By Abashi Nkom, Kaduna

Northern Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), has expressed dismay over the attitude of some youths that are not happy with the development projects and strides that Senator Barau is bringing to his Senatorial District and the entire North Nigeria.

 A statement issued by NYCN National President, Isah Abubakar, said, “Our attention has been drawn to a write-up in an online newspaper, Solace Base, against the person of Senator Barau Jibrin, the Senator representing Kano North Senatorial District in the National Assembly. The report intends to smear his character, we found out after a thorough investigation that the write-up is similar to an initial write-up sent to our organisation by some elements against the Senator  who wanted us to smear the image of the hard working Senator which  we refused after we found out that their allegations  were  utterly false.”

The statement explained that they conducted due diligence and investigations on the allegations, having avoided the temptation to unjustly crucify the Senator without checking facts of the matter and our investigations have brought to light that certain elements that are not Youth-friendly and are against the development of the Entire Northern Region are not happy with the development projects and  strides that Senator Barau is bringing to his Senatorial District and the entire North in general.

“We uncovered that the desire of these unpatriotic people was and is still driven by jealousy and Pull-Him-Down-Syndrome – “If not me, no one else”. It is for this reason that when we saw the report by Solace Base on Senator Barau Jibrin, we decided to swing into action once more to ascertain the veracity of what is contained in the report, our investigations reveal that the allegation that Senator Barau Jibrin awarded contract to himself or his personal company is utterly false as our search at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) indicated that he  is not a director in the company and thus, not a part owner or sole owner of the company as he had resigned as a director on assumption of office as a Senator,” the statement explained.

According to the statement, a simple investigation at CAC would have revealed this fact to the reporter and are compelled to believe that the action is against the ethics and practice of responsible journalism and has exposed him as an incompetent journalist and hatchet writer and could be sued for lying against the Senator as he is a legislator who does not work in the Executive arm of Government and therefore cannot award contract to himself or anybody. 

NYCN stated that its findings shows that Senator Jibrin has never intervened in the award of contract in any agency or ministry and its investigations also revealed that the report on National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) buildings housing the purported non-functional E-learning centres at Gwarzo, Tofa, Bichi, Kabo and Danbatta has shown the incompetence of Solace Base and has indeed established that the fake report is a hatchet job dumped on the medium to publish. 

The group opined, “This is indeed a sad story for journalism as our one day investigation reveal to us that those E-learning centres were indeed built, but later redesigned, improved and transformed into National Open University (NOUN) Study Centres and are currently functional with students enrolment and  unprecedented innovative ideas which has brought University education to the door steps of the five local Government areas. 

“It is instructive that  the Senator facilitated the establishment of eight fresh NOUN Training Centres in the remaining eight local governments of Kano North that did not have the E-learning Centres, making a total of 13 Centres in all. This means in all the 13 LGAs in his Senatorial district, there is a study centre of the National Open University! This wonderful initiative has made Kano North Senatorial District stand out amongst the Senatorial Districts in this country.”

It observed that each local government area in the Senatorial Zone has a study Centre, where youths could study in any of the Study Centres without travelling out or migrating far to other places to study, saying that they can study from first degrees to PHDs without moving out of their locality.

It explained that arrangements are currently in top gear to begin to use these Centres for JAMB examinations as well, stressing that about the unsubstantiated issues of non-completion of Senator Barau’s Constituency Projects by the MDAs, its findings have revealed another shameful practice by the medium as it failed to visit the MDAs to do proper findings about how the MDAs have executed projects in Kano North. 

With due diligence, the statement noted that the MDAs would have shown them the location of the projects, stressing that when it first confronted with the same allegations against Senator Barau Jibrin, they took their time to visit the MDAs and found out the status of the projects – all properly executed. In any case, the execution of Constituency Projects is not within the purview of the Senator but purely that of the executing Agencies or Ministries. 

The group explained that it intervened on the issue being one of the best legislators to have ever come from the northern part of Nigeria that is doing tremendous work to enhance the future of the youths in Kano North, Kano State and the entire Northern Nigeria. 

The statement observed that he facilitated the establishment of 13 NOUN study Centres in all the LGAs of his Senatorial District is unprecedented and is proud of the achievement following of the age-long disadvantage that the area has had as a region in the country. 

The statement noted that Senator Barau has facilitated the establishment of Federal Polytechnic Kabo, in Kano State to be used by the entire Nigerian youths not only youths from Kano State for both learning and employment, saying that he is currently facilitating the establishment of Federal College of Education Technical Bichi campuses at Ganduje, Kunchi, and Shanono respectively all under his Senatorial Zone.

It added that he is sponsoring a Bill in the National Assembly for the upgrading of FCE (technical )Bichi to Federal University of Education (Technical )Bichi and also pursuing the transformation or upgrading of the Audu Bako College of Agriculture Danbatta to Federal University of Agriculture, Danbatta through a Bill in the National Assembly.

It also added that Senator Barau is currently facilitating the establishment of the Nigerian Police Secondary School in Kano North Senatorial District, a project that is over 50% completion as well facilitating about 4 projects at Bayero University Kano(BUK), outside his Senatorial Zone, all in his patriotic desire to transform the lives of not only Northern youths but  the entire country.

The projects in BUK, according to the statement are the Construction of School of Postgraduate Studies, completion of Phase 1 of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine(Veterinary Anatomy), Construction and Equipping of Micro Teaching Laboratory in the Faculty of Education, adding that he is also working to create an industrial base in his Senatorial Zone in other to create employment opportunities for the youths by facilitating the construction of electricity power stations in Kanye and Bichi in other to accentuate the springing up of industrial firms in the zone, there would definitely be opportunities to create jobs for the youths.

The statement explained that part of his vision for the youths of his zone is to develop their sporting skills and enhance their physical and mental well-being, as he is facilitating the construction of Stadia at Bichi,Dawakin Tofa,Tofa, Gwarzo, Kabo, Zakirai, Dambatta and Tsanyawa and the construction of those of Bagwai, Shanono, Rimingado, Kunchi and Makoda will start very soon, saying that the vision is to have a stadium in each of the 13 Local Goverment Areas in  Kano North as the stadia are expected to be completed next year.

Senator Barau, according to the statement has secured employment for over 1000 youths in his sojourn in the National Assembly, the highest in the area so far. He has also facilitated as well as personally granted scholarship to students of his Senatorial Zone to study within and outside the country, and in addition to payments of JAMB, WAEC and NECO fees for indigent students in his Senatorial zone and beyond.

As part of his burning desire to uplift the lots of Northern Youths, Senator Barau floated a Football Academy named Barau Academy through which he trains Northern Youths in football and facilitate a booming  career for them in the round leather game, saying that two Northern Football Players drawn from the Academy are in Iran for trials in one of the Top Division Clubs, while eight players also drawn from the Academy would be travelling Tuesday, 30th of August, 2022 to Poland for trials in the country’s top Division Leagues.

It said that the Senator was awarded the Most Outstanding Senator of the Year Award through a very competitive process.

We therefore regard Senator Barau Jibrin as a true lover of the youths in his Senatorial Zone, Kano State, Northern Nigeria, and the entire country. 

It lamented that the orchestrated campaign of calumny against the performing Senator may be coming from an opponent of his who had the opportunity to serve the country in one of the vital education related Agencies of Government but his stay at the helms of affairs in the agency was a monumental disaster as he cancelled several projects to be executed in several universities shortly after he assumed office making those universities to lose the benefits of  having those projects in their campuses.

It explained that the character in question stopped payments of allowances to so many Lecturers who were on scholarship studying in several institutions at home and abroad after his assumption of office causing them untold hardships, leading some to abandon their studies abroad while some had to sell their assets to survive.

If the man does not stop his antics and campaign of calumny against Senator Barau Jibrin, the youths said they would not hesitate to investigate the various alleged bogus consultancy contracts that he awarded while in office and to whom and also investigate the various landed properties he has in Abuja, earning rents in millions.

It called on Solace Base or indeed any other media organization not to allow themselves to be used to scuttle the popular will of the people, advising that the people should be allowed to freely elect their candidates through the polls not through the back doors of falsehoods orchestrated by political opponents.