A serving member of the House of Representatives representing Misau/Dambam Federal Constituency, of Bauchi State, Honourable Ahmed Yerima, has declared that the All Progressive Congress, APC, would lose Bauchi State should elections be conducted in 2019 because of the arrogance of the State Governor.
Ahmed, an APC Lawmaker stated this over the weekend in Bauchi while accusing the Governor of the State, Mohammed Abubakar, of running an exclusive government.
He said the Governor of being insensitive to the protest by civil servants, teachers, pensioners and local government staff over verification and non-payment of salaries and pensions.
“People came this morning and staged protest to government house which I am a living witness. This is a bad signal to the APC government in the country especially in the states where people are running government as a personal institution
“Where government is no longer a government of inclusive but exclusive. A government where people have no voice, a government of one man show, so we are about to confront this type of situation but I don’t think we in the APC will allow government to be running this way, whether they like it or not they have to change it and get the proper position of accountability and responsibilities where the voice of the stakeholders of APC, the voice of reason. If they refuse people will revolt against us”, Hon Yerima said.
According to him, “we have to look at it from human factor, we have to understand that people need to be respected and policies of this government totally neglected the people. This government is arrogant and lack of public consent is the driving force that made the government unpopular”.
Yerima pointed out that those people that staged the protest or showed their anger are not just an opposition of certain individuals but opposition against injustice.
“Lack of fairness, equity and justice. There are people who worked for this country for over 35 years and above and have been receiving their pensions over those years but unfortunately since the inception of this administration they have been unable to access their pensions. They include local government staff , state government staff and teachers who could not receive their salaries and benefits but apparently for them, what the government of Bauchi State talk about is verification, verification.
“About two years ago, the Yuguda Administration did a similar thing. For the past five months, series of unproductive verification have started again”, he lamented.
He stressed that if the governor had any good reason to embark on verification, he should emulate Yobe or Kaduna States where there is ongoing verification but salaries were not stopped.
The Bauchi Rep reiterated that APC will not win Bauchi State governorship election with the current happenings in the state.
“If there is going to be election of governorship in the state, I don’t think if APC government will win with the current situation. First of all, there is absence of relationship between principal stakeholders and the government, those that spent their times and resources and everything to ensure the emergence of APC. But they have no relevance in this government, they cannot advice the government they cannot voice out their opinion, total bickering between different groups just because they condemned the entire system, there is bad blood between the government and the governed”.
“There is total crisis and chaos. The government is facing a real challenge and APC is in serious crisis because of the way they are ruling the state, poor running of party, poor system of relationship with principle stakeholders and government’, he said
He charged the governor to be available to people and operate an open door policy that will touch the lives of people.
“Because the governor has no direct contact with people, he should understand he is vulnerable, we can’t go against the wish of the people, pay salaries, pension, run an inclusive government and policies that meet the objectives of people” he said .
In a swift response, the Publicity Secretary of All Progressive Congress in Bauchi, Alhaji Auwal Ali Jallaý, dismissed the accusation saying “It is unfortunate that a genuine APC member could utter this statement against the APC leadership and the present administration in the state”.
Jalla said “It is the Hon Member, Ahmed whose people from his constituency and the party leadership don’t have access to. It is just a case of pot calling kettle black”.
Source:pointblanknews.com
