On ‘Abba Bichi: Generosity and the money question’

What readily comes to mind when the name of Bichi federal constituency representative in the House of Representatives, Hon Abubakar Kabir Bichi, is mentioned, is responsible and responsive representation. He represents his constituency responsibly. As he listens to the yearnings and aspirations of his people in a responsive manner.

When a lead story was published about him in the Daily Trust of Saturday, 17th October, 2026, with the title “Abba Bichi: Generosity and the Money Question” the piece attracted readers across political platforms and non-partisan elements.

While appreciating the development brought to his constituency, the said story, interrogated the ocean of happy birthday advertisements placed in some national Dailies, including the Trust itself, congratulating the member in his 45th birthday anniversary.

The Daily Trust publication interrogates, “The extraordinary volume of congratulatory messages not only demonstrated the breadth of his political network but also triggered questions about who paid for the publicity and the resources sustaining his increasingly visible generosity.”

This interrogation, to the best of my knowledge shouldn’t be on this strange aspect. Yes strange, because how can governors, ministers and members of the National Assembly wait for handouts from Hon Bichi before they could place his birthday advertisements in newspapers? It doesn’t sound musical to ears, anyway.

I’m pretty much assured that, Daily Trust newspaper knows what legislation means as it relates to project execution and lobby. Legislators lobby for particular projects and programmes to go to their constituency, especially when such projects are earmarked as constituency projects.

Some statements credited to some people interviewed by the newspaper, who blame or nearly blame Hon Bichi for prioritizing the publicity of his birthday anniversary via his well wishers, in place of developmental projects, indicate misconstrued reality. What do I mean by that? Under presidential system of government, as my readers are aware, legislation is distinctly different from execution power. While legislators only legislate, the power of execution of projects rests in the Executive arm.

For example, at the federal level, only President by himself or through federal executive council has the power for execution. As such power also rests on the shoulders of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). At the state level such power rests on the Governor, by himself or through state executive council. So also MDAs. The scenario goes like this down to Local Government Authorities (LGAs).

When it comes to legislators their is only to legislate and lobby when the need arises. Therefore to blame Hon Bichi on projects on board, is as equal as saying, the process of power sharing and interdependence of the process is not well understood. And who on earth can say, Bichi lags behind when it comes to lobby for federal presence.

I’m glad the story speaks in some detail how Bichi’s representation in the Green Chamber helped facilitate some projects in his constituency. Everywhere you set your eyes or put your feet, federal presence is welcoming you. Indeed courtesy Bichi’s power of lobby.

Interventions perceived to be his own making from scratch to finish, execution-wise, are erroneously questioned by the story. Under a sub-title “A town transformed by projects” it says “Such interventions have helped cultivate a strong local following. But the distinction between a project’s existence and its financing remains important. A road or school can be inspected, while determining who paid for it requires a separate examination of contracts, public allocations, donations and other funding records.”

The story continues that, “The same distinction applies to the other projects residents attribute to Bichi. Their reported scale raises legitimate questions about their costs and financing, but the available accounts do not provide a consolidated financial breakdown.”

These assertions behave like Bichi awards contracts and executes same. The power of awarding contracts and execution of projects rests solely on the shoulders of the executives. President, Federal Executive Council and MDAs on top. Governor, State Executive Council and MDAs at the state level. Then Chairman, Local Government Council and Departments at the local government level.

Apart from this discussion, another fresh angle to this debate is the fact that, beyond Bichi Local Government’s contribution to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s victory in Kano State, another important point deserves attention. Bichi was reportedly the second local government area in the entire country to deliver the highest number of votes to President Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election, recording a margin of over 30,000 votes against the second-placed opposition candidate.

This achievement underscores the significance of Bichi’s electoral contribution to the President’s victory and provides further context for understanding the federal government’s development interventions in the area.

It also raises an important question: should a constituency’s electoral contribution be ignored when discussing the distribution of development projects?

So what is wrong in Tinubu’s appreciation with rain of projects for the local government? I’m posing this to counter what some political rivals of Hon Bichi hold as their political weapon that why many projects in Bichi. So projects are now political weapons? This world. While at the same time Bichi does not award contracts, neither is he in a position to execute projects.

It is not part of his constitutional responsibility. His is lobby lobby and lobby. As his second effort after the primary constitutional responsibility of legislation.

To cap it all, Daily Trust story tried hard to be objective. While in some instances the tone of the story needs more scrutiny. May be in the area of providing distinction between legislation and power of execution. While legislators only legislate and lobby, executive implements and awards projects for execution.

So the call for scrutinizing projects cost, to the best of my knowledge rests on the shoulders of the executive who executes. At the same time, questioning individual capacity to congratulate Hon Bichi on his birthday celebration, has nothing to do with appropriated public wealth. All those who participated in birthday advertisements are capable hands in that respect. They have the resources to do that. And none of them waited for handout from Bichi to do that.

Mas’ud is a public affairs commentator and based in Abuja