When NIGERIA embarked on the transition to democracy in 1999, the party that swept away most of the elective offices was the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) which not only had the presidency and the majority of the National Assembly but also won 21 governorship seats.
One of the states the PDP took control of was Bauchi State in the North-East, which was created from the old North-Eastern State in 1976. The Fourth Republic ushered in for their fourth democratically elected governor in the person of Alhaji Ahmadu Mu’azu, a quantity surveyor and the PRESENT National Chairman of the PDP.

Mu’azu’s emergence was made possible with the backing of a banker, Mallam Isa Yuguda, who held sway at the now defunct Inland Bank, headquartered in Bauchi Town. His influence helped the PDP sweep the state, for which he was duly compensated with ministerial posts, first serving as the Ministry of Transportation for TWO years and then as Minister of Aviation for another two years, both under the Obasanjo administration.

At the end of the second term of Mu’azu, Yuguda made known his ambitions to succeed him. However, his erstwhile protégé was not enthused with the idea and he frustrated his ambition, forcing him to decamp to the then All NIGERIA Peoples’ Party (ANPP). He won the sympathy of the people of Bauchi State who felt he was betrayed by Mu’azu despite supporting him in 1999, and that combined with the massive popularity of now President-elect Muhammadu Buhari who ran in 2007 as the candidate of the ANPP, Yuguda won his election.

However, just like Mu’azu betrayed him, he has also turned around to betray the people of Bauchi State. First, he defected back to the PDP and abandoned the platform on which he was elected. He also went further to torment his then deputy governor, Alhaji Garba Gadi, a respected elder who was the ANPP candidate before he was persuaded by the party to cede his ticket to Yuguda and BECOME his running mate. Gadi’s crime was his refusal to defect to the PDP as he insisted on being loyal to the ANPP; for this, Yuguda ensured his impeachment.

After eight years, the best known achievement of Yuguda has been superficial: a primary school, the Sa’adu Zungur Primary School which he spent N800 million constructing and the construction of an international airport for N8bn, a misplaced project considering the fact that Bauchi has an airfield which is not used at all. His excuse for the airport has been that it is needed to attract international INVESTORSand to make it easier for intending pilgrims going for Hajj to head to Saudi Arabia.

However, there is very little economic sense in having an airport that will be used optimally for only ONE month in a year, especially when the Kano and Gombe Airports which are also used for ferrying pilgrims to the Holy Land are within 4-hour radius of the state.

Even worse, unlike his predecessor who is best known for building roads across the state, scarcely any road has been built by the Yuguda administration. Obviously, his predecessor knows the impact of roads on the economy – a kilometer of road constructed is said to increase economic activity in an area by 23% averagely. Sadly, not even potentially economic GOLD mines such as Nahuta in Alkaleri Local Government Area which has a lot of illegal mining of copper, zinc, lead and limestone going on there, even on a large scale has accessible, motorable roads leading there.

ONE would have thought that Governor Yuguda would have constructed such a road and formalized the mining activities in the area, and other areas with economic potential in order to raise the internally-generated revenue of the state. However, his ideas for raising revenue has been limited to increasing the signage fees of the few commercial establishments in the state, which are mostly banks and led them to removing their signages for months at a time.

So at the end of eight years of the Yuguda administration, what can then be said to be his legacy? He has barely any tangible capital projects to show for it, and he has not raised the revenue profile of the state. As a matter of fact, the FINANCES of the state are shrouded in opacity as the details of budgets passed by the state legislature of the state are not made public. As such, it is impossible to measure their execution.


This is a question that we feel Bauchi people are best placed to answer: what will you remember Yuguda for?

By Aisha Suliman

the would remember him for his incompetence thats all..i just feel pity for the people of bauchi they have been under the bondage of isa yuguda for 8yrs

It is so unfortunate that this people has lived under servitude for eight long years.....

This is a very nice article but you are actually not honest about your review.

To correct you, ISA YUGUDA is the best governor in bauchi's history of democracy from 1999 to date.

Some of his prestigious achievements includes:

1. State university
2. Teaching hospital
3. world class international airport
4. college of agriculture
5. 2800 employment opportunities
6. general hospital in all the 20 L.G.As in the state.
7. Human development
8. Ningi- Burra road
9.Alkaleri-Futuk road
10. Rishi- Rahama road
11. Turning yankari to international standard
12. scholarship to students
and so much more........

8yrs of trash, what is the EFCC doing about this, isa yuguda should be arrested immediately

@morgist i was watching a documentary about Isa yuguda's achievement in Bauchi state on NTA and only the Teaching hospital was the main area of focus not even the airport cuz it was jst shown in pictures and the documentary was produced by Bauchi state media crew.

Mr/mrs morgist you should be ashamed of yourself for that stupid comment. do you even know where bauchi is in the map of Nigeria. isa yuguda is a failed man. he is incompetent and should be investigated and locked up in jail for all the states money he used in buying properties and getting married for his sons, 8years and nothing to show.

@morgist 2800 employment opportunities in 8yrs WHAT A SHAME!!!

isa yuguda has severed Nigeria for 12years and he still wants to be a senator, what an ambitious failure. he still own bauchi dou, he installed both the ApC and PDP candidate which ever way he wins. how can a man be so greedy and selfish

2800 employment in 12years and you have the right to boost, dangote employes more than that in a month..

8yrs and nothing to show for but an airport that is very irrelevant in Bauchi SMH

8yrs of waste in Bauchi state wlai... his punishment is waitin for him hia on earth

have you seen the achievements of his colleagues in other states when u do u would know that what u claim he has done is nothing compered to his mates

morgist:
This is a very nice article but you are actually not honest about your review.

To correct you, ISA YUGUDA is the best governor in bauchi's history of democracy from 1999 to date.

Some of his prestigious achievements includes:

1. State university
2. Teaching hospital
3. world class international airport
4. college of agriculture
5. 2800 employment opportunities
6. general hospital in all the 20 L.G.As in the state.
7. Human development
8. Ningi- Burra road
9.Alkaleri-Futuk road
10. Rishi- Rahama road
11. Turning yankari to international standard
12. scholarship to students
and so much more........

this isa yuguda would be remembered for absolutely nothing..come to think of it nothing note worthy comes to mind when u hear his name thats very bad..

ISA YUGUDA SHOULD BE CROWNED THE WORST AND THE MOST CORRUPT GOVERNOR IN THE HISTORY OF NIGERIA. he is selfish and power driven. he runs the affair of the state from abuja. he get married every year, he is incompetent,he should go to jail for life, he is a waste of time, he is a failure to humanity, i can go on and on. but he is also so so so irrelevant, am happy he dint win the senate.

how can a man rule for 8yrs and nothing to show for,it is said that not much has changed or seriously improved in the last 8 yrs in Bauchi state

how would his state move forward wen he was more concerned about getting married to many wives,than running the affairs of the state,i guess he would be remembered for marrying many wives.. thats all

Ole, Barawo, Jaguda, Yuguda. This is why government in Nigeria is nothing but a system of patronage by which the country's oil wealth is siphoned off and frittered away year in, year out on "recurrent expenditure" I think someone should post pictures of untarred roads and dilapidated schools and hospitals in the state, which all this money should have been spent on. These are the sort of people marginalising Northern Youth and keeping them backward and illiterate.

Who said isa yuguda has no achivement check this out. He employed 940 Special advisers. Haha even the presidency dsnt have up to dat. But i think the picture bellow states why he needs that much

Though he betrayed us by defecting to PDP, but still, the truth will always be visible,
We will remember him with the following:
1. Bauchi state university;
2. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa International Airport(one of the best airport in terms of facilities);
3. Bauchi state specialist hospital, a hospital that has machines that even patients from abroad are expected, a hospital with cardiac center, a hospital that was designed in Saudi Arabia.
4. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University teaching hospital.
This are his projects that will last for generations and all Bauchi citizens must benefit from one of them in one way or the other.

Geraucald:
We will remember hi with the following:
1. Bauchi state university;
2. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa International Airport;
3. Bauchi state specialist hospital, a hospital that has machines that even patients from abroad are expected.
4. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University teaching hospital.
This are his projects that will last for generations.

the Airport that was tagged as unnecessary,the hospital that only u know about..these are a governors achievements for over 8yrs of been in power.. its a pity

amara45:
the Airport that was tagged as unnecessary,the hospital that only u know about..these are a governors achievements for over 8yrs of been in power.. its a pity

I'm not saying that he should be praised for only these things over 8years, about the hospital, every Bauchi citizen mst hav knws abt it. The fact that we will mention his failures, we should also be fair to his good side.

Geraucald:

I'm not saying that he should be praised for only these things over 8years, about the hospital, every Bauchi citizen mst hav knws abt it. The fact that we will mention his failures, we should also be fair to his good side.

and you are happy that a man who had over 8yrs to rule can bost only of a hospital.well its very unfortunate that his bad side over shadows his so called good side, how reliable is the hospital that Nigerians are just hearing about it SMH

I served in Bauchi in 2010/2011 and we hear the story of his predecessor whom Bauchi people claimed to be master road builder, according to them majority of the new roads in Bauchi was built by the guy.

I font know why all this useless governors build airport, they have so looted their respective states to their own comfort, now the also build airport to fly their private plane.

amara45:
and you are happy that a man who had over 8yrs to rule can bost only of a hospital.well its very unfortunate that his bad side over shadows his so called good side, how reliable is the hospital that Nigerians are just hearing about it SMH

Saying the truth doesn't mean I'm happy, there was a time (2007/2008) when I was happy with him, but not anymore, because I my self didn't gave him my vote during the last election (senate). As u said, its very unfortunate for Bauchi , because he was the best civilian governor of the state, we hope the new Govt. is a competent one.

Geraucald:

Saying the truth doesn't mean I'm happy, there was a time (2007/2008) when I was happy with him, but not anymore, because I my self didn't gave him my vote during the last election (senate). As u said, its very unfortunate for Bauchi , because he was the best civilian governor of the state, we hope the new Govt. is a competent one.

i see u have an undying love for him kudos,i believe the people of Bauchi would not celebrate mediocrity like u are doing..