The member representing Dass Constituency in the Bauchi State House of
Assembly, Maryam Bagel, has condemned what she described as Governor Mohammed Abubakar’s ultrances against
President Muhammadu Buhari over the Paris Club funds.
Bagel, who is the only female lawmaker in the Bauchi State
House of Assembly (BAHA), made the condemnation while speaking under personal
explanation on the floor of the House during a plenary session on
Tuesday, presided over by the Speaker, Kawuwa Shehu Damina.
It would be recalled that while addressing journalists in Abuja after the meeting, Governor Abubakar was quoted to have said: “Don’t forget, this is money that belongs to us. We are not begging
for anything, but demanding what belongs to us and that it should be
paid to us.”
Bagel, however, lamented that it was not the first time the governor would make such “unguarded
and reckless comments against the person of the President.”
“The governor last week mentioned in an interview in regard to the Paris Club funds in which President Buhari cautioned against lack of
utilisation by certain governors.
“It was a great concern to me because it wasn’t the first time that he has been found to be saying similar things against the president.
“For instance, in July 1, 2015, two months after he came to office,
the President promised bailout and the governor was reported on radio during one of the Jummat mosque in Bauchi, that the president had not
given him a kobo, so all this issue of bail out he (Governor Abubakar)
wasn’t given money.
“Less than a month after Governor Abubakar was also reported in the newspapers where he said that the bailout was just a mirage, that the
federal government wants to do it but did not have the money to do it.
“That time I felt it wasn’t good for him to say that because the
bailout actually came and he didn’t come out to say it wasn’t a
mirage, and how it was utilised many people in Bauchi State are
questioning it,” she said.
Bagel said that the governor’s latest utterance on the Paris Club fund was embarrassing.
“He is not the only governor in that meeting and I don’t think he is the spokesman of the governors so why would he be the only governor to talk against the president?
“The President has done so much for the Northeast. The issue of
insurgency, he tackled it. He has given us so much in Bauchi State and Bauchi is always taken to be the second home of the president.
“Instead of our governor to appreciate what the president has done, it saddens me to see our governor being the first to castigate the president in such manner and I feel he should be
called to order.
“I think the House should caution the governor to work towards bringing development to the state, to perform his executive duties.
“You know for over four months now there are no commissioners, so let him do what he is supposed to do to develop the state and stop embarrassing the state by being the first among 36 governors to
respond negatively in the issues concerning the president,” Bagel said.
(nigerianewsflight.com)
