The Measure of an Administration

By

Ibrahim I. Bello

iibello@yahoo.com

 

 

Four, or even eight years, are not long enough time in the history of a society. Kano society is a bit over 1000 years now. What is the significance of eight out of 1000 years? Negligible! Put in other words; what valuable contributions can a leader make in just only eight years that will imprint an indelible mark on a society that is over 1000 years? A society that one could say has almost seen it all. Ordinarily, one would say, very little.

 

But, as a columnist of the Time magazine puts it “time and value have little to do with each other” he buttressed his assertion, succinctly, with the undeniable fact that “a life ended in youth [for example] may be superior to a prolonged existence subject to revisionism and conspicuous errors”

 

History supports his point of view. The world is replete with amazing examples of how a strong and visionary leader appears in a society momentarily like a flash of lightening and yet leaving in his wake unsurpassed public services and torrents of goodwill that leaders who stayed around much longer could not equaled. In Nigeria, the regime of General Murtala Ramat Muhammad readily comes to mind in this regard. Within the brief six months of its life, the regime of the late of Head of State was able to arrest the cancerous tumor that had then eaten deep into the fabric of the Nigerian nation—in form of high level official corruption and mismanagement. He restored the nation to the path of rectitude and all known cherished human values. Thirty years after, no regime is yet to earn the respect and national acceptance enjoyed by General Murtala’s, because none has been able to give value to the existence of Nigerians like he did.

 

Today there is a glimmer of hope, albeit at the states level. The undiminishing popularity of a Governor particularly at the sunset of his tenure is uncommon in Kano State recent political history. One may be tempted to postulate that: If the soaring popularity of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau is driven by some visible support of some heavy-weight political juggernauts in the state or consistent political mentoring of a godfather some where out of the state, one might view the outpouring admiration the people of Kano displays every time the Governor makes a triumphant return to the state, from his official foreign trips, or lesser hajj or even the recent trip to Abuja to receive the confirmation of his party to contest April 2007 elections as crowd-renting expertise of an ardent, calculating political generalissimos. Then one would have dismissed the displayed adulations as “Counterfeit emotions” to borrow from Roger Rosenblatt.

 

But the more one studies the policies of Shekarau’s administration and the aim they are set to and have achieved so far, of impacting the life of maximum number of people, the more one realizes how the aspirations of the Governor are in tandem with the yearnings of his people. And this explains, I believe, the high popularity ratings the Governor is enjoying among the people of the state despite desperate efforts of his detractors to bring him down even by blackmail and other illegalities. That he is still held in high esteem by the majority of people in the state at the twilight of his first tenure, which is usually a critical period because there are so many contestants vying for the coveted seat, goes to buttress this acceptance, which must have been induced, like in Murtala’s regime, by the extent of his success in rekindling hope where it was once lost; in reviving cherished values long abandoned.

 

One example of public transportation will suffice here. When the regime appealed to drivers of taxis and buses in the state to, in compliance with Shariah, separate the seating arrangement between male and female passengers, it followed such call by flooding the streets with 500 Tricycle motorbikes that were strictly mandated to carry female passengers only. This is to reduce the pressure on the available seats in such buses and taxis reserved for female commuters. And the women in the state applauded the initiative and appreciated the sense in this implementation shariah. To further consolidate on the gains of this revived cherished Islamic value of minimizing the intermingling of opposite sexes in public places, the state government is set to inject into the system yet another set of 1000 tricycles and has in addition recently introduced bus services to cater exclusively for day-secondary school girls commuting to and from schools. No parent, I reckon, would see this initiative as a form of “excessive legalism” as Ali Mazrui once described Shariah implementation in Northern Nigeria.

 

No doubt, the benefit, the people of the state derives from this initiative of public transportation are numerous. One, it instantly provided jobs for 500 youths. And 1000 more tricycles are to follow shortly. Secondly, it has lessened the suffering female commuters in the state experienced in moving from one place to another. Thirdly, it advanced the course of Shariah, in the name of which the government was voted into power in the first place.

 

With the societal re-orientation agency of the state, on the other hand, engaging in behavioral change campaigns and recording some degree of successes, the Shekarau’s regime is well on course in its efforts at sanitizing the society and giving back its cherished, but diminishing moral values.

 

Thus, if the true measure of a regime is in its ability to make the life of its people worth living, to guide them to the path of moral rectitude and to pursue public services that will have maximum impact on the life of the maximum number of people then the risk the people of Kano took when they voted into office the Shekarau’s administration back in 2003 on the assumptions that it would deliver has yielded the expected result. Giving the Governor another chance will only mean directing their yearnings where they are sure to meet the desirable fulfillment; or to be more precise, putting their lives in a tested and trusted hand. Four years of rediscovering the value of our existence would have become eight years of unforgettable experiences of hard-to-surpass public service, human and socio-economic development. Then we would leave posterity to judge the place of those eight years as Kano society continues on its journey to greatness.  

 

Bello can be reached at iibello@yahoo.com