Purposeful representation is my mission – Katagum Reps Aspirant Umar declares

By Mohammed Kaka Misau, Bauchi

Comrade Umar Attah, an aspirant for house of representatives position for Katagum federal constituency has said that he intend to contest in 2023 in order to deliver purposeful representation to the people of his constituency.

Alhaji Umar Attah who was speaking to Baushe Daily Times in an exclusive interview recently decried that previous members of house of representatives of his constituency Katagum has failed to deliver the much needed dividends of democracy to the electorates.

“My mission is to give a fair legislative judgement to my people, purposeful and quality representation is what I aimed to achieve. Katagum is a very big constituency that houses so many prominent individuals but unfortunately we are shortchanged”, he further lamented.

He said, “the people of Katagum have been shortchanged in the sense that a lot of people don’t know what is Katagum because nobody is standing for Katagum to give it a very good representation”.

Alhaji Attah pointed out that it is hard to see Katagum appear in the federal government budget while other small small local governments that are not one quarter of Katagum are seen in the federal budget.

“This is because the people we have at the helmp of affairs don’t foster the name of Katagum, they don’t promote the name of Katagum through projects, through good legislative representation”, he said.

In view of that, the house of representatives aspirant promised to promote Katagum in such a way that the whole world will know that Katagum has produced a lot of prominent people.

“I will do it so that the world will know that Katagum has produced prominent people such as the Wazirin Katagum, Alhaji Aminu Saleh, the Wamban Katagum, Dr. Mahmood Yayale and many others”, he assured.

According to him, when it comes to federal government projects, the name of Katagum is silent, adding that Katagum is only heard when it comes to mentioning the names of prominent people.

“We have been failed, we need to take it from where they stopped, we need to continue from where they stopped, we need to uplift the name of Katagum through projects, through training our youths, through channelling some assistance to this community”, he said.

“It is by doing this that we can be able to revive the name of Katagum and we can do it when we are deeply involved in politics”, the reps aspirant noted.

He said that the people of Katagum are wise and clever in such a way that if you failed to perform they will allow you until election day and vote you out, all in an effort to get who will represent them well.

The reps member who lamented that most of the politicians only made pledges but act differently because right in their hearts they don’t have the mindset of helping their constituency but only interested in getting the position.

He promised to if elected, create empowerment Programmes in order to train youths and women as well as give them starter packs in order to compliment the effort of both state and federal government.

While calling on the people of Katagum to shine their eyes and avoid politicians that will only come and buy their votes, Alhaji Attah said such attitude will only lead to end up suffering for four years.

“Let us be wise, let us categorize the kind of people that we are going to elect. First criteria should be, what have you done in the years past for Katagum and what do you intend to do? by showing the good people of Katagum what you did should qualify you.

Alhaji who challenged the electorates to set criteria for all the contestants, pointed out that in whatever capacity one finds himself, there is an opportunity for contributing to his constituency.

A professional accountant and procurement specialist, Alhaji Attah who has put up 25 years in service with the federal ministry of education said he is about retiring to join politics in order to serve his people politically.

“Presently, I am about quitting the public service to come and serve my people politically”, Attah who has climbed the rank of assistant director at the Universal Basic Education Commission said.

According to him, several calls on him by the people of his constituency to contest for post of house of representatives is not unconnected with what he has been able to do in the years of his service.

“My believe is, wherever you are, whether you are working with the government, businessman or a labourer, there is a quota of development that you need to bring to your people. So, I feel I am their ambassador in the Universal Basic Education Commission and I tried my best to ensure that I facilitated a lot of projects in the area of education to my own constituency”, he said.

Alhaji Attah who said, been a civil servant, he has been able to contribute to his constituency through construction of classroom blocks, provision of furnitures, supply of computers to schools and others.

“Not only in my constituency, they say charity begin at home, wherever I have been trained,I try to remember the good morale they gave and bring something for them. Fr instance, I attended government teachers college Jama’are, when we went for old boys meeting, I now noticed that there is no single room in that school, they were all delipidated, I have to beg and lobby from my management to give me some classrooms and luckily enough, they gave eight classrooms plus 250 furnitures, including that of the staff Offices”, he explained.

Alhaji Umar Attah said he has attracted projects to Azare, Nasarawa east, Chinade and Madara primary schools as well as central primary school where he once taught for some years among others.

“If I had not lobby for those projects, somebody will lobby for his own constituency. To this end, a lot of groups are now calling on me to contest, believing that if I can be able to do these as a civil servant I can facilitate a lot more if I become a lawmaker”, he added.

“We have started showcasing our intentions and programmes with a small number of participants, women from different districts and wards were trained. When women have something doing they will become financially boyant to help their husbands send their children to school”, Attah opined.

He said about 500 women were trained in different skills acquisitions with his personal resources, adding that with what he is doing, one can find it difficult to count the number of people, most especially youth and women that will benefit from his reprentation if elected because that is one of his agendas.