The deception of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration in Gombe State has led to total collapse of infrastructures, a governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State, Jibrin Barde, has said.
Barde, who said this yesterday in Abuja during an interview with journalists, promised to provide a leadership that is committed to the development of his home State if given the chance to secure the APC ticket
A former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sun Trust said he decided to contest the exalted office because “ every development indices you can think of have collapsed", stressing that when Gombe State is compared to others in terms of allocation received over the years, the State "is not developing".
Barde said, "I have reached the pinnacle of carrier as a banker and it is time to give back to the society and the only way I can do that is to take the position of leadership. We have a clear vision of empowering the youths.
“I want to ensure that governance can be done with a high corporate responsibility. The [PDP] administration is full of deception. It is a time bomb that is waiting to explode. When you have young energetic youth who are actually jobless, it is a fatal ground for a lot of things. We need to harness these resources and that is why I have decided to join the race.”
On the purported infrastructure decay in Gombe State, Barde said, “Our people have no access to potable drinking water, it doesn’t take the state government [anything] to maintain the dam that was constructed.
“Our education system has completely collapsed. Some of the children do not have classes they study under the trees. The hygiene is below human standard. This is totally unacceptable given the huge amount of funds the state government has received.
“I was challenged by my 11-year-old daughter who I was taking to school. She said now that your generation has failed and I look at her and I said ‘what do you mean?’ She said you are going to make my generation fail. It got me thinking."
On the reason why he joined tbe race, the APC chieftain said, "we don’t have to sit on the fence any longer. My state consists of about 11 local governments in the north-eastern part of the country and in the last seven years, the resources that came our way has been mismanaged. All the development indices you can think of have collapsed."
On the crisis rocking the state chapter of the APC, Barde said that there was no crisis but disagreement.
“I don’t see any crisis in the party to be honest with you. Reconciliation does not mean that there is crisis. The party is intact as far as I know. There is no division in the party. Disagreement is allowed. So, it is a natural process and it is healthy for a democratic process,” he also said.
