Governor Bala Mohammed speaking with the press on Thursday at the Ramat House, Bauchi state
The Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed, has said that the President Muhammadu Buhari led Federal Government is best known for blame game rather than addressing the challenges it is facing.
Governor Mohammed made the assertion during an interview with journalists on Thursday at the Ramat House, Bauchi, after observing the two Rakat prayers at the Bakaro Eid Prayer Ground and the Sallah parade at the Palace of the Emir of Bauchi.
He also accused the Buhari administration of not fighting corruption as promised by his administration, while lamenting that there are people who get away with atrocities they commit.
The governor said: “I think the economy should be grown and I will not talk as an opposition but I think the federal government has lost the idea on how to grow the economy, they are just involved in a blame game. What they are best known for is blame game, always saying this and that”.
“They are not even fighting the corruption that they said they are fighting, there is more corruption. Perceptions are built that there are sacred cows, there are team gods in this country that cannot be touched.”
He aligned himself with the position of the Southern Governors, who recently claimed that President Buhari has been favouring a section of the country (the north) and clearly neglecting the south as reflected in his appointments since he assumed office.
“And if you are not fair and equitable in your administration, in your management, if there is nepotism, only one section is given positions in government; what the Southern governors said smack of some aspects of truth – where some people are given too much attention to the detriment of the other side”.
“What we know in this country, as a federalist, there is always a balance in terms of appointments of federal offices, in terms of appointments even at the local levels, because if you don’t practice fairness at the top, then you cannot get it at the lower level. And people will begin to think of self-actualization, self-determination, and so on”.
“And it will be felt negatively unless you show fairness and equity in the leadership of the country, we cannot grow the economy, perceptions will be built,” he opined.
Speaking on the achievements and challenges of his administration, the governor said that there are many challenges in the state because “WWe came at a time when the economy was down, whatever touches the federal government, touches the states, especially for states that are completely dependent on the federation account.”
He said that despite the challenges, his administration is doing a lot in addressing them, by trying to grow the microeconomic development in the state in order to have way for generating more Internally Generated Revenue to execute projects..
According to him: “Certainly, it is not good, during my period since I came in two years ago, we have not gotten any Paris Club, we have not gotten any budget support, we have not gotten anything from the federal government”.
“Yet, I am not blaming the federal government, they have done it before but it was mismanaged in the states. The Economic Sustainability Plan should involve the governors and local governments, not the federal officers that are using it as Federal Constituency Projects and the state governors are already out of it”.
“All the aspects of the implementation of this huge capital outlay is not taking cognizance of the need to involve the state governments, I think Mr. President should know this, so that at the end of the day, it will not just be creating some lifeline for some federal officers that are not really bringing the whole thing down to the people.”
