In Bauchi, There Must Be A Logical Leap!

There is no doubt about the abundant potentials existent across the plains and beneath soils of our most revered home state of Bauchi. Also, one cannot dispute the historic preponderance of a unique league of distinguished leaders, living and dead, that hail from this sahelian savannah gold mine - Bauchi. However, in plain truth, the state is evidently lacking in a genuine and promising focal thrust centered upon the development of the land’s own potentials and unlocking the vast mastery of various crafts and works endowed in its people. In the last 14 years since the return to civil rule, Bauchi state has hardly prospered in commensurate terms with the amount of time that has passed, sums of money that have accrued and the volume of energy contributed by indigenes towards the preservation of electoral rights. Yes, some appreciable but yet, foundational level of progress was undoubtedly recorded from 1999 to 2007, especially in terms of infrastructural development, extending to various local government areas far away from the state capital, but in specific terms, the performances of the state government in the last 6 years can only be described to be stubbornly impervious to common sense. The history of the current administration’s ascension to power is filled with lines of uncommon doggedness and ceaseless confrontation of the status quo by the people. The people of Bauchi developed an impermeable political arsenal, ousting all that had an 'umbrella-like' inscription from the political landscape of the state, ushering in what we all believed to be the people’s own leadership. We all believed it to lead the birth of a platform for optimizing our agrarian potentials, building the inherent educational and innovative potentials of our populace, ethically overhauling a largely ineffective state public service and institutionalizing an aggressive infrastructure and critical commerce base policy thrust. Today’s testimonies of what we have witnessed in the last 6 years, only amplify a massive erosion of our trust, mandate and wealth. The people of Bauchi feel a sore sting of unprecedented betrayal.
The unwavering belief of the people in the will expressed through the ballot box was dampened by an uncultured reversion to a system worse than the one which the people fought vehemently against. The massive and still piling debt profile despite the sudden multiplier of our fiscal inflow from mainly, the federation account; the enormous loss of productivity and revenue to the growing unemployment levels and inadequate exploration of the state’s vast potentials are a horribly damaging statistic. The pervasive rot in the public service and the growing lethargy on the part of political office holders explain the resultant crass mediocrity in the name of governance. Summarily, we are on a drift! However, a major lesson is to be learnt from our emotional leap, heaping a state wide trust in a people out of sheer sympathy to a perceived wrong meted on to them. Our collective emotional politics of 2007, in the absence of a clear blueprint for success has cost us many years of agony; a sort of indolence that would take many years to be unshackled. Our people have grown ever more disillusioned in the scheme of things and, rather than gathering positive venom to fight a dysfunctional system, we have resorted to either joining the bandwagon as a medium to quickly fill empty bellies or becoming indifferent to the whole charade at the detriment of our innocent infants, vibrant youth and sickly old. Therefore, It is imperative on us to agree to come together to chart, yet, another course that will arrest the current scourge, emancipate the entire societal survival and advancement mechanisms, and promote the inherent ingenuity of our people. Some of us may still be wary from the most recent trial which was thwarted by coercion and even a curfew on Election Day; However, that kind of resultant deterrence is not for the courageous people of these torrid times. We must, therefore, agree to collectively reinforce our resolve to continue to fight the entrenched anti people system that has stopped at nothing to undermine our sensibilities. In this resolve against the interest of those evil forces, we are certainly not oblivious of the fact that; while we are charting practicable courses, they will continue to implore dubious punctures; while we are drawing practicable road maps, they will intensify theft patterns; while we dialogue with our people, they will stuff numerous moneybags; while we preach rancour free politics, they will scavenge for disoriented youth to recruit into thuggery and; while we continue to lament and be pained by their apparent insensitivity, they will continue to lobby their way into the next available position of power. But here, the difference between our thoughts and stand and that of the status quo resides mainly in our acceptance of our people as the owners of our mandate, while theirs is of the people as tools of perpetual servitude. Ours must triumph! People of Bauchi have learnt the painful lesson of the emotional leap of 2007 for; it has become clear that, sympathy alone must not be a reason to collectively join the yearnings of a course. We must understand the intended destination of a leadership project and trust its ideals before we coalesce to support it. We must demand interactive engagements with those who aspire to lead us across our communities at all levels and must be privy to every details of their antecedents if only, to avoid falling into the traps of those of them that will cash in on the induced misery of our poverty stricken populace through the deployment of questionable and or ill gotten wealth. We must also continue to stand collectively for a proven style to attain a promising futuristic progressive society. Indeed, the people of Bauchi must have grown wiser and more vigilant. Therefore, We should, by now, start developing virile antidotes to deceits and deliberate lethargy. We must also strive in our political stead, to take a high logical leap, one defined by an all-inclusive clear plan of action and deep seated interests and positive progress of our people. TOGETHER WE CAN! Habu Mamman Director General