‘Many of Us in Gov. Bala’s Cabinet Are With Him to Sacrifice to Develop the State’
Segun Awofadeji discusses the administration of Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed of Bauchi State and his visible efforts at ameliorating the harsh living conditions of the people in the last one year with Hon. Hamish Mu’azu Shira, former Member, House of Representatives and current Commissioner of Housing and Environment in the State
Bauchi State electorates voted out APC- led government because of poor performance. How has the present government faired in the first one year?
Some of us that are very close to His Excellency, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, right from his days as a minister are not surprised at his level of achievements within his fist year in office. I want to tell you without fear or favour that since the advent of democracy to the best of my knowledge as far back as 1979 when Shehu Shagari took over, Abubakar Tatari Ali became the first Executive Governor elected on the platform of a political party, no governor has done what Bala has done so far. Tatari Ali did so much, so well that till tomorrow we will continue to praise him because he brought about development into Bauchi state. He built hospitals in Alkaleri and Darazo. He carried out a lot of developmental projects across nooks and crannies of Bauchi state. He was so honest and he carried all the people along, since that time, another governor we had whom I will compare Bala with is Ahmad Muazu but even Ahmad Muazu was not able to achieve what Bala achieved within one year, because he took over from the military. By and large, in four years or eight years of Muazu you will not deny the fact that he also tried his best but I can assure you that Bala is going to beat Muazu’s record hands-down even within the first four years, the first term which we have spent only one year for now and I have no doubt in my mind that Bauchi state people will reciprocate this very good service to the people of Bauchi state by voting him for a second term, without even going out to campaign, if the people can appreciate service and loyalty and work, development with the meagre resources that we receive today I think there is no point for us to go out and campaign, because already we have proven to the people of Bauchi state that Bala is a good manager of resources, that he can deploy little and achieve great. You can see that since the beginning of his administration salaries are paid at almost every 25th day monthly. For the first time since he took over salaries are paid,. People were saying that what they were predicting has happened, that Bala won’t be able to maintain the tempo, that Bauchi state is broke and that is why we have not been able to pay on the 25th as we started, it is not true, the money was there, they were contemplating on embarking the payments on a platform that the people we brought wanted but we later realized that they had some challenges and so we had to advise them to suspend it and that was what brought about the two or three days delay and I want to assure you that this month we will revert back to 25th as usual.
There are rumours going round that Governor Bala Mohammed is eyeing the Presidential seat come 2023.What is your take on this?
There are those who are clamouring, with rumours flying here and there that Bala is interested in going for the presidency come 2023, I want to tell you that Bala is capable, he has the capacity to lead this country, that I have no doubt in my mind but as of today, that is not his priority, his priority for now is to ensure that he delivers what he promised Bauchi state people during our campaigns, we went round the 20 local government areas of Bauchi state and Bala is the first gubernatorial aspirant to have visited every single ward of the state to see things for himself with the view to taking note of what is on the ground and of course designing a blue print to know where to start if eventually he was voted into office and Alhamdulillahi, he was voted into office. After that, he brought in some consultants.. that came up with a blue print, he gave them the mandate to carry out a study and see why the state is left behind, what is it that we can do to better the living standards of the citizenry and they came up with series of recommendations, many are being implemented and of course quite a number of them are still on the drawing board, we will get there soon.
On the issue of presidency, let me come back to it again Bala has the capacity like I said but like I also said, that is not his priority, some are saying that he is going for vice president, some are saying he is going to be picked to serve as a vice president, that I don’t know but I can confess to you that he has the capacity to serve in any position but that is not his interest for now. They are not doing it because Bala has in any way expressed his interest to run for the office. It is because of what they have observed he has been able to achieve in his first one year in office as the governor of Bauchi state that prompted their desire to invite him to come on board and lead this country because Nigeria truly needs proactive leaders like him. It’s just like out of their appreciation for what Bala has been able to do in Bauchi within this short period of time that has generated that clamour. He has been able to achieve in one year what the previous administration did not achieve in five years, that is what is bringing all these rumours. So, the truth of the matter is we have no plans for that but I am not ruling out the possibility, at the end of his eight years, by the grace of God I will be one of those who will call and urge him to come out and contest because I know him very well, he will deliver.