The Northern Youths Council of Nigeria (NYCN) has condemned an alleged campaign of calumny against Senator Barau Jibrin (APC, Kano North) by some elements ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The youths said the lawmaker is one of the top performing at the National Assembly and therefore wondered why his hard earned reputation would be smeared because of politics.
The NYCN, in a statement on Monday signed by its National President Isah Abubakar, said the news report that the senator awarded contracts to himself is not only callous and barefaced lies that can’t withstand any minutest scrutiny.
They urged politicians, particularly of northern extraction, to eschew pull-him-down syndrome and work towards the betterment of the society.
The statement reads, “We are an organisation that is interested in the welfare and well-being of the Youths of Northern Nigeria.
Our attention has been drawn to a write-up in an online newspaper, Solace Base, against the person of Senator Barau Jibrin, the Senator representing Kano North Senatorial District in the National Assembly.
The report intends to smear his character .
We found out after a thorough investigation that the write-up is similar to an initial write-up sent to our organisation by some elements against the Senator who wanted us to smear the image of the hard working Senator which we refused after we found out that their allegations were utterly false.
Now, because of our love for Northern Youths and our desire to discharge our mandate for better future for Northern Youths, we conducted due diligence and investigations on these allegations, having avoided the temptation to unjustly crucify the Senator without checking facts of the matter and our investigations have brought to light that certain elements that are not Youth-friendly and are against the development of the Entire Northern Region are not happy with the development projects and strides that Senator Barau is bringing to his Senatorial District and the entire North in general.
We uncovered that the desire of these unpatriotic people was and is still driven by jealousy and Pull-Him-Down-Syndrome – “If not me, no one else”. It is for this reason that when we saw the report by Solace Base on Senator Barau Jibrin, we decided to swing into action once more to ascertain the veracity of what is contained in the report as stated below:
1. Our investigations reveal that the allegation that Senator Barau Jibrin awarded contract to himself or his personal company is utterly false as our search at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) indicated that he is not a director in the company and thus, not a part owner or sole owner of the company as he had resigned as a director on assumption of office as a Senator.
A simple investigation at CAC would have revealed this fact to the reporter. We are therefore compelled to believe that his action is against the ethics and practice of responsible journalism and has exposed him as an incompetent journalist and hatchet writer and could be sued for lying against the Senator. Furthermore, it is a fact that the Senator is a legislator who does not work in the Executive arm of Government and therefore cannot award contracts to himself or anybody. Our findings have indeed shown that Senator Jibrin has never intervened in the award of contracts in any agency or ministry. If this reporter has any contrary proof, we challenge him to bring it out.
2. Our investigations also revealed that the report on National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) buildings housing the purported non-functional E-learning centres at Gwarzo, Tofa, Bichi, Kabo and Danbatta has shown the incompetence of Solace Base and has indeed established that the fake report is a hatchet job dumped on the medium to publish. This is indeed a sad story for journalism as our one day investigation reveal to us that those E-learning centres were indeed built, but later redesigned, improved and transformed into National Open University (NOUN) Study Centres and are currently functional with students enrolment and unprecedented innovative ideas which has brought University education to the door steps of the five local Government areas. It is instructive that the Senator facilitated the establishment of eight fresh NOUN Training Centres in the remaining eight local governments of Kano North that did not have the E-learning Centres, making a total of 13 Centres in all. This means in all the 13 LGAs in his Senatorial district, there is a study centre of the National Open University! This wonderful initiative has made Kano North Senatorial District stand out amongst the Senatorial Districts in this country. This is because each LGA in the Senatorial Zone now has a Study Centre, meaning any of the youths could study in any of the Study Centres without travelling out or migrating far to other places to study and they can study from first degrees to PHDs without moving out of their locality.
Arrangements are currently in top gear to begin to use these Centres for JAMB examinations as well.
3. About the unsubstantiated issues of non-completion of Senator Barau’s Constituency Projects by the MDAs, our findings have revealed to us another shameful practice by this news medium as it failed to visit these MDAs to do proper findings about how the MDAs have executed projects in Kano North. We feel that if they had done due diligence, the MDAs would have shown them the location of these projects. Because when we were first confronted with these same allegations against Senator Barau Jibrin, we took our time to visit the MDAs and found out the status of the projects – All properly executed. In any case, the execution of Constituency Projects is not within the purview of the Senator but purely that of the executing Agencies or Ministries. We wonder whether the reporter is oblivious of these facts while going to town with his false stories against the Senator and lying against these Government Agencies. Our findings have shown that these agencies are doing very well in Kano North.
We are therefore vehement in our resolve to intervene in this issue because this is one of the best Legislators to have ever come from this part of Nigeria that is doing tremendous work to enhance the future of our youths in Kano North, Kano State and the entire Northern Nigeria. That he facilitated the establishment of 13 NOUN study Centres in all the LGAs of his Senatorial District is unprecedented and we are proud of this achievement because of the age-long disadvantage that we have had as a region in this country.
In addition to the establishment of 13 NOUN study Centres, some of the achievements of Senator Barau include but not limited to the followings in the area of youth development:
He has facilitated the establishment of Federal Polytechnic Kabo, in Kano State to be used by the entire Nigerian youths not only youths from Kano State for both learning and employment.
He is currently facilitating the establishment of Federal College of Education Technical Bichi campuses at Ganduje, Kunchi, and Shanono respectively all under his Senatorial Zone.
He is sponsoring a Bill in the National Assembly for the upgrading of FCE (technical) Bichi to Federal University of Education (Technical )Bichi.
He is also pursuing the transformation or upgrading of the Audu Bako College of Agriculture Danbatta to Federal University of Agriculture, Danbatta through a Bill in the National Assembly.
The Senator is also currently facilitating the establishment of the Nigerian Police Secondary School in Kano North Senatorial District, a project that is over 50% completion.
He is currently facilitating about 4 projects at Bayero University Kano(BUK), outside his Senatorial Zone, all in his patriotic desire to transform the lives of not only Northern youths but the entire country.
The projects In BUK are the Construction of School of Postgraduate Studies ,
Completion of Phase 1 of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine(Veterinary Anatomy),Construction and Equipping of Micro Teaching Laboratory in the Faculty of Education.
Not only that, he is also working to create an industrial base in his Senatorial Zone in other to create employment opportunities for the youths by facilitating the construction of electricity power stations in Kanye and Bichi in other to accentuate the springing up of industrial firms in the zone, there would definitely be opportunities to create jobs for the youths.
Also, part of his vision for the youths of his zone is to develop their sporting skills and enhance their physical and mental well-being. It is in this regard that he is facilitating the construction of Stadia at Bichi, Dawakin Tofa, Tofa, Gwarzo, Kabo, Zakirai, Dambatta and Tsanyawa and the construction of those of Bagwai, Shanono, Rimingado, Kunchi and Makoda will start very soon.The vision is to have a stadium in each of the 13 Local Government Areas in Kano North. The stadia are expected to be completed next year.
Senator Barau has secured employment for over 1000 youths in his sojourn in the National Assembly, the highest in the area so far. He has also facilitated as well as personally granted scholarships to students of his Senatorial Zone to study within and outside the country. This is in addition to payments of JAMB, WAEC and NECO fees for indigent students in his Senatorial zone and beyond.
Senator Barau did not stop at that, as part of his burning desire to uplift the lots of Northern Youths, he floated a Football Academy named Barau Academy through which he trains Northern Youths in football and facilitates a booming career for them in the round leather game. As at the last count, two Northern Football Players drawn from the Academy are in Iran for trials in one of the Top Division Clubs, while eight players also drawn from the Academy would be travelling Tuesday, 30th of August, 2022 to Poland for trials in the country’s top Division Leagues.
Little wonder, he was awarded the Most Outstanding Senator of the Year Award through a very competitive process.
We therefore regard Senator Barau Jibrin as a true lover of the youths in his Senatorial Zone, Kano State, Northern Nigeria, and the entire country. It has thus become incumbent on us not to allow anyone to deprive us of his Youth-friendly services in the next Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria through campaign of calumny sponsored by his political opponent(s). If anyone wants to challenge him, such a person is free, provided it is done through a democratic and civil means, not through shameful lies and falsehoods. The Northern Region is known for its rich culture of decorum and sincerity, this is what our forebears had taught us.
It may interest the public to know that our investigations have revealed to us that this orchestrated campaign of calumny against the performing Senator may be coming from an opponent of his who had the opportunity to serve this country in one of the vital education related Agencies of Government but his stay at the helms of affairs in that agency was a monumental disaster as he cancelled several projects to be executed in several universities shortly after he assumed office making those universities to lose the benefits of having those projects in their campuses.
He also stopped payments of allowances to so many Lecturers who were on scholarship studying in several institutions at home and abroad after his assumption of office causing them untold hardships, leading some to abandon their studies abroad while some had to sell their assets to survive. The character in question also brought in unnecessary and wicked policies that hampered the smooth functioning of the agency.
It is on record that he employed no youth during his sojourn in the agency. We challenged him to name two or three youths that he employed. He was later to betray his boss who brought him to limelight at the agency by refusing to work in tandem with the vision of his boss who was determined to take the agency to a higher height leading to his unceremonious and disgraceful removal from office.
If this man does not stop his antics and campaign of calumny against Senator Barau Jibrin, the youths of Northern Nigeria will not hesitate to investigate the various alleged bogus consultancy contracts that he awarded while in office and to whom. We shall also not hesitate to investigate the various landed properties he has in Abuja, earning rents in millions. We are interested in knowing how he acquired these properties.”
Finally, we believe that if those who wrote the report were from Kano North Senatorial District or Kano state they wouldn’t have allowed themselves to be used to smear the image of a Senator that has brought unprecedented development to Kano North and Kano State in general.
We doubt if they will ever contemplate writing this kind of fake report on the Senator representing them in the Senate if such Senator is performing like Senator Barau I.Jibrin. Please let’s love others as we love ourselves.
We therefore call on Solace Base or indeed any other media organization not to allow themselves to be used to scuttle the popular will of the people. The people should be allowed to freely elect their candidates through the polls not through the back doors of falsehoods orchestrated by political opponents. Enough is enough!
