Mukhtar Muhammad Mk
The government of Bauchi state under Governor Bala Muhammad Abdulkadir had made more than 150 false or misleading claims since emerging the winner of March 2019 governorship elections, an average of roughly One per day. What’s even more remarkable about Bala and his government is that their lies aren’t even very creative, plausible, or hard to expose: They lies even when the lie is patently absurd and easy to expose. They misrepresent themselves, others and situations, often for their own personal ends.
The government, which was perceived as an “Ark of Noah” by the gullible citizens of the state, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests and masters deceit. The government has become corrupt and filled with liars who flock out the one who tells the truth. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.
The latest and biggest whopper is the bizarre claim that over 40,000 (41%) of the Bauchi state’s workforce are ghost workers. According to our self-absorbed and truth-challenged government, all the 40,000 ghost workers receives salary without a valid Bank Verification Number (BVN).
Education they say is the key to the future, for every administration that wants to leave any legacy, education most be its priority. In Bauchi, the government does not exclude education in its series of deceit. Recently, the state’s ministry of education requested the university applicants who sat for JAMB and meet the requirements of the universities to summit their credentials to the ministry, at the time when the WAEC result of state’s public schools is being held by the exam body because government did not pay the registration fees. And just yesterday, the governor claimed that his government has spent 10.8 billion naira in education. Even the most untutored of laymen knows that the government is just deceiving them.
This is the government that has continued to tell us that the salary emoluments has been rising from 5.2bn in May 2019, to 6bn in July and 7bn in September without employing a single person despite canceling all late appointments, promotions and transfer of service made by the former governor in the last days of his adminstration.
At the early life of government, they told us that the former governor left an empty treasury for them. They later came to tell us they blocked former governor’s attempt to withdraw over 10bn Naira from the state’s treasury. If the governor’s spokesman could lie so fluently, I see nothing surprising at the current frehet of lies. For those still in doubt, the spokesman has continue to serve in a more powerful portfolio and has acquired more influence and power.
During the 2019 governorship elections campaigns, the opposition party (PDP) and its candidate Senator Bala Muhammad Abdulkadir made unrealistic promises including creating thousands of jobs to unemployed, and giving them political appointments to take part in governance, even without a clear picture of how the issue of capacity building would be adequately addressed. Those youth who innocuously built their hopes on this promises turned out to be the most disruptive during elections because they erroneously saw any contrary position as one working against their destiny. It has become clear now that they were deceived because may of them did not have the capacity to understand that those promises we’re not supported by prevailing realities.
When Governor Bala was sworn in on 29th May, 2019, he promised settle gratuities of retirees, employ teachers, employ doctors and build infrastructure within his first 100 days in office. Most people of Bauchi believed him because he said he was going to do all that was necessary to achieve the feat. He even hinted that the credibility of his administration should be hinged on the fulfillment of that fact which he freely made. After 100 days gone, there is no indication that the governor has kept faith. Nonetheless, the agents of government came out with straight faces to tell us that the government is keeping its promises as if Bauchi citizens needs to be educated on what deceit is. And while maintaining that there’s no enough funds to run the state, the government forgets that it purchased luxury vehicles to 31 members of Bauchi State house of assembly at the price over one billion naira. That is the nature of this government. It is public knowledge that politicians all over the world lie, but the kind of lies our politicians tell are cheap and infra dig.
As it stands now, Bauchi state the Governor of Bauchi State has returned with the same old PDP problems. The state is retrogressing and when concerned citizens criticizes the situation, incurable optimists quickly dismiss their view and come up with the same old, tired, worn out excuses and reasons, which we’re already familiar with. Most of them implore more lies to defend deceit with the aim of convincing the people of Bauchi that the current government has kept the pact of delivering good governance. Let them take their governor to Borno if they want him to understand what good governance means.
The obvious fear is that given the administration’s proven deceit, neither allies nor adversaries would believe a word the governor said. As a result, Bauchi’s record of benefitting from favorable agreements with others—and especially deals that might involve some degree of trust—would be critically impaired.
Mukhtar Muhammad Mk writes from Bauchi.
