As I pointed out in one of my previous articles about Niger State, the state is one of those states that have every reason to forever regret entrusting their Mandate of Heaven in the hands of APC candidates during the 2015 general elections. The article titled: THE DEMOCRATIC CATASTROPHE IN NIGER STATE written in November, 2020, I made it clear that Nigerlites were still waiting for God’s favor after several years of Bello’s administration. There is no concrete project(s) on ground courtesy of governor Abubakar Sani Bello.
The greatest mistake any political party could make; is having incompetent, greedy and gluttonous wealth piler individual(s) mounting the leadership cadre and piloting its affairs.
In fact, it is very very bad for any political party to be experiencing leadership crisis in the eve of election period but very very worse to have inexperienced and fortune hunters like governor Sani Bello of Niger State to settle the crises.
I’m not in any way trying to be brusque for whatever reason but rather, I’m simply trying to be blunt in talking about the costly or grievous mistake APC is making or about to make as a leading political party in the country. Because there is no way any issue or crisis can be settled or resolved by a careless mind, nor a clueless leader.
THE HAPPENINGS IN NIGER:
I have been following the administration of governor Sani Bello since his assumption of office in 2015 as an elected Niger State governor under the APC. The governor (just like many others) secured the party’s ticket and was eventually elected courtesy of the zealous change that Nigerians and of course, Nigerlites were so much craving for.
As I pointed out in one of my previous articles about Niger State, the state is one of those states that have every reason to forever regret entrusting their Mandate of Heaven in the hands of APC candidates during the 2015 general elections. The article titled: THE DEMOCRATIC CATASTROPHE IN NIGER STATE written in November, 2020, I made it clear that Nigerlites were still waiting for God’s favor after several years of Bello’s administration. There is no concrete project(s) on ground courtesy of governor Abubakar Sani Bello.
“…for the present administration that took over in 2015, the people of the state are still waiting for miracles to happen as it has no tangible project(s) in place for the past five years it came to power.”
More than a year after the birth of the quote above, the Nigerlites are still waiting for the dividend of democracy to prevail in their state headed by Sani Bello. The abyss failure of his administration is too visible (also) to the blind.
As a matter of fact, the situation is getting worse day-in, day-out. Because currently, the local government workers (especially the primary school teachers) in the state are on strike for more than five weeks demanding for the payment of their salaries and this man does absolutely nothing about it.
The Niger State government was reported to have cut the salaries of the workers for several months without a single explanation for it. In fact, the state’s wing of Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) was at the verge of declaring industrial action against the government of Sani Bello as at the time of writing this article.
The letter sent by the Union to the ministry of Local Government, Community Development, Chieftaincy Affairs and Internal Security dated 9th March, 2022 and titled: “RE: NOTICE OF SEVEN DAYS WARNING STRIKE ACTION BY LGA WORKERS IN NIGER STATE,” the union vehemently rejected the payment of workers’ salaries on 70% basis, while appealing to the government to pay the February salary to workers on 100% basis without further delay.
I don’t necessarily want to go into matters of insecurity that have led to incessant attacks and killing of innocent people under the watch of Bello’s administration. However, dishearteningly, his administration has successfully given birth to insecurity in many parts of the state particularly in Mariga, Munyan, Edati, Rafi, Shiroro and recently, Lavun and Gbako local government areas. The insecurity in the affected areas has led to the threatening and the termination of innocent lives, as well as truncating socio-economic activities of the people in these communities.
And with all these doomed governance, ill-fated Infrastructural developments, maltreatment of state’s workers and obvious failure of Bello as a governor, APC sees no one at the national level to take the party to a promised land in less than one to the general election but governor Sani Bello of Niger State who cannot delivers his state from the shackles of nondevelopment for good seven years.
Shamelessly, he embraced the offer, got married to Abuja and neglected his primary duty as a state governor, while leaving the Nigerlites to swim in the mess he created (extreme poverty, insecurity and Infrastructural deficit).
On the 18th January, 2022, Bello addressed the public and told the state house correspondents at the Aso Villa that he has taken the mantle of leadership of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as the Acting National Chairman of the party.
“I am the acting chairman (caretaker) of APC and the governor of Niger State,” he told correspondents.
While he was busy making this unnecessary proclamation in Abuja, the kidnappers and bandits were also busy laying mayhem on the lives of those that voted him a governor in his state, while primary and secondary schools also remained closed as a result of teachers’ strike. His habitual act of abandoning his official duties as a Niger State governor, is compared to none in Nigeria. Surely, this is what reasonable governors like El-rufa’i can never do for whatever reason.
And surprisingly, the development of his emergence is not by election that anything is prone to happen in the process (good or bad) but by selection; yet, APC seems to see him as a savior. Well, only God knows the criteria for his selection. But obviously, having incapable Bello to preside over the affairs of the party at this critical time, is like shooting itself in the leg and this will sooner or later lead to its death and ultimately, final burial.
Mohammed Aliyu Baba
