Sen. Rufai Sani Hanga said on Monday that he has no regrets donating clay pots and textile materials, used in burying corpses, to his constituents.
Hanga, who represents Kano Central in the Senate, said this on Monday in Kano during a news conference.
He was reacting to criticisms by members of the opposition in the state that the lawmaker was honouring the dead instead of empowering his living constituents.
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“I have no regrets whatsoever purchasing and donating burial materials to my constituents. I did not use constituency project money to buy them; I used my personal money.
“Furthermore, the gesture is a tradition in my family as I grew up witnessing my father carrying it out.
“Before I became a senator many people knew me with the gesture; when I became Senator, some groups came requesting that I should purchase materials for them to maintain their graveyards.
“And I decided to spread the gesture to all the 15 Local Government Areas of my constituency,” the lawmaker explained.
He said apart from the purchase and donation of pots and other burial materials, he had been delivering other dividends of democracy to his constituents.
“As part of my constituency project we are building roads in about 10 Local Government Areas, and Women Centers in about 6 Local Councils.
“This is after giving women and youths monetary incentives to selected beneficiaries from the 15 Local Government Areas.
“In the education sector we have sponsored no fewer than 2000 students to study at the Kano State Polytechnic.
“We paid school fees 1500 Bayero University, Kano (BUK) students as part of our support to their education,” Hanga said.
Similarly according to the lawmaker, following a request by some Islamic Scholars, he built an Islammiyya School at Dan Dishe town.
He said he had also distributed 450 bags of assorted grains such as rice and millet as well as spaghetti to each of the 15 Local Government Areas in his constituency in addition to “donating burial materials to my constituents”.
