By Onuminya Innocent in Sokoto
The Sokoto State Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has berated the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state for unnecessary criticism which he described as a distraction.
The opposition APC through its state chairman, Sadiq Isa Achida, had on Monday accused Tambuwal of not performing well, adding that the state’s 2019 budget was not fully implemented.
Speaking during a press conference at the Conference Hall of the state Ministry of Information Tuesday, the Commissioner for Information, Hon. Isa Bajini, said the main opposition in the state was blind to the infrastructural development in the state by the governor.
“I would liken what happened yesterday as kindergarten politics in which APC played to the gallery of the pressmen and women in attendance. I believe you must be really amused by the catalogue of lies upon lies rolled out to you by the wounded hyenas.
“Ordinarily, we would have ignored this as one of their hopeless and helpless grief for power, which they have serially lost at the polls and the courts. But for the clarity of purpose and setting the record straight, we have to issue our genuine, unadulterated and verifiable statement,” he said.
The commissioner explained that in spite of being in control of government for a long time in the state, the APC leadership does not seem to comprehend what the concept of budget connotes, stressing that budgets are basically expectations and intentions which do not usually translate into 100 per cent reality.
He added that the list of approved projects by the Executive Council are only achievable with corresponding availability of funds, saying that if the APC had checked well it would have known that the state assembly in which it has majority has confirmed that the administration of Governor Tambuwal had performed creditably well in its execution of the 2019 budget, which the APC erroneously misinformed the press on Monday.
“You would recall that at the signing of the 2020 budget on December 27, 2019, the Speaker of the the Sokoto State House of Assembly, Hon. Aminu Muhammad Achida, himself a staunch APC member, affirmed that the assembly is aware of the achievements of the administration despite financial constraint,” he said.
He also indicated, in contradiction of his party’s current claim, that the implementation of the 2019 budget has recorded a lot in the areas of education, health and rural development as well as many others.
Also, rising above partisan consideration and political chicanery, the speaker assured the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led administration that the assembly “will continue to accelerate the passage of any bill that is meant to improve the lot of the people of the state”.
He therefore stated that while the state battled shortage of funds to execute projects that would add value to the lives of the people of the state, it has initiated many projects with some already at advanced stages.
The commissioner pointed at some projects executed by the Tambuwal administration to include the Sokoto International Diagnostic Centre at Farfaru, and supply of books to Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto.
Others include the reconstruction of the deputy governor’s residence, provision of fertilizers to farmers and the building of a mega school at Bale in Gudu Local Government.
He added that other projects included the reactivation of 500 housing scheme, which was abandoned by the previous administration, stressing that the Tambuwal administration has done well in the education, health, rural electrification sectors and the provision of potable water for the rural populace, among others.
He stated that the government of Sokoto State is willing to pay the minimum wage to its work force but is thrashing out the grey areas of ghost workers which would soon be harmonized.
He called APC to shed its parochial politics of condemnation and join hands with the government in building the state.
