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The Award Gambit and Governance in Kano By Naseer Kura Throughout history, kano is known to particularly have a guild sociopolitical structure that, through a complex interplay of processes and procedures, provides stringent but transparent standard for both recognition and award for selfless service in all facets of the community life. As a way of encouraging good governance, accelerating educational development and enhancing economic growth among other things, the formal sector is also replete with credible institutions, civil societies as well as professional bodies that, more or less, use similar yardstick to identify and award individuals as well as organizations that, through qualitative policy decisions, entrepreneurial ideas and commitment for the promotion of the common good, make positive impact on the lives of the people and the society at large. In both cases, the recipients feel accomplished and propelled for much more whereas the community finds the award justified and the awardees a dignified reference point. However, of recent, we find a new pervasive culture of Award for good governance or exemplary leadership being foisted on Kano by a political cartel, in order to cover up its glaring inadequacy in competence to manage the trust reposed in them either in state or party affairs. Curiously, one observes, the new vogue is very much restricted to politicians in executive positions, who have abundant public resources at their disposal with which the so called awards are shamelessly bought from fraudulent "consultants of fortune". Bereft of conscience or a sense of responsibility, these consultants, out of pecuniary interest, orchestrated the proliferation of the dubious self-glorification business, even when Kano is awash with more credible but less visible individuals within and outside the administration, who genuinely make greater and longer-lasting impact in the society with their glittering service and leadership record. Interestingly, Governor Shekarau, himself a beneficiary of such Awards, was widely reported recently to have admonished such consultants to shut their ears as people will say a lot of things when they called to announce their presence. Also at another occasion, while receiving one of such Awards, His Excellency assured the rented crowd, celebrating what the generality of the people lament, that nobody was given a kobo before the Award was given. Unable to avoid listening to the Gubernatorial sermon, much as they would have preferred, the highly skeptical and indeed curious "Kanawa", not to be chiefly short changed, murmured, in an induced meditation, "there cannot be smoke without fire" To begin with, by accepting such Awards while still in office, His Excellency has, like on many other issues, exhibited a poor sense of judgment and warbled history. For one thing, this errant judgment has made Malam Shekarau to underestimate the political dexterity of the people in the same way it led him to overestimate the limitations of these "consultants of fortune" in the realm of Kano politics and also creates in him a false sense of grandeur. As the state chief executive who takes many far reaching policy decisions, most of which are, more or less, seen to be misplaced, ill-conceived and self serving, it amounts to a false sense of grandeur to submit himself, with fanfare, for such awards when the impact of his major policy actions and inactions will surely take years to manifest. Admittedly, with over N700 billion that accrued to the state government from the statutory allocations alone, one is by no means saying Malam Shekarau has not done anything that stands to accelerate the development of kano, throughout his more than five years at the saddle, to warrant any recognition. For instance, given the serious inadequacy of health care services in Kano, an additional state-of-the-art hospital is certainly a welcome development. However, citing such a hospital at Giginyu quaters, sandwiched by Nassarawa and Sir Sunusi Hospitals, apart from numerous other Hospitals within its vicinity, sounds misplaced and laced with anything but element of fairness in view of other more populated areas like Rijiyar-Zaki, along Gwarzo road, where there is no any public health facility. Similarly, the expansion of the dual Kofar Kabuga – Kofar Mata Road to three lanes will significantly ease traffic flow in the ancient city. But the over populated city, people concurred, could have gotten more value, in multiple benefits, had it been it was Kofar Ruwa – Kasuwar Kurmi – Mandawari – Kofar Na`isa road, as initially designed in the Greater Kano Master Plan, that is executed for now. The administration must equally be credited for the wisdom applied to construct the Tamburawa Water Plant, initially awarded at the contract sum of N3.8 billion and the new ultra modern market at about N6 billion. It would be safe to say, when completed, these two projects will go along way to ameliorate the perennial water shortage bedeviling Kano and the chaotic nature of commerce in the Center of Commerce respectively. However, until they are completed, put to use, observed to have passed the simple test of cost benefit analysis and not abandoned as a white elephant projects, it would be foolhardy for anybody to "count the chickens before they are hatch". Secondly, for all we know, governance or public office, particularly in a democratic setting, is all about trust reposed to improve the lives of the people, enhance development infrastructures and services as well as maintain law and order. Such a trust is, however, by option, solemnly kept or betrayed, desecrated and abused, depending on the sincerity of purpose, by those it is entrusted with. By what obtains in Kano, it is crystal clear that the administration has, against all expectations, opted for the later option, as that trust is being executed mainly in the breach by those at the helms of affairs. It is instructive to understand that, projects or services provided by the government with public funds are, by no means, out of the benevolence of any official; rather they are so provided as a mandatory discharge of trust reposed. What therefore matters most, in any circumstance, is whether our people, hungry and angry as they are, get value for any project or service in terms of cost, relevance and potentiality to improve quality of life in the long run. Much more important determinant for good governance or excellent leadership is, on what side of the scale the government or the individual in question weighs when it comes to the basic democratic tenets of the rule of law, equity, justice and separation of power. Reading through an article, "Defamation; Before the High Court Rules", by Kabiru Bello Dandago, one gets the big picture of how aghast the Shekarau administration is when it comes to the value loaded principles of the rule of law and natural justice. The kernel of Dandago`s piece is that some topmost officials in the Shekarau administration, at the vanguard of cunning streaks to denigrate the judiciary and frustrate high court judgments, have run to the same institution to seek for justice against Freedom Radio for frivolous claim of defamation! In particular, the case of Malam Bashir Abba Shariff, that Kabiru succinctly cited, where the supposedly democratic government desecrated the sanctity of our judiciary and refused to comply with a court ruling, has exposed a serious double standard and contradiction between what the government preaches about Shari`a and the unethical nepotism and reckless lawlessness that it practice. Extending its contempt for the rule of law beyond its domain, the administration has muzzled the more important democratic institution, the State House of Assembly, into subordination and subservience, to doing its biddings only at the expense of its legislative and democratic obligations. This apparently explains why the state legislature is incapable to look into significant issues of abuse of office and many constitutional breaches by the administration including the case of Malam Bashir Abba Shariff, as prescribed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic In a state where such injustice, incompetence and constitutional breaches are embedded in governance, it is remarkable that the representatives of the people in the state Assembly could chose to shrink their responsibilities for the fear of a bullying Executive. However, much as one can understand their complex, preference to remain in silence on the face of such monumental breaches in the state, such as the refusal of the government to conduct election for five Local Governments more than a year after general election, is by no means an honorable option for the Honorable members. This disposition only goes the whole hog to tell of an inept congregation that has not only mortgaged its rule making function but also compromised its oversight function and therefore condoned bad governance to thrive in the state, a tragedy that not a few "kanawa" lament about but somehow miraculously failed to illicit any "Award" so far to cover up its weaknesses. Unable to penetrate and manipulate the judiciary, as it did the legislative arm in the state, the government has gone around crafting specialized tribunals, so to say, as alternatives, essentially to harass and intimidate people perceived to be in opposition out of their lawful businesses. Moreover, adept at not letting the public to know the truth and nothing but the truth about the agenda and substance behind its policies, the government has, in desperation, launched a vicious war against what remains of the conscientious media practitioners while Hisbah board, established to enlighten and enforce Shari`a, has constituted itself into a kangaroo court and breaks significant aspects of natural justice and all known laws, including the Islamic legal code itself. By and large, it therefore boggles mind to see how an administration that has set a deceptive record in governance within such a short time is awarded a prize on good governance; an administration that always preaches justice and responsibility but the words are addressed only to the gullible masses, an administration that harps on moral re-orientation even when moral reorientation is not an issue when it comes to its conduct or an administration that, day in day out, keeps invoking the name of the Shari`a but finds pleasure in breaking what the Islamic Legal System provides with impunity. How then could one justify any of the numerous awards given to Governor Shekarau for good governance? What vision and commitment could one associate with the administration that failed to arrest the dearth or decay of essential infrastructures and services like water supply, power supply, education, agriculture, and healthcare? What Award for excellence do you award the administration or its leader that hopelessly watched the closure of a footwear company at Jogana, among many others, that employed more people than any other single privately owned manufacturer throughout the country? How the "consultants of fortune" awarded a pass mark for the Government that failed to manage internal revenue generation and collection for the common good but instead, discreetly and hurriedly, decided to franchise such a sensitive responsibility to a lowly rated private firm, fronting for cronies, leaves the public guessing. Earlier on, we observed, with serious consternation, how the political leaders, at both the state and local government levels, wanting to reach new heights but hunted by their inferiority complex, run around the globe to dubiously acquire honorary Doctorate degrees from equally dubious institutions, neither known to the accreditation authorities nor to the people, with a view to enrich their dismal educational profile to, even if superficially, appear capable in the face of leadership challenges. As expected, years after such acquisitions, their horizon and competence not only remain the same, the quality of governance, where they hold fort, also deteriorates. The Award gambit now being orchestrated by the same political leadership, in concert with the consultants of fortune, is therefore the latest folly to continue hoodwinking the people from the incompetence and the socioeconomic injuries they inflict on the state. The truth is that, apart from falsely emboldening the incompetent and insincere leadership, this award gambit threatens to trigger a cynicism, particularly in the teaming unemployed youth, caught between the devil and the blue sea, not to seek for the reverse of the prevailing infrastructural rot that strangulate the socioeconomic development of the state and by extension, the emergence of purposeful leadership. Furthermore, the way some erstwhile former Governors, perhaps unmindful of the transient nature of power then, were conferred with such good governance or excellent leadership Awards while in office not too long ago, live to regret the gestures, as they are now fugitives or, at best, being continuously harassed in many ways over their stewardship of the states they, once upon a time, considered their herds, makes it inappropriate and completely amoral. Speaking for almost the entire people of Kano, who bear the brunt most, the appropriate, fair, befitting and lasting Award for the administration in Kano and His Excellency Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, at home with not honoring any pledge made even on oath, spiritual or otherwise, is the uncommon "Doublespeak Award".
Naseer Kura, Executive Director Basic Rights Action (BRA), Kano.
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