Former minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; former Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai (retd); Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami; were among the political big weights that stormed Bauchi to drums support for the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Sadiq Baba Abubakar.
They declared their support for the APC candidate at a fund-raising dinner and unveiling of the Manifesto of the party’s governorship candidate in Bauchi state.
Others present were Bauchi state chairman, APC, Babayo Aliyu Misau; Bauchi State Deputy Chairman, APC, Mohammed Hassan; Bauchi State Deputy Governorship Candidate, APC, Shehu Aliyu Musa; National Women Leader, APC, Dr Betta Edu, Minister of State Transportation, Ademola Adewole Adegoroye; former chief justice of the federation, CJN, Ibrahim Muhammad Tanko, among others.
Ameachi called on the people of bauchi state to vote for a candidate that has proven integrity and transparency particularly as it regards public funds.
He described Abubakar as a visionary leader and said that there is no other better choice for the people of Bauchi state than what the APC has presented to them.
“When you indicated interest to run for the governorship of Bauchi State, I supported you in every possible way that I could, including prayers…
“Today, I asked you from people from Bauchi to think twice about governance in Nigeria
It has been very bad. The reason why it’s bad is because you vote for people who don’t know what governorship is about. We vote for people who seek employment to make money and unfortunately for all of you, people are not held accountable for anything they do and the worst is Nigeria doesn’t hold anyone accountable for everything.
“So, if you have voted in as governor, then it is your discipline that determines how you behave, not because anybody will check. So, vote for somebody who is disciplined enough to leave your money at home at Bauchi state government house since there is no way to check anybody.”
Former Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai (Rtd) , Buratai, said the recorded success on counter insurgency operations carried out in port Harcourt, including fight against oil bunkering, came partly as a result of Abubakar’s resilience, dedication and cooperation to work with the Nigerian Army.
Brutai urged the Bauchi state people to vote for Abubakar, saying: “Today, Bauchi state has oil and to protect your oil you have the right person to protect it which is Amb Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar.”
He further said Abubakar has brilliantly performed fighting Insecurity as chief of Air staff, adding that if elected as governor of Bauchi state, he would improve the fortunes of the state.
He added: “Just after the commissioning of the oil week we heard the story of bandits and criminals surrounding that area, Air marshal Abubakar and my humble self, we fought the militant, the oil thieves and the pirates on the seas and the creeks, and revivrine areas so those bandits that are saying they will disturb or take over the oil wells in Bauchi state, I think they are telling lies and they will have a big nut to crack.”
“The achievement, performance, success, delivery and value. What do I mean? The fact remains indisputable that as of 2015 when this administration of President Muhammadu Buhari came on board, about 17 local governments in Borno State were indeed controlled by Boko Haram. So, what happened with the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari and coming on board of Sadique Abubakar as the chief of air staff, the complete turn around of, security architecture, and, by extension, decimating Boko Haram, recovering our our territory, the national territory and the Nigerian integrity among others.
“So, when you have in place a person that supports the possibility of you going to bed at night with your eyes closed, what else do you need? I believe the only justice that the people of Bauchi can do unto themselves is to vote and vote massively. Vote without exception, Sadique Abubakar.”
Meanwhile, speaking to newsmen on the sideline of the event, Abubakar promised to re-engineer the political landscape of the state by making policies geared towards bettering the economic, educational and security situation of the state.
He added that if the educational, economic and security of the state can be improved, issues bothering insecurity would reduce.
His words: “What we want to do is to re-engineer the political landscape in Bauchi State so that people will have a sense of ownership of the state.
“People must understand that the state is all about them and the only way to achieve that is to reverse the disturbing figures. We want to get those 1.4 million children back to school. We want to do everything we can to show concern and support our women.
“Unemployment rate, especially among the youths, is very disturbing. We want to create a platform where these youths would be empowered, have skills required and be able to contribute to the development of Bauchi State. In the agricultural sector, the production is so abysmal.
“What we want to do is to reengineer the entire process so that production will go up and once it goes up you know the impact of agriculture on the economy. Small scale industries at the local level will increase. These are programmes that are going to boost the economy of Bauchi State and that way we can help with the security of the state because there is a relationship between security and development.
“Security has so many dimensions. One of which is what most people refer to as physical security. But you have the social and economic dimensions of security which has to do with all these issues that I raised. The issue of people going to school. Opportunity for people to have access to good health and for people to go into production opportunity to make extra money
So, as soon as you tackle some of these issues you will see that it impacts positively on security.
“The physical security aspect is something that we are going to work together with both the Armed Forces of Nigeria, the police and civil defence. And once we do that the narrative of Bauchi will change.”
