Bomba Dauda
A former Kaduna South Senatorial District candidate, and currently Senior Legislative Aide to the Deputy President of the Senate, Mr. Rijo Shekari, has said that he is desirous of providing basic infrastructure, such as access roads for especially hard-to-reach communities, as a philanthropic gesture to ease the suffering of the people.
Speaking during the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of a culvert that connects Zakwa and Kukum Daji communities in Kaura Local Government Area on Saturday, he recalled that while campaigning for the senate ahead of the 2019 general elections, he had promised he would bring development to the area if he is elected into office.
He noted that despite failing to clinch the position, he felt obliged to fulfil that promise when a resident of the community and one of his leading campaigners in 2019, Miss Philomena Markus, approached him with the request to reconstruct her community’s culvert which had become dilapidated and non-motorable.
The former Senatorial candidate said the gesture will ease the suffering that the residents of the affected communities have been facing over the years, notably during rainy seasons, and expressed optimism that when the project is completed, it will foster more harmonious coexistence between them.
In a remark, a community leader, Mr. Haruna Akondo, lauded the initiative, describing it as an uncommon humanitarian gesture by Mr. Rijo Shekari, and said very few people will fulfil electioneering promises, especially after they have lost.
Mr. Akondo, who spoke on behalf of the traditional councils of the two communities, expressed the hope that other well-meaning individuals or groups will see the need to embark on similar projects that will impact positively on the lives of the people.
In their separate remarks, representatives of youth and women groups, Mr. Sylvester Joshua, and Mrs. Rose Jacob, appreciated Shekari for bringing succour to residents of Zakwa, Kukum Daji, and neighbouring communities, because of the hardships they have been experiencing. They said the road was a threat even to pedestrians, and added that it will, in no small measure, help farmers convey their farm produce to markets and provide easy access to school for pupils who are usually unable to go to school whenever it rains heavily.
Earlier in the occasion, Miss Philomena Markus who had attracted the project to the community said, Mr. Shekari represents hope for the people of the area, southern Kaduna, and Nigeria, at large, and urged the residents to always remember him in their prayers for his divine upliftment to greater heights.
It would be recalled that in the 2019 general election, Mr. Rijo Shekari had contested for the Kaduna South Senatorial seat on the platform of the Social Democratic Party, SDP.
