If you had missed this news last week, by seeing it now I am sure you will be saying: "wow, are you kidding me?" That is exactly how I reacted when I first saw it in one of the dailies last week. That the transition committee set up by the incoming governor of Kano state has discovered that the out going, oh sorry, the out gone Mallam Shekarau's led government had spent #4 billion in hotel bills in the state in its 8 years. The government neither confirm nor deny the allegations, the action which fortified people's belief that it actually incurred the bills. The only explanation (not officially though) came from the former Legal adviser to the ANPP Kano chapter, Dr Baffa Danagundi who said even if it was true the government had actually spent that lot on hotel bills, he was sure it was approved by the State Assembly.
With all due respect, this is indeed lame attempt at justifying this irresponsible, reckless and unwarranted expenditure by the government. I can't say the government did not have cause to spend that much on hotels, but it is certainly clear that it was not prudent especially taking into consideration that there is a state owned hotel which was abandoned by the government and which 1/4 of this money would have been more than enough to transform it into a decent hotel that the government can accommodate any guests that may have cause to come to the state on an official visit. The hotel is situated in an area that is one of the best in the state. At some point, the staff of this hotel threatened to embark on strike over what they called nonchalant attitude of the government to their welfare and well being of the hotel. It is sad that its not only the hotel and its staff that suffer this neglect from the government, but even the road that the hotel is located on has been neglected. The effect of this is total collapse of business of the hotel as one can not even access the hotel as a result of extremely poor condition of the road. There is only one explanation to this, ie, the government abandoning the hotel and its incurring this bills on hotels; somebody, somewhere was certainly getting a very huge commission from these transactions. This is what can only explain this irrationality. Whatever is the case, the incoming government owes a duty to the people of Kano to investigate and unearth the truth in this seemingly shoddy deal, fingers crossed.
Goje Commissioned Four Billion Naira Stadium.
It is four billion Naira affair too in Gombe as the outgoing governor and senator elect Danjuma Goje commissioned a "state of the art" stadium that engulfed #4 billion. When one hears something like this especially when 'state of the art' is used to describe the stadium, one would begin to think that this stadium is
definitely up there with the likes of Emirates stadium of Arsenal and or Abuja National stadium, both of them having 60,000 plus seats. Well, if you had thought of that, I am sorry to say you are absolutely wrong. This stadium we are talking about has only 12,000 seats and it cost $ 250,000,000. Yeah dollars of course! OK, if you still don't get my point let me put it this way; Abuja National stadium built by Obasanjo cost $360,000,000 and we all know that there was so much cries that the stadium was too costly. Emirates Stadium of Arsenal f/c of England was built at $390,000,000, and both these stadiums are 60,000 plus seaters!
Isn't it logical that a stadium built by a Nigerian based firm that cost $250,000,000 to at least have fourty to fourty five thousand seats? More so, when we compare the cost of this one and those ones with 60,000, seats? So much for the mind to ponder.
God bless Nigeria!
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