Rural Dwellers Won’t Enjoy Democracy Dividends Without Constituency Projects – Dogara
BY AMOS DUNIA, ABUJA – Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara said the controversy-ridden Federal legislators’ zonal interventions and constituency projects have brought hope and the benefits of democracy to many communities nationwide.
He insisted that if not for such insightful arrangement, many rural dwellers would have been shut out completely from enjoying democracy dividends on all fronts
Dogara, who stated this while commissioning a 10 Km KvA Extension line rural electrification project, facilitated by Hon. Ahmed Abubakar Yunusa in Kwali, Yamaltu/Deba Federal Constituency, Gombe State, said the importance of electricity to the socio-economic development of the people cannot be over emphasized.
According to him; “If you go to all the nooks and crannies of this country, the only visible projects that you will see are the zonal intervention projects embarked upon by either Senators or Honourable Members.
“If not for the intervention we have from the federal budget, I can assure you that communities like this will not have a single project. We are happy that through the ingenuity of members of parliament and the support of the executive, we are able to have zonal interventions that have brought meaningful projects to our constituencies”.
He urged the benefitting communities to make judicious use of the project, to generate employment and create wealth, noting that, “Light should bring development. Use the light to set up business ventures and engage in entrepreneurship, and by that generate local employment and wealth”.
Speaker Dogara, who also used the occasion to flag off the distribution of fertilizers provided by Hon Yunusa to support farmers in his constituency, underscored the importance of farming to the socio-economic well-being of the people.
He urged well-to-do individuals to invest in agriculture rather than estates, saying that such change of focus will add more value and help create wealth and generate employment among the populace.
While commending the member for providing fertilizers to farmers in his constituency and for numerous other empowerment initiatives, the Speaker urged them to reciprocate the gesture by supporting the lawmaker in all his endeavours.
“For us, when we see a member doing exceedingly well like Hon. Yunusa has done, it is our duty to support him, it is our duty to help promote him in the sense that we need to have people like him in the House for us to maintain institutional memory. And we need to have people like him who can always speak for Gombe State, for his constituency, the North/East and Nigeria in General”.
