A ‘warning’, sponsored by a faceless group that goes by the name of ‘Concerned Citizens of Katsina State’ and published on the front page of Daily Trust as an advertorial on Tuesday May 31st, 2016 exposed the depth to which the opposition in Katsina State has sunk.
The sponsors of the 21-word statement want people to believe that "Governor Aminu Bello Masari is set to ground Katsina State to a halt by second quarter of 2017", WITHOUT explaining HOW and or WHY that is going to happen.
If the mindless, wanton and reckless looting of the commonwealth, coupled with the high handed manner that characterised the style and substance of the immediate past administration did not "ground Katsina to a halt", it defies all reasoning and logic how prudent and judicious use of the resources and the level headedness of the drivers of the present administration would impact negatively on the state least of all ground it to a halt.
The signs on the ground in the state only point to greater things happening in future in the state. When recently the NLC called for a nationwide strike over the removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government, the patriotic workers in Katsina state rose in support of the Federal and state governments, rejecting the NLC’S call to arms, to the resounding applause of the citizens of the state.
A couple of months earlier the Katsina State council of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) had taken a similar path refusing to heed the call for a nationwide strike by the national body. Instead, the Katsina NMA gave a letter of recommendation to Governor Masari for his "effort at revamping the health sector which is demonstrated by the ongoing rehabilitation and expansion of all the major hospitals and other health establishments in the state, in addition to addressing the concerns and worries to the health workers in the state".
One would have thought that the nebulous "Concerned Citizens of Katsina State" would be more concerned with the fate of their ‘house’ which is slowly but surely caving in, accelerated more by the recent disclosure by one of the pillars in the fold and former Minister of Mines and Steel Development Architect Musa Sada who had confessed to the anti-graft agency, EFCC that he had indeed collected N700 million as campaign funds on the behest of the the immediate past Governor of Katsina State, Barrister Ibrahim Shehu Shema, with the instructions that he forward the money to the State’s then Commissioner of Finance, Mohammed Lawal Jari.
Or even the ongoing interrogation by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry which is trying to unravel how a mind boggling N70 billion disappeared from the Katsina State Treasury without trace or explanation in the three years preceding the present administration in the state.
We can go on and on; but for Grace of Allah which saved the situation, the immediate past rulers in the state almost grounded Katsina to a halt.
Mohammed Sani, Kofar Kaura Layout, Katsina
