‘IT’S CURIOUS INSURGENTS ATTACK ONLY APC STATES’ Category: Inside politics Published on Tuesday, 11 March 2014 05:01 Written by Musa Abdullahi Krishi & Ibrahim Kabiru Sule Hits: 948 Salisu Ado Daura represents Daura/ Mai’Adua/Sandamu Federal Constituency of Katsina State in the House of Representatives. He speaks on challenges before the APC and the politics affecting his area. Recently, the leadership of APC gave an order concerning stalling the budget. Considering the fact that this concerns national interest, do you support it? When people talk about that instruction from the party, they bring sentiment into it. But you can agree that many things were happening particularly that time when APC gave that instruction, particularly in Rivers state. Everybody was aware of what was happening. There were reasons that precipitated the delay of the budget at that time, because there were requirements that should be fulfilled when the budget is brought to the House. And those requirements were not fulfilled, specifically when it has to do with budget of government parastatals like EFCC, CBN and those that needed to accompany the budget, because they are not in the federal government budget. They were not submitted. So that reason was used to delay the budget. We all know what happened in 2011 how CPC lost election in Katsina, do you think those crises could be resolved before 2015 election? I am sure everybody knows. CPC could have captured Katsina State in 2011. But of course, there were events that took place where some disgruntled members made the party to lose the state. But I believe that, once beaten, twice shy. So we won’t allow it happen again. I am very hopeful that this time around Katsina belongs to APC by the grace of Allah. Are you worried by the security challenges in the Northeast, and how do you think it could be tackled? You see I am more than worried. And I think everybody should be more than worried. This is a government that keeps on saying it is on top of the situation, they are doing ABCD, but they are not doing anything. Honestly they are not, as far as I am concerned, the government of the day is not capable. That is the truth. Since the government is not capable, the only solution is to have change of government. Borno State governor said the insurgents are better equipped than our army. Do you agree? He is more than right. To me he is more than right, because these things are happening under his nose, under his watch. What have we achieved so far? Is it not recently they slaughtered schoolchildren? So the government is not capable. When the governor said Nigeria is at war, of course that is true. Katsina is a border town how is it that it has been peaceful? I don’t know. Sometimes it beats my imagination, when you look at all the set up, Borno State is APC, Yobe State APC, Adamawa State APC, Katsina is PDP may be that is why, honestly. See what happened in Nassarawa, the Ombatse thing. See Rivers APC. When you put two and two together, if don’t get four, you’ll get very close to four. Honestly, it is very painful. What is happening in Borno is clear indication that the government has failed. What can you say are the major or highlights of your contribution in the House? As you know debates take place in the House on motions, bills and on a number of issues. But don’t forget we are 360 in number, so of course it is not always that one finds opportunity to talk, but when you get that opportunity, you talk in that aspect. Then of course, there is also the committee levels. On the issue of what I have done to the constituency, I can say I added a big value. By the grace of God, I can say I am a bit lucky, because most of my projects have been executed. May be I have to mention some, when you take the education sector for instance, the very first program I run when I started, I realised there are many secondary school dropouts in my constituency, roaming the streets, they don’t have the qualifications to proceed to higher schools and you know what that breeds in the community. You find delinquency on the increase. When I realised that I started thinking how to assist such constituents. I now decided to run a program and called on all drop outs who are interested to come and register their names. I got a register of register of over 2000 secondary dropouts. I now organised four months trainings for them. I got about 70 teachers and I run that program simultaneously in the three local governments of my constituency. About 70 teachers of various subjects trained them for four months. At the end of it, of course, there were dropouts. Finally, 1,100 sat for the final test. I bought free WAEC forms for all of them. They sat and got highly good results. So that was the first exercise I undertook. Now for projects, in 2012 I got about five classroom blocks, which we built and completed. In 2013, last year, there were seven or eight classrooms. In fact, just recently I went and handed over five of them in the Islamiyya schools. And there were two others, about seven class rooms. Overall, so far, I have built about 14 classroom blocks. And there are two or three under construction now, so I am hopeful before the end of my tenure, I would build about 15 or so classrooms in my constituency. Besides that, I also built a cottage hospital in Mai’adua local government, I built one skill acquisition centre in Daura town, I built a town hall also in Daura town. I think for construction works, those are the ones I undertook. I also realised there is hardship in my constituency, people go to far distances to fetch water or drill local wells, which may not be very productive. So I constructed hand pump boreholes. I have 32 wards in my constituency, and in every ward, there is at least one hand pump borehole, some have two, and some of them have three, because in all I have built about 50 hand pump boreholes. And there are also three solar boreholes. I also supplied and installed transformers, four of them. People were very happy for them because electricity has improved. I also installed solar streetlights to neighboring local governments. There is this agitation from Daura emirate which complain of marginalization. But people see the whole of Katsina as one, is this allegation real? It is real. Our own case is even worse because successive governments have not been able to do anything about it. Fifteen years since the return of democracy in Nigeria, the people of Daura emirate constituting about one-sixth of the population of the state are yet to enjoy the dividends of democracy. This is in terms of appointments, siting of projects and opportunities at the both the state and federal levels. We have been patient hoping that successive administrations in this dispensation would do something about the marginalization of our people but this seems to be worsening with the continuous neglect of our people. We hope that something could be done about this. 0 Comments Daily Trust Login d Sort by Newest Share ⤤ Be the first to comment. Subscribe ✉ Add Disqus to your site d Favorite ★
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 09:00:29 +0000
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