While the activities of the dreaded terrorists group, Boko Haram has taken the centre stage in Borno State, it has also succeeded in shielding Governor Kashim Ibrahim from the prying eyes of the people that elected him to serve them since 2011.
When he took over the reign of governance from his erstwhile political godfather, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, the people look forward to a better tomorrow. However, after over four years down the lane, things have taken to a direction that is completely opposite the expectations of the people.
Curiously, the people already suffering from the excruciating pains over the activities of insurgency are equally wallowing under Governor Kashim’s that is now mortgaging their socio-economic fortunes as a result of his failure to provide the people with basic necessities of life.
Simply put, the people of Borno are facing agonizing difficulties brought on them like never before by factors ranging from the Boko Haram insurgency and dwindling economic activities occasioned by terrorism that has become the administration’s swivel to not only pilfer and drain the resources of the state, but reduce them in human development status.
Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, has become a theatre where rain of curses on Governor Shettima takes place which has assume a dimension never experienced before owing to the alleged level of corruption under the current administration in the state using the war against insurgency as a cover.
Findings by Per Second News indicate since May 2015, there has been a lull in government business all in the name of fighting insurgency, except for matters of personal interests to Governor Shettima and his kitchen cabinet members. Since his re-election and inauguration for a second term, Governor Shettima has been running the state as a family business with no cabinet in place. And in spite of the absence of a cabinet in place, Permanent Secretaries holding brief for commissioners are allowed into Government House only when the Governor requires their attention but certainly not the other way round.
The scenario is even made worse at the Local Government Councils, following the absence political structures and space to operate as most of the local government secretariats have been converted into IDPs’ camps.
Before the March/April general elections, Governor Shettima dissolved the local government caretaker committees and since then, there has been no elected or appointed local government office holders in place, but the allocations to the Councils from the Federation Account have not ceased thereby gives Shettima free hands to dispense what he deems fit from the Federation Accounts Allocations to the Local Government Councils.
Similarly, since May 2015, Shettima became a sole administrator, who not only solely taking and executing decisions but totally in control of expenditure of funds in the absence of a State cabinet and other appropriate structures at the local government level.
A peep into the allocation accruals to the two tiers of government in Borno State for the month of July, 2015 showed that N13.5billion was received by the state and when considered in relation to four months allocations, it is expected to exceed over N40 billion may have been approved and disbursed by Shettima as a sole administrator without the necessary checks and balances in place in the past four months.
The concern of many Borno people over the disbursement of funds by Governor Shettima is hinged on the fact that there is nothing on ground to show for such figures in billions of Naira that accrued to the state since 2011.
An indigene of the state living on a street that was flooded two weeks, who said his name is Bukar Baba Biu said there is nothing to show for the huge allocations accruing to Borno State in terms of projects.
He said; “The administration cannot point to a single tangible project that was either initiated, funded, completed or commissioned by Governor Shettima all through his first tenure. The only one the government can point at is the housing estate which is inhabitable due to poor finishing. Look at the road leading to my house. How do I get to my house? This drainage projects started two and half years ago, but it has not only been abandoned but now a source of agony to the people.”
Shettima, who rose to the position of a General Manager in the bank before his appointment as a commissioner was seen by the people as one that would use his wealth of experience to take the state to the next level but the reverse seems to have been the case as he has conveniently taken advantage of the space created by the Boko Haram menace to hide his non-performance profile.
Precisely four years and over three months since his assumption of office, facts emerging on the alleged atrocities carried out under Governor Shettima are mind-boggling. As if the killings, maiming, dislodgments and other survival challenges facing the already traumatized people are not enough burden, Shettima is believed to have taken an indifferent posture to the calamitous happenings that have dealt a severe blow on the people’s psyche.
Between 2011 and May 2015, only seven out of the 27 Local Government Areas of the state were not captured by the Boko Haram terrorists, a development that led to the internal displacement of over one million, five hundred thousand people in the state. Out of the figure, about 250, 000 affected people were at different IDPs camps created by the Shettima-led administration. Even at that, those in the IDP camps were jointly catered for by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) in addition to the contribution of individuals and corporate donors through the provisions of meals, medication, toiletries, clothing and other basic necessities of life.
Checks by Per Second News indicated that the Shettima-led administration has devised a clever way of using existing IDPs camps to plunder the state’s treasury with hundreds of millions of tax payers’ money being carted away on monthly basis under fabricated assertions.
Specifically, Governor Shettima at different fora, said his administration spends an average of N620 million per month on the IDPs through the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA). The bandied figure excludes the support provided by NEMA and other corporate bodies as well as individual donors. However, in a clear contradiction to Governor Shettima’s claims, Alhaji Grema Terab, who is the immediate Executive Chairman of SEMA, said throughout his almost three years tenure, only a total of N750 million was received by the agency from the state government. This shocking revelation by Terab, Per Second Newsgathered, seriously jolted Shettima beyond grasp and had to quickly meet with Grema to find a common ground in order not to create more damning consequences.
But in spite of claims of N620 million spent monthly on IDPs by Shettima, the living condition at the camps within the state capital remain pathetic.
In addition, it was gathered that on many occasions, relief materials taken to the IDPs camps during the day and captured by media cameras were usually carted away in the dead of the night to unknown destinations by officials of the state government.
Commenting on the pathetic state of things in the camps, one of the IDPs told our correspondent on condition of anonymity saying; “Why has the state government refused to give account of the total relief support received from sister state governments, corporate bodies and individuals to assist displaced persons in the last three years or thereabouts? And why is it becoming increasingly difficult for the government to substantiate its claims of N620 million monthly expenditure on the IDPs?”
A disturbing facet with regards to IDPs’ plight is the lengthy period in which children of the poor have been kept out of public schools by the state government which from every indication has no immediate plan of safeguarding their future education. Apart from the hundreds of thousands of pupils and students from the 20 Local Government Areas that were overran by Boko Haram, the situation is not any better in Maiduguri, the state capital as four boarding schools within the metropolis now serve as IDPs camps, thereby disrupting teaching and learning in the institutions. The four schools are Government College, Yerwa Girls Secondary School, Arabic College and Women Teacher's College, all in Maiduguri. Painfully, the fate of these students have remain uncertain.
Only recently, the people's anger was further fuelled by publication that trended on Facebook in which Governor Shettima was allegedly listed as one of the 16 notable political office holders in Nigeria with fat bank accounts in the United States of America as allegedly disclosed by the FBI. In the publication, it was alleged that the balance in Shettima's US account stands at $1.1billion based on the FBI report.
Responding to a series of questions sent over the alleged misdeeds of Governor Shettima, his Special Adviser on Information and Communications Strategy, Isa Gusau rather than provide answers to the questions sent to him, replied through an email saying he would advise his principal to sue for libel should the our editor carry any story relating to the governor.
On the alleged FBI report, Gusau said; “To me, you have already introduced a very serious issue we must sort out by alleging that the FBI produced a report that says Governor Shettima has one billion dollars. We must know the account details, the city it is located, when it was opened and how the money was traced to Governor Shettima. It is either the U.S Embassy furnishes us with the details or you explain the report and how it came about. This matter is extremely serious and I promise you, we will follow it to the end.
“I will insist that Governor certainly assembles the best defamation lawyers with expertise in libel suits to demand for his right should you publish anything that diminishes image without incontrovertible evidence to support the allegations,” Gusau threatened.
The question however remains how President Buhari would be able to align himself with public office holders that are seen in the eyes of the public as corrupt giving his avowed war on corruption?
By Amos Dunia
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