Bauchi State Governor, Sen Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir has approved the appointment of four Special Advisers who will assist him in running the affairs of governance before the appointment of Commissioners.
The appointment is contained in a press statement signed and issued by the Governor’s Spokesperson, Dr Ladan Salihu who gave the names of the appointees as, Alhaji Musa Haruna Shittu, Deputy Chairman of the PDP Bauchi North who is to serve as Special Adviser Political, onetime Commissioner of Health Professor Sani Malami, Special Adviser Multilateral and Non Governmental Organizations.
The rest are, Mohammed Sani Burra, State chairman of the Green Party of Nigeria (GPN) as Special Adviser State and National Assembly Matters and Mr Abdon Dalla Gin, onetime Head of Civil Service of the State as Special Adviser, Civil Service Affairs.
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The statement indicated that the Special Advisers will be sworn in by the Governor on Friday, 19th of this month at the Government House Bauchi.
It will be recalled that the State House of Assembly had on Monday during its sitting approved the request of the Governor to appoint 10 Special Advisers.
Meanwhile, as the leadership crisis rocking Bauchi State House of Assembly continues with two factions claiming Speakership, 35 political parties in the state under aegis of ‘Coalition for Progressive Political Parties’ (CPPP) have called on the committee sent by the National Assembly to diligently probe the crisis and accord recognition to the one elected members at the inauguration of the 9th Assembly.
The CPPP made the call on at a press conference addressed at the NUJ Press Center in Bauchi while dissociating themselves from a story aired by the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) on Sunday 15th July 2019 which allegedly reported that political parties in the state called on the Committee to take over the State Assembly.
Spokesperson of the Coalition who is also the State Chairman of the Green Party of Nigeria (GPN), Sani Mohammed Burra appealed to the Committee to also dismiss any allegation of wrongdoings in the process of electing the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the 9th State Assembly.
According to him, the election of the House leaders where 13 out 31 members voted was in line with its Standing Orders of 2017 as amended.
He explained that “Quorum of the House shall be one third which is eleven of all the members of the house who are 31 in all. The honourable members-elect who were present were exactly 13 in number and the population of the members-elect in Bauchi State is 31 members.”
“This invariably means 18 members-elect willfully stayed away from the exercise as prescribed by the Standing Order 2 Rule 2 (1) Supra-meaning they refused to exercise their rights to vote and or to be voted for as Speaker or Deputy Speaker,” he stressed.
Sani Burra, therefore, begged the Committee that, “We, therefore, crave your indulgence to quote order 4 of the standing order 2017 governing the requisite number of members present to form a legal and valid quorum.”.
The Coalition of political parties finally dissociated themselves from the FRCN Network news report that they asked the Committee to take over the leadership of the assembly decrying that it was misleading and that the person the media house quoted is not their spokesperson.
In the same vein, the Leadership crisis rocking Bauchi State House of Assembly has been described as a case of a ‘tattouer who does not want to be tattoed”, because of the fact that the conflict that came with the inauguration of the house is not in the interest of the state but personal quest for leadership and position.
The opinion was expressed by a former member of the Assembly, Muhammad Aminu Tukur on Tuesday while addressing the Adhoc committee set up by the speaker House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila to wade into the Bauchi State House of Assembly leadership crisis, held at the command guest house in Bauchi.
He said that the legislative arm of government remains the pivot of democracy in any given circumstances for transparency in the administration of Justice, governance and national cohesion.
The former lawmaker cited Order 2, rule 2 of the standing orders of the Bauchi State House of Assembly 2017 as amended states that,” on the first day of the meeting of Bauchi State House of Assembly pursuant of the proclamation of the Governor of Bauchi State, members shall assembly at the time and place so appointed.Here no specification is mentioned of time of convergence”
Aminu Tukur maintained that the event that took place on the floor of the Chambers of the state House of Assembly on the 15th May 2019 as the 8th assembly was to round up it’s legislative activities, adding that the former speaker of the assembly, along with 11 selected members, acting on the script of former Governor Mohammed Abubakar, converged at the house as early as 7am and repealed a law that was enacted by the same house in 2017.
“The law was for the then Governor to use to recover looted state properties in the possession of his immediate predecessor. On losing his second term bid and sending nemesis would catch up with him, he summoned his cronies in the house to do his bidding against the standing orders of the house. This was effectively done before most of us could arrive at the stated time of 10am, a clear contradiction to the standing orders in place” He said
Tukur called on the members of the 9th assembly of Bauchi State to eschew bitterness and rancour and put the interest of the state first above personal quest, stressing that the state cannot afford to have a state executive arm of government tailored to serve a certain interest of the past that was characterized with failed promises to continue to direct the affairs of 6 million people in the state.
It will be recalled that about one month ago the 9th Assembly was enmeshed in leadership crisis which led to the emergence of two Speakers all members of the APC which is now in opposition in the state though it has the majority in the Assembly.
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