Since the highly applauded communique issued by the Peoples’ Democratic Party Governors’ Forum (PDPGF) after their meeting in Enugu, a few disgruntled elements have resorted to name calling, undignified language and self-serving sycophancy, all in a vile and vain effort to discredit the Executive Governor of Bauchi State, Senator Bala Mohammed.
To these characters, Bala Mohammed’s crime is that, as chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, he was saddled with the responsibility of reading the communique which content, we must concede, he endorsed and still endorses without any reservations.
Among the reactions to the communique, the demand by one Malam Saadu Umar Chairman , for Bala Mohammed to guarantee that the forthcoming local government election in Bauchi State will be free and fair, is not only fair and reasonable, but legitimate. What is not in order is to rain insults on the Governor whose only crime was to have been part of a group of Governors that had legitimately asked for a level playing field in the Edo and Ondo States off season elections, without any insinuations one way or the other.
In an article in the online publication, Newsdiaryonline of July 20, 2024, Malam Saadu said, among other things, and I quote: “President Tinubu and his INEC are unlike Bala Mohammed who in October 2020, conducted the worst Local Government election ever in the history of Bauchi State. The good people of Bauchi State called it (a) Phantom Election”. Continuing in his diatribe, he said: “I personally experienced Bala Mohammed’s rape of election. I was the chairmanship candidate of the APC in Toro Local Government Area”.
As will be shown shortly, Malam Saadu and his cohorts deserve unreserved pity because, for them, things are just about to get from bad to worse. Assuming, without conceding, that the PDP candidate had employed some subterfuge to defeat Mallam Saadu at a time that the Administration was barely settling down, how does he or anybody associated with him expect to win at a time that the government has entrenched itself through the generous and even handed deployment of democracy dividends? What will the APC candidate brag with that will outshine the 29 kilometre road that Bala Mohammed built in Toro, the first ever?
Ignoring the uncouth language of Malam Saadu, a distinction he shares with a number of his APC co-travellers, we wish to state that neither the PDP nor the Bauchi State Government would have any reason to subvert the electoral process or the forthcoming local government elections. Only a government that is unsure of its performance or the integrity of the electoral umpire would resort to underhand measures to win an election. Neither the PDP nor the Government has any such reason.
To start with, let us remind Malam Saadu and the APC in Bauchi State that the landslide victory of the PDP in the last general elections could not have happened if the electorate had not been satisfied with the first term administration of Kaura. Their verdict was unequivocal: a landslide victory at the governorship and legislative elections. If that is not humbling enough, then the apologists of the APC in the state need to engage in some soul searching.
In the case of the forthcoming local government elections, let it be known that any campaign by PDP candidates is for mere formality because, over time, leading APC stalwarts have serially praised, endorsed and recommended the policies, programmes and projects of the state government. Only a few examples are needed to dismiss the unconvincing argument of belly-aching APC members like Malam Saadu.
In 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari bestowed on Bala Mohammed the award of excellence as the best Governor in Rural Infrastructure. Before that award, during the commissioning of the Bauchi Urban Water Project, Buhari had similarly applauded Bala Mohammed as a role model whose work ethic and commitment should be emulated by other leaders.
For the avoidance of any doubt, I wish to reproduce part of Buhari’s speech at that occasion as reported by the PUNCH newspaper in its edition of 20th May 2022, under the headline: Buhari inaugurates N23bn Bauchi Water Project: “I am happy to note that Bauchi State has executed the project creditably. I am not surprised by this accomplishment because the state governor personally pursued the project with vigour and determination through the allocation of resources and intervention to eliminate bottlenecks and challenges including even the COVID_19 which affected the project extension as well as paying attention to details. This is what leaders in the country should emulate from the governor of Bauchi State”.
In its own report of the event, the African Independent Television (AIT) had said: “Buhari also commended the governor, especially in the areas of executing various infrastructural projects, such as the inter-city and rural road projects, which are helping in shaping the outlook of the state”.
Fast forward to 2024 when Bala Mohammed was bestowed with the award of excellence as the best Governor in urban renewal by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Before that award, while commissioning the remodelled Bauchi State Government House, Vice President Kashim Shettima had paid glowing tribute to Bala Mohammed’s vision, tenacity and purpose.
Without over-flogging the matter, we are satisfied that the above awards by two APC-led Federal Administrations as well as the remarks by Vice President Kashim Shettima eloquently testify to the unprecedented developmental strides recorded by the Bala Mohammed Administration in Bauchi State. Facts do not lie: throughout at the length and breadth of the state, from local government to local government, from senatorial zone to senatorial zone, the footprints of the PDP-led state government are seen in the regular payment of salaries and pensions, substantial and sustained redemption of gratuities, the 323 primary healthcare centres that have facilitated access to healthcare, the over 1,500 kilometres of rural roads, over 5000 classrooms, improved school enrolment, new housing schemes in each of the emirate councils, and people empowerment schemes under the auspices of the Kaura Economic Empowerment Programme (KEEP).
In its second term, the Administration has intensified its urban renewal drive, a factor that could indeed provide the deciding moment in the forthcoming local government elections as virtually every part of the state is benefitting from the all-embracing urban renewal programme of the Administration. By embarking on the dualization of the five major roads linking Bauchi City with the five emirate councils in the state, the Administration has reinforced its reputation for running the most inclusive government ever produced by the state.
From the above, it is very easy to see why the Bauchi State chapter of the APC and serial losers like Malam Saadu have gone paranoid, throwing every canon of decency to the wind. Rather than the present wild goose chase, the party in the state should confront those internal monsters that plagued it before the last general elections and position itself as an effective opposition, the type that the PDP Governors provided in Enugu.
Finally, the APC should be reminded that nothing in Bala Mohammed’s antecedents barely suggests any anti-democratic tendencies. On the contrary, the records are clear on his unambiguous commitment to constitutionalism, diversity and inclusion. Neither does Bala Mohammed endorse a one-party state nor does he loath a virile or responsible opposition capable of providing constructive alternatives to public policy , united and strong enough to take over government should the electorate so decide. But certainly, not the calibre of opposition where Malam Saadu plays a prominent role or a party leadership that released that puerile, tendentious and hotch-potch of a document that, for all practical purposes, was only intended, as always, to hoodwink its gullible paymasters into believing that it is still working.
