Behind the smokescreen: Open letter to Gombe’s Goje
Road projects Governor Goje is credited with constructing a number of roads throughout the state which is a fact. Many roads have been built mostly in the state capital and Kashere, his home town, while a few are scattered in local government headquarters. The administration did not however disclose the cost of these roads and […]
Road projects
Governor Goje is credited with constructing a number of roads throughout the state which is a fact. Many roads have been built mostly in the state capital and Kashere, his home town, while a few are scattered in local government headquarters. The administration did not however disclose the cost of these roads and who pays for them. Sometime ago, the late respected elder statesman, Dr. Suleiman Kumo of blessed memory wrote a petition stating that a kilometre of road was being built at a cost of N500 Million as against the N40 million per kilometre being paid by the Federal Ministry of Works.
Same was re-echoed in Billiri town of the state recently where township roads were said to cost around N550 Million per kilometre which caused a lot of uproar but was soon silenced with state might. It’s the same with the Dukku township roads and all other township roads in the state.
It is believed that the cost of the roads is astronomically so high that one dare not venture into that area. The public must be told the cost if what the populace believe is not correct so that comparisons can be made with what obtains in other jurisdictions. And the portion contributed by local governments must also be spelt out. How much did the state borrow to fund the projects?
Gombe airport
The Gombe Airport is one of the major achievements of the Goje administration. We must concede that the airport has provided easy access to Gombe. But access for whom? For the elites of course! The ordinary citizen can only site an aircraft hovering above as the cost of a ticket to Abuja is nearly thrice the minimum wage paid. We have not seen any increase in investment activities from the construction of the airport. And does the movement of about 18,000 passengers per annum justify spending tens of billions of naira on the airport and more billions on its annual maintenance whereas the remaining 2.5 million citizens have no access to even feeder roads? Is there equity of greatest happiness for the greatest number? Can someone tell us how much is the cost of running our airport every month?
Education and human capital development
Gombe state is abundantly blessed with intelligent people with an above average IQ who have distinguished themselves in scholarship in both qur’anic and modern education. The emergence of renowned institutions of learning like the Gombe Teachers College, Arabic Teachers College Gombe, Teachers College Kaltungo, Government Secondary School Billiri, Federal College of Education (Technical) and many others testifies to this fact. Gombe used to provide about 70% of the manpower of the former Bauchi State.
The sustenance of this leading position is not only desirable but a must if we as a people aspire to remain relevant in the scheme of things in this country. And we must also remember that it is one of the reasons that justified our agitation for a state. That’s why the establishment of the Gombe State University is a welcome development. But how is primary and secondary education faring in the state? What is the enrolment rate in primary schools? What is the distribution between boys and girls in primary and secondary schools?
With the relegation of the education sector by the Goje administration, the school cert performance has now dropped again to an all time low. This is the result of the lack of foresight of the administration in ensuring that candidates aspiring for admission into the university need a good foundation from the primary to secondary levels which are necessary if the university is to make any meaningful contribution to the state and its development, otherwise candidates from other states will be better prepared to gain admission in the university.
In fact some educationists have even argued that remedial and preliminary levels of tertiary education needed to be established first before the university can make the desired impact.
Human resource development
On human capital development, there’s nothing to show. Staffs of the state government are not receiving any further training and even the staff training centre, Kumo set up three years ago hasn’t taken off.
The civil service in the State which is the engine room of developmental initiatives has been bastardized so much so that the appointment of top level civil servants such as permanent secretaries, directors and so on have been reduced to mere political affiliation. The merit principle has been jettisoned as personnel without proper training and experience are being assigned sensitive offices. It is unfortunate that the labour unions in the state are helplessly watching these negative tendencies without raising an eyebrow.
Security of lives and property
The security of lives and property is the sole responsibility of the state and to confirm this, that’s why the state governor doubles as the chief security officer of the state. The security of lives of the people of Gombe State is not guaranteed considering the number of killings taking place daily, so much so that it is no longer news when a corpse is found on the street. Ironically, the perpetrators of these dastardly acts have never been apprehended, let alone punished.
We all read the articles written by elders such as the late Dr. Suleiman Kumo, former minister Mohammed Ibrahim Hassan, etc listing the number of people killed and warning that in its deliberate effort to silence so-called opponents, the state is encouraging mass murders of innocent citizens. A list of unsolved murders was at a point published and the state government did not even find it fit to respond, let alone try to stop the killings. Killers go in the name of ‘Kalare’, most of whom are known to be the governor’s boys. Recently, over one hundred of them were appointed Personal Assistants to the governor in preparation for the 2011 elections to deal with perceived opponents. Youths have been turned to armed thugs with the sole aim of winning elections by all means.
Accountability
Gombe state have never had it so good like in the past seven and a half years when Federal allocations were super high occasioned by high crude oil prices with excess crude proceeds being doled out to states with no anticipation or budgetary allocation. He went on a spending spree and spent about one Trillion naira over the period.
Figures of the Statutory Federal allocations, VAT, IGR, Excess Crude Account, Local Govt. allocations and others have shown that Governor J I Orji got a total of N2 billion, Governor Bawa got a total of N2 billion, Governor Hashidu got a total of N29 billion and Governor Goje got a total of N1 trillion.
The few projects undertaken by the Goje Administration do not account for the huge revenue earned within the period under review. The Government has to come out and tell the citizenry how it spent one trillion naira in seven and a half years.
And to add salt upon injury, the state government is warming up to raise a N20 billion Bond from the Nigerian capital market, thereby mortgaging the future of the state and that of the incoming administration.
We believe the sourcing of N20billion loan by the state at the end of an administration is unjustifiable and would be interpreted as a means of milking the state dry through the diversion of the funds to personal purses. The government should forget about it for now.
Hashidu wrote in from Ungwan Rimi, Kaduna