The frosty relationship between the Niger State Governor,
Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello and the 25 council chairmen of the ruling All
Progressives Congress (APC) party in the state came to the fore in Minna
recently when the party chairmen rejected the car gift to them by the governor.
The “embarrassing” decision by the party
chairman has continued to dominate discussions around political landscape in
the state, Daily Sun investigations reveal.
It was gathered that the governor had
met with the council chairmen of the party officially for the first time in
November since he assumed office two years ago.
After the meeting that lasted for over
four hours, the governor was said to have offered each of them a Toyota Camry
car, 2013 model as their official car to facilitate their movement in their
various local government areas but the chairmen were said to have rejected the
vehicles.
The party chairmen were said to have
told the governor that they could not collect the cars because they did not
have what it takes to maintain such “exotic car”, more so that the party
executives at the local government had been completely neglected for the past
two years, saying they therefore lacked the fund to run their secretariat not
to talk of maintaining such a car.
The chairmen further said that accepting
the cars which they don’t have money to even fuel, would not only portray them
before the people as “wining and dying” with the governor but would definitely
pitched them against the people.
They also expressed the concern that
driving such cars in their various local government where” poverty is really
staring the people in their faces with majority of them not been able to afford
three square meal convincingly will not augured well.”
Some of the chairmen who spoke to Daily
Sun in confidence expressed disappointment that the governor was meeting with
them for the first time since he assumed office in 2015, adding that the
governor’s car gift was nothing but a calculated attempt to pitched them
against the people at the grass root, stressing that the car was not their
priority at the moment.
One of the council chairmen said: “What
the governor has done shows that he either did not know the problem on ground,
or it is a deliberate attempt to set us against the people.
“There is serious hardship everywhere
and you expect us to go and be driving this type of cars in the villages where
people are starving of hunger. Apart from that, where do we get the money to
maintain or fuel these cars?”
Another chairman said: “if the governor
think that cars is our problem then he got it wrong. As I speak with you now
nothing is happening in the party at the local government level.
“After the election, we have been
neglected and abandoned such that most of the party secretariat at the local
government is now deserted because there is nothing happening there. No money
to even run the secretariat effectively”.
Daily Sun further gathered that when the
governor undertook a tour of some local government areas of the state recently,
some of the chairmen were said to have openly bared their minds on the fact
that government seems to have neglected the party at the grass root level.
To worsen the plight of the party
chairmen, it was further learnt, the various council chairmen in the state have
completely distance themselves from the party at the local government level.
The chairmen are said to
have gone underground because “there is no money to run the activities of their
councils not to talk of funding the party as the meagre internally generated
revenue could barely buy stationeries and fuel their cars.”
However, sources close to the meeting
disclosed that the chairmen, apart from rejecting the car gift, were also bold
enough to tell the governor that the government was still lagging behind in the
area of developmental projects especially in the provision of water within
Minna, the state capital and its environs.
The source also said that despite their
grouse against the governor, they however commended him for his efforts in the
area of security, but reminded him that with 2019 already around the corner,
there was the need for him to go closer to the people.
Although the state chairman of the
party, Engineer Mohammed Jibrin Iman could not be reached for his comment, when
contacted the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on media and publicity,
Mr. Jide Orintunsin said he was not preview to the details of the meeting
between the governor and the party chairmen. He was however quick to add that
it was not possible for them (chairman) to reject such a gesture if there was
any.
Daily Sun
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