Nationwide Hunger Protest a Wake-up Call to Every Nigerian, Says Bauchi Governor

•Declares, “I have no apology for criticising federal government”

Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi

Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State has declared that the recent nationwide hunger protest represents a wake-up call to every Nigerian, from the presidency to the sub-nationals.

Mohammed said he had no apology for criticising the policies of the federal government that had inflicted hardship on Nigerians.

The governor spoke on Wednesday during the opening of the State Executive Council meeting held at Government House, Bauchi.

He said as leaders at the national level, he had the responsibility to say the things that later generated some controversy. He added that they were not meant to cause pain or insult to anybody, but to put the situation in its right context.

Mohammed stated, “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.”

According to him, “We have scare resources to manage; that is why I said we must use the little resources we have to do so much. Nobody cares; nobody will listen to you if you begin to pass the buck 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 own 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 are not favourable and the national policies brought under this administration is not favourable for us because we have the blame.

“We are not on our own and that is why I spoke as opposition constructively and somebody who means well to the president and to 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.”

Mohammed added, “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 scare resources, the challenges and problems we have.”