The Fallacy Of Shekarau’s Human Development

By

Mahmud Mustapha

mahmudimahanga@yahoo.com

 

 

Almost all scholars agree that human development is all about improving the life of man, qualitatively and quantitatively. Therefore any ‘human development’ devoid of these two elements is nothing but farce. 

 

Man by his nature is pragmatic, with proclivity to positive change and this can better be appreciated from the way he has improved on his way of living from the Stone Age to the present day. This propensity to develop his potentials has been the impetus that propels man to greater achievements, giving him a wide edge over other creatures down the evolution chain.

 

Since man evolved a system of choosing his leaders, the capability and commitment to ensuring qualitative and quantitative improvement on his existence has been the major criterion in choosing his leaders (although modern day bandit politicians have devised crude and devious means of grabbing power without regard to this basic requirement).   This is why every individual aspiring to elective office tries to convince the electorate that he possesses this quality and makes mouth-watering promises to improve on their life.

 

When Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, the executive governor of Kano state announced that the focus of his administration would be human development soon after his election victory on May 29, 2003, the pronouncement was joyously greeted with éclat as the people of Kano thought Shekarau’s human development would mean better living conditions through improved infrastructure and social services. However in two years all he has done in the name of human development is throwing out public funds to cohorts and hangers-on in a way that would make even Santa Claus envious, at the detriment of the people of the state.

 

When Shekarau first talked of human development what came to the mind of any rational person was the provision of enabling atmosphere for the optimum utilization of the enormous potentials of the industrious people of Kano. It is a common knowledge that Kano earned its enviable reputation as center of commerce due to its viable and vibrant industries, which provided hundreds of thousands of jobs to the people of the state thereby eliminating dependence and ‘maula’ as well as finished products for the insatiable commercial demands of Kano and much of West Africa.

 

Kano’s continuous industrial decline due to the incessant closure of its industries occasioned by drastic drop in electricity supply has led to the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs thereby throwing a significant number of its people into the abyss of poverty and destitution and threatens its commercial status. The loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs means the pauperization of millions because for every job there are at least 10 people dependent on it as every worker has mouths to feed. And for every industry closed thousands of traders that deal in its products are edged out of business, thrown into the merciless jaws of penury, hunger and frustration. Small-scale enterprises are reeling in agony because the simple appliances they use in producing their wares invariably rely on electricity; welders, ice block makers, embroiders, corn grinders, hair dressers etc all rely on electricity to power their implements of trade.

 

How can a commercial city like Kano with daily power need of 250 mega watts be expected to prosper with a daily supply of 80 mega watts despite its huge industrial and residential demands. Is there any better human development approach than improving on this indispensable element on which all life’s activities depend or dolling out public funds in the name of human development?  

 

Shekarau administration inherited a five billion naira independent power-generating project from its predecessor that contracted a Russian firm for the execution of the project. By the time Shekarau assumed office the firm had completed feasibility study and was about to commence work but the new administration which has human development as its focus abruptly revoked the contact due to its shortsightedness and lack of priority.

 

Gombe, a new state with very few industries, less population and far less power demand than Kano, took advantage of Shekarau’s ineptitude and contracted the Russian firm for a similar project for the provision of electricity to its people. Two years after sending the Russians packing, Shekarau has gone cap in hand pleading with the Russians to come back and continue from where he ordered them to stop but the Russians are unwilling because they are already committed to a more serious state government which knows how best to develop its people.

 

By revoking the power-generating contract Shekarau threw away Kano’s golden opportunity of industrial rebirth, which she desperately needs to return to the good days of growth and prosperity that once characterized her and her people. By revoking the contract, Shekarau has denied the army of unemployed youth the chance of securing jobs in the 350 closed industries that would have re-open instead of being used as political thugs and nuisance that cluster around offices of government officials waiting for crumbs. Besides the remaining 150 industries that manage to operate far below capacity under the crushing weight of high production costs and miniscule profits would have been reinvigorated and provide more jobs and remove Kano from the unenviable position of the state with the highest unemployment rate in the country as confirmed by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE). Small-scale enterprenuers and artisans that contribu te immensely to the growth of Kano would have utilized their potentials to the fullest. In short Kano would have been revived like the proverbial barren land after haven has turned on its showers.

 

Instead the government sheepishly embarked on a rather ‘eye service’ 90 million naira project of installing electrical transformers and replacing electrical poles and cables in some selected parts of the state, in an attempt to deceive the people into believing that it is committed to solving the power problem in Kano. It befuddles the mind how mere installing transformers and changing poles and cables can improve power supply without expanding power generating capacity. Perhaps the government intends to perform miracle as it claims to be a ‘God-anointed miracle government’ 

 

The problem of water supply has been an issue of grave concern to the people of Kano. Most parts of the metropolis, not to talk of the countryside, lack this basic necessity for survival despite the staggering amounts the government claims to have expended in the provision of water in the state. Even in the few areas that water flows from the tap, it is usually brownish which attests to its poor quality. This explains the high death rates from typhoid fever and cholera, which have become common ailments in the state. A government that requires about three billion naira to solve the excruciating water shortage in the metropolis was so sensitive enough to spend 800 million naira on rehabilitation of nine round-abouts and to make an annual disbursement of 600 million on its pet project, Societal Re-orientation Programme dubbed A daidaita Sahu which has done nothing but enriching its implementers who have become notorious for demanding for blank invoice when paying for products purchased or services rendered. It is a wonder how such dubious individuals can bring about positive attitudinal change in the society. Despite the enormous resources being expended in media propaganda by its dubious implementers the project has remained unpopular with the people and this was clearly indicated by the few people and empty seats at the Sani Abacha stadium during the recent one-year anniversary of a daidaita sahu. Even television footage of the ceremony aired on the state television, CTV 67 couldn’t hide this fact. While the people of Kano pay the ubiquitous water vendors through their nose for drinking water that is sourced mostly from commercial bore-holes and open wells, the government in its ‘wisdom’ recruited 9,000 hisbah or ‘sharia’ enforcers with a collective monthly pay of 54 million naira, which translates into 648 million naira every year. The funny side of the hisbah which was created ostens ibly to supervise people’s conduct vis-à-vis the ‘sharia’ is that its function has been reduced to duplicating the work of police traffic wardens. By implication the people of Kano pay an extra 648 million naira to 9,000 recruits to control traffic despite the presence of trained and experienced federal personnel that are paid for the job they perfectly execute. If we add administrative costs of running the hisbah board we may be talking of a billion naira annually. Compare these huge sums to the 72 million naira disbursed to the state’s university of technology Wudil as its 2004 grant despite Shekarau’s pride of being an educationist with close to three decades classroom experience who knows the value of education.

 

Despite filling the cabinet with ‘seasoned’ educationists who had been warming their seats in the education ministry waiting for retirement before manna fell from heaven, Kano’s education sector is in sorry state. With decaying infrastructure and insufficient learning facilities it boggles the mind how these educationists-turned-bureaucrats intend to turn around the educational fortune of the state. This explains why the state performed woefully in 2004 common entrance examination, the worst in its history. It took the state nine extra weeks to produce the results of this examination while these neo-bureaucrats were busy developing themselves, which is the government’s idea of human development. What do you expect from a bunch of hungry acolytes who were looking forward to retirement with trepidation, as they had almost nothing and knew the hard times that awaited them of living on pension and suddenly got access to public coffer s, thanks to a colleague that came to power by sheer providence.

 

Perhaps the inhabitants of the low-income and densely populated Rimin Kebe neighbourhood in the metropolis have a better understanding of Shekarau’s human development. Their cries for help to this ‘saintly’ governor against gully erosion that is threatening their abodes were rebuffed, as controlling erosion is not part of human development because it requires setting up structures which has no place in human development, at least by Shekarau’s mentality. These hapless folks will have to wait till their houses, which they laboured to build with their meager income are eaten up by this monster before the benign governor develops them by dolling out 10,000 naira and some blankets. Shekarau doesn’t feel these poor people deserve to be saved from the fast encroaching erosion threatening them and their families from the 120 billion naira his government has received from federation account in the last two years, which include ecological funds meant for tackling such problems.  

 

The revelation made by Nasiru Gawuna, Nassarawa local government chairman in whose domain Rimin Kebe falls as quoted by CTV 67 in a special magazine it aired on the erosion menace exposes Shekarau’s vindictiveness despite his claim to being Godly.

 

Gawuna told the reporter of the magazine programme that he had personally complained to Shekarau about the erosion in Rimin Kebe which the local government could not handle but the governor retorted by saying that he would not bother himself with Rimin Kebe because the people of the area voted for PRP and not ANPP in the gubernatorial election. For airing that Shekarau in his much-vaunted sense of justice ordered that the reporter be suspended indefinitely and the editor of the programme be demoted to translator.

 

It is shocking that Shekarau doesn’t see it as a priority to use public funds to save thousands of people of Rimin Kebe from erosion but felt it worthwhile to use 170 million naira from public money to pay back monies his former finance commissioner that was interrogated by EFCC over alleged theft of 170 million naira in Bank of the North where he was working before his pal, Shekarau appointed him to be in charge of Kano’s finances. After bailing his comrade to “avoid scandal” Shekarau who was under pressure moved his larcenous friend to the ministry of agriculture where he is in charge of the state’s four billion naira worth of fertilizer. What a way of rewarding larceny and developing a human being. If somebody with such kleptomaniac disposition who could be so devilish as to pilfer 170 million naira from a bank, what do you expect of him when entrusted with public funds. Can this be the reason why only 30,000 bags of fertilize r were distributed to all the 44 local governments in the state out of the four billion naira worth of fertilizer the government claimed to have purchased for this year’s rainy season?

 

It was only when the pressure became unbearable that Shekarau relieved this larcenous comrade of his from his position, having realized that the people have started raising eyebrow on his presence in government despite his notorious reputation of attraction to the crisp of naira notes.

 

It is unfortunate that a government that preaches probity and prudence can be so brazen

in mismanaging the funds meant for the public. How can a governor who confessed

to having only 280 naira after cunningly hijacking ANPP’s gubernatorial ticket in 2003,

who had to rely on the good will of political sympathizers for the new babbar Riga to

wear on

inauguration day be throwing public money around to coteries and boot lickers in the

name of human development at the expense of developing infrastructures which is for the

benefit of the larger society and which the funds are meant for. Is dolling out eight

million naira hush money to a ‘fiery’ cleric in the name of donation to build school and

distributing brand new vehicles to a sanctimonious and egoistic bunch of reactionary

clerics

human development, or is disbursing four million to a party chairmanship candidate

human empowerment, or is buying fancy cars to the governor’s children with which they

cruise around town flouting their newfound social status and engaging in ‘girl-snatching’

from the children of commoners be regarded as human development? Since charity

begins at home, Shekarau should start his a daidaita Sahu from his home before taking it

out. Obviously it is not meant for the rich and the powerful. Perhaps this style of human

development made Shekarau to develop himself by hurriedly and single-handedly

awarding a four billion-naira fertilizer contract soon after assuming office, without a

cabinet or a state assembly both of which had to approve the contract. The contract was

awarded despite the existence of two functional fertilizer production lines at the state

owned Kano Agricultural Supply Company (KASCO), which not only produced fertilizer

for local consumption but also produced for the federal government. There is more to

what meets the eye.

 

 

The reason for such interpretation of human development is not far fetched. A number of the top government functionaries came into office by chance not by design and had to augment their income by ‘maula’ while some could hardly maintain their rickety cars. However two years in office they have started riding state-of the-art cars and erecting grandiose mansions. Where do they get the money? Can Shekarau claim ignorance of such ostentatious display of wealth by these neuveau riche? His three commissioners he publicly accused of incompetence and non-performance still retain their positions, with one of them promoted to a more lucrative office, confirming the popular notion that the government accommodates and even promotes mediocrity and incompetence.             

 

What do you expect from a person who draws his inspiration from a demagogue, his think-tank who thinks human development, which is offered as a course in the department he taught at the university, is all about satisfying the greed of avaricious people like him whose staff loath for taking a ‘cut’ from every funds disbursed to his office, obviously to develop himself.

 

This pseudo-intellectual and his overzealous disciple are oblivious of the fact that even Sweden that is at the top of the human development index doesn’t operate the Father Christmas version of human development that they preach. Sweden attained its enviable position of the country with the highest standard of living in the world through provision of high quality infrastructure and social services that ensure qualitative and quantitative improvements in the individual and collective life of her citizens, which is what human development is all about. It is unfortunate that Shekarau’s globe-trotting has not taken him to Sweden yet but he ought to ask his deputy, who was recently in Sweden, for some tutorials on genuine human development from his experience during his Swedish sojourn so that Kano may attain some level of genuine human development in the remaining 19 months the government has to vacate the stage.