Governor Abubakar and the challenges of political opportunism

Amajor feature of the buildup to the 2015 general elections in Nigeria was the conglomeration of politicians of various ideological colourations, which gave birth to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Critical observers and analysts of the mass exodus of politicians from other political parties to the APC could not have missed the fact that the development was neither informed by genuine love for President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s globally acclaimed apostle of change, nor the revolutionary platform on which the APC contested and roundly defeated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the elections.

Barely one year after the APC victory, the coast is becoming clearer about the fact that opportunism, rather than genuine love for the party’s slogan for change, was the major driving force behind the relocation of many politicians into the now ruling party.

This opportunism is manifest in various dimensions. On the one hand, it was a reflection of the desperation to win elections, given the discredited record of the PDP. Worse still, however, the opportunistic tendency is now playing itself out where party faithful, particularly those that dumped the PDP and were welcome to the APC, have now constituted themselves into an unofficial opposition aimed at scuttling the gains made under the progressive and dynamic leadership of the APC.

The ex-PDP turned APC members have now constituted themselves into fifth columnists, working hand in gloves to undermine the policies and programmes of the APC by, among other things, waging a campaign of calumny and blackmail against the federal government led by President Muhammadu Buhari and state governments under the ruling party’s control. The name of their new game is giving the dog a bad name in order to hang it. The governor of Bauchi State, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar, is a victim of this campaign of calumny. To score cheap political goals, APC programmes are being deliberately misinterpreted and misrepresented by otherwise party faithful.

A case in point is the ranting by an Abuja politician, one Ahmed Yerima, who calls himself a member of the House of Representatives. In a write-up titled, Bauchi State and its challenges, published in Daily Trust of May 24, and a story titled Governor Abubakar out of tune with the people, also published on May 23, Yerima made obvious false allegations against the governor of Bauchi State. He insinuated that the incumbent APC administration lacked a programme that would emancipate the state from the shackles of decay and mismanagement it suffered due to years of PDP misrule. He specifically claimed that rural people depended on representatives like him for their daily needs due to the alleged failure of the government to perform its statutory functions. Yerima further claimed that National Assembly members from the state had been alienated in the decision making process, which, in his view, could jeopardise the prospects of the APC in the 2019 elections.

The legislator’s claim that Abubakar did not perform creditably is false. Even in his constituency, the state government is executing a major road project, namely, Misau-Bulkachuwa-Udubo road. In terms of political appointment, his constituency has the highest appointees in the Governor Abubakar administration.

Much as we share the views expressed in the legislator’s conclusion, it beats our imagination that he decided to blind himself on the progressive policies and programmes of Governor Abubakar. For the avoidance of doubt, the governor has recorded giant studies in rehabilitating the various sectors of the Bauchi State political economy, barely one year in office. The evidence of these achievements are there for all objective observers to see.

In its bid to bring sanity and discipline in the management of state resources, the Bauchi State government has taken bold steps to curb the massive corruption that was the order of the day under previous administrations. Apart from reviewing the 2015 budget to reflect current realities, as well as cutting down the salaries and expenditures of the office of the governor and his deputy to save money, a committee was set up to recover all properties and resources that were illegally carted away by officials of past administrations. Indeed, Governor Abubakar deserves credit for the clearance of the backlog of a four-month salary areas inherited from the past administration and has since been paying staff salaries as at when due, with few exceptions.

A major achievement of the Governor Abubakar administration, which was ironically misunderstood, and has drawn criticisms, is the staff verification exercise initiated by the government. This exercise became necessary in view of the volume of staff salaries, which was compounded by the existence of thousands of ghost workers injected into the payroll by unscrupulous elements. So far, the government has weeded out most of these ghost workers, and the remaining will be flushed out sooner or later. It must be stated, at least for record purposes, that Bauchi is not the only state undergoing the staff verification exercise.

On the education sector, the governor has also made giant strides. The state government has so far spent millions of naira on the schools direct feeding programme, settlement of WAEC and NABTEB registration fees for indigenes of Bauchi State, payment of scholarship grants and the provision of furniture to some state-owned schools.

The agricultural sector has also enjoyed its fair share of patronage from this administration. Conscious of the place of agriculture in the APC economic reform programme at both federal and state levels, the government has disbursed thousands of metric tonnes of fertilizer to farmers at subsidised rates, provided tractor hiring services to farmers, partnered with the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) for the empowerment of food security of internally displaced persons through the disbursement of thousands of metric tonnes of assorted seedlings. It also empowered fishermen with various forms of assistance. Of particular importance in this regard is the invitation of investors from China, Lebanon and other countries, as well as the procurement of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) soft loan to the tune of about N400 million through the Bank of Agriculture, for disbursement to farmers.

On infrastructure, the Bauchi State government has awarded various road contracts. Significant achievements have also been recorded in the area of youth development, water supply, rural electrification and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), for which the state government has invested billions of naira. Governor Abubakar has achieved significant milestones in his efforts to reposition Bauchi State.

Despite these achievements, however, some political opportunists and professional critics have gone to town hurling diatribes and embarking on a futile exercise of mudslinging and character assassination on Governor Abubakar.

Our advice to Ahmed Yerima and his misguided fellow travellers in the National Assembly is that they should learn to give credit to whom it is due. And Abubakar deserves credit for the achievements he has recorded, barely one year after his assumption of office as the executive governor of Bauchi State. If the performance of Governor Abubakar so far is anything to go by, Bauchi State would witness total transformation very soon and in good time enough to secure a second mandate for the APC, come 2019.