The member representing Akwanga South Constituency in the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Comrade Kassim M.Kassim, has become a pacesetter among his colleagues given the volume of his accomplishment and lives he has touched in his constituency in just nine months as a lawmaker.
Remarkable is that the members of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly are yet to be paid any constituency allowances by Governor Umaru Tanko Almakura.
Penultimate week, the lawmaker awarded scholarship to 600 students in tertiary institutions in his constituency, worth over N7 million.
At the event, which took place at the Convocation Square of College of Education, Akwanga, the lawmaker also distributed over 2000 wrappers to women.
Kassim, who is also the national chairman of Nigeria Association of State Legislators (NASAL) explained that the gesture was aimed at mitigating the hardship parents faced in sending their children/wards to school.
The lawmaker urged politicians to adopt frugal lifestyles in order to assist the needy and engender collective wealth, noting that careful setting of priorities would go a long way in transforming the society where majority live in squalor and ignorance.
Concerned by the high poverty level,Kassim also paid WAEC and NECO fees of 44 final year students in various secondary schools in his constituency whose parents could not afford to pay for the final year examinations.
Moved by the lawmaker’s zeal to meet the most dire needs of his people, the governor of Imo state, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, said the gesture was in tandem with the change agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and urged politicians to strive to meet their constituents at their points of need.
Okorocha, who was represented by his chief of staff, Chief Uche Nwosu, said the Rochas Okorocha Foundation would foot 50 per cent of the total sum, noting that education is the pillar for national growth.
A beneficiary, Bridget Gimson, a single mother of English/French department of the College of Education, Akwanga, said the gesture came to her as a great relief and called on the state government to further subsidize the cost of education, especially by halting the compulsory purchase of handouts by students.
Kassim who spoke to newsmen shortly after presenting the cash and gift items to the students and widows said the gesture is in keeping with his campaign promises to further the course of good education among his people.
He observed that due to the harsh economic realities being faced by parents, training their children in school has increasingly become difficult and almost impossible to others whose children inevitably dropped out of school.
The lawmaker who noted that education is the only viable option of addressing social ills and combating underdevelopment, promised to consolidate on the gesture by making it a continuous exercise.
He said each of the 600 benefitting students got the sum of N10, 000, noting that the beneficiaries were arrived at after a selection process carried out with every sense of responsibility devoid of political, religious or tribal sentiments.
“Parents are undergoing gruelling experiences compounded by the fact that workers are being owed two to three months salaries and students in all the tertiary institutions in the state going back to school.
“Touched by the situation I had to make personal sacrifice to ensure that I render assistance in my own humble way,” he said.
The lawmaker has earlier donated a vehicle to the chief Imam of Akwanga Central Mosque, Alhaji Abdulsalam Ibrahim, to help in the propagation of peace.
Similarly, a brand new Ford car was also presented to Pastor Peter Usman to aid his rural evangelism in Akwanga local government which is anchored on ethno-religious tolerance.
Presenting the keys to the clerics in Akwanga, he said the challenge of disseminating the gospel of peace and tolerance in the face of rising social distrust and suspicion requires collective commitment, especially from religious leaders.
He said the gesture was also aimed at helping the clerics in their mission to create awareness amongst the youths on the need to shun drug abuse, political thuggery, prostitution and other forms of social vices.
Comrade Kasim, who said the two vehicles were procured at the cost of about N2.5 million, called on community leaders to adopt more pragmatic means of helping to preach the message of peace and tolerance given the precarious security situation in the country.
The paramount ruler of Mada land, the Chun Mada, HRH Samson Gamu Yare, lauded the lawmaker for his contribution towards the entrenchment of peace in Mada land and beyond.
The royal father who reiterated the essence of peace in nation building and collective development, called on youths to shun any divisive tendencies and their agents and concentrate rather on common grounds for promotion of peace.
The chief Imam, Alhaji Ibrahim, said before now he hired the services of commercial motorcycle operators to carry out his evangelism, adding: “People look up to us religious leaders to propagate the messages of peace but only a few can make personal sacrifices to achieve the noble aim”.
The former student leader also brought an end to years of darkness to Anguwan Kwando community of Akwanga local government council in Nasarawa State.
Anguwan Kwando in Akwanga metropolis has had to cope with perpetual state of darkness for over seven years due to government’s inability to provide electricity to the community.
He said his effort is in fulfillment of his campaign promises even as he noted that lawmakers in the state were yet to receive a dime for their constituency projects.
“We have not been paid any constituency allowances since our inauguration over nine months ago, thereby making it difficult for us to meet our campaign promises. We, however, are still committed that was why I sold my remaining piece of land to make Angwan Kwando get the electricity it has craved for years,” he said.
In his address, the chairman of Akwanga local government council, Mr Abashiya A. Koto, said delegates from Anguwan Kwando community had visited his office three times before the timely intervention of the lawmaker and called on the community to own the project and guard it from the activities of illegal trespassers of power installations.
The chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the local government, Mr. Micah Madaki, said the completion of the project signaled the change the electorate yearned for.
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