……..House of Assembly begins public hearing on Disabilities bill
The Chairman of Gombe Network of Civil Society Organisations, Ibrahim Yusuf, says his members are not part of those planning protest over the hardship in the state and country, adding that President Bola Tinubu’s recently announced relief is yet to arrive the state.
Yusuf made these disclosures on Monday at Gombe State House of Assembly, during the public hearing on Gombe State Social Investment Programme Agency and Persons With Disabilities Protection and Establishment of Commission and other related matters bills.
Yusuf who lamented the hardship denounced the participation of his members in the forthcoming protest, adding that “We are not part of the protest. The truth is, there are things we need to acknowledge and confront. The majority of the messages I receive are requests for assistance because people are struggling with hunger and anger. That’s why they’re waiting for action. While the Federal Government has distributed palliatives to the state governments, we haven’t seen any evidence of this in Gombe State. It’s imperative that we hold our leaders accountable for addressing the grievances of the protesters.”
Speaking further he added, “Furthermore, the distribution of fertilisers is another issue. His Excellency directed that 50 per cent of the fertilisers should go to a specific group, but so far, we’ve only seen a select few with access to these resources. The truth is, this system needs to be change.”
Speaking earlier, Gombe State Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General Barrister Zubairu Umar, said following change in situation government is now obliged to feeding its citizens, stressing that the responsibility of government is to create enabling environment.
He said, “We are in a dire situation.Much as we agree that the whole idea of government is protection of lives and property and the well-being of people government is not supposed to be the one to give you feeding. It’s not the responsibility of government you are to look for feeding by yourself all government needs to do is to give you the enabling environment.
“Unfortunately, in Nigeria that’s not happening things are not happening the way they should happen, circumstances have made the situation so bad that government will have to intervene, government is obliged to give you food.”
In his welcome address, Speaker of Gombe State House of Assembly Abubakar Luggerewo, explained that the first Bill was presented to the house as an executive Bill and there is no doubt that it is timely considering the current economic hardships faced by not only citizens of Gombe State but Nigerians in general.
Luggerewo said, “The objectives that this Bill seeks to achieve when passed into Law will go a long way in ameliorating these hardships and improving the standard of living of the citizens of Gombe State. I would like to commend His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Gombe State, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahya -(Danmajen Gombe) for presenting this Bill at this critical period which goes to show that he has the welfare of his citizens at heart and is desirous of seeing that the dividends of democracy reach the nooks and crannies of Gombe State.
“The second Bill is a private member Bill which seeks to ensure full inclusion of persons with disabilities into the society, improve their quality of life, ensure that they lead their lives with dignity without discrimination and with equal opportunities. I commend the sponsor of this important Bill and also the other co-sponsors for having the foresight in presenting this Bill before the Honourable House for passage into Iaw.”
