The “Betara revolution”, has become the singsong enveloping the northern political space as well as other parts of the country currently.
And the chorus is becoming deafening across most, wards, constituencies, senatorial districts and states as the electorates await the 2023 electioneering campaigns to kick off by the end of September.
Every constituent across the northern fringes is demanding a Betara treatment from political office seekers as condition for their votes during the forthcoming polls.
The Betara whirlwind, for those who may not get the drift; all-consuming, started from Southern Borno.
To be specific, Biu, Shani, Kwaya Kusar and Bayo federal constituency. It is synonymous with Honourable Mukhtar Betara Aliyu, Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Budget and Appropriation.
The largely unknown young man, who traversed all the local government areas within the federal constituency to canvas our votes many years ago, has become a phenomenon through an enviable and formidable track record of performance that will be difficult to match many decades to come.
Betara stormed our political space with a ferocity that dwarfs all his peers, contemporaries and predecessors.
Today, many years down the line, he has become a colossus.
Betara is now reference point to what a true representation in political parlance stands for. In an era where self aggrandisement has become the norm among Nigerian politicians, Betara is the hero in a shining armour.
In our dark starless nights, he twinkles and lights the paths we trend.
Across our federal constituency, massive transformations have been ongoing non stop since Betara found his feet, and learned the politics of constituency projects through lobbying.
The once forgotten and abandoned Southern Borno has taken its pride of place in the scheme of things in the state, region and the country at large. The once boisterous, revered, but neglected old Biu emirate council is back to reckoning.
Our roads, water, ecological projects among others are back in the yearly federal budgets. Our voices are now being heard through the lower chamber of the National Assembly and beamed live on the national television and newspapers across the country.
We can now access neighbouring states, other parts of the North and Abuja through good road networks that have been hitherto in deplorable conditions.
Our towns and villages are being linked through rural and urban roads initiatives, while our streets are being lightened by solar and conventional power sources. New classrooms are being built, while the old, dilapidated ones are enjoying renovations and facelift, which are being complemented with desks, laboratories and other equipment.
Our health institutions are wearing new look, while new ones are springing up complete with equipment and manpower.
Federal institutions which have hitherto eluded us, are now downing our landscape due to quality representation being provided by Betara.
And in reciprocation, the electorates within the constituency always clamoured for his return each election year, and defied the torrential downpour and scorching sun to return him on election days.
They have stood by him through four election years and dared any opposition to stake a claim.
This time around, they did not give him the liberty to seek them out for their support.
They forced him into the race by purchasing the nomination and declaration of interest forms for him, while daring him to turn them down.
Unlike the charades that were experienced elsewhere, those who contributed money to purchase the forms are not faceless but known and traceable. They are mainly the poor and downtrodden who feel the impact of his magnanimity.
The donation for the forms trickled in lower currencies and amounts. There were widow’s mites, hard-earned, but handed out with deep love and devotion to a cause that wipe away their tears and ease their pains.
As other candidates await the curtain raiser to commence their campaigns ahead of the 2023 general elections, Betara is just waiting to be sworn in by Allah’s grace.
His campaigners are the widows, orphans, aged and youths across communities in Biu, Shani, Kwaya Kusar and Bayo, who are just waiting in the shadows for the D-Day to return him for the fifth time.
His campaign promises are the many projects that dotted every nooks and crannies of all the local government areas that made up the federal constituency.
Betara is now a movement that galavanises development and growth of a once forgotten but important zone; it is a hurricane that sweeps every hurdles and obstacles on its way. A movement which has moved beyond its bounds to the neighbouring Garkida in Adamawa state and other constituencies like Danboa also in Borno.
Southern Borno shall rise and rise again.
– Ahmed wrote Jabi Area, Abuja
