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Issues In The Kano Vehicle Controversy By Ammar Muhammd Yola
So much has been written and said about the decision of the Kano State Government to centralize the purchase and distribution of official vehicles to District Heads. Centralized is the word because unlike in the past when individual local government authorities embarked on vehicular purchases for their deserving officials without co-ordinating, this time around, the state government cooperated with the local governments to harmonize the purchases. In many ways, this new approach meets with the high ethical standards for which the Shekarau administration has made its mark. Such purchases are subjected to go thorough due diligence and competitive tender. In the end, government makes the purchase influenced by professional advice. It is a system that has served the government so well in terms of due process, safeguarding against overpricing or not getting the best value for money. In the past, local governments had made their direct purchases with varying degrees of success. As Malam himself noted in a recent clarification interview on the same subject matter, some Council officials, sometimes unknowingly bought second hand vehicles which they refurbished and passed on for new ones. This is not an avenue to indict anybody but government felt time had come to synchronize the purchase system and reduce incidents of fraud.
The second peg of the argument from critics of the exercise borders on the appropriateness or otherwise of it. It is like the administration’s detractors were presented with a gift of dry gunpowder on dry grass to ignite fireworks against a Governor they wrote off as politically dead on the eve of his historic re-election but who rode back to power on a wave of pulsating public approval. A columnist with the Leadership newspaper, Abba Mahmoud, described the gesture as “The Squandering of Goodwill in Kano” and proceeded to reel out real and imaginary woes besetting Kano’s Socio-economic sector and concluded that Malam was doing nothing besides travelling to Saudi Arabia rather than stay home to govern the state.
You can excuse this columnist for being carried away by what theatre critics describe as “the intensify of the plot”. An Actor and an Actress performing an engaging romantic scene can actually become so involved in their act that they transfer their stage emotions into the realm of actuality but when the ovation dies and they take a reality check, they will discover that they had been consumed by the intensify of a plot whose audience has since left. Preceding that opinion, he had written the week before about the performance of Governors under the banner “Assessing the Governors” where his sweeping, light-hearted, fact-free review of the performance of Governors, some of whom he had never toured their states to crosscheck his rumours against reality, presented him as more of a humorist than some one to be take seriously on such a complicated subject matter as governance. For example, from his exalted ivory Tower somewhere in below the outer space, he described Akwa Ibom’s Governor Godswill Akpabio as “one of the worst Governors in this dispensation” without as much as offering his captive readers exemplary benchmarks for assessing the man’s performance beyond gossips picked from beer parlours patronized chiefly by people who, like me have not been to Mr. Akpabio’s state since he came to power. I do not know how people like Abba Mahmoud get their facts or crosscheck their data but I am aware that each time you encounter enlightened Akwa Ibom indigenes, they are full of praises for Akpabio and when you see the said Governor at meeting with his people on national television, the halls are filled to capacity, the audiences are appreciative and gaily attired, no visible signs of deep discontent, or perhaps the cameras which were present there may be manipulated and only Malam Abba, from a safe house in Abuja or somewhere up-north here, can see clearer and decipher the mis-governance of the state, something residents of the state do not see.
Who is going to inform our opinionated columnist that Malam’s travels to Saudi Arabia are never personal, even though as a practicing Muslim, he has the right and means to visit the Holy Land and perform his obligations? The accusation that Malam is “always travelling to Saudi Arabia and foreign countries as if he has no work to do” is borne out of ignorance of the duties and responsibilities of a Governor and a distressing lethargy about finding out what the travels were meant to achieve. Malam has never made personal trip abroad, not even to Saudi Arabia. Sitting at home behind a desk does not signpost hardwork on the part of a governor. The bureaucracy works well and does not need the Governor’s daily workforce which can run the state without the Governor breathing down their neck. All Malam’s trips abroad were either sponsored by the federal government, the host countries, development partners or in the instance where the state is sponsoring his delegation, it is to seek cooperation or investment opportunities abroad but even at that, this is only after preliminary groundwork by experts had clearly and profoundly established a frame work for bilateral cooperation, waiting for the Governor and his delegation to give it the official stamp of authority.
Malam recently returned from Saudi Arabia. He was on his annual vacation and was at liberty to travel to anywhere including going to perform the Lesser Hajj (Umrah). But this Saudi trips will never be personal, Malam is too duty conscious to sit back while opportunities to knock at the doors of investors abound. It is worth repeating here that the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) based in Jeddah, through the assistance of the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is sponsoring several development initiatives that will revive Kano’s ailing economic sector and create new jobs for our people. Such projects are in Rice production, Mass Housing and Independent Power Project. Naturally, a lot of people do not take notice when projects of such magnitude are being negotiated. They wait for the commissioning day and celebrate the result but one would expect a columnist to dig deeper for information on a matter of public concern before commenting on it. I am aware that in several countries, including developing ones with a culture of serious journalism, columnists keep research teams which dig into facts and figures on any issue from the breakfast habits of First Ladies to Municipal Coroner’s Laws from which their principals draw factual and coherent opinions. Must Nigerian readers suffer vacuous columnists and opinionated cheerleaders gladly without a struggle?
It was the IDB connection that warranted Malam’s two well-publicized trips to Malaysia. Presently technical experts from the highly successfully Malaysian firm, MARDITECH are domiciled in Kano where they are leading a revolution in Paddy Rice Production. The Shekarau Administration is implementing two pilot schemes – the 200-hectares farm in Kadawa and the 5-hectares farm in Watari under the supervision of the Malaysians. Training under this scheme are 50,000 Kano youths who will tomorrow become productive farmers and upon whose shoulders Nigeria will become not only self-reliant in Rice Production but will become an important exporter of the commodity. It was under the auspices of IDB that the young Kano farmers are receiving training on land preparations, grading, leveling, harrowing and nursery with extended expertise in Rice breeding and Rice agronomy, farm mechanism, water management and general knowledge on agricultural economics. This shows an administration that has and ably pursues a developmental roadmap and not one that squanders its goodwill as Mahmood carelessly alleged.
He may not also be aware that a Malaysian investor is committing millions of dollars into constructing 20,000 houses under the administration’s Mass Housing and Environment Scheme, a strategic initiative aimed not just at building more futuristic homes for Kano’s rapidly expanding urban population but constructing totally new towns, equipped with modern infrastructure. The scheme is divided into five sectors, each made up of 5000 housing units and strategically located by the five entrances to the Great City.
The last and certainly not the least project is the proposed Independent Power Plant. Power remains the greatest impediment toward realizing the administration’s plan for raid re- industrialization of the state. Inadequate power hinders the smooth take-off of the gigantic Tamburawa Water Scheme, the largest of its kind in West Africa, financed exclusively by the Shekarau government without borrowing a dime from any bank, local or foreign. Another Malaysian firm is committed to funding and managing the project. It is the same for the private sector-financed Kanawa Shopping Complex, which when completed would be a new Centre of Commerce complete with the banks, quality shopping spaces, water treatment, hotels and other modern amenities.
There is no segment of the Kano society that has been left out of Malam’s compassionate and purposeful administration. Most other states have began to copy the administration’s free Ramadan feeding programme which people had earlier condemned as wasteful. In five years, over 25,000 people has been offered employment as government embarked on the reinvigoration of the education, healthcare, urban development and sanitation sectors. Kano schools have been re-equipped and re-stocked, government has removed all caps on scholarship awards both locally and overseas, school enrolment has been increased, hospital cards, ante and post-natal fees abolished in all government hospitals to the extent that women from neighbouring states and countries like Niger and Chad now flock to Kano to give birth. It is no longer news that Kano workers are well take care of, pensioners are enjoying a new phase of life and students have their bursary entitlements increased and regularly paid.
The administration’s commitment to renewal of socio-economic infrastructures remains unshaken. Over 80 metropolitan and 72 rural Roads and Bridges have been completed and commissioned. Soon, Kano Metro will wear a new look as plans have been concluded to dualise the major roads with complete Drainages.
The administration’s detractors should take a break and explore the unprecedented vision, compassion and developmental verve which have characterized governance in Kano for the past five years. Every segment of the Kano society has benefited from the administration’s progressive policies and programmes. Kano state in general has enjoyed a new lease of transparent government. I am highly impressed, indeed proud, that nobody accused Malam or anyone in the administration of inflating the cost of the vehicles or supplying refurbished ones in place of new ones. Such underhanded practices have no place in his administration which preaches and strictly follows due diligence and due process. In other words, there was no corrupt practice associated with the scheme. The hues and cries over the purchase and distribution of the vehicles to the District Heads do not make sense except to someone out for mischief.
Are the District Heads not part and parcel of the Kano Society? Are they not entitled to official vehicles? Was it better to allow individual local councils make the purchases with the observed lapses and poor accounting? Are detractors not willing to concede that the state government saved the treasury more money by centralizing the purchases than in continuing with the old wasteful procurement method?
I was even more disappointed when the highly respected Daily Trust ran an editorial criticizing the purchase of the vehicles on the assumption that “important amenities must have been neglected to be able to purchase the cars”. Happily, no important amenity is being neglected in Kano under Malam. Typical of Daily Trust, perhaps Nigeria’s most broad-minded newspaper, it did mentioned that “the practice is spreading” in other states like Enugu, Nassarawa, Gombe, Zamfara and the FCT. I would like to add Benue to the list and perhaps many more states. Truth is that every state in Nigeria must find a way or another to give its traditional institution the deserved lift. This gesture must never been seen as a waste or a misplacement of priorities but a necessary act of government designed to carry every segment of the society along. It does not mean that other sectors of the economy are being neglected nor as if the amount used to purchase the vehicles would solve all the problems of the state at once. In any case, if the sum were committed to buying advert spaces on the pages of newspapers to congratulate the District Heads on their birthdays or to felicitate with them on reaching some milestone, I doubt if the if the newspapers concerned would carry an editorial condemning “misplaced priorities”.
Perhaps the most reckless reaction to the issue was the attack on Malam by former Kano State Governor, Abubakar Rimi who condemned the purchase of the vehicles as a waste of resources. Rimi is wrong on this, as in so many issues he had gotten himself involved in lately. A lot of people have condemned Rimi’s unfortunate and ill-conceived intervention considering that he himself has enjoyed the goodwill of successive governments. Or was he jealous the state government did not send on Jeep to his garage? If that had been done, his opinion would certainly have been different. He would have supported the idea wholeheartedly and redirected his venom against critics. But he did not qualify for one and his criticism of the project smacks of poor sense of judgment. He has been on power as Governor and Minister of the federal government. He must appreciate the need for Malam as Governor to balance the delicate power nexus between contending interests and groups in modern Kano. And here Rimi needs to learn a lesson or two in the art and science of managing power relations in a modern polity. When he was Governor, he saw power relations among society’s groups from a we-against-them perspective and proceeded from there to wage real and imaginary war of attrition against the elites and especially the traditional institution based on a warped, unrealistic and considerably misplaced ideological contraption that was truly alien, in fact repugnant to the historic experiences of the Kano society. Historians today look back at the lost opportunities of the 80s when Rimi failed to sow the seeds of amity and political tolerance. The developmental energies that could have been harnessed by all segments of the society pulling together to one destination of placing Kano on a pedestal equal to such contemporary Maghrebian Cities as Rabat, Tunis and Tripoli were wasted in destructive wars among groups whose sources of antagonism was cosmetic. That was why Rimi’s administration was consumed by inter-group warfare, hatred, fear of domination and extinction, intense rivalries and bloodbath. It was Rimi’s reckless mishandling of relations with the Emirate Council that precipitated the bloodbath that took the precious life of Dr. Bala Muhammad and others. Even the Maitatsine Saga, with the attendant loss of thousands of Kano lives, was a direct product of immature and quixotic political administration. Rimi’s highhandedness and megalomaniac intolerance introduced bad blood into Kano’s once harmonious class groups. The bullets and tear-gas canisters deployed by the Police and directed at Kano youths were paid for from the treasury.
We have in this dispensation a Governor who is tolerant and accommodative of all interest groups. We have a Governor who, rather than narrow the political space, widens it and invites all, the rich and the poor, irrespective of their political conviction, to come together and contribute to the building of the Kano Commonwealth. I think Malam deserves accolades for carrying everybody along. It is a mute point that societies are better off with governments fulfilling obligations to Monarchs than buying bullets for the Police to shoot at demonstrating youths.
I implore critics of the
Shekarau administration to think twice and appreciate the great
achievements which they so often take for granted. We have a Governor we
can trust to look after our well being. We must also celebrate his
frugality because under a corrupt administration, the
A.M. Yola contributed this piece from Yola Quarters, Kano City and can be reached at ammarmuhammad@ymail.com
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