Umar Ardo, the SDP Governorship flag bearer in the state contested alongside Governor Fintiri during the 2023 election said the construction of the flyover is a misplaced priority.
He asserted that people are dying daily over the crossing of the Benue at Njuwa in Damare, Yola.
He said the construction of a second bridge across the river giving access into Yola would have been more meaningful, as it would expand and fasten the growth of the metropolis of the state capital.
“It would have been more economically viable and would have saved those lives being loss every year. But putting flyovers on such narrow streets as we have in Jimeta-Yola is really a foolish venture.” Ardo said
The Obidient Movement of the LP in Adamawa through one of its critical stakeholders, Hon Joseph Enan maigari said the project is anti -rural and the policy by Fintiri is purely anti -masses.
The Labour Party chieftain condemned the project, describing it a Governor Fintiri’s obsession to flyovers, saying that there is no sense whatsoever to a one sided infrastructural development when the whole state is drowning in penury and it’s citizens are wallowing in poverty.
Hon Enan pointed out that building multiple flyovers within Yola alone short changes the entire state, knowing the fact that most of the local governments areas are suffering from poor infrastructures.
He expressed worries that all the twenty one local government areas cannot boast of good road networks, portable water and good health clinic, while he accused the government of carrying out any project that affects negatively the life of a common man.
Joseph Maigariin a statement titled, “Anti-Poor 8-Point Agenda of Governor Fintiri” made available to this medium said Adamawa people need to see development in their communities not in Yola.
According to him Governor Fintiri needs to uplift the standard of living of the people and improve their quality of life from the grassroots not, not from the urbanization point of development.
He said,” the persistent lack of attention from successive administrations towards the development of rural areas is a cause for concern. Just as the leadership baton is passed from one administration to the next, so too are crucial development projects, often left incomplete with mere promises made during election campaigns.
“In no other facet of life is Nigeria’s underwhelming development as stark as in the local governments and its rural areas. The poverty there is extreme; social infrastructure is non-existent.”
Maigari explains that, “Without developing the rural areas, Adamawa itself will remain ensconced in grinding underdevelopment. This point is at the heart of the social dysfunction in the State. While noticeable development has occurred in the urban areas, the reverse is the case in the local communities. The backwardness there is acute.
“Passable roads are rare; the absence of potable water, schools and primary healthcare is telling. Agriculture, the lifeblood there, is draining out because it is still at the subsistence level. The result is extreme poverty among the rural dwellers. This has provoked rural-urban migration, leading to congested cities and high rate of unemployment.”
The activist queries that, “Farming, which is supposed to sustain the livelihood of these folks, is hallmarked by post-harvest losses. Crops rot away as farmers cannot get them to the market because of bad roads. The loss is debilitating, entrenching poverty.
“Rural electrification and water projects have failed. All that the poor get are promises.
“Gov. Fintiri’s state government should priorities rural road construction, deploying new technologies that will make these routes durable. Rural inhabitants should have access to low interest credit. The State government should provide potable water to rural communities. It should engage in rural electrification, which boosts the value-chain in agriculture.
“All through Governor Fintiri’s first term he focused all his developmental project on the state capital while local governments and its rural areas languish in underdevelopment, new projects and bridges are already being awarded in urban areas. It’s imperative that rural areas receive their fair share of developmental progress, after all where are the funds for local governments that are supposed to drive development at the local levels? This is a talk for another day.
“Infrastructural development have the potential to transform our rural areas and transform them into economic power houses and this should be a priority for the present administration. Let the “8-Point Agenda” be felt in rural areas.”
He challenges Gov Fintiri that, “What makes one a successful Governor is not the airports or flyovers he built, but the prevailing societal problems he is able to address or solve.
“Let me educate you a little on governance. A federal or state government is like a family, but a big family. Economists use macro for them and micro for individual families or firms.
“I want to illustrate, this further; a state is like a poor family that gets free gifts from wealthy philanthropists. So what he does with the gifts is critical to the poor family survival.
“Recall that the family is poor. The children are out of school and, they are sick and can’t afford healthcare. Erosion is threatening the thatched house they are living in. Raining season is at the corner and the roof is a basket. What will the family head do with the gift that the wealthy philanthropists gifted them?
“Well, some in the conditions above have decided to buy a Benz or Lexus others prefer making a foundation for building mansion and castle. Yet, another decided to put the kids back to school, give adequate healthcare, fix the roof that is leaking and control the washing away of the soil and even started a little business that earns the family some income.
“Who do you think is a success amongst the 3 families? The one riding on a Mercedes Benz and Lexus? Or the one that went into building a castle and mansion? or the one that fixed his family’s problems? That’s the micro economics, the economist always talk about.
“At the federal or state that’s the big family, amalgamation of families. That’s what is expected of any of them that leads at that level. You don’t built airport or flyovers when the kids can’t go to school or access healthcare, no clean potable water, farmer’s can’t go to farm, bad rural roads. No, you cannot be doing state of the art conference centers when erosions is carrying away your place of abode or rain is beating you and your kids black and blue whenever it rains.”
He challenges that, “That life in the rural areas is hard, rustic and sometimes inhuman, the suffering of our people at the grassroots cannot be overemphasized.
“Many rural dwellers are traumatized by poverty, starvation and diseases. The major problem is that political office holders are alienated from the grassroots, from the people they were supposed to serve. As a result, they do not really understand the enormity of the sufferings experienced by rural dwellers on a daily basis.
“Even His Excellency, Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, is a victim of his governance policy. His very own people, although a governor is everyone’s person, but his people along Madagali, Michika, Mubi area are still grappling with the debilitating consequences of Boko Haram invasion of the area as the infrastructural dearth and livelihood nightmare of the people is a living narrative of the harsh effects of the invasion in the area and most are far from recovery. Those people will not celebrate flyover in Yola, would they?
“Ideally, democracy is government of the people, by the people and for the people, right? But our own version of democracy is like years away from the ideal, because what we have now is kakistocracy. But no matter how bad the system is, particularly with the rising tide of insecurity and insularity of the ruling class to the sufferings of our people, I also want to encourage Adamawa Youths not give up hope. They should continue to work hard for an egalitarians society that pays serious attention to the problems of human beings no matter where they are domiciled.
“For any society to grow and of course for a state to be on the path of greatness, growth and development, infrastructural development and other basic necessities of life must not be lopsided. Every segment of the society must have a stake and benefit from the common patrimony of the state. No part of the state must be neglected to suffer on the account of geographical location or distance to the city centres. In fact, this is the hallmark of fairness, justice and equity.
“On a more personal level, I call on Umar Fintiri , governor of Adamawa State, to pay close attention to the villages and do more than his predecessors to alleviate the problems of rural dwellers.”
You would recall that the Governor Fintiri led administration came with an Urban rural renewal mandate, a vision of his government to change the ugly narratives of the entire Adamawa State.
It is in line with his vision that the construction of roads, bridges across the 21 Local Government areas as according to his commissioner of Works and Housing, Mr Adamu Abubakar said is posed to achieve.
Adamu during the flag off ceremony of road construction in Yola recently said that the government of Fintiri is people’s focused and oriented that no place or area will be left untouched.
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He described the views of all those kicking against the construction of flyovers as people with archaic and dark aged mentally without progressive sense to where the world is driving at.
He said opposition will certainly kick against even what is good to them, but he called on the people of Adamawa State to give the Fintiri led administration all the needed support to serve better for posterity sake.
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