Leadership (Abuja)
4 January 2009
Kano State is of many parts, a cosmopolitan in composition as well as dynamic and heterogeneous in human and political mix. The state governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, hosted the state-based journalists to an end of the year media lunch last Tuesday where he spoke on many issues, including the development roadmap for the state, the dilemma of the former EFCC boss, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, and a host of other issues. Abdulaziz Ahmad Abdulaziz chronicles the interaction:
On the new course for the government?
We set for ourselves an examination syllabus for this second term in five major areas. We are going to revisit our internally generated revenue and alhamdulillah, a year and a half into the second tenure, even though we are still far away from our target, we have moved quite progressively. We spent almost a year assessing the machinery of revenue generation in Kano. We even recruited consultants who are specialised in revenue matters. In the end, we engaged the services of one of the best outfits in financial markets in the country that has proved itself in other parts of the country. They were here with us for a couple of months. Within the last four or five months, we have witnessed an increase in internally generated revenue by more than 100 per cent. Our hope is to do even more this new year.
It is interesting to know that it is not the issue of introducing new taxes for citizens; it is just the issue of proper and accountable collection of collectable taxes. There was no new tax introduced. Through the advice of experts and our commitment to change the situation, we have improved. We shall make more progress in that area. We are satisfied with the rate we are going, but we are not satisfied with the achievements yet. We have a very long way to go, but we are making very good progress.
Education
The second area out of the five major tasks we set for ourselves is quality education. During the first tenure, we did a lot of input virtually in every aspect of our education sector. I did not know that we had so much impact until I was privileged to read a specialised report by the UNDP which reported that within the last four years, no government in the country, including the federal government, had made as much input to education as Kano. The records are there for you to cross-check.
That notwithstanding, we still felt we needed to do more in education. What we are doing this year is not like the tradition of the past years. Apart from touching bits of every sector of education, we said we will single out specific schools and address their issues. You would recall that in the 2008 budget, we mentioned, six schools: GGC Dala, GSS Jogana, Science College Dawakin Tofa, Science College Dawakin Kudu, GSS Gwarzo and GSS Rano. These are the six. Go to any of them now and you will see work in progress. We have committed hundreds of millions to each of them. Our target is that after renovating these schools in the next 10 to 15 years, they will not complain about shortage of transport facilities, furniture, sporting facilities, unequipped laboratories or libraries. They will not complain of hostels, the staff quarters or administrative problem. They will not complain of anything. The target is that by the end of our tenure, we are going to have a minimum of thirty schools that will be uplifted to the level of excellence.
In 2009 we are going to do the same thing. We are going to pick five or six schools and commit millions of naira to do the same. Other things in education are going on: recruitment of teachers, building of classrooms here and there, buying of books and laboratory equipment, these are daily things that we continue doing.
Agriculture and Food production
The third task we set for ourselves is integrated agriculture. We have gone very far, although the results are yet to be seen,we have reached a final agreement with an agency that specialises in rice production in Malaysia, Magnitech. They are already here. We are starting with a pilot scheme of 200 hectares; thereafter, we will expand to about 3000 hectares. Our target is that by the grace of God we are going to be one of the highest rice-producing states in the country.
It is on record that Kano has the highest number of dams, about 17 of them, including those under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Since their creation, they have not been rehabilitated for several decades. They require rehabilitation. The volume of water there has reduced by more than two third, so we commit ourselves to reconstruct all the dams. Experts have been invited from Malaysia and the study of the dam is currently going on. We are hopeful that within the year, contracts will be awarded for rehabilitation of most of the major dams for better services which will enable them to accommodate higher volumes of water that will be used for irrigation purposes and will improve our water treatment as well.
Information and communication technology:
The next area of priority is Information Technology. This too gone quite far. We hope the next couple of weeks will witness the commissioning of the first and biggest ever ICT park in Nigeria. We have concluded arrangements with experts and investors to renovate Ado Bayero house by Nassarawa gate. The old building has been standing there since early 80s. It is going to be dedicated to Information technology. We have many foreign experts and companies that have already registered their intentions to come and take part in the park.
Youth and women's empowerment:
The fifth and last area is the issue of women and youth empowerment. A lot is being done and the final blueprint is being tidied up. So far, in 2008 we have graduated about 2000 to 3000 youths. This is much lower than our target, our target is 10,000 per year but for 2008, we have not perfected the blueprint. Our hope is that beginning from 2009, we are going to achieve our benchmark. What we are trying to do is to go beyond the traditional training in welding or computer. Now we are bringing the agriculture component for our youths in the rural areas.
You can't bring a youth from, say Riruwai, to train him in computer whereby nobody will patronise his business in Riruwai. You are simply telling him that he has to come and live here, but if you train him on what he knows best; in farming, showing him some modern ways of farming, modern ways of irrigation, giving him some support, some inputs, you are empowering him and at the end, you give him some capital to begin. This is what we are trying to integrate now. All that is being done are urban-based training scheme. If you train him on welding, on urban base, repairs of electronics, you are asking him to remain an urban man. Most of these skills are largely urban-based. So we are now moving out to identify others in the rural areas. We will recruit hundreds of thousands of youths. The same thing as the women. We are doing this jointly with the local governments.
Infrastructure and urban Renewal:
You are a witness to the roads we are constructing. We just gave an approval and if not for the Christmas and New Year breaks, we wanted to flag off the expansion into three lanes of BUK road. The contract is already awarded. In two weeks time the contractor will resume work. From Gidan Murtala to Kabuga; the whole of BUK road will be reconstructed. It will cost us N3.7bn we are reconstructing Zoo road into three lanes with street lights. Also from Kano Club roundabout through Club road out to Sani Abacha Way, the other one is the Karkasara road through Darmanawa; from one end of School of Nursing. It will link to the bye-pass on Zaria road. Each costs within the range of N3bn to N3.5bn. These have already been awarded. We are only waiting for the workers to come back from their New Year break to commence work.
We also awarded the construction of an international conference centre. That too will take off after the New Year celebrations. It is to be sited at Audu Bako Secretariat. It will have a theater with a 1000-seater capacity. We will have an amphitheatre, and there will be an array of committee rooms for meetings and several other facilities, so that meetings and conferences will be held there.
Our urbanisation project is in the offing. I told you last year that we want to go beyond having Kano metropolitan as our only pride. We identified four or five major towns which we want to transform to rural-urban cities before we leave. That of Gwarzo has already been awarded. We will attend to Gwarzo, Dambatta, Wudil, Rano and Gezawa.
The issue of successor and political future after leaving office
This is a question that many ask. These are issues to be decided by Almighty God. "Everything is tied to God.
One thing I can assure you of is that we will make sure due process is observed in the process of nominating our candidate for 2011. Since we are not used to godfatherism in Kano, we are not going to introduce godfatherism.
I always tell my political collegues, honour in politics is not necessarily limited to an elective office. Mallam Aminu Kano, for example, was never a governor nor was he a president, but today if all the 16 of us that were governors in Kano, military and civilian, are placed on one side of the scale and Mallam Aminu on the other, he will outweigh all of us.
This is the kind of role we all look forward to play whether in elective office or outside, so it is not only when I am elected into party XYZ that I will be an honourable party man. That is why I said I came into politics for good.
The situation in ANPP and the future of the party:
I always feel proud when any office, from councillor is declared vacant and I see hundreds of people troop to contest. This is a sign of acceptability of the party. If we are not a good party and have no honour, we should be out scouting for people to contest. The more candidates we have, the more messages we are sending to everybody that the party is alive and up. One thing I can assure is that the game of who gets what will be sincerely, honestly and transparently played so that nobody will impose himself or be imposed on others.
I can't agree that we have three camps in ANPP. We have people grumbling within the party. If you are to use this on the PDP, how many camps will PDP have?
Buhari has never told anybody that he has left ANPP. As far as I am concerned, he is still a bonafide member of ANPP. If you don't want to be part of the party, what hell are you spending your money going to court they would have left the party and go. I want to assure you that all hands are on deck to address these issues of the ANPP.
We are not scared of the huge size of the PDP. I think Kano should be the last state to be so scared. Where were we in 2003 with 1 House of Representatives member and 5 state Assembly members, with 6 local governments, with no talaka. As at the time of the election all the local governments' chairmen and councillors were PDP. Yet ANPP made it in 2003. So it is not the issue of size of a party. In 2003 all the Obasanjos were there, all the Kwankwasos were there yet we emerged.
The Jos crisis:
The Jos crisis is most unfortunate. By the grace of God, we will put behind us all crises. The ordinary citizens on the streets of Nigeria behave in accordance with the conduct of most of his leaders, whether religious or political. This is what we are trying to change now. In Kano, we don't encourage party thuggery. Nobody is interested in doing that. The youths that engage in such things are getting fewer. Even the people that engage them are far fewer. The secret of this is societal reorientation.
This is why I always argue. Even the rule of law Mr. President is talking about is societal reorientation. It is not in the books, though the law books are there.
The Ribadu saga:
I want to say this with all sense of humility. A year and a half ago, Ribadu was parading us as thieves. He was giving headlines that he was going to prosecute X and Y and that all governors are thieves. Obasanjo was the only clean man, as far as Ribadu was concerned. He said it himself! We are not putting these words to him. He was challenged and he said he had checked and found nothing wrong. May be his checks were selective. Today he is being accused of the same thing. When I saw him on the pages of newspapers trying to explain himselfs I said how I wish I could see his face to ask how he feels now. Honestly as a Muslim, I do not wish any bad thing to anybody. I have forgotten and forgiven Ribadu.
My only interpretation of this is that he is going through the process of teaching by Almighty God. That you show love for others as you do show love for yourself is the message of Islam. The area I am most disgusted is his failure to defend himself. He used to argue 'EFCC is inviting you, why not come?, come and answer the questions' that is why he used to say EFCC is a glorified police station. Your petition come, you get invited to come and explain why you hiding around. Maybe he knows what they were doing. They lock you up before they ask the questions. I am trying to explain why we are having crises in Nigeria. So long as the leaders are hypocritical, we are going nowhere.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Leadership. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
