Bauchi Governor defend his statement against FG policies says he has no Apology
From Ahmad SAKA, Bauchi
The Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Muhammed has explained that he has no apology for criticizing the policies of the federal government that has inflicted hardship on Nigerians. Governor Bala said this at the opening of the State Executive Council meeting held at the government house Bauchi.He said that as a leader at the national level, he had the responsibility to say things that later generated some controversies, adding that it was not meant to cause pain or insult anybody, or to cause any controversy but to put the situation in its right context. Governor Bala said the recent protest is a wake-up call to every Nigerian, not only to the presidency but to the sub-national. “All of us here, as leaders, members of councils, commissioners representing local governments, know what is going on there, you represent them here. Of course, we know we had to listen when the cries of Nigerians were raised loud against bad governance in areas of limitations and inadequacies where the expectations of our people have not been met for whatever reasons” “We have scarce resources to manage, that’s why I said we must use the little resources that we have to do so much. Nobody cares, nobody will listen to you if you begin to pass the back to complain and say this and that. “In our style of leadership, we don’t blame our predecessors, that is why God brought us here to manage the situation, to make it better. We know we are not in charge of national policies and programmes, but we must be able to implement national programmes as loyal federalists while at the same time looking at our challenges and making sure we are connecting with the people” “Certainly, when something is so spontaneous as a protest, you cannot be spared no matter how good you are and so we are not just blaming the federal government for everything, we also have to look at ourselves and make sure we do things that will put food on our table and make things easier” “We have seen the spatial inflation, the macro-economic indices even globally not favourable and the national policies brought under this administration are not favourable for us because we have the blame. We are not on our own and that is why I spoke, I spoke as opposition constructively and somebody who means well to the president and the government and people of Nigeria” “Having said that, whoever made any blaring and very bad comment on me, that is the cost of leadership and I have no apology for that. I am not doing it to cause any disaffection or to insult anybody. Precisely, we are not also spared in what I said, it is not about partisan politics, it is about responsibility” “So, we will continue going forward to connect with the people. We will come with policies and programmes that will better the lot of the people irrespective of the scarce resources, the challenges and problems we have”