2019 Elections: Dogara promises to complete 46BN road projects if re-elected

AHEAD of the 2019 general elections which will begin this week Saturday with presidential and NASS elections, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara who is seeking reelection into the House of Representatives to continue his representation of Dass/Tafawa-Balewa/Bogoro Federal Constituency of Bauchi State has promised people of the area that he will ensure the completion of all the road construction projects across the Constituency worth over N46 billion if re-elected by the people.

The Speaker who is on campaign tour of the area made the promise while addressing thousands of his supporters at a campaign rallies held at Dull, Lere and Marti Villages of Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area last weekend declaring that he is set to consolidate on the dividends of democracy to his Constituents if given another mandate for the fourth term.

He also said that if not for the patience of his Constituents and the mandate they gave him these three times, there is no way, someone from the area would have been the Speaker of the House of Representatives and would have been known throughout the country.

Yakubu Dogara said that “The blessings God bestowed upon us are the road projects you see ongoing, besides the ones from Sum-Dull-Burga, there is the road behind the mountain in Dass and there’s the one from Pankshin-Mangu in Gindri, all in Plateau State. All these are the major road projects we are currently doing which, before completion, will cost N46 billion.”

He added that ” I want to assure you that if it were the Bauchi State Government that is constructing these roads, 60 years will pass, and they will still not have completed them, maybe most of us will probably die without us seeing them completed. But you are seeing the efforts we are making now.”

The Speaker further said that he promised the late Chief of Dull in 2015, that if re-elected, he would construct a road that will link the village with other parts of the state as well as provide Telecommunications network to the people.

He said that “after winning the elections, God placed me in a higher position of Speaker and I told myself that it was now mandatory for me to fulfil my promise to the late Chief of Dull, to construct this road and provide Telecommunication networks so long as I am the Speaker.”

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Yakubu Dogara while speaking at the flag off of the campaign in Dull village, however, said that: “But you, the people of Dull, can truncate these promises. You can stop these promises from being fulfilled if you refuse to vote for us because if you fail to vote for us again, I am not God nor a Prophet, but I assure you that with the way Nigeria is now, where this road project is now, there it will stop. It will remain there until the day God helps us again and gives another son of this soil in such a high position as mine before this road is completed.

“I have fulfilled my promise by starting these projects and if you vote for us, it is mandatory for us to complete these projects,” he declared.

According to Yakubu Dogara, he has constructed several road projects in his Constituency boasting that in the whole of Bauchi State, there is no road as qualitative as the Bauchi-Tafawa Balewa which he influenced its construction at the cost of over N9. 6 billion several years ago.

He informed the mammoth crowd that when he insisted that these projects must be done, youths in the state were sponsored to protest against him because he padded the budget to construct the roads, and even demanded that he should be arrested “but they didn’t say it was Buhari or the Bauchi State Government that padded the budget.”

“But when the roads were completed, they started claiming that they constructed the road in a bid to take the credit. You shouldn’t allow anyone deceives you. Like I told you, from the day we are no more in this position, it will take a long time to build someone from this area who gets to where key decisions are taken in this country before you get any meaningful development in this Constituency,” he said.

The Speaker promised that if re-elected, he will immediately begin the construction of over 15 local roads linking over 30 villages across the three local government areas in the Constituency, bridges and many other projects and said that all the projects are captured in the 2019 budget and will be completed within his fourth term, if elected.

Yakubu Dogara who advised the people to vote for other candidates of the PDP lamented that there is no region as backwards and poor as the North-East saying that despite all these, “the person who will deliver the region and Nigeria from hunger, poverty and all the things bedevilling us is Atiku Abubakar.”

He added that “We brought General Muhammadu Buhari, we campaigned for him in 2015. I have said it before that we do not hate him, we love him but the truth is, we love Nigeria and Nigerians more than we love him. Our love for Buhari will not stop us from telling him the truth that there is hunger, killings, kidnapping, poverty are everywhere and he has failed to address these.”

According to him, if Buhari is given another term of four years, “I promise you, you will not find succour in your lives and if we give him four more years without any meaningful development in the north, whether you like it or not, the Presidency must return to the south or Nigeria will be divided. This is the candid truth.”

“But for us to get 8 years and we misuse them without building the lives of the people and laying a foundation that will take us out of hardship, we have made a great loss. To avoid making such mistake, let’s vote for Atiku Abubakar at the Presidential election,” the Speaker declared.