A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Niger State, Jonathan Vatsa, has adduced reasons why former President Muhammadu Buhari allegedly neglected Niger State for the eight years he was in power.
The former Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism in Niger State stated this on Wednesday in Minna.
Vatsa, who spoke with newsmen in the Niger State capital, said Buhari’s action was over the August 27, 1985 putsch that threw him out of power, led by former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, who is from Niger State.
He said despite that fact that Niger State gave the APC the highest votes in the 2015 and 2019 elections that saw the election and reelection of Buhari, he shut door against the state “simply because of his unforgiving spirit against Babangida over the 1985 coup against him”.
He added: “The only benefit the state got from Buhari’s government were failed promises and abandoned federal projects all over the state, including the ones he awarded and those he inherited.
“In all elections that Buhari contested in the country before becoming president, Niger State has always given him maximum votes.
“It is, therefore, unfair for him to treat Niger state the way he did in his eight years rule.
“Look at the Suleja-Minna dual carriage, the Lambata-Agaie-Bida highway, Minna-Tegina-Kontagora roads, the Kontagora-Rijau-Tungan Magajiya road, the Baro port project, the Bida Basin oil exploration and many more.”
The former Publicity Secretary of the APC in Niger State said “none of these projects saw the light of the day, all because his hatred for one individual”.
Vatsa said Buhari did not pay a single official visit to Niger State over his hatred for Babangida.
He added: “The two times he came to the state was in Baro where he commissioned an empty port and in Sunti sugar company where he laid a foundation for a multibillion sugar company that never saw the light of the day.”
Vatsa then appealed to President Ahmed Bola Tinubu to redress the wrongs of Buhari against the people of the state by completing all the abandoned Federal Government projects in the state for the benefit of the common man.
