By Jane Okafor, Abuja
ABUJA: Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Senator Lawal Adamu Usman, has flayed a group, Kaduna Elders Forum over its demand for his recall from the National Assembly for alleged non-performance.
Senator Usman, popularly called Senator LA by his teeming supporters in his constituency, lambasted the KEF for threatening him with another recall threat a few months after it first did while hiding under the veil of a different group.
The lawmaker in a statement, on Tuesday, titled, “Kaduna Elders’ Forum’s infantile outbursts: Empty barrel making most noise,” dismissed the outbursts of the KEF as the ranting of a group of “meddlesome interlopers” that should not be taken seriously.
Senator LA stressed that as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary) and Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Financial Matters, both of which are of crucial national importance, he has no time for any disputatious argument with frivolous individuals working to achieve the selfish interests of some unserious politicians hiding behind a finger to fight political battles with him.
He noted that this was not the first time the group and its sponsors would be exhibiting such childish tantrums on issues they should have sought to be informed and educated about, rather than embarking on their ignominious mission of deliberately misinforming the public and telling blatant lies about his unprecedented achievements in the past 18 months, which he said were real and concrete enough for everyone to see and assess.
Senator LA wondered what became of the group’s earlier recall threat with a 14-day ultimatum made to him last year under the cover of the Kaduna Peace and Tranquility Forum (KPTF), saying the rehash of the same threat by the same set of individuals under a new name (KEF) was laughable and curious.
He therefore urged the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District not to allow themselves to be deceived by the lies being peddled against him by the “so-called Kaduna elders” as they lacked the morality to continue to pretend to love the ordinary people of the constituency, whereas they had been engaged in their nefarious activities in the interest of their sponsors and paymasters.
The lawmaker further urged his constituents to remain calm in the face of the needless provocative statements by the KEF while also disregarding the group’s recall threat by handling it with the disdain it deserved.
The statement added that for a lawmaker within a space of 18 months in office to have recorded such unprecedented achievements, far and above what his predecessors put together couldn’t achieve, was no mean feat.
It read in part, “Specifically, Senator LA has recorded unprecedented achievements in the past 18 months by providing among many others 100 smart primary school buildings, scholarships, boreholes for potable water, solar lights, entrepreneurial training for farmers, sponsorship of hundreds of students for WAEC and UTME (JAMB) examinations, N500,000 each as business startup capital given to no fewer than 500 beneficiaries, payment of the registration fee for 1000 tertiary institutions students, training for 100 women in soap making with startup capital and training of 200 beneficiaries in fish farming with startup capital. Interestingly, beneficiaries of all these laudable projects are drawn from all the seven local government areas making up his Kaduna Central Senatorial District constituency. His motion urging the Federal Ministry of Works to expedite the ongoing reconstruction of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano expressway has remained a reference point in the Senate, having secured the unanimous approval of all the lawmakers in the upper legislative chamber. In all, in the past 18 months, Senator LA has sponsored four very crucial motions and four bills, which are now in their third reading stages and about to be passed into law by the Senate. Infact, it’s crystal clear that if there’s any lawmaker that should be tarred with the brush of non-performance by the so-called Kaduna elders, it shouldn’t be the indefatigable Senator LA, who has been up and doing since his election.”
Below is the full text of Senator LA’s statement:
Kaduna Elders Forum’s infantile outbursts: Empty barrel making most noise
The attention of the Distinguished Senator Lawal Adamu Usman, fondly called Senator LA by his constituents and teeming supporters, has once again been drawn to the grumpy ranting of a faceless and self-styled Kaduna Elders’ Forum led by one Alhaji Inuwa Bala Rigasa.
From the utterances of the so-called Kaduna Elders’ Forum, it’s clear that the same shameless set of meddlesome interlopers has, within a few months, transformed from Kaduna Peace and Tranquility Forum (KPTF) to continue their needless verbal attacks on the Distinguished Senator Lawal Adamu Usman with the ultimate objective of rubbishing and vitiating his unparalleled achievements in the past 18 months as the Senator representing Kaduna Central in the National Assembly.
Last year, hiding under the veil of KPTF, these set of jesters were led by one Alh Inuwa Bala Giwa, and in 2025, this faceless individual, just like the group he’s leading, has transformed and changed his name to Alhaji Inuwa Bala Rigasa. Isn’t this as laughable as it is curious?
Ordinarily, the Distinguished Senator would not have dignified the infantile outbursts of such a group of meddlesome interlopers with any response because legislative business is serious business; neither for the faint-hearted nor lazy bones. But for the benefit of the unsuspecting members of the public who are likely to assume that the gibberish by this unserious set of ‘elders’ merely throwing tantrums like a child gripped by a fit of anger is the truth, we’re compelled to issue this rebuttal.
Of course, we’re no longer taken aback by these fresh outbursts of these so-called Kaduna elders. Bellyaching, jealousy, envy, bad-mouthing, fault-finding and such other vices are deeply ingrained in their character. They’re mere attention-seekers, who, for us, do not deserve to be given even a modicum of attention. For them to have continued to make such infantile utterances regarding the monumental achievements of the most popular Senator from Kaduna State, it means they’re in a permanent state of sleepwalking. And so they’re bound to keep talking bunkum and misfiring.
Recall that last year they gave a 14-day ultimatum to the Distinguished Senator to give an account of his stewardship, after which they threatened to mobilise for his recall from the National Assembly. If we may ask, what became of that empty threat after the ultimatum lapsed? Now, they’re threatening another recall process against the Distinguished Senator, who thinks nothing of their outbursts. They’re, of course, beginning to sound like a broken record. But it’s good they keep entertaining the good people of Kaduna State with their light-hearted comedy of errors.
The unconscionable and uninformed outbursts of these so-called Kaduna elders are nothing short of a good testament to their crass ignorance about Senator LA’s germane contributions at the National Assembly and in his Kaduna Central constituency.
There’s no doubt that these ‘Kaduna elders’ need some good tutoring and education to be purged of their crass ignorance. Of course, nothing is unusual about their warped story. It’s still an unfortunate manifestation of the diseased symptom of the bad and rotten politicking of their masters and sponsors.
For emphasis, and for those who have decided to feign to be blind and deaf to the monumental achievements of the Distinguished lawmaker, we want to repeat stridently that Senator LA has, from Day One, made a ‘down payment’ on change with the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District through his campaign manifesto, which convinced the electorate to freely and magnanimously give him their mandate at the polls in 2023.
For the avoidance of doubt, Senator LA believes in serious change rather than a hopeless gimmick. And this real change he has continued to drive. He believes in grip and not drift. Since his election into the National Assembly, he has continuously been doing the hard graft, working his fingers to the bones, so to say, all in the corporate interests of the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District. His chairmanship and vice chairmanship of two very important committees in the Senate leaves no room for frivolities such as the ‘Kaduna elders’ have made their duty. The leadership of the Senate Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary) and Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions is not for the lily-livered or intellectually lazy due to the seriousness of their businesses and services to the nation’s educational and financial sectors. This is evident in the quantum of work that the Education Committee did on the basic education (Amendment) bill now at the third reading stage before the Senate. Only last December 11 at the Senate plenary, the Bill for an Act to amend the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education Act, Cap N4, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2024 and for other Related Matters 2024, sponsored by Senator LA, passed a Second Reading. The Bill was then referred to the Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary), being chaired by Senator LA, who sponsored the motion for its reading. The bill, when passed into law, will revolutionise and revitalise basic education in Nigeria.
Therefore, only those playing the ostrich, like the so-called Kaduna elders have proved themselves to be, will deny the obvious and concrete fact that Senator LA’s tenure, in the past 18 months, has been defined by a strong and unprecedented commitment to Education, infrastructural development, economic empowerment, and delivery of sundry dividends of democracy to his constituents and others. His comprehensive approach to addressing the needs of the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District and even beyond remains unprecedented.
To scour the minds of the doubting Thomases that are the ‘Kaduna elders’, it is appropriate at this juncture to showcase a bit of his myriad of achievements in the past 18 months that the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District had entrusted him with their mandate, as their representative in the nation’s upper legislature.
This, of course, is to puncture the lies by this group of meddlesome interlopers masquerading as Kaduna elders, and to fully answer their oft-repeated spurious “charges” of non-performance against this conscientious lawmaker.
Senator LA is indeed a new breed politician who has earned the respect and love of his constituents as well as the electorate in the entire Kaduna State. Contrary to the claims by the ‘Kaduna elders’, his weekly visits to his constituency and philanthropic gestures towards the people have continued to oil his political structure among the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District. A compassionate and cheerful politician, the Senator through his LA Cares Foundation, has continued to change the lives of many youths, orphans and other vulnerable people in his constituency and beyond. His myriad of democracy dividends delivered to the people of his constituency has continued to endear him to his people and the electorate. Senator LA has continued to shame his detractors and political foes with his unprecedented achievements in the construction and rehabilitation of schools and positively affecting the hitherto moribund educational sector. He can also not be pushed aside when it comes to the provision of basic infrastructure such as water resources, healthcare, power and generally improving the living standards of his constituents through capacity building, empowerment and educational scholarships.
Specifically, Senator LA has recorded unprecedented achievements in the past 18 months by providing among many others 100 smart primary school buildings, scholarships, boreholes for potable water, solar lights, entrepreneurial training for farmers, sponsorship of hundreds of students for WAEC and UTME (JAMB) examinations, N500,000 each as business startup capital given to no fewer than 500 beneficiaries, payment of the registration fee for 1000 tertiary institutions students, training for 100 women in soap making with startup capital and training of 200 beneficiaries in fish farming with startup capital. Interestingly, beneficiaries of all these laudable projects are drawn from all the seven local government areas making up his Kaduna Central Senatorial District constituency. His motion urging the Federal Ministry of Works to expedite the ongoing reconstruction of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano expressway has remained a reference point in the Senate, having secured the unanimous approval of all the lawmakers in the upper legislative chamber. In all, in the past 18 months, Senator LA has sponsored four very crucial motions and four bills, which are now in their third reading stages and about to be passed into law by the Senate. Infact, it’s crystal clear that if there’s any lawmaker that should be tarred with the brush of non-performance by the so-called Kaduna elders, it shouldn’t be the indefatigable Senator LA, who has been up and doing since his election.
Since taking charge as the lawmaker representing the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Senator LA has been positively touching the lives of his constituents. Of course, according to analysts and watchers of Kaduna politics, with the failure of the “flawed strategies” of his predecessors, and the meteoric successes Senator LA has recorded within the first 18 months in the National Assembly, it’s easier to concur that he’s been delivering regarding his responsibilities to his constituents in Kaduna Central Senatorial District.
This man of amazing Grace has continued to triumph over the vicissitudes of his political life, trials, tribulations, and torments from his political foes in spite of the incessant attacks by sponsored groups of persons such as the Kaduna Elders Forum and others of their ilk.
His already worsted political enemies have often resorted to the use of various devious means and subterfuge as well as the use of minions and hack writers to surreptitiously sustain their attacks on him on social and mainstream media.
Surprisingly, Senator LA has been sacrificial and forgiving while at the same time exhibiting values of love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, humility, gentleness, and meekness. He has forgiven his enemies and traducers seventy times seventy times and has moved on. He’s a man who doesn’t bear malice against anyone. In spite of incessant distractions, he has continued to trudge on with his eyes on the ball, shunning disputatious frivolities; even in spite of the various shenanigans by his political opponents and enemies within even the PDP in his constituency and Kaduna State as a whole. He has continued to place service to the people before his personal considerations and self.
Therefore, for a leader like Senator LA, it’s pretty hard to become distracted by the antics of his political foes while failing to worry about what becomes of his constituents and other Nigerians.
Moreover, Senator LA, who doubles as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary), and Vice Chairman of, the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance, and Other Financial Institutions, has also, in the past 18 months in the Senate, done so much in raising standards and improving services as well as integrity in these two very important sectors. He alongside his committee had established a robust relationship with the CBN working to stabilize as well as mobilize the fiscal and monetary policies of the apex bank.
Similarly, in the area of engaging and empowering the people, Senator LA can also raise his shoulders high amongst the lawmakers who have been meeting the expectations of their constituents in this regard.
In February 2024 alone, he doled out a whopping N150 million to empower no fewer than 300 youths in his constituency, in fulfillment of his campaign promises to empower the youths and the vulnerable. The beneficiaries who got the sum of N500,000 each as start-up capital were selected from the seven local government areas constituting the Kaduna Central Senatorial District. While presenting the cheques to the 300 beneficiaries in Kaduna, Senator LA disclosed that the gesture was aimed at assisting the youths to start various small-scale businesses to become self-reliant and cater to themselves and by extension their families. The Senator also donated other valuables including food items and hundreds of sewing and knitting machines to many widows to assist them in fending for themselves and tackling their financial problems.
A month earlier, in January 2024 precisely, Senator LA sponsored the first set of 20 people to perform the lesser Hajj in Saudi Arabia to offer prayers for the peace, progress, and unity of Nigeria.
In continuation of his gesture of payment of tuition fees of indigent students across the state, Senator LA also fulfilled his promise by giving the sum of between N100,000 and N150,000 bursary allowances to over 200 students in the Humanities and Sciences, respectively, across his Senatorial District, having announced the setting aside of additional N250 million for settling tuition fees for hundreds of students of tertiary institutions in his constituency. Of course, the scholarship given by Senator LA will go a long way in relieving many parents of the financial burden of funding their children’s education.
His exploits in seeing to the release of the Kuriga kidnapped victims and the efforts in interfacing with President Tinubu are well noted and cannot be swept under the carpet as this has continued to regularly draw for him some thunderous applause in the public domain.
His efforts at mobilizing his colleagues to the Tudun Biri incident and his resilience to ensure that monies pledged by them are realized is a well-known and appreciated development. He collected and handed over the funds to the Governor of Kaduna with whom they shared remarkable work affiliation.
Unfortunately, many of Senator LA’s actions as the lawmaker representing the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District have gone largely unnoticed because they are not intended to attract plaudits, but to make life better and worth living for the electorate in his constituency.
However, Senator LA has continued to receive an avalanche of praises on the various social and mainstream media platforms from his constituents in Kaduna Central Senatorial District and even from his other admirers beyond the zone. Many have continued to share testimonies regarding how Senator LA has positively affected their lives in the past year. Torrents of testimonies abound about the Distinguished Senator LA’s magnanimity.
He’s a man determined to leave his footprints permanently etched on the sands of time, what with his achievements and legacies in the past 18 months as the Senator representing Kaduna Central in the National Assembly.
At the risk of sounding immodest, decades after his tenure, echoes of his achievements will continue to reverberate on the political landscape of Kaduna Central in particular and the entire Kaduna State in general. Senator LA has continued to empower many of his constituents to enable them to compete with their peers elsewhere in Kaduna State and Nigeria. Like him or hate him, Senator LA will continue to be the darling of the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District and even the entire Kaduna State.
From all indications and given his remarkable strides in this past 18 months in office, Senator LA’s tenure will eventually become deeply etched in the memory of the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District and beyond.
Obviously, the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District and course, Kaduna State as a whole, still have a lot to benefit from Senator LA’s experience, achievements, good-naturedness, and commitment to uplifting the masses as already demonstrated in the empowerment programmes he has carried out since he was elected to represent the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District.
Senator LA’s political battles, victory, and successes in office should therefore come as no surprise to his adversaries, who should brace themselves for more resounding successes from the Distinguished lawmaker in the remaining years of his first tenure in the coveted office.
CONCLUSION
From the infantile outbursts of the so-called Kaduna Elders Forum, it is very clear that the group lacks the requisite mental capacity to assess the performance of the Distinguished Senator Lawal Adamu as a Senator. It’s laughable that such a group with very shallow knowledge and abysmally low information about the activities of the Distinguished Senator could insult the public space with their crass ignorance about issues regarding the performance of the most popular National Assembly member from Kaduna State.
The ‘Kaduna elders’ submission on the performance of the Distinguished Senator LA exposed them as a group of people lacking the least cognitive capacity to make any assessment of the lawmaker being applauded beyond the confines of his senatorial district.
We won’t advise the group to give up its sponsored campaigns of calumny against the Distinguished Senator LA, as doing so would amount to appeasing a dog that is bent on going astray. As we’ll always say, they shall soon be exposed and publicly disgraced, Insha Allah!
E-signed:
Media Office of the Distinguished Senator Lawal Adamu Usman
