Bauchi under Yuguda and Abubakar
The people had no choice in 2007 than to support him and succumb to his wish, simply because he came under the support of the then General Muhammadu Buhari. They therefore voted him into power, believing that he will save their lives. For the realization of his ambition, former Bauchi state Governor Isa Yuguda came on the platform of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) while pretending to be an offended PDP card carrying member.
The Bauchi people were soon shocked when they discovered that they were being led by an accidental governor without any idea on how to move the state forward; someone who lacked the courage and experience to checkmate the excesses of his likeminds that sang his praises.
With minimal depth of strategic thinking but optimal political hollowness to govern a state that gave Nigeria some of the best brains and politicians, Bauchi under Yuguda was anathema to sane minds and the upright because his eight years reign had neither direction nor focus as policies were initiated and executed under the watch and control of family and friends and the end result was nothing but sadness.
Bauchi state was profusely bleeding at a time when Yuguda was bent on imposing his stooge as replacement in order to cover up inept leadership. That was when Allah, in his infinite mercy gave the electorate the wisdom to election Barr. Mohammed Abubakar as their governor under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
And within a short period of time, Governor Abubakar restored sanity in governance, hope for the people and a new direction in fulfilling electoral promises.
However, this disposition did not go down well with the proponents of the older Order who are now doing everything possible to distract our amiable governor.
To set the records straight, Yuguda on assumption of office, was in a hurry to award contracts to fronts and desperate to destroy the legacies of his predecessor on the altar of puritanical vindictiveness, which the state paid dearly.
Having failed to standardize the state to the levels that could generate magnetism to good governance, the state became a story of poverty of developmental thinking. From the dawn of history, Bauchi had always had it good as the home of democracy. It birthed seasoned politicians, military strategists, bureaucrats of repute and technocrats with a conscience for the development of Nigeria. It produced the first Prime Minister of independent Nigeria, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, one of Nigeria’s renowned Islamic scholars, Sheikh Tahir Bauchi, two Secretaries to the Government of the Federation (SGFs), Aminu Saleh and Mahomoud Yayale Ahmed and recently, the Chief of Air Staff, Air vice Marshal Abubakar Sadiq.
Balewa showed tremendous promise in his political career as he descended on Nigeria’s political turf like a tornado. With a patriotic desire to positively respond to the multidimensional challenges of the North in particular and Nigeria at large, he played a pivotal role in the unity of the North, improved its agricultural potentials, laid solid foundation for its economic wellbeing, enhanced its educational background and gave the people self-esteem and sense of pride for merely being Nigerians. In fact, Balewa left lasting legacies of service as his business in politics was resultoriented that on his unfortunate death in 1966, he had no significant bank account nor did he erect mansions through unbridled looting of the Nigerian treasury. He was a role model to Nigerians excluding those with questionable nationality as his legacies became a hallmark for his carriage and personification of his principles in politics.
In tandem with the policy of the Commonsense Revolution for Change as the philosophy of his party, APC, Governor Muhammed Abubakar, despite inheriting a near collapse state with a butchered treasury with over N212 billion suspected flipped and shared to fronts, praise singers and miscreants under the pretense of service, still gathered courage to start moving the state forward. With a first class brain that explores new frontiers of knowledge on the index of development, Bauchi state is becoming a paragon of beauty and a centre of attraction to many states in the North-east and beyond.
Governing a state with bequeathed huge political and socio- economic challenges that led to its stunted economic growth and development in the past eight years, M.A Abubakar is using clinical intelligence, experience, capabilities, courage, dedication to duty, diligence and tenacity in building solid structures and institutions of democracy devoid of generational corruption and underdevelopment.
A tragic flaw of fundamental dimension was how Yuguda used unrefined power to clamp down on opposition and social critics that made some observers to describe him as the “Idi Amin” of Bauchi.
With no defined agenda and programme of action, Yuguda was believed to have had, two main issues central to his administrative focus. One, the persecution of his immediate predecessor he pretentiously considered a friend and his marriage to the daughter of late president Umaru Yar Adu’a for a shield against later day prosecution, while aimless globetrotting occupied a position of importance. Tongues wagged in Bauchi for his unpopular action of doling out public funds to miscreants without adding any value and sacking hundreds of career civil servants suspected to be loyal to the former governor who was adjudged more sincere and God fearing. It could also be recalled that after decamping from the party that provided him platform to victory, ANPP to the PDP, he had to implore Stone Age antics to force out of office his humble and amiable deputy, Garba Gadi for refusing to ridicule his reputation by decamping to PDP.
As the report of the high-powered investigating committee that investigated all contracts awarded by from 2007 to 2015 indicted Yuguda, majority of the people were not surprised. It was expected and more grease to the elbow of Governor M.A Abubakar for mustering the courage to probing the stewardship of a Governor who crippled Bauchi state.
Konkiyel wrote this piece from Abuja.