Segun Awofadeji
4 September 2008
interview
Lagos — The Chairman of Isa Yuguda Network for Human Development, Abdulkadir Sabo Abubakar, speaks on the emergence of the Network and its agenda just as he also assesses the administration of Bauchi state governor, Mallam Isa Yuguda in this unputdownable interview with Segun Awofadeji. Excerpts:
What is Isa Yuguda Network for Human Development all about and how did it come into being?
Yes, the Isa Yuguda Network for Human Development is all about complementing the present administration's programmes aimed at enhancing the lives of the people of the state. So, we are trying as much as possible to complement the efforts of the government towards meeting the yearnings and aspiration of our people. Members are drawn from all walks of life from different professional backgrounds, who share Malam Yuguda's vision that democracy is all about delivering dividends to the masses . And because of his commitment to upholding his promise to the electorate, decided to come under one umbrella to complement his efforts towards achieving these set goals. This is how the network came into being.
Why the phrase human development?
We chose human development because we feel that if you develop human being, you will be developing the society and the nation. The advent of democracy in 1999 provided the opportunity and platform to address the decay in both infrastructure and human development and capacity building. And even though the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government under the leadership of Ahmadu Adamu Mu'azu tried to address the problems in its eight year rule, the lack of focus and definition of priority scuttled most of its programmes and policies. The critical areas of healthcare delivery services, education, agriculture, rural development, and youth and women empowerment to mention but a few were totally neglected. But when Yuguda assumed office, he set in motion the necessary machinery for the overhaul of the entire system. This is a man who believes in the development of the state through capacity building and empowerment and honestly, members of the Network share in this view and so we decided to place high premium on human development in all our activities.
Then what is your organisation's agenda?
Since we feel that if you develop human beings, you develop the nation, so we have three sections that for now we are committed to-education, healthcare and water supply. In the field of education, everybody knows the benefits derivable from education, particularly to those of us from the North-east sub-region of Nigeria where we have the illiteracy rating as below standards, below satisfactory. So that is why we started with education.
We went round and found out that 80 per cent of our students that went through secondary schools can not make it to the university and decided to do what you call extra mural lessons. So, we organized extra mural classes within Bauchi metropolis - about five centres where we advertised through the radio and television that interested student should come and register with the schools that are closest to them and the response was overwhelming and you will not believe it that some of them in conventional schools abandoned their schools and come to these centres because here they have the attention they needed to improve and prepare them for external examinations.
We have NYSC members who are running the schools, giving the students extra lessons and the attention these boys give to the lectures is commendable so you can see that in this direction, we have complemented what the government of Isa Yuguda intends to do. We don't know why they are not doing it properly in the conventional schools, probably maybe because of I-don't-care attitudes of the teachers or maybe because of over crowding or may be because of other reasons. It must be noted that in our own case the students ratio in a class is within the international standard
What about your activities in the other two sections?
Yes, that is for education, but at the same time, we thought of other problems that are inherent within the society, that is, the problems of healthcare. Healthcare is so big and we cannot touch all the angles. So, we decided to go into three sub-sections and these three are so common and they are really doing a lot of havoc to the people in the communities. They are high blood pressure, diabetes and deworming. You will see a lot of people going about with high blood pressure without even knowing until it strikes them. Then you hear that somebody you were with just a little while ago is dead. So also the diabetes cases are quite overwhelming while in the case of deworming you ask how long have you dewormed your child? She tells you that she doesn't even know that there is any need for deworming. Some have not even heard of that exercise before.
So, these three areas are the angles of the healthcare we decided to attack. So, we provided free consultations, free medical check up for the two but the third one, since there was no need for any check-up, we just give children the medicine to deworm them. We arrange for doctors, nurses and other auxiliary staff who come voluntarily to us and we just give them a small token as allowances. We announce it through the radio and television and we go from ward to ward to carry out these activities and the response is quite overwhelming. After check ups, we give drugs, you know your status whether you have it or not, that is, the people with high blood pressure and diabetes. But unfortunately, 80 per cent that we have examined have diabetes or high blood pressure.
Another area where we think the Network should contribute or complement efforts of the Yuguda administration is on the issue of water/sanitation. There are some villages and communities around that if you live it to the government alone, there will be so much work. So we feel we can contribute our own quota and give to those we can give - go to a community, drill borehole for them and give them the pumps so that they can manage it themselves, teach them how to maintain it, all these we do to curtail the problem of water borne diseases. So for now, these are the three areas the network felt it could complement Yuguda's effort at alleviating the problems of the masses.
But there's this complaint that your organisation is concentrating its activities only in Bauchi metropolis, how far is this true?
Yes, for now we have only started with Bauchi. But I want to assure you and our people that arrangements have been completed for us to spread out and we are doing that as soon as possible. Our focus is Bauchi State as a whole and even though the task is enormous, God being on our side we will succeed in this humanitarian effort.
Tell us your impression on the Yuguda administration in the last one year?
Of course, since democracy is all about delivering its dividends to the people and making life more meaningful for them, I can tell you without mincing words that Governor Yuguda's administration in the last one year has performed creditably well. This government has broadened its perspective and horizon, diversified its efforts in terms of trying to cushion the effects of poverty and sufferings among the masses.
At inception, Governor Yuguda met a pathetic and deplorable condition in all the sectors of the state economy and confronted with a whopping N22 billion debt overhang, with over N5 billion recurrent debts being owed commercial banks by Mu'azu government and a rising case of youth restiveness. Indeed, in the words of Governor Yuguda, 'everything ranging from healthcare delivery to education, agriculture, youth and women development was in sharables'. The administration has in the last one year, addressed the decay in infrastructure and object squarely on human development and capacity building, placing high premium on developing education, job creation, agriculture, health delivery services, rural development and youth empowerment. He has improved the security of the state, by way of creating jobs for the youth. Take for instance, the spiderweb security where thousands of youth were trained and are still being recruited take up appointment as security officers and from these, you get those being recruited into the Nigeria Police, Army, paramilitary and so on.
In the area of environmental sanitation, Governor Yuguda has deployed a lot of youth in that sub-sector thus providing jobs for youth through this means, while also empowering the youth through the call business, giving them GSM lines and N10,000 and above in order to keep them busy. And unlike before, each local government has equal number of boys that are in this spiderwebs as well as other jobs or empowerment programmes.
Critical assessment of the level of development - physical and otherwise attained within the period under review in the critical sectors of housing, civil service, education, health, youth and women empowerment, human capacity building, revival of ailing industries, good relationship with the media, I must confess that it is unprecedented in the history of the state.
Time and space will not allow me to enumerate them sector by sector, but honestly human development and capacity building- the two major ingredients in radical transformation of any society were given greater attention by this government. Unlike before, roads are now open in the rural areas to make those dwelling there have a feel of democracy which hitherto was absent. The only thing that maybe, his administration is lacking is that he is not blowing his trumpet or whoever is responsible for blowing the government's trumpet is not doing it for whatever reason.
Ahmed Mu'azu did not do any brand new road; what he did was resurfacing existing roads that were there before. He reconstructed them, scrapped some of them okay, but what Malam Isa Yuguda is doing is that he is not only, reconstructing roads but he is also building new ones.
In the health sector, Malam Isa has brought in for the first time in the history of Bauchi Specialist Hospital, a dialysis machine - this dialysis machine will go along with its own borehole and it's now under construction. I lost a friend, Ibrahim Umar Udubo because people had to travel to Abuja, Jos or Kano teaching hospitals to do dialysis which will take you only 30 minutes or one hour and after five days or one week, you would have to go back again. How much is dialysis machine and how many people can afford to be going to these places? So, a lot of them will just die because of dialysis and now it is here in Bauchi Specialist Hospital, courtesy of Isa Yuguda. He has also arranged with foreign pharmaceutical companies to manufacture drugs specially for Bauchi State for fear of adulteration from the United Kingdom, not from India or Thailand or just anywhere and those drugs are brought direct.
But there's this argument that Governor Yuguda is slow. How would you react to this?
'Slow' is a relative term depending on how you look at it. It is rather good for you to be slow and achieve your target than to be in haste and crash. So, it all depends on what they mean by 'slow'. But if somebody will empower over three million people and you still call it slow...he has empowered a lot of people, transformed and enhanced the civil service, health and education sectors, connected some rural communities, ensured a clean environment, eradicated youth restiveness, engendered peaceful co-existence among the various ethno-religious and political communities in the state; foster human development and capacity building as well as revive the moribund Bauchi Fertilizer Company and the state meat factory, and still people say he is slow. One thing with us human beings is that we always want to pick faults and we never see the positive things of others. Why?
The opposition has always not seen anything good in Governor Yuguda, but they have forgotten that they were there for eight years without anything to show for it. Yes, they have scrapped roads and rebuilt them but there is no one single road that was constructed by Ahmed Mu'azu's administration in eight years, but Isa Yuguda has designed and constructed new roads - three new roads in just one year apart from his attention in other sectors of the state economy. These three roads in Toro, Alkaleri and Ningi local government areas have been campaign material for almost all the politicians that have come to Bauchi from Alhaji Shehu Shahari to date. Each time they go to Toro Local Government, they tell the people in Gumau that, we will construct road to Rishi and Saminaka; in Ningi, they will use Burra Road as a campaign tool while in Alkaleri, they usually tell the people, 'we will do Futuk road to Talasse and Pindiga and so on'. Nobody has done it but this man has done it, yet he is 'slow'. Also, Yuguda in collaboration with one Korean Company are set to build a dam in Dindima, and this dam is going to provide electricity-about 70 mega watts of electricity to Bauchi State as well as provide irrigated land for farming - 40,000 hectres of land and not only Bauchi State indigenes will benefit. Even those from Gombe will benefit from it. So, I don't know how fast they want this man to go and all these have been done under one year, haba!
What are the challenges of this government?
Thank you very much for this question. The major problem facing the Yuguda government especially in its early stage is that of saboteurs. For instance, in the area of water supply, some people tried to sabotage his efforts in bringing water to Gubi Dam. Why? Because they don't want him to succeed. But thank God, he is flushing them out but they are reporting themselves. A will come and say B is sabotaging you and B will say A and C are sabotaging your efforts, your Excellency in so and so area, and so on. so now he just look at them like fools. So at the end of the day, when they realize that they were all just reporting themselves, now everybody was full of shame.
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