By; UMAR BESSE
The real reasons why Senator Yahaya Abubakar Abdullahi, the former Senate Majority Leader, was totally rejected by the All Progressives Congress (APC) delegates are emerging.
Dr. Yahaya, the 72-year old Senator representing Kebbi North Senatorial District participated in the APC’s Kebbi State governorship primaries and scored zero vote, an outcome which he rejected and decamped to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Feelers from his native Argungu Local Government Area and across the Senatorial District indicate that the candidate’s woeful performance in his two-term tenure in the Senate has rendered him a persona-non-grata.
According to analysts, the former Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, has so far served only to worsen the deplorable economic and security situations in his constituency.
Instead of deploying the instruments of his exalted office and his immense experience as an academic, former Commissioner and Permanent Secretary in the Federal Civil Service to impact positively, Dr. Abdullahi sharply short-changed his District.
Apart from the fact that he was unable to secure employment and other means of empowerment for his constituents, he serially sabotaged all the projects targeted to help in bringing developments to the District.
One of the most grotesque incidents of his crippling conspiracies was the constituency project to construct the 19-kilometre Lailaba to Yeldu Road.
Commissioned last year with fanfare, the multi-million Naira contract covered just half a kilometre exiting Lailaba and another 500 meters entering Yeldu. There is no explanation for where the 95 per cent balance of the cost had gone.
This scenario is replicated across almost all the statutory constituency projects earmarked for the Kebbi North Senatorial District.
For instance, an intervention programme for the training of youths and women to establish soap production centres in Suru, Bagudu and Kamba Local Government Areas at the cost of N100 million is yet to manifest since the grants were released last year.
Similarly, the contract for supply and installation of three water-pumping machines in the Kebbi North Senatorial District valued at N50 million Naira seems like pouring water down the drain. All the pumps collapsed just months after commissioning.
Another project that could compete for first prize in corruption was the supply and installation of solar streetlights at selected Almajiri schools in Argungu Local Government Area. Valued at N30 million, the sham intervention saw installation of a single streetlight in slightly over a dozen of such schools.
Perhaps the grossest instance of corruption in constituency projects was the planned design and construction of the Argungu Social and Cultural Centre costing N200 million. Only a few ramshackle sheds and cubicles stand as evidence of work purportedly done for such a huge amount.
As if intent on securing the position of the Senator with the worst scams, records show that Dr. Yahaya Abdullahi actually secured double budgets for each project. A list he parades simply mentions every item twice.
This attitude ensures that Kebbi State will remain among those states of the federation that are governed by those who refuse to educate a large percentage of their people but prefer to blindfold them with pure indoctrination of accepting poverty as an act of God.
There is no way such people would not litter other states of the federation with beggars. There is also no way that with such leaders, Kebbi State will ever be rid of rising banditry and other forms of criminality.
All gratitude must be for Allah who exposed Senator Yahaya Abdullahi at this critical juncture . What remains is for the good people of the Kebbi North Senatorial District to remain vigilante and ensure that he and his evil ilk do not return to power come 2023.
Alhaji Umar writes from Koko-Besse, Besse Local Government Area, Kebbi State.
