Gov Abubakar and the struggle to emancipate Bauchi

By Sani M. Musa

For ages, it has been the sole and sinister objective for the social, political and economic elites of any society or nation to subjugate and oppress the majority of the people cum masses while cornering the common wealth and lucre for their sole benefits and control.

In the historic days of the Russia aforetime to the communist revolution, Britain before the advent of the parliamentary democracy, United States depression era, and even in Cuba before the Fidel Castro revolution, the story has sadly been the same – domination and perpetual control of state resources by a few to the disadvantage and pauperization of the vast majority. Certainly, the privileged class in their arrogance, conceit and pomposity believes they are eminently qualified to continue to lord it over their poorer and more numerous subjects and are averse to any attempt at changing the status quo to allow the disenfranchised have any shot at living a better life and are ready to go the whole hog in thwarting any attempt to liberate the long sufferings of the masses.

That was how the communists of Russia faced unrelenting opposition to their efforts at emancipating the Russian people while Frederick Delano Rootlet, the American President was ridiculed by the wealthy and influential for proposing the ‘New Deal’ program in order to lift millions of Americans from poverty, hunger, homelessness and unemployment.

Surprisingly, several decades after, the trend has continued in within our modern democracy. In Nigeria, the political climate in Bauchi State prior to the emergence of Governor Mohammed Abubakar was similar to what was obtainable in the pre-New Deal United States as a virulent and despotic cabal had taken over the affairs of governance of Bauchi State since the return of democracy in 1999, ensuring that whoever took over the reins of power must toe their line or be kicked out. The so-called elite ensured that the juicy and lucrative appointments and contracts was a right open only to their sons and daughters while the children of the poor and unknown could only aspire to be their hard labour servants.

This reprehensible self-perpetuation continued with negative consequences to the citizens and the economic fabric of Bauchi State albeit with firm resistance and policy overhaul by the present administartion in order to unshackle the state from the developmental and administrative peonage and helotry. It’s no doubt that, the inglorious reign of Bauchi’s rapacious elite conspired to relegate the state to an infinitely backward status in the nation’s human development infrastructural index with most of the state’s schools, hospitals, roads, power utilities and commercial and industrial infrastructure in a decrepit state, decaying and collapsing, if not totally rundown while a huge debt profile and backlog of civil servants’ salaries has become the descriptive features of the state.

This was the dismal situation that confronted Governor Mohammed Abubakar when he took over the reins of executive authority on May 29, 2015 with much hope and promise to turn around the state’s social, political and economic fortunes for the better. Indeed, a determined Governor Abubakar vowed that the despicable status quo would no longer be allowed to stand, signposting his vision of taking the state to the next level in all the positive ramifications of governance.

Visibily disturbed by how government’s properties were shared among the hangers-on and cronnies of the previous administration while running the state’s treasury dry, Barrister Abubakar promised to change things for the better and emancipate not only the people of Bauchi State, but the flagrantly abused institution of governance at all levels.
Without much ado, Abubakar initiated a revolution in the health and education sectors, constructing and renovating health and maternity centres, hospitals, primary and secondary school classrooms.

He also transformed the abandoned Bauchi State Orphans and Vulnerable Children Agency with state-of-the-art facilities like new hostels, modern kitchen, teachers’ quarters, workshops and auditorium. Rural and township roads are being constructed and rehabilitated to boost transportation from rural to urban settlements and access to better education, advance healthscare access, easy exchange of goods and services, reduce travels time and accidents due to trafiic clogging.

Bauchi State is now emerging from the shadows of feudalism and crude nepotism and cronyism. Consequently, it is expected that Mohammed Abubakar’s visionary and dynamic leadership will face opposition and hostility from unrepentant cabals, who after bankrupting and impoverishing the state, are now desperately fighting to maintain their stranglehold on a hapless and pauperized citizenry.

On this score, the governor has been pilloried and castigated to no end by the self-important and self-perpetuating so-called godfathers of the state.
It is now clear that the despotic mafias that had all along ruled the state from behind the throne are aghast and frustrated that the independent minded Governor Abubakar has decided to take a clean break from the sordid past in order to re-launch the Pearl of Tourism State on a path of fast-track economic growth, social renewal, industrial re-engineering.

Therefore, the self-generated crisis between the governor and the Abuja politicians has been the handiwork of the enemies of the state and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. Explicitly, the new political honeymoon between Dogara and his hirtherto mickey mouse Boss, Mallam Isa Yuguda, is detrimental to the state and the party in general.

Astonishingly, Yuguda has been the number one enemy of the APC leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, and his tenure as governor of Bauchi State has been characterized with questionable financial deals and excesses. So, if Hon. Dogara and his destroying angels in Abuja would decide to bite the fingers that fed them, so be it, but they should be mindful of the fact that they were there through the people’s votes and the APC while Bauchi could be the only place to renew their political contract.

Musa writes from Bauchi

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