It is a well-established principle of democratic governance that constructive criticism, a free press, accountability and transparency are its lifeblood. And those who present themselves for public office understand that they must be prepared to answer questions about their stewardship, just as opposition parties must treat their right to question government policies and performance with utmost responsibility.
Criticism by the opposition becomes problematic when it deliberately ignores history and attempts to blame a successor for a crisis that was its creation or that it did absolutely nothing about. This precisely is the problem with the recent statement by Manir Muhammad Dan’iya, the Sokoto State governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and former Deputy Governor under Aminu Tambuwal.
Dan’iya is not an outsider; he was a principal member of the Aminu Tambuwal administration that governed Sokoto State for eight years and, by extension, part of the leadership responsible for the state’s water sector crisis. And this is simply because the Aminu administration that he served neglected the water sector, made no effort whatsoever in eight years to address the problems of obsolete equipment, and went on to abandon the critical water projects that the Senator Aliyu Wamakko administration had started to address the problems that he is now complaining about for political purposes.
It is sometimes difficult to understand some politicians like Dan’iya and their capacity for mischief, especially around elections. Having been a principal member of an administration that had eight years to address the problems he is now complaining about, his decision to suddenly raise the issue for political purposes is not difficult to understand. He is convinced that the people will not remember his ugly role and that they will embrace him as the messiah.
It is this same thinking that has made Dan’iya to attempt to portray the water crisis as though it began with the administration of Governor Ahmed Aliyu, when in fact the present government has spent the past three years confronting the crisis headlong and has substantially succeeded in reversing the crisis that it inherited. Rather than endlessly blame his predecessors, Governor Aliyu embarked on the rehabilitation of the abandoned water schemes, replacement of obsolete equipment, repair of damaged pipelines, provision of solar-powered boreholes and the solarisation of the main water works. While Dan’iya is entitled to question the pace of these interventions—that is part of democratic accountability—what he can’t do is to rewrite the history of Sokoto’s water crisis or present himself as a solution, which by the way he didn’t, because he is obviously going to continue on the same template of his mentor, Aminu Tambuwal. The ADC candidate is a study in political hypocrisy.
Other concrete steps taken by Governor Ahmed Aliyu to rebuild the state’s water infrastructure, improve access to potable water and reduce the dependence of Sokoto metropolis on dubious sources of supply include the revival of the six major water schemes: Tamaje, Gagi, Old Airport, Mana, Runjin Sambo and Ruga Liman. These schemes were originally initiated during the administration of Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko. At the time the Wamakko administration left office, only about ₦500 million was reportedly required to complete them, but Aminu Tambuwal, for reasons best known to him, abandoned them at a great cost to the state. But being critical projects, Governor Aliyu has so far committed over ₦14 billion to completing the six projects. The Tamaje and Old Airport water schemes have been completed and commissioned. Mana and Ruga Liman are awaiting commissioning, while rehabilitation works on the Runjin Sambo and Gagi schemes have been awarded. They have a combined projected output of 40 million gallons of water daily.
The opposition has been crying wolf over the cost of completing the projects, as though the ₦14.1 billion estimated today is evidence of waste by the present administration. It’s a shame that the Aminu Tambuwal/Dan’iya group has deliberately ignored the consequences of abandoning such critical infrastructure for years. The economic environment and construction costs have changed drastically since the projects were first conceived. What required about ₦500 million to complete when the Wamakko administration left office now has an estimated completion and rehabilitation cost of about ₦14.1 billion.
This is precisely where the opposition’s argument becomes misleading. The ₦14.1 billion is not money that has been spent on the six projects at once, as the ADC statement appears to suggest. It represents the projected cost of completing and rehabilitating infrastructure whose costs have been affected by inflation, exchange-rate pressures and the increase in the prices of construction materials and equipment between 2015 and today. In other words, the opposition should stop crying wolf over the cost of fixing what it allowed to deteriorate.
Governor Aliyu, unlike the previous administration, also recognised that solving Sokoto’s water problem requires addressing one of the greatest challenges facing the Water Board: electricity. The administration awarded the contract in May 2026 for the installation of 10,000 solar panels at the Sokoto Water Works. The project is expected to generate 4.2 megawatts of electricity and provide a more dependable power source for the pumping system.
This is a strategic intervention because the Sokoto State Water Corporation cannot function effectively if its capacity to pump water is constantly constrained by unreliable electricity, particularly when the prohibitive cost of power further limits its operations. The solarisation project is therefore not another contract like the opposition wants to portray it; but part of an effort to address one of the structural problems that has undermined the water supply system for years. By providing a more dependable and more affordable source of power for the Water Works, the Aliyu administration has addressed a critical infrastructure for producing and distributing water.
It is important to address the issue of transparency and accountability which Dan’iya attempted to raise but could not, particularly in the context of the legacy of the Aminu Tambuwal administration. He said: “Governor Aliyu’s administration should publish a comprehensive account of the water projects, including the amounts budgeted, funds released and spent, projects completed, outstanding works and timelines for restoring reliable potable water supply.”
But if Dan’iya is raising issues of transparency and accountability, he is most welcome, because Governor Ahmed Aliyu has repeatedly demonstrated his commitment to fiscal discipline and due process. He has equally reinvigorated the Bureau of Public Procurement and Price Intelligence, as part of his total commitment to ensuring value for money. This explains why he has not only executed numerous projects across all the sectors; but has also cleared inherited liabilities, including the ₦14 billion pension backlog left by the Aminu administration, without borrowing a single naira from any commercial bank. These are measurable actions, and they provide a basis for assessing the administration’s commitment to the prudent management of the resources of the people of Sokoto State. Unfortunately, the record of the Aminu Tambuwal administration would struggle to withstand serious audit scrutiny.
The residents of Sokoto State know those who created their water problems, and they know who is working to fix them. The rantings of Dan’iya are the desperate actions of a disoriented and dazed opposition that cannot stand the dazzling performance of Governor Ahmed Aliyu, a leader who has taken full responsibility for ending the crisis.
Recognizing that the infrastructure overhauls require time, Governor Aliyu implemented immediate neighborhood-level relief measures alongside these long-term projects. The administration approved, drilled, and commissioned 42 high-capacity solar-powered boreholes across high-density metropolitan areas. Communities such as Tudun Wada Gebe, Tudun Wada Old Cemetery, Bazza Area, Dallatu Road, Lamido Adama Road, Kofar Atiku, and Shagari Close now enjoy free, clean, decentralized water access while mains reticulation is restored.
To repair the damage done when the original supply pipes were removed and sold under the previous administration, Governor Aliyu’s government has repaired and relaid over 120 kilometres of burst and missing pipelines across the state capital over the last 18 months. New pressure booster stations have been installed to ensure that elevated areas that had not seen running water in a decade now receive adequate terminal pressure.
Perhaps the most egregious act of administrative vandalism, according to testimonies before the Commission of Inquiry, was the dismantling and sale of vital metallic primary supply pipelines as scrap metal during the previous administration. These heavy cast-iron mains, which had faithfully served as the primary conduits distributing water throughout Sokoto Metropolis since the creation of the state, were stripped and sold without any replacement.
Instead of issuing press statements and attempting to rewrite recent history, Dan’iya and his party should tender an apology to the good people of Sokoto State for the eight years of stagnation they oversaw. For Dan’iya—a man who sat in the State Executive Council when the water corporation was murdered—to now express performative worry about citizens buying water at higher prices is an insult to the people. The current reality is a direct outcome of the crisis created by the Aminu Tambuwal/Dan’iya administration.
The Governor Aliyu-led administration, by contrast, has demonstrated a clear commitment to completing every ongoing project, ensuring due process and delivering reliable, treated potable water to every home in Sokoto State—unlike what obtained during the Aminu Tambuwal era when, according to testimony before the Commission of Inquiry, untreated, raw water was pumped to the people despite the health hazard.
Water is indeed a fundamental necessity, and every responsible government must continuously work to ensure that its people have access to safe and reliable potable water. The people of Sokoto deserve nothing less. The work is not yet finished, but there is a clear direction: from obsolete equipment to modern ones; from dependence on the national grid to solar power; from abandoned schemes to completed and rehabilitated projects; and from emergency repairs to a comprehensive, long-term solution. This is not an attempt to rewrite history; it is the beginning of writing a different one for Sokoto’s water sector.
Gatekeepers News is not liable for opinions expressed in this article; they’re strictly the writer’s.
