A poser for Senator Bukar Abba?

Now that he is looking to be re-elected, I ask myself questions. In four years, Bukar Abba has done nothing in the seven local government areas he represents as a senator. We have not seen him drill boreholes or dig wells or install hand pumps for water supply for the hapless people who believed he […]

Now that he is looking to be re-elected, I ask myself questions. In four years, Bukar Abba has done nothing in the seven local government areas he represents as a senator. We have not seen him drill boreholes or dig wells or install hand pumps for water supply for the hapless people who believed he was there for them. Even when he did a fund raising event to get money to improve education, we are yet to see any renovation of schools or supply of textbooks or desks or teaching materials from the proceeds of the funds he collected.

I wonder what goes on in Bukar Abba’s mind. His wife Khadija Bukar Abba, heir to a political dynasty, is more useful to us even though she represents only four local government areas as a House of Representatives member. During the last Eid festival, our elders and mothers benefitted from her kindness with bags of rice, wrappers etc. What is Bukar doing for us? What is he doing with the huge constituency funds he is collecting on our behalf?

The other day a national newspaper did a spotlight on constituency projects by federal lawmakers; Bukar Abba submitted the pictures the Gaidam-Maine Sorua road, the Damaturu Regional Water Supply Scheme and the Ngelzarma Erosion Control. Ngelzarma is not even part of his constituency. The Gaidam Maine Sorua road is a federal government road project that the Yobe State government is executing on behalf of the federal government and being refunded by it. The Damaturu Regional Water Scheme is also funded jointly by the federal government and the Yobe State government. How did these become his constituency projects?

Bukar Abba should fear God and remember that though he may claim to have done so much in Yobe when he was governor, people are looking to the future and what he can do for them now. He should come to terms with the reality of today’s world.

Let him learn from his hard working wife. As a member of the House of Representatives, her re-election campaign has animated Yobe Zone A. The reason is simple: We see her as caring. She is honest, straight forward and she does not give the impression that people must vote for her as a matter of right, the way Bukar does. She is working to earn it. Bukar, too, must prove himself in the practical world. Or else he will become a paper tiger.

Babagana Damaturu wrote from Gwange Area, Damaturu Yobe State