The Task Of Searching For A People’s, Not An Elitist Governor In Kaduna State
The Oasis Reporters
April 3, 2018
By Gora Dauda
Governance/Leadership cannot be an easy task by any means, it is a very delicate business involving the management of people and resources. I intend to use the two terms, Governance and Leadership in this post interchangeably.
In a democracy, political parties contest for power at different stages in the case of Nigeria from the local council through to the State ending with the Federal. In developed democracies, it is usual to have members cutting through the different political parties. This provides for very robust deliberations. In Nigeria and Kaduna State in particular, in the current situation being in the opposition amounts to being in the enemy camp even if the opposition is internal to the governing party. The tragedy of what is going on as governance in Kaduna State clearly shows the shallow nature of, if you will, the poverty of a democratic culture.
The ability to get those in the opposition ranks to key into the thinking of the government of the day without either muzzling or using material/financial inducements is the beauty of a democracy. It has never been this bad for politics in Kaduna State simply on account of the fact we have dictator to the core in the garb of a democrat as governor.
Whenever I lift up a copy of the APC campaign manifesto for the 2015 gubernatorial election, I still marvel at the beauty of its content. It was about the people and development in Kaduna State which is why it had the tag ” Lets make Kaduna Great Again “. It is very easy to draw up a manifesto but playing out its contents practically is entirely a different ball game. The electorate in Kaduna was scammed into believing that the drafters of the campaign manifesto would be true to its content. What the electorate in this State have been subjected to is a cocktail of falsehood and anti people policies and programmes. The rhetoric oozing from Sir Kashim Ibrahim House is at best elitist jargon well beyond the comprehension of the man/woman on the street. There can be no better way of measuring the performance level of a government except by hearing from the governed.
With over 3 years gone in the life of this administration in the State and with nothing to show by way of people oriented programmes, it is left to conjecture how this government can get reelected in 2019.
As things currently stand in Kaduna State, the government has unleashed several doses of anti people policies/programmes clearly showing that the players do not understand what leadership is all about. For instance, it is only in Kaduna that virtually every arrangement on which prior administrations operated and successfully too, have been turned almost upside down in the name of moving the State forward but as it is, the State is actually moving in a rearward direction. It is only in this state that almost everyone has been insulted as unfit to hold certain appointments which are reserved only for imported friends/cronies of the State’s Chief executive officer. Some of these characters have questionable credentials given their past dealings. It is such characters that have become super stars in the State doing just whatever they choose. That these characters are part of the governance process in this State has blighted the entire moral fibre of the government.
Instead of growing the State in line with the campaign slogans of Making Kaduna Great Again, our State is receding backwards.
With a huge debt burden hanging over it’s neck, this dubious government decided to seek a World Bank facility of $350 million. It did this with equally dubious intentions as the people of the State were not carried along. We have journeyed along a similar highway in the past when the IBB dictatorship threw the debate to Nigerians on whether or not to take an IMF loan facility. Nigerians roundly returned a NO verdict. But because this nation was in the hands of a dictatorship IBB took the loan anyway which meant swallowing the very stringent conditionalities attached.
The aftermath of that loan is the ruin of the Nigerian economy which has taken a devastatating toll on the quality of life of virtually every Nigerian. As if unaware of the lessons of history, these guys want to plunge our dear state further down the debt hole.
Because they are typically mercantilist, they will not really be worried what becomes of our children and grandchildren since they would already have secured the future for theirs.
It is very good news that the Senate of the Federal Republic has rejected approving this dubious loan. It is clearly the hand of God Almighty which has been at work for the people of Kaduna state.
Still on the loan saga, my fear essentially stems from the fact that here is a dubious and controversial former MD of a failed Merchant Bank deeply rooted in the state givernment. The question then arises as to how safe our collective patrimony would be with such characters around had the loan been collected.
Just before the death knell by the Senate, many economic vampires had been in the business of hanging around and in Sir Kashim Ibrahim House waiting anxiously for the cash.
Do not mind the tales being told by the vuvuzelas in government with regard to the rejected loan request. Recall that they had earlier boasted that they were going to obtain the Senate’s approval whether the internal opposition wanted it or not. The Senate acted in the best interest of the people of Kaduna State.
History, we are told repeats itself first as a tragedy and next as a farce. Recall that the Emperor while seeking the office of governor campaigned vigorously against a loan request by the Yero administration. He succeeded then alleging and arguing that if the loan was approved that it was going to be used for a re-election campaign.
We have been taught also that what goes around, usually comes around. The compass needle has gone 360 degrees and the Emperor is standing right before the giant mirror he made. Whether he can look himself straight in the mirror is entirely up to him. The rejection of the loan has and is generating tsunami strong winds as well as strong/high waves in and around the State. There is currently a barrage of mudslinging and name calling directed at real or imagined enemies of the regime. The dictator himself has been tongue tied much against his usually garrulous stance. The vuvuzela in chief has been quibbling and his words, largely inaudible.
Distinguished Senator Othman Suleiman Hunkuyi did offer an advice to the Emperor to cut the coat of the State according to the size of it’s cloth.
I fail to see any grounds on which the Emperor can justifiably seek re-election for a second term. If in the end he does stand in the election, I know without claiming to be a clairvouyant that he will lose as just any market woman standing against him will beat him.
The Emperor’s administration did turn out a major disaster never before witnessed in the history of political leadership in the State. The Emperor’s greatest undoing has been his garrulous nature, highly bombastic and disrespectful to the very people he is governing.
In all of the history of political leadership, I have not heard where a leader will come out and openly boast that he does not or will not be needing even if a single vote from a part of the State he governs. For all I know every vote in an election counts except perhaps in climes as ours where most times, the outcome of many an election may not necessarily be decided by votes cast. But we are making slow progress in our political development as a nation.
Instead of bringing our diverse people closer together, the emperor of Kaduna State is concerned with only his personal interest as well as those of his friends and cronies. Today there is so much disenchantment with the APC as a political platform, thanks to the style of leadership the emperor is providing. The task before us as members of the APC is to convince our disenchanted or even disappointed members that it is the person and personality of the Mallam that is dragging our party to the mud. This therefore means that we must come up with a viable alternative to the Emperor. We do have a duty to let him know that Kaduna is not an empire therefore we have no place for an emperor.
Back in 2015, after the elections many people believed that Kaduna State had the best team of governor and deputy but now the result is before all to see. Our greatest undoing in 2015 is that we voted for some character we thought is a politician but is not and the evidence is everywhere for our people to see. The time is fast approaching when we must close ranks and kick out the Emperor as well as the economic vampires imported to mess up our State.
Written by Gora Dauda.
He’s a Public Affairs analyst and writes from Kaduna, North West Nigeria.
