ZUL-HAJJ 13 1430 A.H.
MONDAY NOVEMBER . 30 2009.
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Lawmaker seeks fair allocation of political offices in Kaduna
To ensure a sense of belonging to all senatorial zones, Rep. Joseph Gumbari has called for a fair sharing of top offices in Kaduna state.
At present, the governor, the speaker of the State House of Assembly and the PDP chairman come from the North and Central zones, leaving nothing to the South senatorial zone.
But Gumbari, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Abuja on Sunday, opined that mutual political trust would be enhanced, if the top posts were shared to give each zone a taste of ``some real power’’.
The lawmaker, who noted that the posts were elective, appealed for ``some understanding from our counterparts in the other senatorial districts''.
He suggested a fairer zoning formula that would enable the southern part of the state to bag the top posts as politicians from there were always at the receiving end of criticisms by those who say that the politicians were not good negotiators.
``We are always told that Kaduna state politics revolved around the tripod of north, central and south and the trio should really be seen as having an equal stake in the political marriage,’’ he said.
Gumbari also commented on the debate on the deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry and declared that he would never support a ``100 per cent removal of subsidy in the oil sector’’.
``It is not time for that; the people have not been educated enough to appreciate why that may be necessary.
``I think the only thing we can do now is to increase the prices to generate more funds since the other segments of the economy depend solely on money from the oil sector.
``We need more roads, schools and hospitals, for instance. So we have to devise ways of generating more funds to meet such demands,’’ he said.
He also spoke on his scholarship programme and explained that a committee had been set up to determine the number of students qualified to benefit from it.
Details of the scholarship scheme as advertised in some newspapers, showed that the implementation committee, led by Mr Peter Isa, a lecturer in the Geography Department, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, will shortlist only students with an average score of 3.5 as their GPA.
``Our intention is to encourage young students from the south of the state to work hard towards getting good grades at graduation,’’ Gumbari said.
