I can sign N50b contracts, says Daggash

Works and Housing minister Senator Mohammed Sanusi Daggash may have been granted the authority to sign N50billion contracts without recourse to the President, it has been learnt.

Daggash made this known at a one-day seminar for his kinsmen in Maiduguri, Borno State.

He said he was amongst few Federal Government appointees that enjoy such fiscal powers that governors don’t have.

He said: “only I, among the 42 ministers, can sign out a contract of over N50 billion today and even the President will not question it.”

The seminar was organised by the Neighbour-to-Neighbour Group, a branch of the Goodluck/Sambo 2011 campaign organisation in Maiduguri. He was trying to convince the people on why they should vote for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) both at the state and federal levels so that they could enjoy benefits of being in a ruling party at the centre.

His words; “We in Borno State must understand that there are many benefits attached to having a government whose party controls the federation, there are usually many benefits attached to it. We have suffered and lacked many federal presence simply because we have been in the opposition. But with the Federal Government, we stand to enjoy many things… just take for example, some times back I was together with the governors of Benue and Bauchi states and I asked them if any one of them as governors can at a time sign a contract of N50 billion, and they all said it was not within their powers; then I told them that only I, amongst 42 ministers, can sign out a contract of over N50 billion today and even the President cannot question it. Jonathan at the federal level”.

‘Goodluck/Sambo Neighbour-to-neighbour campaign, the Islamic Concern’ did not however impress many participants at the function as they inquire about what he has been able to use such powerful office to impart on the state.

One, Mallam Gaji Modu a local trader and politician who spoke to journalists at the end of the event said “he (Daggash) should be ashamed of telling us how he spends money, because he has not done anything for us politicians here to make us appreciate his powers in Abuja. Hausa people do say that the dog does not belief there is a feast in the house of his owner until he sees bones on ground. If true he can sign those multibillion naira contracts, let him come home and do something for us to see”.

Others who commented on the issue lamented the insensitivity of the

PDP stalwarts in Borno state, as they decried that they only hear how influential they are in Abuja, but when they come home “they pretend they don’t know that we are all suffering here”.

A top supporter of the PDP in Borno who preferred to remain anonymous

lamented that “is it not funny to say that you can sign N50 billion contract that even the president cannot question, yet the Goni campaign train is in serious cash-strap?”

The one day seminar, which had former FCT minister, Engineer Mohammed

Abba-Gana as its chairman, focussed on sensitizing electorates not to vote along religious lines, but to judge and vote President Jonathan base on his good works and intentions for the country.