On Tuesday 22 November, 2011 the Dailytrust newspaper published my article with the caption: Revisiting Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation. In that piece, yours sincerely attempted to draw the attention of the general public on the inability of the Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation secretariat to appropriately use the money gathered at its launching to effectively kick-start it. I lamented that “…collecting the money for the project was the easy part of the assignment…” whilst “…spending it appropriately to kick-start the foundation has proved to be the difficult part."
I wondered that 2yrs after the foundation was launched, “…neither the foundation secretariat nor its BOT had for once thought it proper and wise to brief the nation and in particular the north of the activities at the foundation headquarters.” The same piece went further to identify the fact that since the foundation`s launching at Murtala Mohammed Square in Kaduna on 17 November, 2009, where a whooping N5.5bn was realized, we heard of the foundation only a few times.
Since the foundation was launched, one of the few times anyone heard anything connected to it, I noted, “was when the WeeklyTrust of Saturday 13 November, 2010 reported of the happenings at the foundation secretariat in Kaduna.” I therefore challenged the Foundation secretariat to provide explanations on the alleged N8million fraud perpetrated during its launching, which unnamed "people in Minna" were accused of being the culprits as contained in the WeeklyTrust reportage.
I also challenged the foundation secretariat to tell the world whether or not all the pledges made during the launching have been redeemed. And in a response to my article, on Tuesday 29 November, 2011, Dr. Shettima Ali the foundation head deliberately attended to the issues I raised with disdain which I understand is the only tactic left for him to handle them for inadequacy of points to buttress his position. He noted that regarding the “…finances, the concerned public should rest assured that they are being managed well, safely invested, realizing good results from the investments to be used for more intervention activities. Redeeming of all pledged amounts is also vigorously being pursued with significant success. As an institution bound by the rules of best practice and good governance and inspired by Sardauna`s legacy of forthrightness we shall publish our audited accounts when ready.”
It is now over 2 years since these statements were made that is 5 years after the foundation was launched and the concerned public is yet to see anything that justifies that the finances are being “…managed well, safely invested and realizing good results…” In plain terms, since the concerned public is yet to be told whether or not all the pledges made have been redeemed, we are as much unaware of what was being managed well and safely invested. Much the same, no one is aware of the investment kind that is realising the good results.
Still, despite an inspiration “...by Sardauna`s legacy of forthrightness..” the concerned public is yet to have the foundation`s audited accounts almost 5 years since it was launched. This gives room for several assumptions. For instance one will be forgiven to assume that those at the helm of affairs at the foundation secretariat only run the place much like a private estate. And with this assumption, Dr. shettima will surely be worried that I feel “…so negative about the north`s capacity to get good ideas off the ground”.
But I never doubt the North's capacity to deliver. Even the last time I wrote on this, yours sincerely was rather explicit about the fact that it is for graft and corrupt tendencies and belief in falsehood that our leaders will find it difficult to ever get it right. The North's capacity to deliver has never been in the doubt. In fact, I am of the firm conviction that the North has all it takes to get good ideas off the ground. The North has all the intellects and human resources needed to provide it the requisite leadership capable of repositioning it to greater heights.
Jarmajo can be reached via wala_seko@yahoo.com On Twitter: @mukhtarjarmajo
No comments:
Post a Comment