OPEN LETTER AND PETITION TO THE HON. SPEAKER, SOKOTO STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY AGAINST THE POOR PERFORMANCE OF SOKOTO STATE GOVERNMENT

                                                                                        26th November 2008

The Honourable Speaker,                                      

Sokoto State House of Assembly,

Sokoto

 

As indigenes of Sokoto State who have been interested in the overall development of our dear state, recent developments have compelled us to write this open letter to the Hon. Members of the State House of Assembly through your good office, so as to draw your attention to some issues of serious concern bordering on breaches of the constitution and maladministration perpetrated by the State Governor.

When one considers the promises made by the Governor to the people of Sokoto State before and after he was sworn in on 29th May 2007, as well as the huge sums of money that came into the State coffers from June 2007 to October 2008, many will agree that the Governor has no reason whatsoever to have performed as badly as he has so far.

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Because of our commitment to the development of our state, we have been closely following the activities of the present administration and we are sorry to say that we are worried by the lack of transparency and accountability in the management of the state funds. Of more serious concern is the fact that apart from the new fish and meat market which is 95% completed, one cannot pinpoint a single viable completed project executed by this administration.

Honourable Members, it may interest you to know that in addition to the N12 billion inherited from the Bafarawa administration, the Alu administration has from June 2007 to September 2008 received the sum of N54,954,376,310.70. The State Government has also received a cash refund of $104 million in December 2007 being refund from Paris Club loan, paid by the Federal Government. When these sums are added to the sum of N33,823,371,584.01 received by the State Government on behalf of the 23 Local Governments in the State, for the same period, it would appear that a grand total sum of over N102 billion was received by the State Government within the period (including the N12 billion inherited).

The 2008 budget was passed by the Honourable House very early this year but its implementation by the Executive leaves much to be desired. Instead of executing the laudable development projects contained in the budget, the administration went out of its way initiating and funding projects that are neither people-oriented nor in the 2008 budget.

Below are some of the projects/programmes being executed and are not appropriated for in the 2008 budget:

•           Construction of flyover road along Mobil Filling Station cross round about by Mother Cat Construction Company

•           Supply of 260,000 bags of 50kg rice at the cost of N1.7 billion by the former of Zamfara state (Ahmed Sani)

•           Contract for Sokoto Power project costing N3 billion

All these commitments have already been made, but, to date, no legal appropriation has been made for them by the State House of Assembly.

These we believe you know are impeachable offences which you must as a serious watchdog of the people take appropriate action to deal with.

The general dismal performance of the executive on the 2007 and 2008 budgets is a cause for serious concern particularly when measured against the huge sums of money spent within the period without anything on grounds to show. The poor quality of work on the few road projects that are on-going and the very slow progress of the works call for serious concern.

The Sokoto - Illela road which is over one year old now with less than 50% completion is a case in point. About 1000 blocks of classrooms, 1000 primary school teachers’ houses, 100 mosques and 10 general hospitals started by the Bafarawa administration have been abandoned by the Alu administration. The few of the projects whose contractors have gone back to sites are those either re-awarded to Alu boys or taken over by them under some financial arrangements.

To our surprise, however, private houses purchased or built by government officials within and outside Sokoto State are by far more than what the government was able to put in place in terms of number and value.

Another issue that is of similar serious concern is the performance of Local Government Councils in the State. Given the N34 billion received by Local Governments, it would appear that each Local Government has received an average of about N1.5 billion from June 2007 – October 2008. The Governor himself who went round to inspect projects executed by Local Government Councils in the State can bear us witness to the poor performance of Local Government in the State.

The Governor could not help telling some Local Governments Chairmen that the projects they were showing him were projects executed by the Bafarawa administration, as bitter as the truth was. While we have no doubt that Local Governments in the State cannot perform well as we expect them to, because, it is open secret that they have not been receiving in full the monies allocated to them due to, not only the illegal deductions made on them but also the RETURN VALVES fixed on their throats.

To our greatest surprise, however, we read in the national dailies particularly Leadership Newspaper of Wednesday, 12thth November 2008, a story in which the Hon. Commissioner of Finance indicated that Sokoto State received the sum of N44.7 billion from June 2007 – September 2008.

He explained that the sum of N20 billion was expended on capital services while the sum of N11 billion was spent on recurrent services. He reported further that as at September 2008, they had a cash balance of N14 billion.

We challenge the State House of Assembly to investigate and verify the differences of over N10 billion between our figures and that of the Hon. Commissioner.

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The Ho. Commissioner should have explained to the people of the State in a summary form the projects executed with the N20 billion spent as capital expenditure. The Honourable House may also be interested to find out more about the N12 billion inherited the Bafarawa administration. Why did it not form part of the Commissioner’s report or is it that they did not inherit any kobo?

In the light of these unfortunate sad situations, we call on the Speaker and Members of the Honourable House to take urgent action to conduct a thorough investigation into these constitutional breaches by the Governor and the non-performance of the State Government and Local Governments in the State, in the interest of purposeful development, efficient and transparent management of public funds in the State.

We have decided to avail you this golden opportunity to take up this task in recognition of your constitutional role as the watchdog of our people. Should you hesitate to take up the challenging responsibility (which we don’t pray for), we shall be left with no option than to seek further legal redress from the Judicial Arm of the Government.

While looking forward your appropriate and timely response to our petition, please accept our highest regards.

Signed

Ibrahim Garba Sabon Garin Dole,

Goronyo Local Government

 

Hassan Isa Danbara Gidan Hamma,

Illela Local Government

Tukur Isa Tambawal,

Tambawal Local Government