Special Adviser to the President on
Special Duties, Mr. Isaiah Balat, has dismissed claims by Gen. Muhammadu
Buhari, that Southern Kaduna had gained nothing for supporting the PDP
since 1999.
Balat made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in a telephone interview in Jos on Sunday.
He said, “That claim is simply laughable
because the area has witnessed lots of infrastructural growth as well
as the appointment and election of its people into key positions.
“In fact, our people have never had it
so good; the dividends are glaring no matter which indices you use. The
resolve to support PDP is even stronger now than ever.’’
Buhari had, at meeting of the
yet-to-be-registered All progressive Congress in Kagoro, near Kafanchan,
dismissed the PDP as “a colony of deceivers’’, and advised the people
to join the APC.
Former FCT minister Nasir el-Rufai;
Kaduna military governor, Brig. Lawal Isa (retd.); and ex-Chief of Naval
Staff, Ibrahim Iko, also criticised the PDP, and advised the people to
join the APC.
Balat, a former Minister of State for
Works and Housing, in a reaction, said the criticisms by Buhari and
others were “figment of their imaginations’’.
He added, “Our people know the state of
their roads from Kaduna-Gimi, Saminaka-Kafanchan, Kagoro-Jos, and many
others before 1999.
“They also know how large rivers
separated communities, especially Bondong and Chawai, because there are
no bridges. They can compare then and now.
“Aside the infrastructure, it is in the
PDP governments that we have had our people rising to the pinnacle of
their chosen fields.
“Our sons and daughters have risen to
become Chiefs of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Naval
Staff. The incumbent Group Managing Director of the NNPC is also our
son.
“And don’t forget that we also produced an elected governor.
“The PDP-led Federal Government has also
provided the multi-billion dollar Gurara Dam that has ensured thousands
of hectares of land for irrigation aside electricity and drinking water
for the immediate environment and the FCT.
“The average Southern Kaduna has never asked for unmerited favour.”
He described the allegations that PDP
had taken the area for granted as false and untenable, pointing out that
every community had gained from the PDP government in one way or the
other.
Balat said that Buhari was the “least qualified’’ to allege any neglect of the area.
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