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| General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) |
The Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Mr.
Isaiah Balat, has dismissed claims by the presidential candidate of the
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the 2011 election, General Muhammadu
Buhari (rtd), that southern Kaduna had
gained nothing for supporting the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) since 1999.
Balat made this known in a telephone interview with the News
Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Jos, the
Plateau State capital Sunday.
"That claim is simply laughable because the area has
witnessed lots of infrastructural growth
as well as the appointment and election of its people into key positions.
"In fact, our people have never had it so good; the
dividends are glaring no matter which indices you use. The resolve to support
PDP is even stronger now than ever,’’ he said.
Buhari had at meeting of the unregistered All Progressives
Congress (APC) in Kagoro, near Kafanchan, dismissed the PDP as "a colony
of deceivers’’, and advised the people to join the APC.
He said the PDP had not reciprocated that massive affection,
and that southern Kaduna people were still ``wallowing in misery’’, with many
still ``poverty-stricken’’.
Former FCT minister, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, Kaduna military
governor, Brig. Lawal Isa (retired) and former Chief of Naval Staff, Ibrahim
Iko, also criticised the PDP, and advised the people to join the APC.
Balat, a former Minister of State for Works and Housing, in
a reaction, said the criticisms by
Buhari and others were ``figment of their imaginations’’.
"Our people know the state of their roads from
Kaduna-Gimi, Saminaka-Kafanchan, Kagoro-Jos, and many others before 1999.
"They also know how large rivers separated communities,
especially Bondong and Chawai, because there are no bridges. They can compare
then and now.
"Aside the infrastructure, it is in the PDP governments
that we have had our people rising to
the pinnacle of their chosen fields.
"Our sons and daughters have risen to become Chiefs of
Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Naval Staff. The incumbent
Group Managing Director of the NNPC is also our son.
"We have also produced vice chancellors of universities
and headed key ministries like finance, works and housing, power and aviation
as ministers.
"And don’t forget that we also produced an elected
governor.
"The PDP-led federal government has also provided the
multi-billion dollar Gurara Dam that has ensured thousands of hectares of land
for irrigation aside electricity and drinking water for the immediate environment
and the FCT.
"The average Southern Kaduna person has never asked for
unmerited favour.
"What we want is fairness and PDP has created a
platform for our people to compete as
equal stakeholders in the Nigerian project,’’ he said.
He described the allegations that PDP had taken the area for
granted as false and untenable, pointing out that every community had gained
from the PDP government in one way or the other.
Balat said Buhari was the ``least qualified’’ to allege any
neglect of the area.
"It is not for nothing that we have kept faith with the
PDP, the party that has also kept faith with us.
"Southern Kaduna is solidly PDP and shall remain so.
Just as New York is a safe haven for Democrats in the United States, so is
Southern Kaduna for PDP.’’
The special adviser challenged APC leaders to say what they
had in stock for the electorate,
``judging from their past antecedents’’.
Also reacting,a member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Simon Arabo,
re-emphasised that the PDP had "visible evidences of development’’,
especially in infrastructure and an
improved electricity supply with the new power sub-stations in Kafanchan.
"Aside from the projects, we now have chiefdoms and
equal opportunities for schools, jobs and elevations to top positions.
"There could be room for improvements, but is totally
wrong to say that the PDP has not been
any useful to the people,’’ Arabo said. Arabo accused Buhari of "totally
ignoring Southern Kaduna’’ in the distribution of projects when he was the
chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF).
"Buhari did not include Southern Kaduna in his agenda
when he executed many projects as chairman of the PTF. We were never in his
mind,’’ he said.
On some Southern Kaduna politicians in the APC, Arabo
observed that they were PDP chieftains who were angry because "they are no
more in power’’.
"Clearly, the gladiators in the APC from Southern
Kaduna have no moral right to vilify the
PDP because one was a senator and House of
Representatives member on the party’s platform.
"Some are also local government chairmen, commissioners
and special advisers, while some are
state or federal officials of the party.
"I respect their constitutional right of association,
but I must say that they are not in APC to serve, but to realise their personal
ambitions.
"I have met some of them and have told them that power
is a revolving door that can admit and push out anyone at anytime.
"No one has the right to be in the corridors of power
permanently.’’
According to him, allegations that the PDP is taking people
for granted are just an attempt to
hoodwink the people by appealing to their emotions and sentiments.
"I think it is just a desperate attempt to wrestle
Southern Kaduna from the PDP and that is just like an attempt to fish where
there is no water.
"If the APC wants votes, it should look elsewhere. That
party can never be a threat to PDP in
Southern Kaduna,’’ he said.
Also reacting, Mr. Ibrahim Mukaddas, a former PDP Secretary
and Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Inter-party Affairs, said that
there were only two major roads before PDP came into power in 1999.
"But currently, we have roads and bridges linking all
local governments and settlements. We
also have a new road linking Southern Kaduna
and Plateau via Manchok.
"Again, before 1999, all tertiary institutions were in
Zaria and Kaduna.
"But now we have the Kafanchan Campus of the state
university that is hosting all the science courses, while one of us is the
Vice-Chancellor,’’ Makadddas said.
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