Don't Listen To Buhari,Balat Tells Southern Kaduna People

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.