For POSTERITY: AN OPEN LETTER TO MR PRESIDENT, DR GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN, GCFR. August, 26th, 2013, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Aso Villa, Abuja. Dear Mr President, YOBE STATE NEEDS A SPECIAL FEDERAL INTERVENTION I write to thank you and appreciate the efforts of the Federal Government in trying to address the nagging security challenges in our state. Sir, my letter is meant to serve two purposes. Firstly, to acknowledge and appreciate what your government has done so far in restoring security in the state and secondly, to appeal to you for what needs to be done to ameliorate the concomitant degenerative and debilitating consequences of the security challenges. Your Excellency, as a Senator representing Yobe North Senatorial District, I am, amongst other duties, saddled with the responsibility to work with Federal Government to ensure that the constitutional provision of section 14(2b), to ensure the security and welfare of our people, is realized. This becomes even more imperative when the situation in my state requires special attention of the Federal Government. This letter, therefore, is specifically and especially, to appeal to you to consolidate the gains of improvement in the security situation in Yobe State. Mr President, I am sure that you have read many reports of the DEVASTATION, DESTRUCTION, DISLOCATION and DYSFUNCTION of the lives of our people and public infrastructure in the last two years. I am equally sure that you saw and witnessed firsthand, the situation in Damaturu, the state capital, when you paid official visit to the state on March, 7, 2013. Sir, it is incontrovertible that the security situation in Yobe State has improved. We thank God and appreciate your intervention. However, we need to consolidate the gains made so far, for a return to NORMALCY of lives of our people. Your Excellency, before the declaration of the State of Emergency, on May, 14, 2013, the Yobe State Government had spent about Five Billion Naira (#5,000,000,000) in funding security operations that should have been shouldered by the Federal Government. Needless to add that these were funds that the State Government could have deployed in providing the much needed infrastructure and alleviation of poverty; which the administration of His Excellency, Governor Ibrahim Gaidam had started in earnest. Mr President, with the declaration of the State of Emergency, the Yobe State Government is still expending funds on security operations. Approximately, Two Hundred and Fifty Million (#250,000,000) is expended every month. This pattern of expenditure leaves the state government with very little resources for development. This vicious cycle of expenditure structure is dangerous and has the tendency to escalate and accentuate poverty amongst our people. Many experts and public policy analysts and commentators have attributed the current security situation in the country to poverty and I believe that the Federal Government should take those comments on board in formulating and determining public policy. Sir, within the last two years, many of our public infrastructures, especially, school buildings have been burnt down. Some of our markets were equally destroyed. The Potiskum cattle market was one of the biggest cattle markets in West Africa and used to be a reliable source of income to many Yobe and non-Yobe traders and a provider of internally generated revenue to the state government. That market is no more. The list is endless. Mr President, it is an open secret, that hundreds of lives were lost in the last few years as a result of security breaches. A new twist to the situation however, is that, many businesses, businessmen and businesswomen are relocating to neighbouring states. Reason? The business climate in the state is no more clement and conducive. Similarly, many parents are taking their children and wards to schools in the other states. Reason? Our schools have been burnt down. The Yobe State Government has been trying to rehabilitate and renovate the destroyed infrastructure. However, due to the massive scope and scale of devastation and paucity of resources, it will take a long time for total remediation. It is therefore, necessary for the Federal Government to intervene. Your Excellency, the Federal Government has stated that normalcy has returned to those states under the State of Emergency. Sir, the truth is that the security situation has definitely and significantly improved, but normalcy is yet to return to Yobe State. How can normalcy return, when most of our resources are going into funding security operations? How can normalcy return when our schools are ghost buildings? How can normalcy return when parents take their children to schools outside the state? How can normalcy return when our markets remain burnt down? How can normalcy return when our businessmen and businesswomen remain in diaspora? Mr President, you would recall that during the Town Hall Meeting in Damaturu, on your visit of March, 7, 2013, we appealed to you for a Special Federal Government intervention to rehabilitate our destroyed infrastructure and restore normalcy of life of our people, in keeping with shared responsibility of the Federal Government. This leads me to remark on the recent allocation of 220 trucks of grains and One Hundred and Fifty Million Naira (#150,000,000) cheque by the Federal Government to Yobe State. Sir, if that was an attempt to ameliorate the situation of the people who have suffered from the security situation, then it has failed. Your Excellency, as our President, I believe that you would want to see our situation improve substantially and sustainably. I also believe that the efforts of the Federal Government need to be comprehensive and properly structured and successfully delivered. The architecture for the delivery and disbursement of the Relief Materials through the Minister of State for Finance is strange, disturbing, flawed and counterproductive. I said it failed, because, the Relief Materials never got to most of the victims. I would have thought that such materials would be delivered through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and Yobe State Emergency Relief Agency (SERA). These statutory institutions have the mandate, capacity and wherewithal to undertake such missions. They did it successfully during the flood disaster of 2012. Why not now? Mr President, I am very concerned that this approach to handling of our situation appears to trivialize the suffering of our people and makes us despair of hope of any substantial and serious Federal Government intervention. Mr President, while I must thank you for the improvement in the security situation in Yobe State, I wish to add that, our situation still requires an articulate and concrete plan of action for rehabilitation and restoration for normalcy to return. I want to suggest that the Federal Government should create a framework that would ensure not only the availability of funds, but also the strategies for deployment of the resources. Sir, the Federal Government has more than what our people need and you have more than what it takes to give us solace. It is my fervent prayer and the hope of our people that this letter would serve the purpose for which it was written. Thank you Mr President May God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria Senator Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan, Ph.D, CON (Dan Masanin Bade) Yobe North Senatorial District
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 16:59:01 +0000
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