Borno’s weird mix of Hajj and N209m
When Daily Trust reporter in Maiduguri, Malam Isa Umar Gusau, exposed the large-scale fraud perpetrated by the Borno State government in collaboration with the 27 local government area councils over the 2009 Hajj operation, I didn’t for once gave any thought to the possibility that the complicit Chairmen of the councils would as much as […]
When Daily Trust reporter in Maiduguri, Malam Isa Umar Gusau, exposed the large-scale fraud perpetrated by the Borno State government in collaboration with the 27 local government area councils over the 2009 Hajj operation, I didn’t for once gave any thought to the possibility that the complicit Chairmen of the councils would as much as utter a word in reaction, not to talk of them having the audacity and shamelessness to come out openly to challenge the facts as expunged in the original report of Daily Trust’s investigation which stumbled on the meddlesomeness of Governor Ali Modu Sheriff in a needless financial recklessness in the name of sponsoring party thugs, prostitutes, idlers and holders of political offices and their relations to this year’s Hajj to Saudi Arabia. In the Report, it was proved that a total of N209 Million was wasted.
Governor Ali Sheriff is an interesting politician who has taken time to study the level of docility, the fear and the fatalistic mindset of the average Borno man. Having seen and understood the defeatist culture, he set out to totally conquer the political landscape by ensuring that any political office holder that gets elected is the type whose loyalty to him will be sacrosanct. To begin with, he made sure that 100% of these political office holders are paupers who will be entirely dependent on him and who would easily be threatened with impeachment or loss of jobs in order to ensure total loyalty. He refused to allow a level playing field for educated, courageous and independent-minded people in his weird belief that the poorer and spineless they are, the easier it will be to control them. That was how local government Chairmen and members of the house of Assembly emerged in the state. And that was how the governor was able to cajole the state legislature into passing some very curious anti-people self serving laws which invariably surrendered the whole resources of the local councils to the governor.
One of such laws is the local government joint development law, which is distinct from the local government joint account known to law. This law that has been in practice for upward of three years stipulates that all the local government councils in the state must surrender 100% of their excess crude allocation, as well as 20% of their statutory monthly allocation into the joint development account.
With the excess crude allocation totally surrendered and part of the monthly allocation gone, the local councils were technically left with so little after paying their monthly wage bills. The little that is left for them to render social services was equally taken away by another law which forbids any chairman from spending any amount from one to two million naira without the approval of the Governor. It is very usual to hear that some local government areas of Bono have zero allocation. Zero allocation here means that after all the above deductions; a local government is left with zero kobo. Right now, two former local government chairmen in Borno state are serving various jail terms after being convicted of fraud, while a number of others who mismanaged internally generated revenue and some other funds meant for special intervention programmes like immunizations have been docked and are expected to equally be gaoled.
It is therefore surprising to hear the Chairmen, who between them and God know that they are not truthful on the Hajj issue, coming out to exonerate the governor when indeed, he is culpable. These are the same chairmen that have on numerous occasions complained bitterly in private of how their resources are being siphoned by the state government using the instrumentality of the curious laws enacted by the state legislature, who themselves have been appropriated and captured to do the bidding of the governor even when they fully know that doing so was ungodly and not in the best interest of the government and people of Borno state.
Despite the fact that billions of naira have accrued to the councils over the past six and half years, no tangible development has been recorded in such areas. In fact there is no single local government where a single project of 50 million is on-going right now. There are ten local government areas in northern Borno which constitute Borno North senatorial zone. A total of about N60 Billion accrued to them in the past six years, but the area has remained largely inaccessible with about the lowest per capita income, with the lowest primary school intake, highest illiteracy and malnutrition level as well as highest level of vulnerability to diseases. No single project worth 50 million naira of any kind has been executed in any of the ten local government areas and local government chairmen from the disadvantaged area are signatory to an advertorial exonerating the governor from any blame for the underdevelopment of their areas. And this they do just to save themselves from being sidelined. Can anything be more irresponsible? But we know they will atone; they and their tin god would, in the fullness of time, account for their misdeeds, if not here on earth but surely in the hereafter.
Monguno wrote from Abuja, [email protected], 0705 767 9999.