Preserving the honour and integrity of Yar’adua
In the three years of Yar’adua administration, Dr Abba Sayyadi Ruma was Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources. Despite the fact that Ruma knows that the Northern region from where he hails from is an agrarian society, yet he did little to improve agriculture sector and solve perennial water problem confronting his people. One of […]
In the three years of Yar’adua administration, Dr Abba Sayyadi Ruma was Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources. Despite the fact that Ruma knows that the Northern region from where he hails from is an agrarian society, yet he did little to improve agriculture sector and solve perennial water problem confronting his people. One of the major federal government projects that is of importance to the economic growth of Katsina state is Zobe dam.
The project has been abandoned by successive governments over a period of more than 20 years. If the project had been completed, it would not have only ameliorated the water shortage affecting most part of the state, but it would have also provided job opportunities for many.
However, towards the end of President Obasanjo administration, due to persistent pressure mounted on the former President by eminent personalities from the state, the contract for the completion of the dam project was awarded at the cost of N7 billion. The government reportedly released N3 billion to the contractor handling the project. But the project was halted during the Yar’adua era without any cogent explanation.
The pathetic story is that throughout the tenure of Dr Ruma as a minister, Zobe dam project was not included in the federal government budget. Again, grain silo project in Dutsin-ma, Katsina State was awarded at the cost of N4.6 billion. Despite this colossal amount of money, nothing is going on at the site of the project.
Another Katsina indigene that benefitted from the Yar’adua administration was Alhaji Tanimu Yakubu who was the Chief Economic Adviser to the President for three years. Yet there was nothing to show as his contribution towards the economic development of Katsina State.
The unfortunate thing is that in spite of the fact that he did not contribute much to the upliftment of Katsina State when he was federal minister, we learnt that one of them, Ruma, has a gubernatorial ambition in Katsina State. What was the impact of huge sum released from the National Resources Development Fund Account to fund direct importation of 500,000 metric tones of rice on Katsina State? Nigerian farmers are labouring under heavy burden of poor finance, lack of farm equipments and training. It is the same with the issue of tractor hiring scheme that is designed to boost the commercial and mechanized farming in the country. About 10,000 new tractors were said to have been purchased. The question is where are the tractors?
The Managing Director of Power Holding Company of Nigeria also hails from Katsina State, but information from the state shows that electricity supply in Katsina state nose-dived from bad to worst in the last three years. These are the people claiming to be protecting and defending Yar’adua legacies.
Since the President’s death was announced, the series of paid advertorial in the national newspapers under the auspices of friends of Umaru Musa Yar’adua have stopped. Although, they claimed to be friends of Umaru, sponsoring series of attack against the government, they are faceless individual whose identities remain unknown to the public. Friends that cannot be identified with you during the hours of need are nothing but fake friends. They are not true friends of Umaru as they call themselves. They have betrayed Yar’adua’s confidence in them while alive. Also, they have mortgaged the progress and development of their society despite the enormous resources at their disposal due to greed and self-centeredness.
Another Katsina indigene in this mould is the Executive Secretary of Petroleum Trust Development Fund Engineer Muttaka Rabe. We learnt that in the last one year, he is also nursing the ambition of becoming the state governor. The people of Katsina should not be deceived by the handout that he gives to the peasants whom he is courting so that he can be voted into the number one position. They should ask him what he has done for the state since he was made the PTDF Executive Secretary.
The circumstances surrounding the death of President Yar’adua may not be probed, but the people of the state should begin to ask those who benefitted from the Yar’adua administration the vital question: What did they do for the people of the state when they controlled huge federal funds at the centre in Abuja? This is the only and best way to preserve the honour and integrity of Yar’adua.
Aina contributed this piece from Wuse in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).