Bauchi vows to renovate govt house, says APC has allergy to progress.

By Kaka Mohammed Misau.

Despite criticisms by the opposition, Bauchi State government has vowed never to rescind its earlier decision to develop the state for the overall benefit of the citizenry.

A press release issued to journalists at the weekend by the state commissioner of information, Alhaji Garba Dahiru, the Government noted that no amount of pressure by the opposition will compel it to abandon its drive to develop the state.

The commissioner who was reacting to assertions by critics that its intention to reconstruct the existing Bauchi Government House, Governor’s Lodge and Governor’s residence in Abuja was a misplaced priority, said that the opposition APC in Bauchi has allergy to progress.

Alhaji Garba who explained that the projects under criticism was a priority ones that have been captured in the 2021 budget proposal, noted that the present Government House was built at the creation of the state in 1976, stressing that the expanded nature of government business demands a physical expansion and reconfiguration.

The commissioner who acknowledged as substantially accurate, the report which was based on a press briefing by his colleague of the Housing and Environment, Hon. Hamisu Muazu Shira, faulted the report for questioning the proprietary of such a project amidst of the COVID-19 pandemic and the inflation that the country is experiencing.

“The previous Government conceived a project-basket of more than 40 roads without executing one. Billions of Naira were spent on mobilization without any trace of execution”, he alleged.

“Let us make it very clear from the onset, the expansion and reconfiguration is no different from similar projects undertaken by Governors Ahmed Mu’azu on Ramat House (Presidential Lodge), VIP 9 and the newly constructed VIP 5, Guest Houses by the immediate past
administration”, Alhaji Garba added.

The commissioner questioned the whereabout of the critics who kept silent when VIP 10 was purchased and renovated by former Governor Isa Yuguda and when former Governor M. A. Abubakar did a facelift of the Governor’s Residence.

He said that the entire projects Governor Bala Mohammed is undertaking will not be financed through FAC proceeds, but from performance-based, World Bank grants and recovery funds.

Alhaji Garba who said that entire report was a product of false interpretation while the
the N6 Billion Project is among the least projects of its kind in the country, maintained that the present administration is mobilising resources through deliberate and efficient measures, to free funds that were being misapplied in other sectors of the economy and through improve IGR.

He said that the impression given on the reconstruction of the Government House that it will scuttle other priority projects is only a figment of the imagination of those who cannot come to terms with the resolve of the Bala Mohammed’s administration to leave an indelible footprint on the sands of Bauchi’s development.

“To suggest, as the story does, that the project could lead to the misplacement of priorities flies in the face of the unprecedented infrastructural and people-oriented projects that the Bauchi State Government has undertaken in less than two years of the existence of the Bala Mohammed administration”, the commissioner said.

According to him, “for anyone to suggest, let alone claim that a government that has sunk over N14 billion in the provision and rehabilitation of roads alone is misplacing priorities, is the height of misplaced judgement and outright hypocrisy.

He claimed that In less than two years, the Bala Mohammed led Administration has also sunk more than N14 Billion into rebuilding schools, provision of electricity and water as well as other infrastructural amenities, in a paradigm shift that has taken the dividends of democracy to the nooks and crannies of Bauchi State.

He explained further that, “contrary to the misleading impression being created by some unrepentant traducers of the Bala Mohammed led administration, affirmed that the reconstruction of the Government House will be executed in phases, in such a way that no other important Government project will suffer.

“It is also important to clarify that prioritization does not imply that capital projects that advance the image of government and the convenience and comfort of its principal functionaries should be allowed to suffer exclusion or atrophy simply because some naysayers have mastered the ignoble art of blackmail” the Commissioner explained.

Garba Dahiru then stated that, “for the avoidance of doubt, we wish to reiterate that, the reconstruction of the Government House is an integral part of the urban renewal initiative of the Bala Mohammed Administration that has so far witnessed extensive environmental rehabilitation, reconstruction and rehabilitation of intra city roads in the state capital, land reforms and provision of potable water”.

“It is ironical that critics of the Government House project have conveniently turned a blind eye to another component of the urban renewal programme, that is, the ambitious new Bauchi City development programme of the Administration”, he stressed.

He said “it is preposterous, capricious, mischievous and indeed arrogant for anybody, under whatever guise to pretend to hold a higher moral compass than the reasoned endorsement of the people of Bauchi State, of the policies, programmes and performance of the Administration of Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed”.