Hon. Abdulkadir Rahis: Borno lawmaker with a difference, by Hayatu Hussaini

Honourable Abdulkadir Rahis is a 52-year-old member of the House of Representatives representing the good people of Maiduguri Metropolitan Federal Constituency of Borno state.

Hon. Rahis is no dark horse as far as legislative business is concerned, especially having been in the green chamber since 2015. A protégé of Senator Kashim Shettima and committed Buharist, Hon. Rahis is a grassroots politician who worked hard towards the development of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Borno State and the country as a whole.

Hon. Rahis started off his political career in 1990s when he contested for councillorship election in Shehuri south of Maiduguri Metropolitan Council under none party basis.

In 1997, Hon Rahis was elected as ward chairman of his Shehuri south under the defunct UNDP. In 1999, he became the Treasurer of the APP for the Maiduguri Metropolitan Council.

The spectacular leadership qualities of Hon. Rahis catapulted him into an appointment as the Supervisory Councillor for Works in the Maiduguri Metropolitan Council from 2001 to 2003. He was subsequently appointed as a Board member of the El-Kanemi Warriors Football Club in 2003, rising to become the Board Chairman of the said club. From 2006 to 2011, Hon. Rahis was elected as Borno State Youth Leader for two consecutive terms. In 2011, Governor Kashim Shettima appointed Hon. Rahis as his Special Assistant before becoming the caretaker committee chairman of the Maiduguri Metropolitan Council, a position he held for five consecutive times (from 2012 to 2015).

When he became a federal legislator in 2015, Hon. Rahis began to fight for the masses and champion the course of good governance through membership of various and strategic legislative committees. It is worthy of note that aside from sponsoring dozens of bills that have direct bearing on the lives of His constituents and Nigerians at large, Hon. Rahis was a member, house Committees on Budget and appropriation, housing, poverty alleviation, Niger Delta Development, pension, solid minerals, and many other ad hoc committees for oversight legislative duties.

It is on record that through the instrumentality of these committees and other legislative endeavours, Hon. Rahis has been able to provide his constituents with various empowerment programs, job opportunities and provision of social amenities to his constituency.A journey into Hon. Rahis constituency one would be enthralled by the people-oriented developmental projects he brought into the constituency, along with pyramids of happiness and goodwill he instilled in the minds of his constituents through various empowerment programs.

In the area of provision of social amenities, Hon. Rahis has constructed over 200 hand pump boreholes and 10 jumbo solar-powered ones across his constituency. Today, water supply challenges that used to bedevil the constituency now belong to the past.

Hon. Rahis has installed solar-powered security lights for security surveillance at strategic locations across Maiduguri Metropolitan Constituency.In the area of educational development, this lawmaker has constructed and fully equipped no fewer than 14 blocks of three classrooms in six schools across the constituency, and has disbursed N10,000 scholarship fund to 500 students of tertiary institutions. 

As regards empowerment packages, Hon. Rahis has impacted on the lives of thousands of his constituents. He trained and empowered 600 youths on blocks and interlock making, 100 youths and women on tailoring, 200 youths and women on agricultural value chain, and another 1,500 women on horticultural crop handling.

Others who benefited from Hon. Rahis legislative largesse included 500 women who were trained and empowered with start-up capital on cowpea value addition and utilization; 500 other youths and women were also trained on tuber crops production; 500 farmers on the farm power and mechanization as well as 500 women on horticultural crop preservation.

Hon. Rahis did not stop at empowerment programs, he also distributed no fewer than 80 tricycles, 20 of which were pick-ups, to his constituents; 100 sets of vulcanizing machines; 100 sets of grinding machines to women food processors; 300 sets of water pump machines for horticultural production; 100 sets of barbing saloon kits; N5,000 hand-outs to over 1,000 youths and women as grants for small scale businesses; and  10,000 assorted foodstuffs to poor and vulnerable households.

These and many more empowerment initiatives have gone a long way in taking the youths away from the streets, thereby fortifying them against the exploits of Boko Haram insurgents, considering that youths are the easy prey of the insurgents.

Today, youths of the Maiduguri Metropolitan Constituency have found a messiah who has their interest at heart and has been living up to their expectations.Above all, these initiatives and commitment towards delivering his mandate stood him out as the most performing federal legislator in Borno State.

Little wonder Hon. Rahis secured a second mandate at the green chamber without losing sleep. Hon. Rahis’ sense of humility, fashion and good governance and vibrant leadership style endeared him among many of His contemporaries. 

Mr Hussaini wrote from Abuja.

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