Kaduna State: The Case Of Perception, Driving The Actions Of State Dictatorship

July 14, 2018 Greg Abolo

The Oasis Reporters

July 14, 2018

What generally is believed to be a driving force behind every action that someone takes, or refuses to take, is Perception.
Perception connotes a variety of reasons, but this post is anchored on the dictionary meaning of Perception as, “the way you think about or understand someone or something”, and understandably, Perception is one quality which you cannot deny anybody of.

Governance is very serious business as it tasks the leadership to the limits. One’s perception is usually informed by first, the quantum of information available to such.
I deploy “Information” in a general sense “because it can either be the right information required for decision making or the wrong, crafted deliberately to achieve certain ends. It is natural that before taking any action on any subject matter or issue, to think it over while weighing the options, alternatives, possible outcomes and consequences.
This is the way a rational mind is supposed to think.

For example, it was the way I perceived the persons of Muhammadu Buhari and Mallam Nasiru El Rufai that made me and many others vote for them back in the 2015 general elections. I pinned my hopes and aspirations as well as expectations for those I voted for but particularly in Kaduna State, it has been brought to the fore that I, and many others made one of the worst mistakes in our lives voting for Mallam Nasiru El Rufai to be governor of our State.
We thought we were voting for a democrat but little did we know that this character was dressed in the uniform (If there is such an apparel ) of a democrat to mask the worst form of dictatorship ever. After 3 years of this dictatorship, Kaduna State lies in ruins.
During the week, an indigene of Kaduna in Abuja described the once bubbling and lively Sir Kashim Ibrahim House the seat of Government in Kaduna State as ” A virtual Cemetery “.
He went further to describe the few faces to be seen around as sad, gloomy, frustrated, despondent and in some cases contorted. This is exactly what the people of Kaduna State have or are continuing to harvest from the character we invested our votes in. Surely, the people of Kaduna State could not knowingly have voted for this deeply flawed government by democratic standards. As they say ” The taste of the pudding is in the eating “, we in Kaduna State have had much more than our fair share of poor and unfocussed leadership at the highest level.

It doesn’t really matter how adroit someone may be at masking or camouflaging one’s characters because they will be unmasked for who they really are especially if such is in a leadership position.
A few examples will clearly elucidate this assertion.

Mallam Nasiru El Rufai did not seek the governorship of Kaduna State to treat all of the population equally as his subjects, rather he had a script close to his chest which nobody had prior knowledge of which is to perceive us as either Christians or Muslims. I am not too sure if he had a place in his calculations for anyone who might still be a traditionalist. By his warped way if thinking, he concluded that the population of Kaduna was in the ratio of 70 to 30 per cent in favour of Muslims. In any case, I have not seen how his regime has treated the Muslims any better than the Christians. He did show a preference for his adopted Fulani ethnic group even if they were from other parts of the West African sub region when he embarked on deploying Kaduna State resources to pay compensation to these same terrorist jihadists to stop the genocide in Southern Kaduna at that time.

As the genocide was making progress, this manner of a leadership decreed the closure of all tertiary institutions in the zone for no other reason than to punish the population. Yet this is someone who claimed his administration would Make Kaduna Great Again. Mallam Nasiru El. Rufai came aboard as Kaduna State governor pregnant with hate for a part of the population and he made no pretensions about it. He was blind to the peculiarities of Southern Kaduna which a previous administration of the State very clearly identified and therefore created additional Districts and Chiefdoms. In one fell swoop, the Mallam decreed a return to the previous position. This action amounted to trying to undo history but Mallam Nasiru El Rufai will not continue to be governor on end, and I pray that he will be alive when his decree will be undone.

The Mallam was so puffed up about himself that instead of making out quality time to study the peculiarities of Kaduna State, he plunged himself into controversy over the demolition of people’s houses while threatening others with demolition. Trust Kaduna, he soon earned the sobriquet, ” Mai Rusau ” meaning in Hausa, “the demolisher”.
It has been a paradox of sort in Kaduna State that instead of building amongst other aspects designed to Making Kaduna Great Again, Mai Rusau’s priorities lay in demolishing people’s homes and properties and without compensation of any sort. This same character yet found it convenient to pay compensation to foreign Fulani terrorists who invaded our country just as he despatched emissaries to other parts of the sub region to seek out other Fulani to be compensated.

The people of Kaduna are completely disconnected from the Mallam because his policies are generally anti-people. The people decided to simply step aside and let the Mallam act as he chooses.

The education sector has had to bear the brunt of Mallam’s frontal assault. Agreed that there were many unqualified teachers in the teaching profession particularly at the Primary level who needed to be weeded out, but the approach by the State government of setting and administering a competency test poorly organized by the wrong body resulted in the mass sack of the teachers. The government’s promise of recruiting other teachers has not materialized, meanwhile most of the classrooms have no teachers. Sadly, the dismissed teachers have not been paid their entitlements.

The government though, has been so heavy on propaganda about improving education in the State with menacing billboards at strategic positions in the centre of town.
Recall when early in the life of this State government there was the bogus claim of having spent about N 10 billion naira in a hastily organized, dubious and fraudulent schools feeding programme in less than one year. The Mallam flaunts himself about as all knowing and perhaps as God’s gift to the State. The moment you have a view different from his own you become marked. Which is why people continue to lose their jobs.

The once vibrant Civil Service of Kaduna State is now comatose. Not a single servant is certain of keeping his/her job in what is left of the State civil service. The character we have as governor is vindictive that he desires more than a pound of flesh from those he identifies as his opponents. The justice system everywhere in the world is there to draw a line between the powerful and the weak but sadly in Kaduna State Mallam Nasiru El Rufai and the law are synonymous. The governor decides which court ruling to obey and which to ignore.
How can such a character successfully provide purposeful leadership? Our man hardly remembers that he has less than one year to vacate Sir Kashim Ibrahim House. With our votes, we shall ensure he receives the quit notice.