Re: Badaru and the Fallacy of PDP Decampees In Jigawa State -By Zakari Kafin Hausa

In a highly uncharitable tone, one writer, Dahiru Hassan Kera, twisted facts and mangled history in an article published by Premium Times on December 24, 2015 with the above title.

While baring his pang on the present administration in Jigawa State, his ignorant presentation of events in the state, especially in the last eight years, simply exposed his efforts to cover the massive fraud committed by the past government.

The defection of over 370,000 PDP members to the APC, a reality that turned the PDP into an empty shell, lacking in soul and physical presence in the state, was, in a guise, the focal point of his argument.

Historically, since the advent of the Fourth Republic, Jigawa State has never been a PDP State. From 1998, when the current democratic dispensation began, the state has been predominantly a little to the left with the emergence of Alhaji Saminu Turaki of the defunct All People’s Party (APP) as the governor.

The events that led to the emergence of Sule Lamido as PDP flag-bearer and later the governor in 2007 was the singular decision and effort of the then governor, Saminu Turaki, not the political sagacity or acceptability of Alhaji Sule Lamido, who had hitherto never won an election in the state since its creation. Sule Lamido and his group – who were then called the Kano rabble-rousers – were featherweight in Jigawa politics before the 2007 events.

For 370,000 PDP members to defect a few months after losing election, was a manifestation of the political banana peels the Lamido dynasty was built on. It was a mirage. A system built on the same groups that have today decided to take over the mantle of leadership after suffering eight years of kleptomania and failed governance.

Between 2007 and 2015 when Governor Sule Lamido was at the helm of affairs, the state allocation from the Federation Account nearly doubled what is received today. This was apart from excess crude funds that were always available at the governors’ demands, as well as the sovereign wealth fund. This verdant resource nonetheless, Jigawa at the time incurred over N117bn debt and N92bn contractual liabilities on ongoing projects, which the present administration promised to complete.

With such surfeit of resources from left, right and centre in the last eight years, one expects to see the capital city modeled out of, at least a UAE city.

The contract for the construction of the Jigawa State Secretariat, awarded by Sule Lamido at the cost of N6.6bn, was later jerked to N9.3bn before completion, an increase of about 30 percent. Even the much-publicised airfield that gulped over N17bn should not have exceeded N2bn, according to experts. Is Mr. Kera also aware that almost all the so-called developments by his paymaster were only scams designed to siphon the resources of the state.

The fact is that Governor Badaru Abubakar never awarded a contract for the cleaning of the State Secretariat at the cost of N480 million per annum. When Governor Badaru came on board, the cost was drastically reduced to N250 million per annum.

All projects initiated by Alhaji Sule Lamido were white elephant projects and conduit pipes designed for self-enrichment as exposed by the ongoing EFCC investigations.

Almost all the projects he left are now being re-negotiated down by great percentages by Governor Badaru Abubakar, despite the fact that they were awarded when the exchange rate was N160 to 1 US dollar, against the N260 to 1 US dollar obtainable today. All these re-negotiated contracts are being done in the specified quality, parameters and bill of quantities. In 2014, the past administration spent N780m on Hajj welfare, while Governor Badaru spent only N280m. The past administration also spent a whopping N21m monthly to subsidise the Dutse airport, while Badaru runs it with zero public funding.

Over 70 percent of the government house overhead costs has been saved by the present administration, besides the over N600m monthly saved on general overheads. Were these overpaid projects by Mr. Kera’s benefactor a sign of incapacity to award projects appropriately, or were they deliberate and choreographed shenanigans to divert public funds for personal use as the EFCC is currently proving to us?

The “Lamidogate” that is being exposed by the EFCC is enough concern for him to bury his face in shame instead of attempting to gain credit where repercussions and punishment should have been their rewards – not publicity blitz.

The $40,000 seized from Lamido’s son in 2012 kick-started the hereditary kleptomaniac sequences of looting. And get this painful record straight: Saminu was never accused of conspiring with his children to milk Jigawa State dry.

Between 2007 and 2015, EFCC exposed the N1.3 billion kick-back paid to Bamaina Holdings and Speed International, apart from the additional N1 billion paid directly from the state’s treasury and the government’s agencies and parastatals to the accounts of Saby Intergrated, a company owned by Lamido and his sons. This is, again, apart from N10 billion lifted directly from the state’s coffers in his inglorious eight years. This was revealed by no less a credible source than the EFCC.

Let it be known that a few months into the administration of Governor Badaru Abubakar, massive changes that focus on human development, economic recovery, educational revolution and fiscal discipline have been effected. The government, has within few months, set the state on the pedestal of attaining quality education by setting aside 32 percent of its 2016 budget for the sector, a feat that surpasses the required 25 percent UNICEF standard.

Already, over 450 teachers have been recruited, over 100 foreign doctors are on their way to the state; clinics have been upgraded to general hospitals, and general hospitals to specialist hospitals. Electricity projects abandoned for eight years by Lamido in Ringim has been concluded.

So much is happening in Jigawa State that the 370,000 decampees were left with no option but to join the train of salvation after unfortunately, participating in what they now realised was fraud and deceit.

The silence of Governor Badaru as a mark of respect to Sule Lamido should not be taken for granted. If Governor Badaru is silent, the people of Jigawa State will no longer keep silent.

Zakari wrote from Kafin Hausa town, Jigawa State.