By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
Towards addressing some of the challenges bedevilling their immediate community, a Bauchi based Socio- Development initiative known as Kobi-Ilelah Development Forum (Ko’ile) have called for synergy among it’s members, in an effort to give back to their community.
This was one of the major action point reached at the maiden meeting of the forum held at Mufta’ud Sa’ada school premises in Ilelah quarters of Bauchi metropolis, on Monday 2nd May, 2022.
Addressing members of the forum, the convener of the meeting, Air Commodore Ali Mohammed Sadique (Rtd) said that the main objective of reigniting the forum is to, among other things, come together and chart a way forward on how to render assistance to their community of birth in the areas of healthcare access, education (both Western and Quranic knowledge) and to be relevant and a force to reckon within the political arena of Bauchi State and the Nation at large.
Sadique observed that Kobi and Ilelah communities are faced with challenges of out of school children, youth unemployment, lack of access to healthcare services due to poverty, moral decadence and being schemed out of political spectrum of Bauchi State.
“It has become imperative that we put all hands on deck to see how we can mitigate some of these challenges.
“Here in Kobi-Ilelah, we have elites that have risen to the top echelon of their choosing careers. We have Professors, PhD’s , retired and serving Generals in the military and host of graduates at both masters and degree levels.
“The idea of coming together as one, is to give back to the communities by creating a pool of resources in cash, in kind and in time to ameliorate some of the hardships our community people are going through.
“I made bold to say that Ko’ile have more than what it takes to produce elected representatives to the national assembly and even a governor among our people.
“But as it is, since the commencement of the democratic dispensation in 1999, Ko’ile had not produced even a house of representative member in the national assembly”, the retired general lamented.
Sadique also stressed that Ko’ile forum needs to sensitise and enlighten community people on the need to engage politicians in a productive manner and have a concrete agreement on paper, on what they will do to the community based on it’s needs, before agreeing to vote for anyone seeking for elective position.
Other speakers during the maiden meeting all reiterate on the need for synergy and bonding between other community based groups within the community in order to avoid duplication of efforts.
The speakers also highlighted on the need to create a pool of financial resources through voluntary contributions according to one’s capacity and a meager check up dues to support in carrying out some of the activities and programs of the forum.
There were goodwill messages from some prominent members of Ko’ile community that includes religious/community leaders, politicians, CEOs of both state and federal MDAs and the business community.
Our correspondent reports that at the end of the meeting, an interim steering committee were selected to articulate some of the action points highlighted during the meeting.
The steering committee is expected to brief members of the forum on progress made in the next meeting scheduled to hold during the Eid-ul-Kabir holidays in the next two months or thereabout.