Lawmaker holds ‘thank you’ party for constituents at Fed Poly Nasarawa

The Muhammadu Buhari Multipurpose Hall of the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, was agog with students, lecturers, politicians and dignitaries from Nasarawa, Toto and the environs to celebrate with Honourable Abdulmumin Muhammed Ari, the member representing Nasarawa/Toto federal constituency in the National Assembly.

In his speech, Ari expressed gratitude to God and the people of Nasarawa and Toto local governments who had found him worthy to represent them in the National Assembly. Based on the trust the people had given him, he promise not to fail and to carry the people along in all his activities in the National Assembly.

 He said he preferred to hold the reception in  Nasarawa, especially the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa campus because of the importance of youth as agent of change and active players in the polity.

“I hold the party in Nasarawa because I am a grassroots man.  I love identifying with my people.  After all, it is not the Abuja people who elected me. It is the people of my constituency that elected me. Holding a thank you reception here has a lot of advantages to me and the people. You can see that people who have no means of transportation trekked to this venue. A woman with only N50 could take an okada to this venue to be part of the celebration.  It is best to always identify with people who voted for you. Therefore, if I want to thank my people  I would do it to the teeming populace or voters who voted for me not a selected few who are opportune to live in Abuja or have the means to go there. Any person can trek down to the venue here to celebrate with us. I want to carry all my constituents along so that we can share views together. I want to appreciate them and also increase our relationship,” he said.

Asked about the insecurity in his constituency, he said security challenge was not peculiar to Nasarawa alone, but a national challenge as well as a global issue. But said he was not happy that his constituency should become a den of kidnappers and violent crimes. He said he had a vision for his constituency where all people engage in their livelihood without hindrance from any quarter.

“Let me come down to my constituency. I am not happy about what is happening to my constituency in terms of insecurity of life and property. I am not happy that my brothers and sisters cannot go to their farms; I am not happy that my brothers and sisters cannot go to the bush to rear their cattle; I am not happy that market women cannot go to rural markets in my constituency. My conviction is to submit all things to God. But we have to love one another and be our brothers’ keepers. When love exists, peace prevails.

“And again, I have to thank the federal government and the Nigerian military and other security agencies for their relentless effort to fight insurgency and violent crimes in the country. I also appreciate Nasarawa state government for its own part in ensuring security of life and property in the state.

“Also I am lucky that the Inspector-General of Police is my elder brother, though he is not an Inspector-General of Nasarawa state, but for all Nigerians. Thank God the Nigeria police are at the scenes of conflict all over the country 24 hours. In all local governments in Nigeria there are police stations to take care of criminal cases and violence or conflict.

“We shall leverage on that to make sure that my constituency and Nasarawa state is safe. The IG is appointed based on merit; in that case he is equal to any security challenges that may arise in any state of the federation.”

          He appealed to the people not to allow religion and ethnicity divide them, pointing out that God knew why he created different religions and keep their adherents together in a region.

On the issues almajiri education, he said, “I cannot alone do anything as regards  almajiri pupils in the street. I will only work together with superior officers to check the challenges.  I cannot solve the problem on my own alone, but I can appeal to relevant authorities to make sure almajiri syndrome is eradicated in my constituency. Out-of-school children is one of the issues we should take serious because of the number of children who are affected in Nigeria, particularly in the north. Crimes and criminal tendencies seem to be common in zones where the number of the illiterate is high. So, taking these vulnerable children out of school could help in reducing crimes in the north.”

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