Last week, I read a write up by a chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Bauchi state one Bibi Dogo in which he made several unfounded, untrue, baseless and malicious allegations against the minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Hajiya Sadiya Farouq.
In the said write up which he shared on various social media platforms with the caption “How Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, embarks on gubernatorial campaign for her husband”, the old man who is supposed to be a gentleman at his oldage however showcased his desperation once again for relevance and recognition from the PDP led Bauchi state government.
Ordinarily, I would not want to join issues with Bibi Dogo because I am not a politician and his recent piece was full of mendacious and misleading assertions which are not the kind of stuffs I like commenting on.
But for two reasons, I deemed it necessary to respond to him so that I will state the facts and save the ignorant ones from being misled by his malice and negative propaganda just to make himself relevant to government.
First of all, he mentioned my NGO Mayaka Health and Education Mobilization Association’ (MAHEMA) in that piece alleging that the minister pumps resources to us to campaign for a gubernatorial aspirant in the state RTD. Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar who is the husband of the minister.
He also accused that the minister gives us items which we distribute to only members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and those in the camp of her husband. What a baseless assertion!
Secondly, I will respond in order to scuttle his negative plan to stop the interventions sent to the good people of Bauchi state especially the downtrodden ones from the ministry and federal government. If such interventions stop coming, definitely Dogo as a political sychophant has nothing to lose because he can praise political leaders irrationally to get foods while the stoppage of such interventions will be detrimental to the common man. Therefore, it is imperative to refute him so people will understand his selfish motives and continue to receive humanitarian assistance from the ministry.
Having summarized the content of his empty article, let me state the facts for everyone to know the kind of person Dogo is. It is pertinent to know that Hajiya Sadiya Faruq is the first humanitarian affairs minister in the country since the creation of the ministry by President Muhammadu Buhari. The mandate of the ministry is to among other things implement the administration’s Social Investment Programmes (SIPs) and other humanitarian policies of the government.
There is no gainsaying the fact that the minister is doing well to achieve the federal government’s set goals of mitigating poverty and providing social welfare services to the needy through the ministry. She is unbiased in discharging her duties as her services are extended to all states governed by either the PDP, APC or any political party which I will point out later in this noble article.
Moreso, Bibi Dogo insinuated that the minister sidelines Bauchi state government in her programmes in the state. This is also untrue as everything she does in Bauchi is with the cooperation of the Bauchi state government. For instance, during her last function in the state where she lunched a scheme tagged ‘One off grant’, she supported 200 poor women in Bauchi state with the sum of N20, 000 each as part of federal government’s social investment programme. The lunch of the programme took place at the government house Bauchi, to be precise at the office of the governor’s wife Hajiya Aisha Bala Mohammed.
The minister while presenting the money to the beneficiaries at the office of the wife of the Bauchi state governor explained that the scheme targets 150, 000 poor rural women across the 36 states of the federation and the federal capital territory. So you can see that Bibi Dogo’s assertion has no element of truth which is improper and ungentlemanly for an old man like him who is in his late seventies to resort to falsehood just to smear some individuals, organizations or to seek relevance. If the minister sidelines the state government or renders assistance to only the APC stalwarts as alleged by him, then why did she flag off the program at the PDP occupied government house?
As a matter of fact, the honourable minister only made symbolic presentation to few beneficiaries of the scheme leaving the state first lady, other NGOs and stakeholders to continue from there. So, how would he suspect that the minister favours only the APC members and her husband’s supporters in her activities when she saddled the responsibility of selecting the beneficiaries and sharing the goodies to the governor’s wife, NGOs and community leaders? That is an indication that Hajiya Sadiya Farouq is only discharging her duties devoid of political sentiments.
As she stated during the lunch of the scheme, it is a national programme to be implemented in the 36 states of the federation. These 36 states are ruled by different political parties.
In addition, the rapacious Bibi Dogo called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to monitor the activities of the minister whom he falsely alleged started campaigning for her husband as next governor of Bauchi state even before the time of campaign. But we challenge him to provide any audio, video or link of any publication by newspapers to show us anywhere the minister mentioned her husband or his party as she distributed items or lunched welfare programmes in Bauchi state. The fact is that, she never talked about her husband anywhere. If he cannot provide evidence, then Bibi Dogo should retract his claims and apologize to the honourable minister over his libellous post. This is the only thing he should do to rescue his dented image.
On his accusation that the ministry of humanitarian services pumps money to MAHEMA and sends items which we allegedly share to APC members only, I want to once again debunk him. And just as I have proven him wrong on the assertion that the minister sidelines Bauchi state government and favours APC members in the state with facts, I will also prove to the readers that his claims against MAHEMA are fictitious too.
MAHEMA is a non profit, non governmental, non religious and non political organization created with the objective of empowering women and youth, improving maternal and child health and rising the educational status of vulnerable children in Bauchi state.
The NGO was established since 1999 and had been rendering charity services to all the needy irrespective of their religious or political inclinations.
We have been partnering with many organizations including UNICEF, CEDPA, World Bank and Turkish embassy among others to execute social welfare programs in communities within the state.
MAHEMA activities are purely humanitarian services with focus on the areas of health, education, women/youth empowerment, environmental climate change and peace and conflict resolution.
It is in this regards and respect and considering the performance of MAHEMA and its track records, the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development considers us as one of the credible NGOs to work with in Bauchi state in providing humanitarian services.
Thus, the existing partnership between the ministry and MAHEMA is made since before the gubernatorial aspirant Rtd. Air Marshall in Bauchi state.
The NGO engages community and religious leaders to identify the deserving persons in their domains. For any body to suggest that we are campaigning for a governorship aspirant despite the fact that reputable international organizations also work with us, the person has ulterior motive.
Aminu is the CEO of MAHEMA.
