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May 13, 2024
Confirming this development on his Facebook page, an aide to the Senator, Dawuud Auwal also shared a link to a report about the project.
A Nigerian senator representing Kano Central Senatorial District, Rufai Hanga has explained that seeking God’s mercy was what pushed him to donate 2,000 clay pots and 10,500 yards of white cloth (called ‘Likkadani’ in Hausa) to the Muslim graveyards in his constituency.
Hanga, who is the Deputy Minority Chief Whip of the 10th Senate and a member of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, received a backlash from the public a few days ago following reports of his donation of burial materials to his people.
This was revealed in a post shared by a popular Hausa platform @VoiceofHausa, saying: “This is a constituency project of Sen. Rufa'i Sani Hanga, Senator representing Kano Central.
“Instead of building hospitals, he distributed 5,000 pots and white cloths for the burial of the people of his senatorial District.”
Confirming this development on his Facebook page, an aide to the Senator, Dawuud Auwal also shared a link to a report about the project.
He praised the Senator for his foresight, writing, “Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah A Newspaper Named Newsveo Revealed The Good Things That Senator Rufai Hanga Has Brought To His Region In 2024, After I See You On My Facebook Page I See The Contentment Of What They Did And The Truth Of The Conversation Is Why They Did It.”
Speaking on the development, Hanga maintained the donation was not part of his constituency project as widely reported.
In his first news conference since his election in 2023, Hanga stated that such a gesture was not new. He said it was something he had been doing even before his election.
He added that it was a family legacy he grew up seeing and inheriting, which he hoped to continue throughout his life.
“We made the donation to Kano state committee for the graveyards headed by Dangoribar Kano and district head of Tarauni Local government. We had found out that clay pots were lacking in most of our graveyards and decided to donate,” he was quoted as saying by Daily Trust.
Hanga said he faced health challenges after he was elected a senator and spent seven months in hospitals in Nigeria. He said he was later flown to Egypt and England, where he spent three months each on the hospital bed.
The politician stated that despite his physical condition, which he was still recovering from, he was able to make substantial contributions to improve the lives of his constituents using his resources.
He boasted that he was successful in getting several projects for his area included in the 2023 budget, and that he will monitor their implementation.
SaharaReporters had also reported how the President Bola Tinubu-led Nigerian government approved the sum of N2.5billion for Senate President Godswill Akpabio to procure deep freezers, generators and other items as empowerment projects for the people of his constituency.
A screenshot of the budget shared by a popular social media critic, Mahdi Shehu on X revealed that the Federal Ministry of Women's Affairs inserted five different empowerment projects for the people of Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District.
“N2.5BILLION APPROVED FOR AKPABIO TO BUY DEEP FREEZERS FOR HIS CONSTITUENCY: Wonders shall never end. Anyway, with Akpabio, anything and everything is possible, considering his past records, how he emerged as Senate president without being a candidate in an election. Disgusting,” Mahdi captioned the screenshot.
On April 29, 2022, SaharaReporters reported that Senator Aliyu Wamakko had donated wrappers and cash to indigent women in Sokoto.
Wamakko, a former governor of the state, represents Sokoto North senatorial district.
According to NAN, the donation was part of his perennial gestures to the beneficiaries to cushion the effects of poverty as they celebrated the Eid-el-Fitr.
Bashar Abubakar, the New Media Aide to Wamakko, said in a statement that the former governor personally distributed the Sallah packages to the beneficiaries.
Abubakar said the beneficiaries included young girls, ladies and old women.
According to Abubakar, the beneficiaries were each given a set of wrappers and cash to sew the fabrics.
SaharaReporters in February 2022 also reported how a councillor in Sokoto donated two plastic mats to Sadada community in the Kebbe Local Government Area of the state.
The councillor also took pictures with the beneficiaries while making the donations.
Such ridiculous donations made by politicians are not new in Nigeria.
The list of items that have been distributed by public office holders to their people includes tricycles, motorcycles, grinding machines, water sachets and shoe-shining starter kits.
SaharaReporters had reported how donkeys were given out in Kano and cassava stems in Anambra as economic empowerment by government representatives.
SaharaReporters had reported how an aide to the Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, once distributed wheelbarrows with the inscription, "Gov Ortom for You".
The argument was that the beneficiaries would use the wheelbarrows to run errands and hawk.
The wheelbarrow empowerment initiative resurfaced in Taraba State as a member of the House of Representatives, Maigari Bello-Kasimu, representing Jalingo/Yorro/Zing federal constituency, distributed wheelbarrows to empower some members of his constituency.
"All of them used to hire wheelbarrows and push to earn their living, but now they have the opportunity of owning their wheelbarrows," the spokesperson for the lawmaker, Saidu Na-Anabi, said during the presentation.
Similarly, the late caretaker chairperson of Nsukka Local Government Area in Enugu State, Chinwe Ugwu, also gave wheelbarrows to youths in the area for economic empowerment.
"These are poor people who cannot afford to buy wheelbarrows but had to hire for between N200 and N300 per day," Ugwu said in response to critics.
Similarly, then-Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, said he spent N208 million to empower Mai Shayi or tea sellers in the state by giving them items like cartons of noodles, crates of eggs, spaghetti, bread, cocoa beverages, liquid and powdered milk, brown and white sugar, nylon and cups.
Also, the late Commissioner for Education in Katsina State, Halimatu Idris, handed out goats to female students at Government Girls Arabic Secondary School, Dutsinma.
The goats were reportedly given to female students in 20 secondary schools who were expected to return the nanny goats to the state government after a year.
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