Alleged Misrule In Nasarawa: Governor Al-Makura Receives N217, 895,344,346.50 Billion In Five Years As Allocation, Yet Dearth of Infrastructure, Lack of Development Reigns Supreme In The State
Rabiu Omaku
When Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura assumed office as Nasarawa State, he was the cynosure of all eyes in the state; this is because he was seen as their messiah. However, current realities in State tend to show that Al-Makura after all is not the messiah, the State is waiting for.
The turn of events in the State in the area of, lack of good economy upliftment, dearth of social infrastructure and amenities, continuous workers’ strike, killings as the State of has become the hot bed of violence’s and insecurity, slashing of salaries by 50%, embarking on white bogus elephant projects that has little or no meaningful impact in the State.
However, in the light of the above listed scenarios facing the State, many citizens have been asking questions that are yet to be answered by the Government of the day, such questions as to where has the allocations received by the State in five years gone, what was it used for, the numerous loans collected by the State what did it do with it, the State Internally Generated Revenue why has it not been judiciously used, what about the so many intervention funds such as the Ecological funds, UBEC funds, Flood Disaster funds, and others of such, what happened to them.
Universalreporters247.com investigation reveals that the Governor since becoming on May 29th 2011, has received over N217 billion being federal allocation accrued to the State for a period of five years from June 2011 to April 2016.
However, in spite of receiving such amount, there is little or nothing to show for it. For instance there has not been any viable project executed and commissioned in the State by the Government of the day, this has continued to keep the citizens of the wondering and guessing where all the revenue accrued to the State has gone.
This medium vox populi carried out by this medium among the citizens of the State across various parts the Nasarawa state told this medium that they are disappointed with spate of things in the State under Governor Al-Makura, according to the State supposed to be one of the best states in the country in the area of revenue generation as well as revenue drive and also infrastructural growth owing to the fact that the State is close to the Nation’s capital, however, many citizens of the State are disenchanted that it is one of the most backward state across the federation, indeed that it remains one of the poorest in the North of Nigeria.
The people also accused the governor of alleged frivolities using state funds, as they hinted that, it is surprising to them that the man at the helm of affairs does not know what it means to priority of things that he will do, for instance the building of the now suspended cargo airport to them, they believe it was misplaced priority when the state lack needed infrastructures and amenities such roads, hospitals, good water supply system, lack of good school blocks among others.
Available record obtained by this medium indicates that the State comparative analysis of federation account allocation to the state and Internally Generated Revenue of the state in conjunction with salary for the year 2011 to 2016, shows that a total of N217,895,344,346.50 billion was accrued to Nasarawa state from the Federation Account Allocation to the state as monthly grant from June 2011-April 2016.
The document unfolded that in June -December 2011 Nasarawa state got N30,193,871,391.99 billion, while in 2012 a total sum of N43,201,960,081.22 billion was accrued to the state from the Federation Account Allocation, and in 2013 the sum of N50,677,358,114.73 billion was accrued to the state while N47,992,291,191.93 billion was allocated to Nasarawa state in 2014,and in 2015 N36,954,379,088.94 billion while N8,965,684,478.56 billion was accrued to the state in 2016 from January to April, all these amount totaled together summed up to N217, 895, 344.50 billion
According to this paper’s findings, a total of N125, 172,198,720.60 billion was expended as salaries of civil servants at the state level; the breakdown of the salaries per each year shows that in 2011 it spent N12, 529,779,684.60 billion, while in 2012 salaries of civil servants gulped N24,763,765,295.92 billion, also in 2013 it was N24,179,652,353.25 billion, in 2014 the salary wage for that year is N24,216,632,684.32 billion, in 2015 it spent a total of N23,563,018,888.26 billion and in this 2016 from January to April it has spent a total of N5,883,249,814.25billion.
Meanwhile this medium gathered that after the payment of the salaries, the state had a balance of N153,590,084,092.03 billion in the five year period from 2011-2016. The breakdown shows that the Balance of 2011 Allocation is N19, 139,577,007.39 billion, in 2012 balance of Allocation-is N22, 230,440,566.90 billion, also in 2013 the state got a balance of -N41,014,169,602.52 billion, in 2014 the balance of Allocation amounted to N33,906,699,433.32 billion, while in 2015 and 2016 between January to April, the balance of allocations are N22,516,127,667.01 billion and N14,783,069,814.99 billion respectively.
In 2011 the state got N30,193,871,391.99bn as allocation from June to December,N12,520,779,684.60 was expended as six months salaries with a balance of N19,139,577,007.39bn while in 2012,Nasarawa state got an allocation of N43,201,960,081.22bn in 2012 and succeeded in settling N24,763,765,295.92 as annual wage bill of state civil servants with a balance of N22,230,440,566.90 while in 2013-N50,677,358,114.73bn was accrued to the state from FAAC and N24,179,652,353.25 was spend as salaries with a remaining balance of N41,014,169,602.52.
Document at our disposal also stated that the state realized the sum of N21, 820,708,151.21 billion as it Internally Generated Revenue from 2011-2016. The state got a total of N1,466,485,000.00 billion in 2011 as Internally Generated Revenue while in 2012 the Internally Generated Revenue amounted to N3,792,245,781.53 billion. Then in 2013 the State got from its internally Generated Revenue the total of N4, 516,463,841.48 billion. More so it got N5, 176,040,925.59 billion in 2014 as its Internally Generated Revenue, while in 2015 it got N5,168,717,471.33 billion and from January to April 2016 it has realized the sum of N1,700,635,151.28 billion.
In the area of loans collected by Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, records available to this medium indicates that the Governor collected has collected the sum of N28,956,050,000.00 billion as loan since 2011 to 2016, the records of loan taken show that in July 2013 the governor collected a loan of N10,000,000,000.00 billion while in January, 2014,Umaru Tanko Al-Makura accessed N5,000,000,000.00 billion and in October,2015 another N3,956,050,000.00 billion was collected by the state government, while in March,2016 N10,000,000,000.00 billion bringing the loan to a total sum of N28,956,050,000.00.
In the documents obtained by this medium, for instance under heading; “ALLOWANCES FOR THE MONTH OF MARCH,2016” shows that there are some discrepancies on how funds were spent, as there was no clarity and in some cases some expenditures are questionable. This medium saw that under that heading, for instance there monthly imprest to Gidan Bege orphanage home to the tune of N100,000, also there were fund for the maintenance of Nasarawa state orphanage /childrens home which is to the tune of N298,500.00 and there were also monthly allocation to cripple Association amounting to N100,000, monthly allocation to Deaf Association also N100,000, monthly allocation to lepers Association was also N100,000 and monthly allocation to blind Association also N100,000, but the curious thing about this, there were no specification where these funds came from, in the normal way the funds supposed to have come from the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, however, the question remains this, if it came from Ministry of women Affairs and Social Development, where was it not specified as supposed.
Curiously, it is expected the Governor uses its security vote for issues pertaining to security in the State, but in the document seen by this medium, it was visible that some funds that were given inform of imprest and assistance to security agencies, for instance Monthly imprest were given Nasarawa state Police Command to the tune of N9,179,340.00, as well Assistance to operation flush out to the tune of N9,841,900.00, assistance to DSS to the tune of N3,000,000 and assistance to Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corp N500,000.00, as well as Monthly financial support to FRSC to tune of N500,000, but rather than taking fund from security vote, it is imperative that the fund never came from the Security vote but from a different source which were not specified.
Under the same heading, curiously money was mapped out for maintenance of fire fighting vehicles which is amounted to N224,000.00 but with stating whether it from the Nasarawa State Fire service purse or not, however it appeared under the same heading allowance for the month of March, 2016, the same applies to the sum of N500,000.00 that was stated in the documents that it was given to the Nigeria Television Authority, Lafia without mentioning what the money was for and from where the money was sourced.
In another curious act, there was the monthly allocation for production of monthly salary and pension payment vouchers in the state public service which is to the tune of N1,200,000.00, a fund that supposed to come from the Ministry of Finance but it is found under the same bogus heading allowances for the month of March 2016.
Other payment that appeared under the same heading, include Monthly upkeep and administration of presidential lodge, Lafia to the tune of N1,450,000.00, Precious F.M Lafia (monthly requirement for the operation of mobile courts for the enforcement of environmental and town planning laws in Nasarawa state amounting to N200,000.00, while SSG’s (funds for inducement allowance of security personnel serving in Government House and other Government premises for the month of march,2016 N2,044,000.00, Other curious allocation under a curious heading are SSG’s (monthly allowance to Nasarawa State Youth Empowerment Scheme (NAYES) amounting to N15,000,000.00 and also SSG’s (2nd quater imprest to Nasarawa State liaison office, Abuja which is to the tune of N6,750,000.00.
Aside this curious payment, this medium also learnt that having collected N153,590,084,092.03 billion which the balance of allocations from 2011-2016, as well as N21,820,708,151.21 which is the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR. Other funds collected include N28 billion from Banks, N400 million for the 2012 flood disaster intervention, there is also N4, 146,193,750.36 billion which disbursed by Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, among others.
However findings by this medium reveals that there has dearth of infrastructure in the state, though the the State Government may have taken care of roads in Lafia metropolis, but not much has been done in other local government areas, for instance in Karu local government and environs, its residents laments over the deplorable conditions of the roads connecting the area to the major highway, the Abuja-Keffi road.
For instance in March 2016, Amba Elite’s Forum in Nasarawa state decried the deplorable roads and dilapidated infrastructures littering communities in the state.
The forum in their statement said; “The dearth of infrastructural facilities in our area has hindered our agricultural, economic and social activities and even affected our standard of living negatively, hence the need for the appeal.
“There is the need for the state government to construct Garaku-Gurku-Dari-Amba-Bassa road and to also look into the dilapidated nature of our schools, and the nature of facilities at our primary healthcare clinics so as to boost our standard of living.
“To be sincere, our community lacks the basic social amenities such as good roads, quality healthcare, electricity and pipe borne water, among others; these are facilities that make a community, a state and a country to develop.
“If the state government comes to our aid through the provision of these facilities, it will not only reduce our suffering but will also ensure speedy development to the community as well as reducing youth restiveness, poverty and will improve on the standard of living of the people,’’ he said.
In the health sector, the state government also voted colossal amount of money to the tune of N406.1million for the construction, upgrading and equipping of general hospitals in the state, the in spite of the large numbers of general hospitals and primary healthcare majority of communities lack access to public health facilities.
This medium’s findings revealed that majority of the hospitals are either abandoned, or not anywhere near completion.
These are the status of these hospitals, modern hospital in Lafia-N104.1m (abandoned), construction of modern hospital in Akwanga-N97.4m (abandoned) and construction of modern hospital in Nasarawa Local Government-N75.4m, also abandoned.
In the area of Water supply in the state, they government has stated that the water issue has gulped about N200.6m, but there is little or no water in the State as the citizens of the State are living under the mercy of water vendors, for instance the rehabilitation of Nasarawa water works, which the State said it gulped N100.00 million is now dormant.
Also the rehabilitation of Akwanga /Keffi water scheme is also dormant, as nothing is there to show that work is ongoing.
In the Education sector, despite the huge amount of money voted for the education sector little has been achieved by the state government, the renaissance of schools in the state under governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura is alleged to just a mere gimmick, as over 25,000 young people especially pupils and students are out of school following the outbreak of communal violence in the state while vast of the schools destroyed during the 2012 flood disaster are yet to be renovated or rehabilitated.
This is as this medium also learnt, that even with the N400 million dole out by the federal government to mitigate the effect of flood disaster in the State, majority of schools remain a safe haven for reptiles and rodents as primary and junior secondary schools are in dire needs of classrooms and furnitures.
Al-Makura awarded contract for the procurement of desk/chairs to the tune of N1.09bn to Nasarawa state Vocational and Relevant Technology Board, but this medium learnt that the contract was hijacked by Nasarawa State Universal Basic Education Board (NSUBEB), this is as this medium learnt that NSUBEB were only able to supply 35% out of 100% of the desk and chairs even two years after hijacking the contract, the furniture universalreporters247.com learnt are meant for onward distribution to junior secondary and primary schools.
Universalreporters247.com investigation revealed that the N4.1bn accessed by Nsubeb did not commesurate with the number of existing schools mostly Ta’al model schools constructed under governor Al-Makura.Fresh fact emerges that the committee set to investigation the complaints presented by some communities over shabby Ta’al is yet to submit it report.
A competent source told this medium that the committee discovered that ten Ta’al model school allegedly are phantom projects, which over 70% are allegedly not in existence, even as universalrporters247.com gathered that the cost for the building of the schools stands at the rate of N10m each, but the schools only exist in names, this medium learnt that that about ten storey building of Ta’al model schools would be demolished due to substandard structures, even as further revelation uncovered that N7.3 billion naira has been accessed by Nasarawa state from 2015 to date from UBEC.
This medium findings also showed that the Al-Makura led-administration got the sum of N400 million in 2012 to cushion the effect of flood disaster that wreaked havoc to public schools, roads, buildings, worship places and amongst others, it was reliably gathered that N50 million out of the N400 million was used by the committee for the mitigation of flood disaster set up by the state governor, it is on record that the said amount of N50 million was used for the procurement of operational vehicles while part of the money was used to compensate victims of the disaster.
Is no longer news that the Internally Displaced Persons were given either N3000-N2000 while others are given blankets, mats, plastic cups and plastic bucket, meanwhile information available to this medium indicates that the remaining balance of N350m was used for the procurement of relief material to IDP’s of the communal conflict that ravaged the state.
