From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Member, representing Bida South constituency, Niger State House of Assembly, Hon. Mohammed Haruna has said that politicians have legislative and political obligations to give back to the youths and society, dividends of democracy without hesitating.
Hon. Haruna who is the Chairman, House Committee on Youth development in the State House of Assembly said he has so far empowered 300 youths in his constituency.
The lawmaker who is an Alumni of Kaduna Polytechnic fielded questions from Reporters in Kaduna on sideline of Annual General Meeting of the Alumni association at the weekend.
He also said that he has rendered some selfless services to his alma-mata by fixing some equipment in the laboratory, adding that he would continue to support his former school in areas of need.
“I have a natural penchant for youth empowerment, and so since I joined politics, I have focused on Youth empowerment in my constituency and largely due to my background in youth activities.
“To that extent I was able to empower 300 youths in 2017 in various areas of skills, ranging from aluminum fabrication, welding, barbing saloon, and other areas of trade and skills acquisition programme. This is in addition to health intervention programme where I provided medical outfits. And more than 600 people from benefited from this programme. There was surgery where fibroid is removed from our people who suffered such illness and similar sickness.
“To my credit I have renovated several classrooms, built 12 classrooms so far in the constituency.
“The motivating factor in doing all these is the desire to enhance the well-being of our people. More so that there is basic allowance from the budget to take care of those things.
“Even if you are good at the legislature, the common man will not appreciate you if you have not fixed a vandalised transformer, provide basic social amenities for him. The provisions are there for the people, once you get it, you put them into use by the people”. He said.
The lawmaker also spoke on insecurity in the State, saying, “Niger State is one of the States in North Central State that is faced with serious issue of insecurity.
“I want to believe that government is doing its best about insecurity, but I still believe that there is more to be done. Fighting crimes and criminality is a very serious problem that is bedevilling us in the State”.
Speaking on the meeting of the Alumni, he said, “The essence of alumni association is to identify critical stakeholders to reach out to coursemates to fill the gaps of empowerment of graduates.
“From my own efforts, I have been able to fix some equipments in engineering department. I have also reached out to technical and vocational centres that the school has established to see how I can motivate them so that the trainees can be fixed after graduation.
“There is no doubt that Kaduna Polytechnic has taken the lead in vocational training among other institutions across Nigeria. This is the first of its kind, and it is already yielding results, and that is the direction we are going”.
The State Legislator urged Nigerians to pick interest in playing politics, arguing that, “If I don’t join politics and you don’t join, then who play the politics. If you don’t join you leave the stage for the bad eggs, you will continue to remain the back stander.
“You must be part of problems in politics, just identify which area you can fit in. It is not necessary mean that you must contest election before you participate in politics. There are many ways you can contribute your quota to politics”.