By Nahum Sule, Jalingo
As Taraba State marks her 34th anniversary since creation, a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress APC in Taraba State and former Nigerian Ambassador to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago Alhaji Hassan Jika Ardo on Friday said governor Agbu Kefas Two years in office has already taken the State back by several decades.
The Pioneer Chairman of the APC in the State who disclose this in a chat with journalists regretted that rather than taking advantage of the “windfall” to build the State, the governor was rather indulging in massive borrowing without any tangible projects to show for it.
“I must say that we are grateful to God to have a State that we can call ours. It is a blessing. It is however very unfortunate that we are not where we are supposed to be. I don’t want to talk about the military era but since the return to democracy in 1999, we had the golden opportunity to make our State great.
“Successive leaders from Jolly Nyame to the Late Danbaba Suntai did what they could do to move the State forward. It was not enough but they tried especially in making Jalingo to actually look like a State capital.
“It is rather most unfortunate that we have had it so bad since 2015 when Darius Ishaku took over the reigns of power. It became obvious from the onset that he was not ready for leadership and his Eight years in office were the worse for the State since 1999.
“Then came the youthful Governor who gave people very high hopes that he will leverage his age and experience in the military to transform the State and set it on the path of progress. Unfortunately, he came in with the mentality that this is a village like he described the State recently. And so his only concern is to loot as much as he can.
“This is a Governor who came in at a time of windfall in Federal Allocation to the State and rather than experiencing a boom in infrastructural development, it is a boom in debts that we are witnessing.
“The dilemma is that there is nothing to show for the huge allocation that is coming to the State let alone the loans. So he is mortgaging the State and generations to come. If Taraba is a village, what is he doing as the village headmaster to improve on it? The only thing we have is renaming of government lodges after the Elder Statesman.
“Just last month, if I’m not mistaken, the the President gave Thirty Billion Naira to each State Governor to alleviate the sufferings of the people. While other Governors have put this money into judicious use, there is no mention of it in Taraba. It is most unfortunate “.
