The Fallacy of Shekarau’s Human Development

By

Sanusi Akilu Abubakar

Zaria Road Naibawa Kano

sanusikilu@yahoo.co.uk

The essay titled 'The Fallacy of Shekarau's Human Development' by Mahmud Mustapha that appeared in prestigious website, Gamji, is very interesting because it shows the extent of desperation and hatred by people who were defeated at the polls and are now determined to employ falsehood in order to gain cheap popularity. There is however no need to reply their slanderous allegations but to go straight to correct some misrepresentations so as to put the record straight.

First of all Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau's human development philosophy is never a fallacy because it has restored human dignity in Kano State which was hitherto ruled by the most arrogant administration in the history of the state. Human dignity was restored in two ways. The first is the unequivocal guarantee of the universal right of freedom of speech and expression that was denied by the previous rapacious PDP administration. We must not forget that during that administration even the private owned radio station was closed for airing opposition views. One of the biggest banks in Nigeria was harassed because a staff of that bank criticized the rapacious and corrupt PDP administration that used more resources of the state to build luxurious and palatial accommodations for the village born governor. The money spent on the two government houses in Kano and Abuja was over N1.2 billion was more than the entire capital expenditure on agriculture and health by that administration in its four years tenure in Kano. This is why people like Mahmud Mustapha are now jittery that there is an administration that cares for the people in Kano hence they concoct lies in the media to deceive the people. Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau has now guaranteed the freedom of expression and everyday people criticize and even abuse the government whenever they wish in the media or anywhere and his supporters respond whenever the need arises. Hence there is less social tension in the state despite incitement by many groups. During the previous PDP administration no member of the opposition was ever allowed to use the state media even on commercial basis but now the state med ia covered the last PDP rally live. There is now an air of happiness and tranquility in Kano because people are free unlike before.

The second area of restoration of human dignity is that of the payment of pension, pension arrears and gratuity to some retired officials that have been waiting for several years. Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau's administration paid more N2 billion in less two to over 9000 beneficiaries that were denied by the last PDP administration. It should be recalled that the former governor was so unpopular in the state because he called these retired patriots worthless dead people and that he has defeated the living what more of the dead. He forgot that they have families and sympathizers some of th em were even his teachers and yet he looked at them in face and insulted them. A former secretary to the state government collapsed and later died after he was informed that the governor lied to them because the federal government had disbursed its contribution but the governor had diverted it.

Shekarau's human development philosophy is never a fallacy because amongst other reasons it has made the greatest efforts in governance reforms to restore confidence in public sector and put the state on the correct track. Governance reforms will ensure efficiency, transparency and accountability thereby enhancing productive. Despite the rhetoric of the Federal Government, Kano State under the leadership of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau was the first state in Nigeria to restore Budget Monitoring by establishing a Projects Monitoring Bureau which monitors the stages of Budget implementation by issuing periodic performance reports and supervising the execution of projects to ensure compliance with the initial plans. The Bureau has employed retired senior engineers as consultants. It should also be noted that the Federal Government despite its rhetoric it only began Budget Monitoring after Kano State and even then it has only 17 staff to monitor the whole Federal Budget while the Kano State Bureau has 44 staff. It should also be recalled that for over ten years the Kano State Appropriation Law was never published until the inception of the Shekarau administration.

As a well conceived philosophy Shekarau's human development focus is never a fallacy because it is founded on the realization that education is its bedrock. Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau is one of the most respected past presidents of ANCOPS (All Nigeria Conference of Principals), he rose through the ranks of teaching profession to hold the highest professional position of Permanent Secretary of the State's Ministry of Education. The group of professionals that drafted his administration's educational policy was also very articulate. The greatest crisis facing education in the state is the lack of manpower. As a result of his unpatriotism Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso ordered the retrenchment of over 3000 well qualified and experienced secondary school teachers. Since that period secondary schools results have been deteriorating and it would take more than ten years to redress the situation because the fresh teachers employed would have to get the experience. The Shekarau Admini stration unlike the Kwankwaso Administration decided to employ teachers and over 3500 have so far been employed and the door for continuous employment remains opened. Also as a long term manpower development policy the Shekarau Administration raised tertiary scholarship by 50% and also made it available to all students of tertiary institutions unlike the Kwankwaso Administration that restricted to certain courses and later even embezzled N62 million of the Scholarships Funds. In the last two years the Shekarau Administration has spent more than N300 million in paying the scholarship allowances of tertiary students across the state. One of the most profound achievements of the Shekarau Administration in the area of long term development of education is the fact that it provided scholarships and assistances to over fifty students pursuing PhD programs in various universities. No government in the history of Kano State has ever done this. In fact Kano State does not have up to 200 PhD holders in all subjects since the commencement of western education in the state. The Kano State University is now also well funded compared to Federal Universities because for example it is allocated N5million every month to meet its overhead expenses while Ahmadu Bello University is allocated N7 million a month when it is ten times the size of the Kano State University. All the tertiary institutions in the state have had a structural project under the Shekarau Administration unlike in the past. For example the Kano State College of Arts, Science and Remedial Studies has never had any structural development since 1989 until this administration. The institutions have all been encouraged to recruit more teachers unlike during the locust years of the Kwan kwaso Administration.

Apart from addressing the issue of manpower deficiency of the education sector as a result of the ineptitude and unpatriotism of the Kwankwaso Administration the Shekarau Administration has done more than any other administration in the area of infrastructure development and rehabilitation in this critical sector of human development. The administration has opened more than 100 Junior Secondary Schools in less than two years. All these schools have been provided with teachers and 43 of them were newly built by state government between 2004 and 2005. Existing secondary schools were also expanded with additional 374 classrooms to provide additional space in the schools it should be recalled that the immediate past administration did not bother to expand the secondary schools but kept on admitting and overcrowding students. In order to boost science education 58 new secondary school laboratories were installed and furnished. Another 164 secondary school laboratories were rehabilitated and equipped and 46 damaged structures in secondary schools were repaired across the state. There has been shortage of toilet facilities in secondary schools before the advent of the Shekarau administration hence 33 blocks of five-seater toilets were constructed in various secondary schools across the state. More than 30 principals and 440 teachers were provided with furniture similarly more than 33,000 students have also been provided with furniture with aim of having all students seated by the year 2007. The secondary schools' policy was designed to rehabilitate all such schools in the state during the tenure of the administration. All students were also expected to have seats by the end of the tenure of the administration instead of crowding 200 students in a class as in the previous administration.

In the area of agriculture no administration since when Alhaji Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi left office has ever done as much as the Shekarau Administration. Agriculture is very crucial to human development because it provides jobs to the majority of the people in this agrarian state. Agriculture is also important to security because it provides enough food for the teeming populace as an insurance against famine that has ravaged some other arid regions with similar ecology. The Federal Government borrowed $142 million (over N19 billion) on behalf of Kano State Government in 1981 for the Kano Agricultural Development Project during the Abubakar Rimi Administration. Since then there has never been corresponding investment in agriculture until the inception of the Shekarau Administration that has been making efforts to restore the lost glory of this important productive sector. Many politicians especially northerners run away from agriculture because it is not physical that could be used to manipulate the public. It is only the Shekarau Administration that commits over 10% of its annual budget to agriculture. In the last two years the administration has spent more than N5 billion in the sector which is over 10% of capital expenditure. Similarly it has distributed more subsidized fertilizer than any other previous administration in one single season which was over 60000 tons and the highest ever distributed by any previous administration was 25000 tons.

One of the innovations of the Shekarau Administrations is the Special Mass Food Production Programme. The aim of the programme is to revive and develop food production in the state by providing inputs to farmers as well as training them in modern farming techniques. So far the state government has spent over N900 million under this programme. Some of the successes of the programme include restoration of extension services and boosting the morale of the extension workers for efficiency 710 of them have been provided with motor cycles, seven senior officials were provided with four wheel driver vehicles and thirty vehicles were rehabilitated all in order to facilitate agricultural extension which requires mobility. Over 2000 agricultural stakeholders have so far been trained as a means of knowledge transfer which is more needed now than ever. One of the most pioneering achievements of KNARDA under this programme is the facilitation of the establishment of over 10000 farmers associations across the state. Before the inception of the Shekarau Administration there were less than 1500 farmers associations. Despite the fact that agriculture is the most important sector in the Kano economy the seed processing plant of KNARDA was abandoned for more than six years until the assumption of the Shekarau Administration that has now rehabilitated it. The previous PDP Administration of Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso never cared about agriculture hence that administration spent more on the governor's indulgence than on agriculture. Throughout its four years it spent less than N1 billion in this important sector and over N1.3 billion on the governor's lodges in Kano and Abuja.

There is no government that has committed more resources to health care in northern Nigeria as the Shekarau Administration in Kano State hence its human development philosophy is on course. The previous PDP Administration of Kano State headed by Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso committed N37,655,030.80 to capital expenditure on health according to their official publication Landmarks (pages 131-137). That administration did not construct a single infrastructure in the health sector in its first two and half years (June 1999 to November 2001 see also Landmarks). The Shekarau Administration on the other hand has done more infrastructural development in the health sector more than any other administratio n since after the Rimi Administration. The Shekarau Administration has so far committed more than N600 million to capital development in the health sector this obviously escapes the imagination of lairs such as Mustapha Mahmud. However structures never lie, the maternity ward constructed by the Shekarau Administration is now functional at Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital no new structure has been constructed in that hospital in more than two decades. It is under these circumstances that the people of Kano State want an efficient health care system when it has been abandoned for such a long time. Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital is the second largest in West Africa yet it had no sustained power supply despite the fact that about 1000 women deliver babies daily. It was the Shekarau Administration that restored efficient power supply by providing generators that automatically switch whenever NEPA goes off. Similarly the rural areas have not been left out by the Shekarau Administration. It has done more constructing and upgrading primary health care facilities across the state. A primary health care center was constructed a Gani, those at Yan Awaki, Kumurya and Durbunde were upgraded in 2004 while new ones at Indabo, Lajawa and Tokarawa are under construction awarded in 2005. Many of the state's hospitals have been renovated and provided with modern facilities. Asmau Memorial Hospital which was privately owned has also been bought by the state government in its effort to expand the infectious diseases hospital. No administration in the whole of Northern Nigeria has made such commitment but because the Shekarau Administration is modest it does not make any noise hence agents of evil propaganda like Mahmud Mustapha enjoy their field day.

As an individual with evil intent Mahmud Mustapha misrepresented some reports on the rate of unemployment in Kano and the proposed 419 Power Plant Project of the discredited Kwankwaso Administration. First of all only evil people like Mahmud Mustapha could attribute the closure of indust ries in Kano to the Shekarau Administration in fact the first report on their closure was made by the committee instituted by the Kwankwaso Administration. Lack of energy is obviously one of the reasons for the closure of some of the industries this could only be attributed to the Federal Government. On the other hand the fraudulent manner in which Kwankwaso went about the process of constructing a power plant must be condemned. That discredited administration paid N100 million to Russians for feasibility study on a hydro power plant. That study confirmed what has been known to the experts since 1974. The report of the consultants titled Kano State Hydro-Electricity Project for Tiga and Challawa Dams Preliminary Technical Assessment Final Report January 2001 observed that: the "Tiga reservoir can sustain an average of 5 MW…. However the firm capacity is only about 1 MW because of the periods of extreme dro ught" (page 27). This is the project that Mahmud Mustapha is claiming to have been taken to Gombe State and would have solved Kano's power crisis. This is the greatest black lie ever told! That 419 project could not solve Kano's power problem because the city requires 200MW. Therefore the malicious allegation that the Shekarau Administration's termination of the project denied Kano certain benefits was made because of the evil intention of the Mahmud Mustapha and his patrons who wanted to siphon the state's resources to finance the project when they were in power. A project that would generate 5MW of electricity cannot even meet the need of one of factory in the state such as Nigerian Spanish Engineering Limited that requires 20MW contrary to the insinuations of Mahmud Mustapha. Gombe State which is small and lacks any major industries can have such a mini power plant and because they are deficient in knowledge they can be duped by any white skinned people.

Kwankwaso and his cronies have in-built hatred for the people hence whenever people are provided with jobs they get angry and start making all manner of allegations. When they were in power they were busy sacking people. They are now angry that the Shekarau Administration has provided more jobs to people than any other administration in the history of the state. More than 30000 jobs have been provided to the people dire ctly while more than 100000 have been created indirectly. Hence Kwankwaso cronies are jittery and angry that 9000 hisbah guides have been engaged to compliment in social welfare, civil defense and vigilance which are all within the constitutional purview of civic responsibility of ensuring harmonious peaceful coexistence in the state. Mahmud Mustapha out of mischief and evil intent deliberately restricted the functions of the Hisbah to complimenting the traffic responsibilities of the police and road safety corps when they have been engaged in more challenging societal responsibilities. The Hisbah Guides have returned many lost children and women to their states and countries which are even the combined responsibilities of the police and immigration services. They have also been in engaged in crime prevention and surveillance thereby contributed to more sophisticated security functions which are very much needed in the state.