Honourable Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives is now locked in bitter political war with Gov. Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi State. Hon. Dogara, Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, Senator Suleiman Nazif, Senator Ali Wakil and other members of the national Assembly from Bauchi State have accused the governor of squandering N8.6billion bail-out fund he collected from the federal government.

They have also reported the governor to the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja. Senator Nazif revealed that… “Nobody is against the governor. The governor is against himself.As you are aware, we have come as united members of the National Assembly with some major stakeholders to the APC to address some major issues. Everybody knows that APC in Bauchi is not okay and so, we needed the attention of the APC at the national level to come to the rescue of APC in Bauchi.” “There are so many issues which are party issues and we felt that there was the need to come and discuss with our leaders. The issues are being handled and the national chairman has assured us that he will take drastic measures immediately to address the pending problems in Bauchi. The meeting is not about budget padding. The issue is about Bauchi APC and its politics. The problem also is not about 2019, but about solving the problem in Bauchi APC to ensure that the party remains united in the state. We are aware that APC’s strongest hold in the north is Bauchi and I can assure you that the national chairman is on top of the situation. We will also go back to Bauchi and address our key supporters and tell them exactly what transpired”.

Senator Wakil added: “We did not come to speak about the governor; we came to speak about Bauchi state. But we know that when Bauchi state is mentioned, the governor will be involved. The governor is not Bauchi state; the people are the determinants of history, not individuals. Individuals come and go. How many governors were there before? He might be part of the problem but it is collective problem we are trying to solve. He is our governor. Constitutionally, if you look at section 176, 177 and others, he has the constitutional role of governing the state.”

“So, there are issues revolving around non-payment of salaries, and non utilization of bail-out funds. That is part of the problem. You know that it is an agrarian and civil service state and we must do everything to see that workers are paid as, at and when due. We are not comparing ourselves with Osun or Ondo or other states that have backlogs of salaries. It is not our business. Our people must be paid as at and when due and the remaining balances of the stipends must be paid and all the unending verifications must end.”