Letter to President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu: the Atiku Bagudu matter (2)
In 2019, Kebbi was deemed an insolvent state because it generated only N7.3 billion as internally generated revenue (IGR) which was less than 10% of the over N100 billion of the “free money” it had collected from the federation account. The low revenue was attributed to the lack of initiatives for revenue generation coupled with arm-chair governance. Sub-text? Atiku Bagudu is a ‘collect and spend’ governor, despite pretending to be an Economist, which has not benefitted the state in any way. In 2021, the World Bank was on stand-by to grant Kebbi $1.5 million, if it operationalized the Treasury Single Account. But the state didn’t. This was the same year Kebbi dropped to 34th position in the federation in terms of IGR and posted the worst performance in the entire North West.
With a cultivable land area of 320,000 hectares upland and 170,000 hectares of irrigable land, Kebbi has no business with hunger, poverty or a backward economy. Yet, poverty and unemployment rates are over 50% in Kebbi, the Atiku Bagudu administration having mismanaged the economy of the state and accentuated poverty!
Meanwhile, over one trillion Naira (N1 trillion) has accrued to Kebbi state from June 2015 to April 2023 but Governor Atiku Bagudu has nothing to show for it. Recently, on the eve of the elections, the Kebbi State House of Assembly summoned Bagudu to explain how he expended an N18-billion loan the House had approved for him. That was the first time the poor people of Kebbi had heard that such a huge loan had been collected on their behalf. Suffice it to say nobody knows what the outgoing governor did with the money. For surely, if that colossal amount of money had truly been ploughed in Kebbi, our rural economy would’ve had a spark. But no such thing happened, and the N18 billion went down the drain.
My family home is a stone throw from Atiku Bagudu’s but we enjoy no pipe-borne water in Kofar Kola, Birnin Kebbi, the state capital. Bagudu had earlier awarded a multi-million Naira contract to a hungry and unsuitable company to fix the big water treatment plant (he inherited) in Birnin Kebbi, which predictably failed. The people of Yauri, the third most important town in Birnin Kebbi, have been drinking yellow, unhygienic water and in his eight years as governor, Bagudu has turned a blind eye to their situation. Yet, Yauri is by the River Niger!
The Atiku Bagudu administration has effectively killed the Kebbi State Transport Authority (KSTA), messed up the Kebbi Urban Development Authority (KUDA) ruined the Rural Electrification Board (REB) and forsaken the Kebbi Housing Corporation as well as the Kebbi State Investment Corp. Apart from payment of salaries and allowances, no new investment was made in any of these parastatals in terms of equipment or staffing or expansion of their remit.
Mr. President-elect, although it is true that a number of foreign diplomats have visited Birnin Kebbi to meet Governor Atiku Bagudu, at his own instance; but I can reveal to you today that Bagudu’s tête-à-tête with the British High Commissioner and American Ambassador centred on how he could navigate the legal minefields and remove the threat of arrest of him by these countries, any time he sets foot on their territory or that of their allies. And I’m not going to waste my time on the legal headwinds Atiku Bagudu continues to face in those countries on account of his alleged money laundering activities, or the refusal of the Attorney-General of the federation to prosecute him for same, upon his (Bagudu’s) release to Nigeria on bond, but I challenge anyone to show me evidence of Atiku Bagudu’s visit, official or private, to Europe or America in the last ten years!
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It is also true that Atiku Bagudu has been the chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, the vice chairman (we are just told) of the Nigerian Governors Forum; the vice chairman of the National Food Security Council; the chairman of the taskforce on the accelerated production of rice and wheat as well as the chairman of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company; the question is what benefits has this multiple chairmanship brought to Kebbi state, apart from the opportunity it affords him to roam and smile in front of television cameras?
Mr. President-elect, please note that on paper, Atiku Bagudu – “a seasoned banker, former university lecturer, twice-elected Senator and serving second-term governor” – is the greatest governor of Kebbi, but the reality is that he is the worst of them. He is transparently inept, he’s terribly self-centred, he loathes those with capacity and thus, returns poor results in all departments. His manipulation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the primary elections made him deeply unpopular, leading to the exit of influential party members and their supporters. Atiku Bagudu’s defeat in the senatorial election flowed directly from his unpopularity and this in turn affected the fortunes of the APC presidential ticket. It’s such a great shame that Asiwaju Tinubu lost the presidential election in Kebbi.
The President-elect may recall that the only time that President Muhammadu Buhari travelled to Birnin Kebbi was in November 2015 to launch the anchor borrowers programme. Since then, President Buhari has had no reason to visit Kebbi state again. Why? Because he’s well aware of the emptiness of the Bagudu administration. It’s inconceivable that the so called chairman of the progressive governors’ forum has made no progress in administering Kebbi and had no development project to invite President Buhari to commission in eight long years! In September 2019, having failed to persuade Buhari to make a second visit, Atiku Bagudu allegedly spent N900 million of public funds to erect a gatehouse and a fence around some barren land in Ambursa and called it “cattle market” and then invited the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, to “commission” it. Nonetheless, every time the President went to commission development projects in Borno, Cross River, Kano, Kaduna states, etc. you would find Atiku Bagudu in tow, gadding behind Buhari’s babbanriga; why not for once give the President a similar opportunity to commission projects in Kebbi?
In the agricultural sector which is the mainstay of the economy, the farmers are once again on their own. The 2015 anchor borrowers’ euphoria has given way reality. Kebbi has now relapsed into under-production, because, once again, our farmers have been abandoned: no access to extension workers, agro-chemicals, fertilizers or improved seeds. Once again, Atiku Bagudu has abandoned his duty post in Birnin Kebbi; his eyes are off the ball, he’s all over the President-elect, desperately scheming and salivating for the next appointment!
On several occasions, Governor Bagudu had said he preferred to work with lousy and dumb people. Apart from showing crass incompetence in administration, Bagudu has no achievement to his belt. He outsourced his government to clowns, charlatans and cowards. He leaves no worthwhile legacy No wonder, a number of district and village heads have been suspended or deposed, while hundreds of workers are being denied their salaries and allowances as retribution for Atiku Bagudu’s loss of senatorial election. Many people in Kebbi have already turned the page on Bagudu’s sickening and cruel administration.
Consequently, Governor Bagudu cannot point to a single notable development project of one billion Naira by his administration, and as I indicated earlier, he has not built an airport, a hospital, school, stadium, water treatment plant, university or state workers secretariat or even a veterinary clinic.
Mr. President-elect, once again, I’m compelled to call your attention to the fact that Atiku Bagudu has utterly flunked his current assignment and deserves no further appointment. In eight years, he has dribbled our people and failed to fulfil his solemn promises to them. No Lake Rice, only Atiku Bagudu’s grand scheme to exploit farmers and financiers for his own benefit. The land is there, the farmers are there, the funding is there, the market is there, so Mr. Atiku Bagudu, where is Lake Rice? No sugar factory in Argungu. No solar power plant at Fakon Sarki. No ethanol plant at Danko/Wasagu, for which they’ve been “mobilizing” for five years!
No. Atiku Bagudu is not a towering figure. You don’t tower by talk. You don’t tower by appropriating political power. You tower by applying political power to empower people, by finding them work to do, by providing them safe drinking water and qualitative healthcare, by raising the standard of education (last year, Kebbi presented only 74 candidates for NECO examination, 36 males and 37 females; whereas Lagos state had 19, 516 candidates), by improving the material conditions of the people and lifting them out of poverty. That’s how to tower. You don’t tower by personalizing power. Although he claims to be an Economist, an “international businessman” bla bla, Bagudu has failed to attract international investment to Kebbi, or make the state financially independent or develop its economy. It is the service; the quality of service you offer others that makes you tower. Thus far, Bagudu has served only himself. He has failed to identify or nurture talent; he has failed to grow and unite the APC. He has mismanaged incumbency. He has failed to inspire anyone. He has lost political value. No. Atiku Bagudu does not tower and certainly, does not represent the people of Kebbi. He represents only himself.
The President-elect is well advised to look beyond Atiku Bagudu, the tarnished Abacha crony with plenty baggage, and look for suitably qualified persons who can represent Kebbi in the cabinet and serve the Nigeria well.
This is a public advisory issued in furtherance of duty to myself, the president-elect, the people of Kebbi, the North West and Nigerians wherever they are.
HazbunalLah wa ni’imal wakil.
Abu Najakku
No.17, Shantali Road
Kofar Kola, Birnin Kebbi
0807 711 2077
