Governor Bala Plans To Privatised Yankari Games Reserves and resorts — Bauchi State Govt
By Abdullahi Idris,Bauchi
Though the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bauchi State has declared its opposition to the leasing and or outright sale of six moribund industries by the PDP-led administration, the government has maintained its stance that privatizing the ailing industries is in the best interest of the people of the state.
The government, therefore, declared that it has concluded all necessary arrangements to sell the state-owned Yankari Games Reserves and Safari in order to bring back the glory days of the famous games reserve in West Africa.
Making the government stance known on Saturday while addressing Journalists at the Government House, Secretary to the State Government, Barrister Kashim Mohammed, explained that privatizing the six moribund industries was in the best interest of the people adding that more would be privatized before the end of the administration.
According to the SSG, “Yankari is definitely one of the areas of concern. We are keen about Yankari Games Reserve because Bauchi State is supposed to be a Pearl of Tourism and we want to maximize our capacity in that sector” .
He added that, “What happened is that there was a Bauchi State Tourism Board which is a board under the Bauchi Ministry of Tourism. If you want to bring in private sector people to come and manage any entity, they will want to deal with a legal entity, they would not want to deal with a Board”.
Ibrahim Kashim further explained that, “We have had meetings with a lot of people coming in and we had to establish a legal regime. We did the exact laws. We took it to the House of Assembly, they passed it” .
“The Bauchi Tourism Board Law is one of the laws the Governor accented three to weeks ago. Now that the law is accented to, we are talking with people who are interested in coming to help us develop our tourism potentials”, he added.
The SSG further said that, “Apart from the Wikki Spring, there are four other springs in Yankari that have not been developed.”We are thinking of privatizing Yankari. We have been to parks in Paris and Disney, Maimi where different companies are doing one thing or the other”.
According to him, “Our thoughts is to open it up Yankari where companies will build Hotels, Children play ground and develop the tourism sector”
It will be recalled that while announcing the lease and sale of the ailing entities last week, the Deputy Governor Senator Baba Tela, who is the Chairman, Bureau for Privatisation and Economic Reforms, had maintained that privatisation was in the best interest of the people of the state.
Baba Tela had also revealed that more government enterprises would be put up for sale to improve their management and generate revenue for the state.
However, the first phase of privatisation of six public assets has not gone down well with the opposition All Progressives Congress which viewed the process as skewed to benefit family and friends of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led government and shortchange the people of the state.
Chairman of the APC in the state, Alhaji Aliyu Babayo Misau, called on Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), and other anti-graft agencies to cause investigations into the Bauchi State government’s move to hands-off the ownership of six of the industries through privatization.
“We call on all people of Bauchi state to remain calm and keep abreast with the activities of the State Government so as to ensure that their rights and interests are not compromised,” Misau stated.
Recall that last week, the government announced the lease of Zaranda Hotel and Wikki Hotel at the sum of N1.2 billion and N200 million respectively for a period of 25 years.
It also sold off Bauchi Fertilizer and Blending Company at N400 million, Bauchi Meat Factory at N301 million, Bauchi Furniture Company at N150 million and Galambi Cattle at N150 million.
