Kano Interview Series (11)
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Shekarau on Kwankwaso
In order to balance whatever I observed regarding the performance of Engineer Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, I tried to reach out to the opposition. Having failed to get the chairman of the largest opposition party in the state and the chief press secretary to the immediate former governor, I felt would be more open in the assessing the present administration, I went for former governor himself. I was able to get about an hour of his time. Initially he said he would not like to say much about the present government, but as we went on, as you would read, he could not resist the temptation to publicly disagree with some policies of the present administration. Though he touched a number of issues like security, Hisbah, non-continuity of policies and projects, he laid heavy emphasis on his objection to the labeling of public projects with “kwankwasiya” emblem of the present administration.
It was a pity that this interview came before that with the incumbent governor. If it hadn’t, perhaps, I would have given the defence of the incumbent on some of the charges as Shekarau was raising them. Nevertheless, the link to the full interview with Kwankwaso is provided at the bottom of this one to enable the reader to hear his own side of the story.
I asked him how his party lost the last gubernatorial elections and he was honest enough to say that apart from the malpractice that he alleged, there was also negligence on the part of his supporters and agents, including the non-manning of some polling booths, before he finally gave the whole thing a spiritual interpretation. This is how the forty minutes interview with Shekarau took place in his house in the afternoon 9 June 2012 in his house.
Me: Sir you are welcome. To start with, how is life with you after Government House?
Shekarau: Well, Alhamdulillah. It is indeed very interesting for me to experience yet another new lease of life so to say. It’s just like when I retired from service after having served for about 26 years. I was used to going to the office every day in the morning until the evenings. The same thing when I joined the full circle of the civil service as a permanent secretary. There were no weekends and so on. So when I suddenly voluntarily retired from service and ventured into political activities before I got used to the environment of politics, there was a sudden change of life. I was finding myself very idle. There were no intellectual challenges. The need to dress up early in the morning and go to work was not there. So I had to make adjustment.
Now in the same vein, after having served for eight years as the governor with all the challenges, then suddenly I finished up. For the first few days I was trying to adjust when I work up the following morning and say prayers and doing the usual early morning chose, instead of jumping into the bathroom and getting ready for work, I founding myself jumping to bed and taking additional sleep. When I woke up by 10 or 11, I was laughing at myself, how free I was at that time. There was nobody waiting for me, no new things to do in terms of challenges or thinking what next or what instructions to give and so on. So I found the first challenge to adjust from being too occupied to suddenly being totally relieved.
Two weeks after, without even creating anything, I found myself busy again. People were coming to me for courtesy calls, seeking for ideas, inviting me to make some scholarly presentations. I have made some presentations at Universities of Ife and Lagos, making me do more reading and more writing. More than that is the challenge that people believe we still have more to offer politically and socially. That is why when people visit me they find the place a little bit busy. I still receive a lot of mails from various organizations and societies, both within and outside, etc. I try to balance it with a lot of exercises which I didn’t have the time to do when I was the governor.
Another benefit is the chance I have now to read a lot of materials that I have been compiling, especially religious materials which I couldn’t do as a governor. I read many papers too. As a governor, a whole day may pass without the opportunity to read even the paper cuttings made by my director of press. I had to struggle to browse them. But now I have the time to go through the papers, digest them and listen to a lot of radio programs, both local and international. A lot of political meetings too…
Me: So life is back. (Laughter) We will go back a bit and ask how did your party lose the last elections? As an incumbent, it is assumed that you already had 60% of the votes. May be you were too transparent, you didn’t want to rig or you were occupied with your presidential campaign.
Shekarau: I think there were a number of factors. In the first place, I would like to say that I, personally, along with many of us within our party don’t believe that we really lost the election. We didn’t in terms of real votes. That is why we went up to the Supreme Court. Of course, the courts have the right to give their own judgments but from the reports we had from our representatives in polling booths and so on we believe that there were some areas of election malpractice. Secondly, we believe that a lot of the ballot papers weren’t genuine in the sense that they were not stamped and signed at the back. We got a lot of reports on that. We wanted to get the court’s approval to conduct forensic examination of each ballot paper. The problem was that our lawyers didn’t mention all those details in their initial prayers. So when they raised it in the proceedings, their prayer wasn’t granted.
Having said this, there is the other part regarding the issue of overconfidence. In some of the polling stations, our supporters felt that it would be just a walk over. There was negligence on the part of our supervisors, feeling that we were the incumbents and have ruled for eight years and so on. We had reports from some of our representatives that some polling centres were not fully manned by our agents. We discovered that it wasn’t that they didn’t want to do the job or they were disloyal, they just felt that it wasn’t necessary.
On the whole, looking at it from the spiritual point of view, I just feel that God in His own wisdom would like to still use us to send messages and teach lessons generally as it has become clear now. We have done our little bit and whether appreciated or not, there is the chance now to see it from another perspective. As we have seen now, within the first three four weeks when the new government started, people started to see the difference. As people always argue, sometimes you only appreciate good when you see evil. So, now that we had our own time, probably God in his own wisdom would like to expose the good things we were able to do but people couldn’t see them until they see the opposite. The example I would like to give is the issue of maintaining peace and order in the society.
For eight years, even the man on the street will tell you that we had peace. We even started attracting more investors to Kano. Unfortunately, few weeks or months after we left office the whole thing seems to have collapsed. People are wondering what has happened? By our own assessment, a number of the measures we took and structures we put in place that have been helping to maintain the peace were bastardized by the (present) government. It is now that people are appreciating it.
Me: You mean programs like a daidaita sahu, Hisbah and so on?
Shekarau: A number of programs like the societal reorientation program which was principally directed at sensitizing the people’s attitudinal change are things that should be continued. We have done a lot of media talks, sponsoring a number of moral programs in the media, publishing a lot of materials, visiting schools, etc. Even though the Hisbah is still there structurally, the benefits are no longer on ground. One, when the new government came, it sacked two-thirds of the Hisbah guards that were trained and sensitized through a lot of workshops. It brought new ones overnight. In fact, I learnt in the media that the Hisbah clashed with members of the public on two occasions resulting even in a death. People don’t see them as they used to be. They are aware now that somehow people that are morally bankrupt are involved in some of these exercises. And you know you lack the moral right to tell somebody not to do something when you’re into it yourself. These are some of the things that our vacation of the seat is used by God to show people and vindicate us on many sectors.
Me: At this juncture, on this issue of security, Kano has witnessed Boko Haram last January. When I visited it in February, the town was in a coma. Then I returned in March and now, one can see that businesses are back and virtually every shop is open. Don’t you think your successor deserves some commendation as well as the federal government because other states that experienced similar attacks like Yobe and Borno are in a terrible security shape?
Shekarau: Well, I think I commend effort of both state governments – state and federal - and particularly the security agencies for being up and doing in terms of restoring peace. I am sure if you cross check, you will find that the one day bombing was one big thing that happened at a time and attracted attention. Naturally, that will send the people underground. But thereafter, the threats have continued. It is almost a daily affair now. There is hardly forty-eight hours passing without having a report of shootings or people wanting to bomb one place or another, or police deactivating one bomb, etc. so the scare is still there. The tension is very much around. There is the general consensus that people are not really living at ease now. There is this fear of who could be the next person. This is a responsibility of not only the state government but also the federal government.
I believe the issue of security is not all about force. You have to use a lot of other means: psychological warfare, community policing approach just the way we started with the Hisbah. We recruited the minimum of 20 guards in each of our 484 wards, locally sourced from each ward. Apart from Hisbah guards we gathered elders in each community to form what we called zauren shawara (consultation forum). His highness (the Emir of Kano) took his time and went round to every 44 local government areas and personally inaugurated the zauren sulhu (reconciliation forum).
Me: Aren’t they there now?
Shekarau: No. They have been disbanded. They were controlled by the headquarters of a daidaita sahu. Nobody is inspiring them. The committees are not there. In fact, we were about launching the palon shawara (consultation parlour for women), hoping that the new government that will come in would continue with it, had we won the election. The idea was to allow the women to form such committees at the local level. In fact, the zauren sulhu was so effective that most people preferred to refer their misunderstandings to them than resort to the police stations. Hisbah was virtually handling thousands of such cases and resolving a lot of such crisis and disagreements. These are some of the ingredients that helped to build what you call a peaceful environment.
Me: Sir, it is not a flatter that you are today the most expereienced person regarding the seat of the governor. You just left it after 8 years so you must have accumulated a lot of experience. You have seen what’s been going on in the past one year. I know that Kano is a very vast place. So, whoever is on that seat must be facing a great challenge. Can you give us your personal assessment of how the new government has fared in the past one year?
Shekarau: First of all, I will agree with you that today by the Grace of Almighty Allah, I am the only living longest serving governor of Kano. The only governor that served longer than me was Alhaji Audu Bako who has passed away and who served for 9 years. I have served for 8 years. I can as well claim that I know the art of governance of Kano more than any other person, whether civilian or military. On that note, I think I am well equipped to know how Kano is faring at any given time. I have on my own pledged not to make any assessment of the present administration. My party candidate has been the one making such assessment against the background of what he intended to do and what is happening now.
But on the whole and without sounding like blowing one’s own trumpet, I think the difference is very clear. I will not be totally wrong if I say that great majority of people aren’t happy with what is happening especially in terms of quality of leadership and in terms of participatory approach in governance, starting from the state executive council down the ladder to the ward level. What we hear today is that it is virtually a one man’s show: the governor virtually dictates everything which is more of a military style.
Secondly, the newly introduced and very myopic attitude of naming government properties after a particular political slogan is common today. Every structure put by the present government is boldly labeled “kwankwasiya”. I think this is very wrong and it isn’t appropriate. These are public properties. If you’re naming public properties after your name, it is attempting to immortalize one’s self which doesn’t conform to our moral values. I won’t say much on it because some citizens have challenged it before the court. When his commissioner was asked why they are doing this, he said it is because subsequent governments will not deny that they did the projects. I think this as primitive.
In fact, I always quarrel with my officials when they attempt to do that. I remember when samples of children exercise books were brought to me carrying my photographs, I objected to it. On a common sense, I was governing a state composed of citizens of divergent views. If I would use government funds to print exercise books with my photographs and my name boldly printed on them and they are distributed, there could be some parents who don’t share your own political viewpoint.
Me: You mean they may think that you are indoctrinating their children…
Shekarau: Not only that they may think that I am imposing myself on them. These are public funds. Why should I attach my person to it?
Me: Sir, Don’t you think they are just sending a message saying that we did this? Don’t you think that in the political milieu if you don’t blow your trumpet no one would blow it for you – as the first Sardauna once said, and you are the second, mind you?
Shekarau: With due respect to the first Sardauna, I don’t think what he said applied to a person. What he wanted to say is that government should speak out; it should make people know what it is doing. That is transparency and accountability. On the other side, if one thinks morally and spiritually, good should be done for its sake: Serve people as a responsibility and allow God to immortalize your name. No matter what little good you do, God has a way of immortalizing it. For example now, it is no longer a secret that any time we go to town, you see the sea of people that come along appreciating us without having written anything Shekarau anywhere. It is the service that was imprinted in their hearts. When they see us they remember it. Even in the case of the Sardauna, it was many years after he passed away that many structures were named after him.
Me: There are two questions here but I will put them in one form. Given the wealth of experience you have on that seat, don’t you think it is a good idea to gang up with the present governor, I mean to open a line of communication with him so that you will be in talking terms, advising and discussing issues? Don’t you think it will go a long way to help him in the administration of the state, now that the court case is over and it will take the next three years before we face another election?
Shekarau: I agree that it would have been a very beautiful situation. It would have led to continuity in programs. But I think the burden is more on the person now sitting. A leader is the one that has the responsibility to create the atmosphere for other people to advise him. You just don’t walk into a leader and say I have come to advise you. You have to see the opening, very much welcome and the right atmosphere is created before you can advance.
If I will give you an example and it is not a secret that the government has abandoned virtually every on-project it inherited from us. Many media people have challenged him and the governor continued to say that he cannot go into any project without cross-checking its finances to ensure that there isn’t any fraud.
Me: But I think now they have recalled the contractors. I met contractors on some of the sites…like the hostel you were building at KSUT. The contractors have been recalled, some have been paid their outstanding certificates and they have resumed already.
Shekarau: I am very glad to hear this. But look at very big projects like our two giant hospitals – the general hospital in Giginyu and the pediatric hospital which will be the best of the its kind in Nigeria, all of them have reached 70, 80% level of completion. There are few abandoned road projects that were ongoing, like the one outside here. There is a major road that runs across the city, starting from Kabuga and ending at the junction of Ibrahim Taiwo Road. It is a long distance road of about N3billion. There is the road from behind Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital that cuts across Karkasara. And there are a few other projects that I cannot recall right away. But in the whole I think if the government has seen government projects as people’s project, it should continue with them. I don’t mean to say that governments that came in should blindly jump into the projects they inherited; I don’t blame them. They should properly cross-check because they are taking over from the opposition government to ensure that proper billing was made, that there isn’t any fraud, and that all the procedures were right. Once that is done, the project should be completed.
In a nutshell, if anybody would invite me to advice on how Kano would move forward and I refuse, I think I would be ungodly. I have the moral responsibility to offer my advice and suggestions to the best of my ability and with all sense of responsibility. But you can’t do that unless you’re given the opportunity under the appropriate environment.
For example, just a couple of weeks ago, I was sharing notes in terms of security with a retired military officer and he asked whether the government at the national level ever cared to discuss with me on what needs to be done to improve the security in Kano. His argument was: Here is a person that has governed a state for 8 years – and he wasn’t referring only to me – and the most populous state like Kano. According to him, forget any opinion that anybody would have, at least by now the government – even at the level of the Presidency – asking me what did you do to get it right, to live in peace and what should be done now. I told him nobody has contacted me so far. He said it is unfortunate. So unless you’re given the opportunity to advise, you are helpless. I can’t walk now to the Presidency and say I have come to advise.
Me: Lastly, what advise do you have for the people of Kano and to the present administration?
Shekarau: My advice for the people of Kano is that they should continue to be patient, law abiding and supportive of any government in place. Once elections are over and a government is in place, support any project put forward by the government. My advice is when any government comes up with a project in the interest of the public; we should put aside political differences and support it. On the other hand, I will advise the government not to over-politicize government activities and projects because that will be the reason that people will have in believing that it is their own project, that it is not about your political party. This is why I am a bit unhappy with the naming of projects after a political party. No matter how bitter you feel about a government, that government will have to live its period. Your abusing the government and quarreling with it doesn’t help matters. You must be patient enough to wait for the elections to come. When they come, use your vote to dislodge who you don’t want to see. This is my advice.
Me: Thank you very much sir.
For the full text of the interview with Governor Kwankwaso, please go to http://fridaydiscourse.blogspot.com/2012/06/interview-4-kwankwaso.html
Kano,
9 June 2012
Showing posts with label Kano. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kano. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Kano Interview Series (10) Secondary Schools
Kano Interview Series (10)
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Kano Senior Secondary Schools Management Board
At Gidan Malamai, I met the Chairman of the Secondary Schools Management Board, Alhaji Habibu Hasan El-Yakub who answered some questions regarding the progress made by his Board in the delivery of secondary school education in the state during the past one year.
Question: Sir, what can you say was the achievement of this Board since the advent of the present administration?
Chairman: I will start by mentioning the release of allocation for the management of the schools which the previous administration promised by failed in the end to fulfill, making the running of this place almost impossible. Given that the present administration has given the education sector the desired attention, PTA of the schools came up with an arrangement for contributing their quota in the financing the management of schools. The final figures arrived at were N400, N500, and N700 for low, medium and high income earners respectively.
Question: You are sure they were not compelled to do so by government?
Chairman: No. There was no compulsion. It was their decision to pay these rates every term. So on the average, each parent is expected to contribute N1,200, N1,500 and N2,100 respectively. Initially, there were complaints from some parents but when the public realized that the contributions are given to schools to undertake miscellaneous materials, a lot of progress was recorded.
Question: Is the contribution given to your Board or how is it used?
Chairman: No. It is kept by the principals. The contributions are receipted and the government supervises how they are managed. The money is used according to the demands of the school. In some of the schools, furniture is lacking, or the floor is destroyed, or the office of the principal and staffroom are dilapidated, etc. Teachers therefore meet with their SBMC or PTA committees to decide in which areas the money would be used for at any given time. This was our first achievement.
Our second achievement is in the area of monitoring and evaluation. We met this department weak with only three or four staff and only a vehicle that cannot cover all our schools.
Question: You mean only one vehicle to cover all secondary schools in Kano.
Chairman: Yes, under this Board, not including the department of Kano Educational Resource Department, which also does some supervision of schools. So we complained to the Governor who directed us to do whatever is needed. Instantly, the Board employed retired professional teachers. Six TOYOTA-HILUX vehicles were also allocated by the government. As a result of these efforts, right now, three teams leave for inspection exercise daily. This has enabled a better service delivery in the schools.
The third achievement is the promotion of teachers. Within the past one year, we have promoted 1,190 teachers and 1,700 junior staff. This serves as an incentive to the staff.
In the area of training, we invented ways of enhancing the capacity of our staff. We held a workshop for the Board’s staff on new learning methods. Our science and technology teachers were sent for a one week course in Kaduna. They, apart from training, also returned with materials on new methods of teaching science and technology in secondary schools. We organized a workshop for principals and other administrative staff of schools on security even before the January 20th bombing. We introduced training for youth corpers newly posted to the schools in which they are introduced to the basics of teaching. This will continue to take place any time we have a new batch of corpers. There is also computer skills acquisition program that we introduced in collaboration with a private firm for our staff, teachers and students. It holds at the girl’s schools, Panshekara. It will be expanded to four or five centers. Finally, this Board has introduced a quarterly magazine called The Teachers’ Voice that informs teachers about happenings under the Board and in the schools. In it we bring forth development issues especially as they relate to issues of excellence displayed by our staff and schools and calling on the public to come forward and give its contribution in education delivery in the state.
There are people who are contributing immensely to education in the state. There is Alhaji AA Rano, who weekly contributes to schools in his local government through the award of scholarship, furniture, instructional materials, etc. There is Abdullahi Nadache who has built boreholes in many schools and make other contributions in his local government area of Minjibir. The same thing with AD Aliyu of Royal Tropicana Hotel who built and handed over a big hall in a girls’ school just last month. There are others like Bala Giwa Getso who contributed by building a whole school, Ibrahim Kabara, etc. At this juncture, I would like to express our gratitude to these patriotic citizens and call on others who are well to do in the society to also come forward to assist the sector.
I will not forget to mention the renovation of this complex – Gidan Malamai – which we found in a very bad shape but is now wearing a new face. We are doing it gradually as an in-house effort, without demanding for any allocation from government.
Question: It is usual for teachers to complain of neglect and delays in payment of their salaries and allowances, promotions, etc. Isn’t there any existing trade dispute between teachers and government? Has this government been prompt in the payment of salaries and allowances to teachers?
Chairman: I want to assure you that since the inception of this administration, this Board, under which is the largest number of state government workers – about 14,000, there has never been a month in which salaries were not paid promptly. If there is any staff that hasn’t received his salary by 25th, the problem must be from him. Workers were paid on desk, but now it is done through banks. The same with allowances; they are given on time. There are allowances peculiar to this Board like rural posting allowance, science and technology teachers allowance, school duty allowance, etc. All these are paid promptly. This is in addition to the promotion I mentioned earlier. This administration is building four houses for teachers in each local government. Some are already completed while others are at different stages of completion. The Governor has assured us of more. He has also assured us that vehicle loans will be given to workers.
Question: Including teachers? I raised the question because many times when these welfare efforts are made, they end up benefitting only administrative staff in other ministries while teachers are left to wallow in classrooms and rural areas denied by the gesture. Would there be a special vehicle loan program for the teachers or would they be allocated their share from the general pool?
Chairman: No. This government believes in equal opportunities. You can see that every local government, for example, is given its allocation in admission into the newly established Governor’s College, Informatics Institute, youth training and empowerment in animal traction, and all other programs introduced by the administration. That rule would apply to the issue of car loan also. No section of the government will dominate the other.
Question: I remember when I interviewed the immediate past governor of the state, His Excellency, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, he mentioned that during the first tenure of the present governor, he sacked over 1000 teachers because they were non-indigenes instead of employing more. What of the number of teachers? Do you have sufficient teachers and if not, do you have any intention to recruit more?
Chairman: Yes. We have shortage of teachers but not so acute to prevent us from succeeding in many areas. Don’t forget that we have 784 schools under the Board. I know government is seriously looking into how it will get us more teachers. Among the 1200 workers that will be employed soon, the largest part would be teachers. They were properly examined and interviewed before they were shortlisted. Apart from that, there is an effort under this board, to maximize the use of youth corpers through training them before sending them to classrooms, as I said earlier. We have also discussed with the British based Volunteer Service Overseas, which has promised to assist us in training and procuring teachers. We are also calling on the public and NGOs to assist us further in staffing schools by, for example, getting people who would volunteer some hours after their retirement to teach, as is done in some countries. On this we are focusing particularly on retired teachers.
Question: Your government has been building more classrooms in primary schools across the state. Is there any similar effort at your level to cater for the increase in enrolment?
Chairman: The government has already foreseen this. It has started at the primary school level. At the secondary school, a special committee has been formed under the chairmanship of the Commissioner of Education that will look into the problem of congestion in our schools and it is about to submit its report. But before then, the governor has started to address the problem by building some classrooms in some of the secondary schools already. This effort is extended also to higher institutions of learning in the state. By the end of our second year, I believe you will witness a lot development in this area.
Me: Thank you Mr. Chairman.
Kano,
7 June 2012
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Kano Senior Secondary Schools Management Board
At Gidan Malamai, I met the Chairman of the Secondary Schools Management Board, Alhaji Habibu Hasan El-Yakub who answered some questions regarding the progress made by his Board in the delivery of secondary school education in the state during the past one year.
Question: Sir, what can you say was the achievement of this Board since the advent of the present administration?
Chairman: I will start by mentioning the release of allocation for the management of the schools which the previous administration promised by failed in the end to fulfill, making the running of this place almost impossible. Given that the present administration has given the education sector the desired attention, PTA of the schools came up with an arrangement for contributing their quota in the financing the management of schools. The final figures arrived at were N400, N500, and N700 for low, medium and high income earners respectively.
Question: You are sure they were not compelled to do so by government?
Chairman: No. There was no compulsion. It was their decision to pay these rates every term. So on the average, each parent is expected to contribute N1,200, N1,500 and N2,100 respectively. Initially, there were complaints from some parents but when the public realized that the contributions are given to schools to undertake miscellaneous materials, a lot of progress was recorded.
Question: Is the contribution given to your Board or how is it used?
Chairman: No. It is kept by the principals. The contributions are receipted and the government supervises how they are managed. The money is used according to the demands of the school. In some of the schools, furniture is lacking, or the floor is destroyed, or the office of the principal and staffroom are dilapidated, etc. Teachers therefore meet with their SBMC or PTA committees to decide in which areas the money would be used for at any given time. This was our first achievement.
Our second achievement is in the area of monitoring and evaluation. We met this department weak with only three or four staff and only a vehicle that cannot cover all our schools.
Question: You mean only one vehicle to cover all secondary schools in Kano.
Chairman: Yes, under this Board, not including the department of Kano Educational Resource Department, which also does some supervision of schools. So we complained to the Governor who directed us to do whatever is needed. Instantly, the Board employed retired professional teachers. Six TOYOTA-HILUX vehicles were also allocated by the government. As a result of these efforts, right now, three teams leave for inspection exercise daily. This has enabled a better service delivery in the schools.
The third achievement is the promotion of teachers. Within the past one year, we have promoted 1,190 teachers and 1,700 junior staff. This serves as an incentive to the staff.
In the area of training, we invented ways of enhancing the capacity of our staff. We held a workshop for the Board’s staff on new learning methods. Our science and technology teachers were sent for a one week course in Kaduna. They, apart from training, also returned with materials on new methods of teaching science and technology in secondary schools. We organized a workshop for principals and other administrative staff of schools on security even before the January 20th bombing. We introduced training for youth corpers newly posted to the schools in which they are introduced to the basics of teaching. This will continue to take place any time we have a new batch of corpers. There is also computer skills acquisition program that we introduced in collaboration with a private firm for our staff, teachers and students. It holds at the girl’s schools, Panshekara. It will be expanded to four or five centers. Finally, this Board has introduced a quarterly magazine called The Teachers’ Voice that informs teachers about happenings under the Board and in the schools. In it we bring forth development issues especially as they relate to issues of excellence displayed by our staff and schools and calling on the public to come forward and give its contribution in education delivery in the state.
There are people who are contributing immensely to education in the state. There is Alhaji AA Rano, who weekly contributes to schools in his local government through the award of scholarship, furniture, instructional materials, etc. There is Abdullahi Nadache who has built boreholes in many schools and make other contributions in his local government area of Minjibir. The same thing with AD Aliyu of Royal Tropicana Hotel who built and handed over a big hall in a girls’ school just last month. There are others like Bala Giwa Getso who contributed by building a whole school, Ibrahim Kabara, etc. At this juncture, I would like to express our gratitude to these patriotic citizens and call on others who are well to do in the society to also come forward to assist the sector.
I will not forget to mention the renovation of this complex – Gidan Malamai – which we found in a very bad shape but is now wearing a new face. We are doing it gradually as an in-house effort, without demanding for any allocation from government.
Question: It is usual for teachers to complain of neglect and delays in payment of their salaries and allowances, promotions, etc. Isn’t there any existing trade dispute between teachers and government? Has this government been prompt in the payment of salaries and allowances to teachers?
Chairman: I want to assure you that since the inception of this administration, this Board, under which is the largest number of state government workers – about 14,000, there has never been a month in which salaries were not paid promptly. If there is any staff that hasn’t received his salary by 25th, the problem must be from him. Workers were paid on desk, but now it is done through banks. The same with allowances; they are given on time. There are allowances peculiar to this Board like rural posting allowance, science and technology teachers allowance, school duty allowance, etc. All these are paid promptly. This is in addition to the promotion I mentioned earlier. This administration is building four houses for teachers in each local government. Some are already completed while others are at different stages of completion. The Governor has assured us of more. He has also assured us that vehicle loans will be given to workers.
Question: Including teachers? I raised the question because many times when these welfare efforts are made, they end up benefitting only administrative staff in other ministries while teachers are left to wallow in classrooms and rural areas denied by the gesture. Would there be a special vehicle loan program for the teachers or would they be allocated their share from the general pool?
Chairman: No. This government believes in equal opportunities. You can see that every local government, for example, is given its allocation in admission into the newly established Governor’s College, Informatics Institute, youth training and empowerment in animal traction, and all other programs introduced by the administration. That rule would apply to the issue of car loan also. No section of the government will dominate the other.
Question: I remember when I interviewed the immediate past governor of the state, His Excellency, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, he mentioned that during the first tenure of the present governor, he sacked over 1000 teachers because they were non-indigenes instead of employing more. What of the number of teachers? Do you have sufficient teachers and if not, do you have any intention to recruit more?
Chairman: Yes. We have shortage of teachers but not so acute to prevent us from succeeding in many areas. Don’t forget that we have 784 schools under the Board. I know government is seriously looking into how it will get us more teachers. Among the 1200 workers that will be employed soon, the largest part would be teachers. They were properly examined and interviewed before they were shortlisted. Apart from that, there is an effort under this board, to maximize the use of youth corpers through training them before sending them to classrooms, as I said earlier. We have also discussed with the British based Volunteer Service Overseas, which has promised to assist us in training and procuring teachers. We are also calling on the public and NGOs to assist us further in staffing schools by, for example, getting people who would volunteer some hours after their retirement to teach, as is done in some countries. On this we are focusing particularly on retired teachers.
Question: Your government has been building more classrooms in primary schools across the state. Is there any similar effort at your level to cater for the increase in enrolment?
Chairman: The government has already foreseen this. It has started at the primary school level. At the secondary school, a special committee has been formed under the chairmanship of the Commissioner of Education that will look into the problem of congestion in our schools and it is about to submit its report. But before then, the governor has started to address the problem by building some classrooms in some of the secondary schools already. This effort is extended also to higher institutions of learning in the state. By the end of our second year, I believe you will witness a lot development in this area.
Me: Thank you Mr. Chairman.
Kano,
7 June 2012
Kano Interviews (9): SUBEB
Kano Interview Series (9)
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
State Universal Basic Education Board
Question: Mr. Chairman, can you please briefly tell us the progress made under your board since the inception of this administration?
We came in and found many things are done inappropriately. For example, unqualified people are recruited to teach. In fact, majority of our teachers do not have even the most basic qualification for teaching, the National Certificate of Education. We met an acute shortage of classrooms; those available were dilapidated. As a result, you often find as many as 150 pupils in a class, which makes successful learning impossible. We also found many classrooms without furniture and of instructional materials. Even chalk in some instances was scarce. Many promotions that were due were also not done.
These are some of the problems we met when we took over government last year. In order to address the problems, many measures were taken by the new administration. The first was to stop employing unqualified teachers, completely and instantly. Government has given the directive that only teachers with at least NCE should be employed. So far, no teacher without that basic requirement has been employed to teach in our primary schools since the advent of this administration.
Then the new administration embarked in construction of new classrooms to reduce the congestion in many of the classrooms. Presently, the government is building one-storey buildings, each with four classrooms, two offices and two toilet blocks. The building is the same in both towns and villages. So far, about 1000 classrooms have been completed. For each local government is built, at the first instance, four to five blocks. In the second phase which we just embarked upon, each local government will get additional two or three blocks. The buildings are complete with their furniture and instructional materials.
With respect to existing dilapidated buildings, government has under its Community Reorientation Committee (CRC) held consultative meetings at local government levels has embarked on the renovation of such structures. The effort of government is complimented in many places by the community. Some volunteered in the repairing classrooms while others contributed with furniture or instructional materials. The state government, in addition to the efforts of the local government, gave N5million to each local government committee to enable small repairs of classrooms and furniture in its domain.
Government likewise spent about N300million on the purchase of different kinds of instructional materials. Chalk, dusters, pencils, cleaners, erasers, exercise books, drawing books, cardboard papers, school attenders’ registers, record of work book, etc have all been purchased and delivered to the schools.
There is a UBE fund which the previous administration failed to utilize since 2008, after failing to account for the one it received in 2007. This government availed itself of that fund by providing the counterpart funding for those years, including 2011, amounting to N3billion. That was used in the construction of the classrooms we mentioned earlier. But the funding of instructional materials and that used by the CRC in renovating schools was all shouldered by the state government.
On promotion, we have started by promoting many. Our target is that before the end of this academic year, every teacher that is due for promotion will get it without further delay.
Government has also embarked on the training of school administrators – including headmasters, supervisors, inspectors, etc. – by holding in-house training workshops during holidays. About 3,800 of such administrators were trained during the first vacation of this school year. During the second term vacation, over 6,000 teachers were also trained on various aspects of their profession in various centres across the state where not more than 50 teachers were trained in each class. During the forthcoming long vacation, this teacher training workshops will also hold.
Teachers that were employed without the basic teaching qualification will not be dismissed, but each of them, considering his qualification, will be assisted through an in-service program, in collaboration with our Colleges of Education, to attain the necessary basic qualification. Some would need a remedial program while some would go directly into the NCE program. However, those that are not willing to undergo such training will be free to resign their appointments and leave.
These are the things we have done so far. The construction of classrooms, with or without UBE counterpart fund, will continue.
Question: Can we have an idea of the number of schools, teachers and pupils that are under your board?
Chairman: We have about 5,200 schools, 2.2million pupils including pre-primary pupils, and over 50,000 teachers. If we include non-teaching staff under the board, then we have a total of 62,540 staff.
Question: I remember that when we visited CRC at Lugard House, the Chairman told me that due to the serving of primary school pupils with lunch every day, there is a huge influx of pupils, including underage children, that is presently creating a lot of congestion in many of the schools. Don’t you feel that it is better for the government to restrict its activities to primary education as mandated by the law such that it can optimally use its resources in improving the standard of education at that level rather than delve into pre-primary schools programs?
Yes. I haven’t mentioned the feeding program that this administration has re-introduced. Actually, it is a program which it introduced during its first tenure. It was stopped thereafter by the administration that succeeded it and now it is re-introduced again. Apart from feeding the pupils lunch, every Primary I child is given also a set of two uniforms. Both measures have, as intended, successfully driven enrolment into the schools and dramatically improved retention.
In relation to your question on mandate, if you look at the UBE enabling law, you will find that the mandate includes the pre-primary programs. That aside, research has shown that child care schooling facilitates the understanding of children when they get to the primary school level. These are the reasons why we enroll those children.
Question: You said you have over 62,000 staff. Are they all promptly paid, like other civil servants or are there delays in payment of their salaries as it is common in this country?
Chairman: We thank God that our staff are all paid promptly by 24th or 25th of every month. We send the salaries on the 22nd and 23rd. What facilitated this is the insistence of this administration that every government official must be paid through the bank. And we are under directive from the governor to ensure that by 25th of each month, every staff gets his salaries.
Question: But there are many instances, like in the past few months, when the statutory allocations to governments are delayed for a month or more. Just recently, the federal government itself owed its workers as a result of such delays. What magic is the present administration playing to ensure such a timely settlement of its payroll?
Chairman: The magic wand is one: It is the effort of the Chief Executive of the state to ensure prudence in governance. A lot of savings are made from blocking wastages in addition to the spirit of trust and honesty that characterize his style of governance. Before the 20th of each month, the Accountant-General will release to our Board the over N2billion we need to pay our 62,000 workers. We process it in two days such that by the 24th and 25th, every worker is alerted of its payment into his account.
Question: When you asked every staff to open a bank account, which in my opinion is a kind of auditing, did you discover some ghost workers?
Yes. We discovered ghost teachers as well as those that have absconded. As we continued, we were discovering unclaimed salaries and returning them to the treasury. We now intend to embark on physical auditing of teachers in the state where we will visit each of the over 5,000 schools to confirm the presence of every staff. This will be carried out repeatedly from time to time before we arrive to a conclusive list.
Question: Okay. There is this problem of bloating the payroll of government given that you are building more classrooms, which will lead to employing more teachers. You already have more than 50,000 teachers. Does this administration have any plan of employing more teachers and to what extent would it do it?
It is true that decongesting classrooms naturally leads to the demand for more teachers. Given the prudence of this government that is making more funds available, it has given the permission to employ 2,000 staff among whom would be hundreds of teachers. Thereafter, another 1,000 will be employed and, as we have discussed with the governor, teachers will make the biggest part of the intake.
Question: In the end, what appeal would you make to the public regarding the delivery of basic education in the state?
Chairman: I will appeal to people to recognize the effort of government in its attempt to deliver basic education in our schools especially the provision of funds for the execution of various projects. These children are our future leaders. Whoever can contribute something for the success in education, even if it is restricted to his hometown, should please do it. Such contribution doesn’t have to be in a big financial form. If you can build classrooms or provide furniture or books to the school, the government will welcome it. If you can’t do that, assist by monitoring the activities in the school such as ensuring the children go to school, teachers are doing their job, the feeding is going on well, etc. Wherever people have suggestions on some observations they make, they shouldn’t hesitate to give them to the appropriate authorities.
Question: Thank you so much Mr. Chairman.
Chairman: Thank you too.
Kano,
10 June 2012
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
State Universal Basic Education Board
Question: Mr. Chairman, can you please briefly tell us the progress made under your board since the inception of this administration?
We came in and found many things are done inappropriately. For example, unqualified people are recruited to teach. In fact, majority of our teachers do not have even the most basic qualification for teaching, the National Certificate of Education. We met an acute shortage of classrooms; those available were dilapidated. As a result, you often find as many as 150 pupils in a class, which makes successful learning impossible. We also found many classrooms without furniture and of instructional materials. Even chalk in some instances was scarce. Many promotions that were due were also not done.
These are some of the problems we met when we took over government last year. In order to address the problems, many measures were taken by the new administration. The first was to stop employing unqualified teachers, completely and instantly. Government has given the directive that only teachers with at least NCE should be employed. So far, no teacher without that basic requirement has been employed to teach in our primary schools since the advent of this administration.
Then the new administration embarked in construction of new classrooms to reduce the congestion in many of the classrooms. Presently, the government is building one-storey buildings, each with four classrooms, two offices and two toilet blocks. The building is the same in both towns and villages. So far, about 1000 classrooms have been completed. For each local government is built, at the first instance, four to five blocks. In the second phase which we just embarked upon, each local government will get additional two or three blocks. The buildings are complete with their furniture and instructional materials.
With respect to existing dilapidated buildings, government has under its Community Reorientation Committee (CRC) held consultative meetings at local government levels has embarked on the renovation of such structures. The effort of government is complimented in many places by the community. Some volunteered in the repairing classrooms while others contributed with furniture or instructional materials. The state government, in addition to the efforts of the local government, gave N5million to each local government committee to enable small repairs of classrooms and furniture in its domain.
Government likewise spent about N300million on the purchase of different kinds of instructional materials. Chalk, dusters, pencils, cleaners, erasers, exercise books, drawing books, cardboard papers, school attenders’ registers, record of work book, etc have all been purchased and delivered to the schools.
There is a UBE fund which the previous administration failed to utilize since 2008, after failing to account for the one it received in 2007. This government availed itself of that fund by providing the counterpart funding for those years, including 2011, amounting to N3billion. That was used in the construction of the classrooms we mentioned earlier. But the funding of instructional materials and that used by the CRC in renovating schools was all shouldered by the state government.
On promotion, we have started by promoting many. Our target is that before the end of this academic year, every teacher that is due for promotion will get it without further delay.
Government has also embarked on the training of school administrators – including headmasters, supervisors, inspectors, etc. – by holding in-house training workshops during holidays. About 3,800 of such administrators were trained during the first vacation of this school year. During the second term vacation, over 6,000 teachers were also trained on various aspects of their profession in various centres across the state where not more than 50 teachers were trained in each class. During the forthcoming long vacation, this teacher training workshops will also hold.
Teachers that were employed without the basic teaching qualification will not be dismissed, but each of them, considering his qualification, will be assisted through an in-service program, in collaboration with our Colleges of Education, to attain the necessary basic qualification. Some would need a remedial program while some would go directly into the NCE program. However, those that are not willing to undergo such training will be free to resign their appointments and leave.
These are the things we have done so far. The construction of classrooms, with or without UBE counterpart fund, will continue.
Question: Can we have an idea of the number of schools, teachers and pupils that are under your board?
Chairman: We have about 5,200 schools, 2.2million pupils including pre-primary pupils, and over 50,000 teachers. If we include non-teaching staff under the board, then we have a total of 62,540 staff.
Question: I remember that when we visited CRC at Lugard House, the Chairman told me that due to the serving of primary school pupils with lunch every day, there is a huge influx of pupils, including underage children, that is presently creating a lot of congestion in many of the schools. Don’t you feel that it is better for the government to restrict its activities to primary education as mandated by the law such that it can optimally use its resources in improving the standard of education at that level rather than delve into pre-primary schools programs?
Yes. I haven’t mentioned the feeding program that this administration has re-introduced. Actually, it is a program which it introduced during its first tenure. It was stopped thereafter by the administration that succeeded it and now it is re-introduced again. Apart from feeding the pupils lunch, every Primary I child is given also a set of two uniforms. Both measures have, as intended, successfully driven enrolment into the schools and dramatically improved retention.
In relation to your question on mandate, if you look at the UBE enabling law, you will find that the mandate includes the pre-primary programs. That aside, research has shown that child care schooling facilitates the understanding of children when they get to the primary school level. These are the reasons why we enroll those children.
Question: You said you have over 62,000 staff. Are they all promptly paid, like other civil servants or are there delays in payment of their salaries as it is common in this country?
Chairman: We thank God that our staff are all paid promptly by 24th or 25th of every month. We send the salaries on the 22nd and 23rd. What facilitated this is the insistence of this administration that every government official must be paid through the bank. And we are under directive from the governor to ensure that by 25th of each month, every staff gets his salaries.
Question: But there are many instances, like in the past few months, when the statutory allocations to governments are delayed for a month or more. Just recently, the federal government itself owed its workers as a result of such delays. What magic is the present administration playing to ensure such a timely settlement of its payroll?
Chairman: The magic wand is one: It is the effort of the Chief Executive of the state to ensure prudence in governance. A lot of savings are made from blocking wastages in addition to the spirit of trust and honesty that characterize his style of governance. Before the 20th of each month, the Accountant-General will release to our Board the over N2billion we need to pay our 62,000 workers. We process it in two days such that by the 24th and 25th, every worker is alerted of its payment into his account.
Question: When you asked every staff to open a bank account, which in my opinion is a kind of auditing, did you discover some ghost workers?
Yes. We discovered ghost teachers as well as those that have absconded. As we continued, we were discovering unclaimed salaries and returning them to the treasury. We now intend to embark on physical auditing of teachers in the state where we will visit each of the over 5,000 schools to confirm the presence of every staff. This will be carried out repeatedly from time to time before we arrive to a conclusive list.
Question: Okay. There is this problem of bloating the payroll of government given that you are building more classrooms, which will lead to employing more teachers. You already have more than 50,000 teachers. Does this administration have any plan of employing more teachers and to what extent would it do it?
It is true that decongesting classrooms naturally leads to the demand for more teachers. Given the prudence of this government that is making more funds available, it has given the permission to employ 2,000 staff among whom would be hundreds of teachers. Thereafter, another 1,000 will be employed and, as we have discussed with the governor, teachers will make the biggest part of the intake.
Question: In the end, what appeal would you make to the public regarding the delivery of basic education in the state?
Chairman: I will appeal to people to recognize the effort of government in its attempt to deliver basic education in our schools especially the provision of funds for the execution of various projects. These children are our future leaders. Whoever can contribute something for the success in education, even if it is restricted to his hometown, should please do it. Such contribution doesn’t have to be in a big financial form. If you can build classrooms or provide furniture or books to the school, the government will welcome it. If you can’t do that, assist by monitoring the activities in the school such as ensuring the children go to school, teachers are doing their job, the feeding is going on well, etc. Wherever people have suggestions on some observations they make, they shouldn’t hesitate to give them to the appropriate authorities.
Question: Thank you so much Mr. Chairman.
Chairman: Thank you too.
Kano,
10 June 2012
Kano Interview Series (6): Lafiya Jari
Kano Interview Series
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Lafiya Jari
Lafiya Jari is one of the youth empowerment programs under the state Community Reorientation Committee (CRC). I first came across it in my interview with the CRC chairman. I requested to meet its officials who were coincidentally holding a meeting at the training site in the premises of former School of Hygiene, Kano, that afternoon of 31 May 2012. I visited a class full of students undergoing the training. This was how my interview with the Chairman of the program, Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu – who also doubles as adviser to the Governor on vaccination and sanitation matters – went.
Me: What is Lafiya Jari all about?
Chairman: It is a program invented by the Kwankwaso administration during his first tenure. He reintroduced it when he resumed office last year. In it, unemployed youths who have completed programs in our health institutions are trained on commerce and given N150,000.00 worth of drugs to enable them open chemists in their communities. Before, it was common to find drugs sold in wheel barrows on market days; sometimes they take these drugs to various Fulani settlements where they sell them to unsuspecting citizens. To protect these citizens from the hazard of such drugs, the idea of getting health workers who have the basic knowledge of medicine to engage in selling the drugs was conceived. They are trained here in commerce on how to make profit, bookkeeping, etc.
Me: How many students are here now?
Chairman: We have 600 students. Four hundred have graduated already. You can see them in many areas of the state.
Me: Are the beneficiaries members of “Kwankwasiyya” alone or the choice is made from the general public?
Chairman: It is open to different kinds of youths that are unemployed but who are trained in as health workers and are indigenes of Kano State, regardless of their political inclinations. They will benefit everybody, so there is no need to discriminate against anyone.
Me: Does this include veterinary drugs since you mentioned rural communities?.
Chairman: The issue of veterinary drugs is handled by the Ministry of Agriculture. Here we are concerned with human medicine only.
Me: In any program, there would be unforeseen problems. Have you had any problem regarding how the course is run, or regarding the students or their tutors?
Aliyu: Well, in anything you do there should be a yardstick. If using that yardstick you realize that you have achieved 99% of your objectives, I think you can overlook remaining 1 or 2% that is not worth mentioning. Since we started the program, it has been running smoothly without any major problem from government, students, or tutors.
Me: Malam Aliyu, Thank you so much.
Aliyu: Thank you.
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Lafiya Jari
Lafiya Jari is one of the youth empowerment programs under the state Community Reorientation Committee (CRC). I first came across it in my interview with the CRC chairman. I requested to meet its officials who were coincidentally holding a meeting at the training site in the premises of former School of Hygiene, Kano, that afternoon of 31 May 2012. I visited a class full of students undergoing the training. This was how my interview with the Chairman of the program, Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu – who also doubles as adviser to the Governor on vaccination and sanitation matters – went.
Me: What is Lafiya Jari all about?
Chairman: It is a program invented by the Kwankwaso administration during his first tenure. He reintroduced it when he resumed office last year. In it, unemployed youths who have completed programs in our health institutions are trained on commerce and given N150,000.00 worth of drugs to enable them open chemists in their communities. Before, it was common to find drugs sold in wheel barrows on market days; sometimes they take these drugs to various Fulani settlements where they sell them to unsuspecting citizens. To protect these citizens from the hazard of such drugs, the idea of getting health workers who have the basic knowledge of medicine to engage in selling the drugs was conceived. They are trained here in commerce on how to make profit, bookkeeping, etc.
Me: How many students are here now?
Chairman: We have 600 students. Four hundred have graduated already. You can see them in many areas of the state.
Me: Are the beneficiaries members of “Kwankwasiyya” alone or the choice is made from the general public?
Chairman: It is open to different kinds of youths that are unemployed but who are trained in as health workers and are indigenes of Kano State, regardless of their political inclinations. They will benefit everybody, so there is no need to discriminate against anyone.
Me: Does this include veterinary drugs since you mentioned rural communities?.
Chairman: The issue of veterinary drugs is handled by the Ministry of Agriculture. Here we are concerned with human medicine only.
Me: In any program, there would be unforeseen problems. Have you had any problem regarding how the course is run, or regarding the students or their tutors?
Aliyu: Well, in anything you do there should be a yardstick. If using that yardstick you realize that you have achieved 99% of your objectives, I think you can overlook remaining 1 or 2% that is not worth mentioning. Since we started the program, it has been running smoothly without any major problem from government, students, or tutors.
Me: Malam Aliyu, Thank you so much.
Aliyu: Thank you.
Kano Interview Series (8) Higher Education
Kano Interview Series (8)
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
HIGHER EDUCATION
At the Ministry for Higher Education, I met the Commissioner, Umar Haruna Muhammad, to discuss developments regarding the ten institutes of higher education under his Ministry. He is the youngest of all the officials I met so far, full of energy. I started by asking him to describe the development that took place under his ministry in the last one year.
Me: Can you please introduce yourself, sir?
Commissioner: I am Umar Haruna Muhammad, Kano State Commissioner for Higher Education.
Me: Education is a continuous process. The entire society subscribes to it. Whoever comes to power deals in it, doing his best and, yet, must leave behind many things unfinished as new problems continuously emerge. Can you describe the position of higher education in Kano State when you were appointed and what have your ministry done in the past one year to develop it?
Commissioner: Thank you for this question. First, I must say we met higher education in Kano State with five major problems. The first was the problem of physical structures. It was difficult to come across buildings that were in good condition. Two, we met plenty students that have not been admitted into higher institutions of learning. Three, there were no funds to pay scholarship allowances. Four, the relationship between staff unions in the various institutions and government was very poor. Five, there was a rift between National Union of Nigerian Students and the state government. These were the five problems we met here. You can add to this the serious problem of lack of state indigenes that can manage the institutions.
Me: Okay. Let us approach the issue in two ways. First, pick each of these problems you listed, one at a time, and tell us the effort you made to solve it. Secondly, tell us what the new things you introduced are.
Commissioner: Regarding structures, we directed all contractors handling construction projects in these institutions to return to their sites. We have paid them their outstanding certificates. You find this at Kano State University of Technology (KSUT), at Audu Bako, at Kumbotso, etc. Where the funds are not available at all in the institutions, we funded them to enable the resumption of work on these sites.
There is the fundamental problem of lack of accreditation of the institutions. We have provided funds to all the institutions to enable them obtain such accreditations. They are all accredited now, except the polytechnic which we are processing now. We have done it for KSUT Wudil, College of Education, Kumbotso and Audu Bako School of Agriculture, Dambatta. These are the major ones that required accreditation.
Also, we realized that we have many students seeking admission into institutions of higher learning. For example, between 70,000 and 80,000 students across the country applied to Bayero University Kano last year but only 5,000 would be admitted. So the admissions are hard to come by. To tackle this problem, we introduced degree programs at COE, Kumbotso, and NCE program at School of Legal Studies. In fact to solve the problem from a broader perspective, we introduced the Northwest University. Work is ongoing…(cut in)
Me: This Northwest University…how would it differ from KSUT? I say this because I have heard many of your critics questioning the rationale of opening new universities when the present state university, which they say was created by the same governor, is not fully established.
Commissioner: Thank God that they have admitted in the first place that the university in Wudil was established by Kwankwaso during his first tenure. Alhamdulillah. I am also glad that such critics, most of whom are members and sympathizers of the past administration, have agreed that despite their eight year tenure, they did very little to complete its establishment. Now, what they fail to understand is that Wudil was established for science and technology students. The new Northwest University, on the other hand, will be a conventional university that offers all courses. In addition, given the cultural sensitivity of Kano, there are many parents that will not allow their girls to go to “far away Wudil” for higher education.
Me: So the new University will be established here in Kano?
Commissioner: Yes. It will be established in Kano. It will be a conventional university that will offer all courses, while the first university remains a university of technology.
What is interesting is that we have sent a bill to the House of Assembly for the establishment of a fund called KETFUND, Kano Education Trust Fund, for the management of these institutions such that even after our tenure, the neglect that happened in the past will not happen again.
On the issue of sufficient indigenes who are qualified to run these institutions, we came up with a program of sending overseas for postgraduate studies 500 graduates in various fields who have first class and second class upper degrees. The process is ongoing. We have secured admissions for many and, in sha Allah, we will soon invite you to witness the departure of these students.
That apart, seeing that the standard of our secondary education is deteriorating, we included in our rolling plan the establishment of school of basic and remedial studies in each of the three zones in the state. Since we now have one in Kano Central, we are going to establish one in Kano South soon; then next year we will allocate another to Kano North.
Then we realize that our candidates find it difficult to go to distant institutions in the country for learning, for example, to Usmanu Danfodio University (UDUS), Sokoto, SBRS, Funtua, etc. So we came up with an idea: We will build a hostel in any university that will sufficiently admit our students. The hostel will be dedicated to the indigenes of the state. Doing this will reduce the pressure on the university for providing accommodation to its students from the state. We have done this in UDUS and SBRS Funtua, within last year alone. And it pays, because we have seen an increment in the number of our students that are admitted in these institutions.
There is also now a good understanding between the government and staff unions in these institutions. We have resolved the issue of migration – meaning, once you obtain a higher qualification, you are entitled to migrate from one level to another. It was stopped before; we have reintroduced it. Students are now received here warmly, unlike before when they could not even come. I just finished a meeting with one of their organizations. There is a good working relationship between government, staff and students in the state.
Me: You mean learning has resumed in all the institutions and there is no industrial action going on presently?
Commissioner: There is not a single institution on strike. All our institutions are running their calendars well. I forgot to tell you that when we came, we found that teachers in all the institutions were on strike, except in KSUT whose union is under ASUU. Not a single union went on strike since our inception.
Me: Apart from your effort in resolving issues that you met on ground when you came to office last year, are there new things that you have introduced?
Commissioner: The new things we introduced or we have in the pipeline are not many. But you have seen that there are a number of things already: There is a new university, a new school of basic and remedial studies, the sponsorship of 500 postgraduate students to study overseas, and the establishment of the Faculties of Medicine and Pharmacy at KSUT. These are the few new things we have introduced so far.
Me: Regarding students, you remind me of the issue of scholarship. Though we all know that the number of students is increased many folds and that there are competing demands on the resources of government, don’t you still feel that N15,000.00 is too small as scholarship for students? Is there any plan to hike it, even by a bit?
Commissioner: I am glad that you have reminded me of the omission. When we assumed office, scholarship has not been paid since 2009. This was the person sent to investigate the matter (pointing at an official sitting opposite us). The previous government has claimed that it owed N300million to the students. Through our auditing effort, we saved for the government the sum of N68million. We established committees for payment. Even at the payment, we were able to save another N14million. Yesterday, we discussed how we can source money for scholarship. We resolved to acquire for the Board some assets that will permanently bring the income needed to meet its demands such that it can be on its own. All these are efforts towards reforming the system. Approval has been given for the computerization of the scholarship awards such that there will be proper accountability of the disbursements.
Now, if you consider the population of Kano state and the scarce resources of government, it will be difficult to increase the amount for each student. But if at the end, we are able to establish that the number of students claimed is dubious in the first place, with the savings that would accrue, we can consider increasing it.
Me: Finally, what message do you have for the people that voted you into office?
Commissioner: I will tell them that we have kept the promise to use their resources prudently. Thank God, this is very clear. Everybody knows this is a transparent government. Our running cost has been increased from N1.6million to N2.5million. We are prudent in how these funds are used. We have done away with a lot of wastes. We don’t owe even a casual labourer any outstanding payment, unlike before when they were owed three to four months payments. They are paid monthly now, promptly.
I would like to add that on top of all these developments, we have improved on the supervision of these institutions. There were only two vehicles for this purpose. Right away, we are provided now with five new Toyota-Hilux vehicles for inspection. This has enabled us an up-to-date knowledge of activities in our institutions because we have a strong inspection team.
Me: Thank you honourable commissioner. May God bless you and assist you in the discharge of your duties.
Commissioner: Thank you Dr. I am grateful.
Kano
9 June 2012
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
HIGHER EDUCATION
At the Ministry for Higher Education, I met the Commissioner, Umar Haruna Muhammad, to discuss developments regarding the ten institutes of higher education under his Ministry. He is the youngest of all the officials I met so far, full of energy. I started by asking him to describe the development that took place under his ministry in the last one year.
Me: Can you please introduce yourself, sir?
Commissioner: I am Umar Haruna Muhammad, Kano State Commissioner for Higher Education.
Me: Education is a continuous process. The entire society subscribes to it. Whoever comes to power deals in it, doing his best and, yet, must leave behind many things unfinished as new problems continuously emerge. Can you describe the position of higher education in Kano State when you were appointed and what have your ministry done in the past one year to develop it?
Commissioner: Thank you for this question. First, I must say we met higher education in Kano State with five major problems. The first was the problem of physical structures. It was difficult to come across buildings that were in good condition. Two, we met plenty students that have not been admitted into higher institutions of learning. Three, there were no funds to pay scholarship allowances. Four, the relationship between staff unions in the various institutions and government was very poor. Five, there was a rift between National Union of Nigerian Students and the state government. These were the five problems we met here. You can add to this the serious problem of lack of state indigenes that can manage the institutions.
Me: Okay. Let us approach the issue in two ways. First, pick each of these problems you listed, one at a time, and tell us the effort you made to solve it. Secondly, tell us what the new things you introduced are.
Commissioner: Regarding structures, we directed all contractors handling construction projects in these institutions to return to their sites. We have paid them their outstanding certificates. You find this at Kano State University of Technology (KSUT), at Audu Bako, at Kumbotso, etc. Where the funds are not available at all in the institutions, we funded them to enable the resumption of work on these sites.
There is the fundamental problem of lack of accreditation of the institutions. We have provided funds to all the institutions to enable them obtain such accreditations. They are all accredited now, except the polytechnic which we are processing now. We have done it for KSUT Wudil, College of Education, Kumbotso and Audu Bako School of Agriculture, Dambatta. These are the major ones that required accreditation.
Also, we realized that we have many students seeking admission into institutions of higher learning. For example, between 70,000 and 80,000 students across the country applied to Bayero University Kano last year but only 5,000 would be admitted. So the admissions are hard to come by. To tackle this problem, we introduced degree programs at COE, Kumbotso, and NCE program at School of Legal Studies. In fact to solve the problem from a broader perspective, we introduced the Northwest University. Work is ongoing…(cut in)
Me: This Northwest University…how would it differ from KSUT? I say this because I have heard many of your critics questioning the rationale of opening new universities when the present state university, which they say was created by the same governor, is not fully established.
Commissioner: Thank God that they have admitted in the first place that the university in Wudil was established by Kwankwaso during his first tenure. Alhamdulillah. I am also glad that such critics, most of whom are members and sympathizers of the past administration, have agreed that despite their eight year tenure, they did very little to complete its establishment. Now, what they fail to understand is that Wudil was established for science and technology students. The new Northwest University, on the other hand, will be a conventional university that offers all courses. In addition, given the cultural sensitivity of Kano, there are many parents that will not allow their girls to go to “far away Wudil” for higher education.
Me: So the new University will be established here in Kano?
Commissioner: Yes. It will be established in Kano. It will be a conventional university that will offer all courses, while the first university remains a university of technology.
What is interesting is that we have sent a bill to the House of Assembly for the establishment of a fund called KETFUND, Kano Education Trust Fund, for the management of these institutions such that even after our tenure, the neglect that happened in the past will not happen again.
On the issue of sufficient indigenes who are qualified to run these institutions, we came up with a program of sending overseas for postgraduate studies 500 graduates in various fields who have first class and second class upper degrees. The process is ongoing. We have secured admissions for many and, in sha Allah, we will soon invite you to witness the departure of these students.
That apart, seeing that the standard of our secondary education is deteriorating, we included in our rolling plan the establishment of school of basic and remedial studies in each of the three zones in the state. Since we now have one in Kano Central, we are going to establish one in Kano South soon; then next year we will allocate another to Kano North.
Then we realize that our candidates find it difficult to go to distant institutions in the country for learning, for example, to Usmanu Danfodio University (UDUS), Sokoto, SBRS, Funtua, etc. So we came up with an idea: We will build a hostel in any university that will sufficiently admit our students. The hostel will be dedicated to the indigenes of the state. Doing this will reduce the pressure on the university for providing accommodation to its students from the state. We have done this in UDUS and SBRS Funtua, within last year alone. And it pays, because we have seen an increment in the number of our students that are admitted in these institutions.
There is also now a good understanding between the government and staff unions in these institutions. We have resolved the issue of migration – meaning, once you obtain a higher qualification, you are entitled to migrate from one level to another. It was stopped before; we have reintroduced it. Students are now received here warmly, unlike before when they could not even come. I just finished a meeting with one of their organizations. There is a good working relationship between government, staff and students in the state.
Me: You mean learning has resumed in all the institutions and there is no industrial action going on presently?
Commissioner: There is not a single institution on strike. All our institutions are running their calendars well. I forgot to tell you that when we came, we found that teachers in all the institutions were on strike, except in KSUT whose union is under ASUU. Not a single union went on strike since our inception.
Me: Apart from your effort in resolving issues that you met on ground when you came to office last year, are there new things that you have introduced?
Commissioner: The new things we introduced or we have in the pipeline are not many. But you have seen that there are a number of things already: There is a new university, a new school of basic and remedial studies, the sponsorship of 500 postgraduate students to study overseas, and the establishment of the Faculties of Medicine and Pharmacy at KSUT. These are the few new things we have introduced so far.
Me: Regarding students, you remind me of the issue of scholarship. Though we all know that the number of students is increased many folds and that there are competing demands on the resources of government, don’t you still feel that N15,000.00 is too small as scholarship for students? Is there any plan to hike it, even by a bit?
Commissioner: I am glad that you have reminded me of the omission. When we assumed office, scholarship has not been paid since 2009. This was the person sent to investigate the matter (pointing at an official sitting opposite us). The previous government has claimed that it owed N300million to the students. Through our auditing effort, we saved for the government the sum of N68million. We established committees for payment. Even at the payment, we were able to save another N14million. Yesterday, we discussed how we can source money for scholarship. We resolved to acquire for the Board some assets that will permanently bring the income needed to meet its demands such that it can be on its own. All these are efforts towards reforming the system. Approval has been given for the computerization of the scholarship awards such that there will be proper accountability of the disbursements.
Now, if you consider the population of Kano state and the scarce resources of government, it will be difficult to increase the amount for each student. But if at the end, we are able to establish that the number of students claimed is dubious in the first place, with the savings that would accrue, we can consider increasing it.
Me: Finally, what message do you have for the people that voted you into office?
Commissioner: I will tell them that we have kept the promise to use their resources prudently. Thank God, this is very clear. Everybody knows this is a transparent government. Our running cost has been increased from N1.6million to N2.5million. We are prudent in how these funds are used. We have done away with a lot of wastes. We don’t owe even a casual labourer any outstanding payment, unlike before when they were owed three to four months payments. They are paid monthly now, promptly.
I would like to add that on top of all these developments, we have improved on the supervision of these institutions. There were only two vehicles for this purpose. Right away, we are provided now with five new Toyota-Hilux vehicles for inspection. This has enabled us an up-to-date knowledge of activities in our institutions because we have a strong inspection team.
Me: Thank you honourable commissioner. May God bless you and assist you in the discharge of your duties.
Commissioner: Thank you Dr. I am grateful.
Kano
9 June 2012
Kano Interview Series (7) REMASAB
Kano Interview Series (7)
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Refuse Management and Sanitation Board
One of the areas where the present administration has recorded a glaring success is in refuse disposal in Kano and its environs. I used to complain so much about the rampant refuse that littered the streets of Kano. During my week long stay in the city, it was really difficult to come across the old heaps of refuse anymore. This made me look for the Director of the state Refuse Management and Sanitation Board (REMASAB), Engr. Abdullahi Shehu Bichi. It was a Saturday evening, and he was in his home town, Bichi. We planned to meet him there but he was kind enough to come all the way to Mil Tara (9th Mile) where we met with him and conducted this interview at dusk.
Me: Sir, can you introduce yourself to my readers?
Director: I am Engineer Abdullahi Shehu Bichi, the Director of Refuse Management and Sanitation Board, the body responsible for managing refuse in the state.
Me: I have gone round the town to see if I can come across a single mound of refuse as I used to see any time visit it in the past. Kano streets are neat now. To me, this is not only impressive but wonderful. I know refuse disposal is one of the most difficult jobs any government would undertake. Every second, refuse is accumulating. In Kano, it is not only the refuse of the residents in the city but also of the thousands of people who troop into the town daily from surrounding countries and states. Briefly tell us, please, for my benefit and that of my readers and of course your counterparts in other states, the secret behind your success.
Director: As you said, you have visited Kano and you haven’t found pyramids of refuse anymore. Thank God, this is a government concerned with the problems of its citizens. Refuse is a problem once it isn’t placed where it should be and evacuated on time. When he assumed office, the Governor directed us to do our best to clear the entire refuse in three days. That was done. He headed the operation until the entire refuse was evacuated.
After that, there used to be 250 spots where this refuse was deposited in the city, but since the initial evacuation, we never allowed the refuse to accumulate again. We are in constant evacuation. And where the refuse should not be dumped, we cancelled 100 unsuitable spots. This way, the spots for dumping refuse are now reduced from the 250 we inherited to just 150.
The secret, as you demanded to know, is simple. Once you have a government that is committed to the welfare of its people, you will then need three things. One, vehicles are needed for refuse disposal. We have repaired the ones we inherited and received the delivery of new ones. We have kept them in constant serviceable condition since the repairs. Two, there has never been a time when we run short of diesel for more than an hour or two. Government has constantly provided sufficient funds for that. Three, you need hardworking personnel. We work hard in the mornings and nights especially, when the streets are empty. You know Kano is a commercial city, so its streets are congested during the day.
Me: In the end, what call would you like to make to the general public, given that your work needs its full cooperation? Also what advice do you have for your counterparts in other states? Then, finally, what are your future plans, now that you have perfected the evacuation process?
Director: I will start with the advice to my counterparts in other states. They must understand that they are servants of the people. Governments today are elected to serve the public. In our case, we are lucky to have a governor that has imbibed this concept and practices it well. Waste accumulation is among the major worries of our people. Other governors should take a queue from him. Office is not for leisure, but for service. Once they do this, their states will be clean and developing.
We always call on our citizens to deposit their waste in approved areas. This will enable us evacuate it quickly. That is why we provided the public with containers all over the city such that they can throw in whatever little waste they hold as they go about their daily businesses. This has contributed immensely to our success. We are grateful to people for their constant cooperation.
In the end, regarding the future, I would like to say that we have gone far with the idea of recycling this waste. The government is discussing with multinational waste recycling companies for the benefit of our people. We are working towards its takeoff before the end of our term in office.
Me. Okay. Thank you sir and may God bless you.
Director: I am also grateful. Thank you.
Kano
9 June 2012
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Refuse Management and Sanitation Board
One of the areas where the present administration has recorded a glaring success is in refuse disposal in Kano and its environs. I used to complain so much about the rampant refuse that littered the streets of Kano. During my week long stay in the city, it was really difficult to come across the old heaps of refuse anymore. This made me look for the Director of the state Refuse Management and Sanitation Board (REMASAB), Engr. Abdullahi Shehu Bichi. It was a Saturday evening, and he was in his home town, Bichi. We planned to meet him there but he was kind enough to come all the way to Mil Tara (9th Mile) where we met with him and conducted this interview at dusk.
Me: Sir, can you introduce yourself to my readers?
Director: I am Engineer Abdullahi Shehu Bichi, the Director of Refuse Management and Sanitation Board, the body responsible for managing refuse in the state.
Me: I have gone round the town to see if I can come across a single mound of refuse as I used to see any time visit it in the past. Kano streets are neat now. To me, this is not only impressive but wonderful. I know refuse disposal is one of the most difficult jobs any government would undertake. Every second, refuse is accumulating. In Kano, it is not only the refuse of the residents in the city but also of the thousands of people who troop into the town daily from surrounding countries and states. Briefly tell us, please, for my benefit and that of my readers and of course your counterparts in other states, the secret behind your success.
Director: As you said, you have visited Kano and you haven’t found pyramids of refuse anymore. Thank God, this is a government concerned with the problems of its citizens. Refuse is a problem once it isn’t placed where it should be and evacuated on time. When he assumed office, the Governor directed us to do our best to clear the entire refuse in three days. That was done. He headed the operation until the entire refuse was evacuated.
After that, there used to be 250 spots where this refuse was deposited in the city, but since the initial evacuation, we never allowed the refuse to accumulate again. We are in constant evacuation. And where the refuse should not be dumped, we cancelled 100 unsuitable spots. This way, the spots for dumping refuse are now reduced from the 250 we inherited to just 150.
The secret, as you demanded to know, is simple. Once you have a government that is committed to the welfare of its people, you will then need three things. One, vehicles are needed for refuse disposal. We have repaired the ones we inherited and received the delivery of new ones. We have kept them in constant serviceable condition since the repairs. Two, there has never been a time when we run short of diesel for more than an hour or two. Government has constantly provided sufficient funds for that. Three, you need hardworking personnel. We work hard in the mornings and nights especially, when the streets are empty. You know Kano is a commercial city, so its streets are congested during the day.
Me: In the end, what call would you like to make to the general public, given that your work needs its full cooperation? Also what advice do you have for your counterparts in other states? Then, finally, what are your future plans, now that you have perfected the evacuation process?
Director: I will start with the advice to my counterparts in other states. They must understand that they are servants of the people. Governments today are elected to serve the public. In our case, we are lucky to have a governor that has imbibed this concept and practices it well. Waste accumulation is among the major worries of our people. Other governors should take a queue from him. Office is not for leisure, but for service. Once they do this, their states will be clean and developing.
We always call on our citizens to deposit their waste in approved areas. This will enable us evacuate it quickly. That is why we provided the public with containers all over the city such that they can throw in whatever little waste they hold as they go about their daily businesses. This has contributed immensely to our success. We are grateful to people for their constant cooperation.
In the end, regarding the future, I would like to say that we have gone far with the idea of recycling this waste. The government is discussing with multinational waste recycling companies for the benefit of our people. We are working towards its takeoff before the end of our term in office.
Me. Okay. Thank you sir and may God bless you.
Director: I am also grateful. Thank you.
Kano
9 June 2012
Kano Interview Series (6)
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Lafiya Jari
Lafiya Jari is one of the youth empowerment programs under the state Community Reorientation Committee (CRC). I first came across it in my interview with the CRC chairman. I requested to meet its officials who were coincidentally holding a meeting at the training site in the premises of former School of Hygiene, Kano, that afternoon of 31 May 2012. I visited a class full of students undergoing the training. This was how my interview with the Chairman of the program, Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu – who also doubles as adviser to the Governor on vaccination and sanitation matters – went.
Me: What is Lafiya Jari all about?
Chairman: It is a program invented by the Kwankwaso administration during his first tenure. He reintroduced it when he resumed office last year. In it, unemployed youths who have completed programs in our health institutions are trained on commerce and given N150,000.00 worth of drugs to enable them open chemists in their communities. Before, it was common to find drugs sold in wheel barrows on market days; sometimes they take these drugs to various Fulani settlements where they sell them to unsuspecting citizens. To protect these citizens from the hazard of such drugs, the idea of getting health workers who have the basic knowledge of medicine to engage in selling the drugs was conceived. They are trained here in commerce on how to make profit, bookkeeping, etc.
Me: How many students are here now?
Chairman: We have 600 students. Four hundred have graduated already. You can see them in many areas of the state.
Me: Are the beneficiaries members of “Kwankwasiyya” alone or the choice is made from the general public?
Chairman: It is open to different kinds of youths that are unemployed but who are trained in as health workers and are indigenes of Kano State, regardless of their political inclinations. They will benefit everybody, so there is no need to discriminate against anyone.
Me: Does this include veterinary drugs since you mentioned rural communities.
Chairman: The issue of veterinary drugs is handled by the Ministry of Agriculture. Here we are concerned with human medicine only.
Me: In any program, there would be unforeseen problems. Have you had any problem regarding how the course is run, or regarding the students or their tutors?
Aliyu: Well, in anything you do there should be a yardstick. If using that yardstick you realize that you have achieved 99% of your objectives, I think you can overlook remaining 1 or 2% that is not worth mentioning. Since we started the program, it has been running smoothly without any major problem from government, students, or tutors.
Me: Malam Aliyu, Thank you so much.
Aliyu: Thank you.
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Lafiya Jari
Lafiya Jari is one of the youth empowerment programs under the state Community Reorientation Committee (CRC). I first came across it in my interview with the CRC chairman. I requested to meet its officials who were coincidentally holding a meeting at the training site in the premises of former School of Hygiene, Kano, that afternoon of 31 May 2012. I visited a class full of students undergoing the training. This was how my interview with the Chairman of the program, Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu – who also doubles as adviser to the Governor on vaccination and sanitation matters – went.
Me: What is Lafiya Jari all about?
Chairman: It is a program invented by the Kwankwaso administration during his first tenure. He reintroduced it when he resumed office last year. In it, unemployed youths who have completed programs in our health institutions are trained on commerce and given N150,000.00 worth of drugs to enable them open chemists in their communities. Before, it was common to find drugs sold in wheel barrows on market days; sometimes they take these drugs to various Fulani settlements where they sell them to unsuspecting citizens. To protect these citizens from the hazard of such drugs, the idea of getting health workers who have the basic knowledge of medicine to engage in selling the drugs was conceived. They are trained here in commerce on how to make profit, bookkeeping, etc.
Me: How many students are here now?
Chairman: We have 600 students. Four hundred have graduated already. You can see them in many areas of the state.
Me: Are the beneficiaries members of “Kwankwasiyya” alone or the choice is made from the general public?
Chairman: It is open to different kinds of youths that are unemployed but who are trained in as health workers and are indigenes of Kano State, regardless of their political inclinations. They will benefit everybody, so there is no need to discriminate against anyone.
Me: Does this include veterinary drugs since you mentioned rural communities.
Chairman: The issue of veterinary drugs is handled by the Ministry of Agriculture. Here we are concerned with human medicine only.
Me: In any program, there would be unforeseen problems. Have you had any problem regarding how the course is run, or regarding the students or their tutors?
Aliyu: Well, in anything you do there should be a yardstick. If using that yardstick you realize that you have achieved 99% of your objectives, I think you can overlook remaining 1 or 2% that is not worth mentioning. Since we started the program, it has been running smoothly without any major problem from government, students, or tutors.
Me: Malam Aliyu, Thank you so much.
Aliyu: Thank you.
Kano Interview Series (5): KASCO
Kano Interview Series (5)
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Kano Agricultural Supply Company
I visited KASCO to confirm the assertions made by the MD of KNARDA. I met its Managing Director, who said was mandated to revive the place after it was comatose during the tenure of the previous administration. After our discussion, we went round and met the machines that produce fertilizers and animal feed running. Outside, trucks loaded with fertilizer were waiting to be dispatched to various destinations in the state. This was how our discussion went.
Me: Mr. MD, how did you meet KASCO on your appointment?
MD: KASCO was virtually dead, until the advent of this administration. I remember what the governor told me when appointing me. He said, “Go and revive KASCO.” And as I told the workers that I met here then, KASCO is in ICU unit of the hospital.
Me: In short, you are saying that KASCO had become kasko (a piece of broken earth pot)?
MD: Exactly, KASCO had become kasko. When we came here, we set out to revamp the place. Thank God, I got the support of the workers here. We focused first on revamping the existing production machines. It was forwarded to the governor by the Hon. Commissioner of Agriculture. The state executive council approved our request and the machines were repaired.
After reviving the machines, we applied for the purchase of ingredients required for fertilizer production. It was approved and we acquired them promptly. Production thus started. We will go round with you. At least we produce and evacuate from this factory all the fertilizer that will be distributed to various wards in the state. We don’t need to buy it from elsewhere.
Me: Apart from fertilizer, what do you have for livestock farmers like me?
MD: We produce improved animal feed especially for cattle. You will see it too.
Me: What else do you deal in?
MD: We also provide seeds of various crops for farmers. They are right now available. The same is with herbicides and pesticides. They are available in our zonal shops at Bichi, Wudil and Kura for the three senatorial zones, in addition to the one here.
Me: Now, how much do you sell the fertilizer and how do you distribute it?
MD: The fertilizer is sold at N1,900.00 a bag. It is distributed through our Community Reorientation Committees in various wards. Then there are arrangements for large scale farmers, farmers’ societies, and establishments under the ministries of agriculture.
Me: And you are sure that the distribution will not be limited to members of “Kwankwasiya”?
MD: Not at all. The CRC in every ward is composed of traditional rulers, teachers, malams, members of opposition, etc. It involves all segments of society in the community.
Me: What message do you have for farmers?
MD: I want to tell farmers that their old fertilizer is now back. It has been improved and, in fact, tested and approved by the Institute of Agriculture, Ahmadu Bello University (I was given a copy of the chemical analysis and approval by IAR). So they can use it without any fear. We have fulfilled our campaign promise in this respect.
Me: When state owned factories like this are formed or revived, the issue of their sustainability becomes a problem. They often return to government for financial support to pay salaries, allowances and even to purchase inputs for production, having stolen their proceeds or squandered it or run the entire factory at a loss. What are you doing to avoid that in your new KASCO? And what assurance will you give that at the end of the tenure of this administration you are going to handover a viable KASCO, not a kasko, once more.
MD: We are doing our best to make this place self-sustaining. The proceeds from the fertilizer we produce will be recycled, for example. And so we would handle all aspects of our operations. I assure you we will hand over a viable KASCO as we once did in 2003.
Me: Finally, when do you think KASCO will provide sufficient fertilizer to all farmers in Kano at all seasons of the year? This question is pertinent because many times fertilizer carried to villages in Northern Nigeria are not sufficient. Some farmers end up with only two or three kilograms. When would that level of sufficiency be attained by KASCO?
MD: We are on track, I assure you. We have started with production. Two, the governor has directed the repair of all agricultural stores throughout the state. Once the renovations are completed, we will continue to stock them with inputs as we produce them.
Me: When will the renovation be completed then?
MD: This year, in sha Allah.
Me: Ok. I will take you on that next year when I return. Thank you so much.
Kano
8 June 2012
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Kano Agricultural Supply Company
I visited KASCO to confirm the assertions made by the MD of KNARDA. I met its Managing Director, who said was mandated to revive the place after it was comatose during the tenure of the previous administration. After our discussion, we went round and met the machines that produce fertilizers and animal feed running. Outside, trucks loaded with fertilizer were waiting to be dispatched to various destinations in the state. This was how our discussion went.
Me: Mr. MD, how did you meet KASCO on your appointment?
MD: KASCO was virtually dead, until the advent of this administration. I remember what the governor told me when appointing me. He said, “Go and revive KASCO.” And as I told the workers that I met here then, KASCO is in ICU unit of the hospital.
Me: In short, you are saying that KASCO had become kasko (a piece of broken earth pot)?
MD: Exactly, KASCO had become kasko. When we came here, we set out to revamp the place. Thank God, I got the support of the workers here. We focused first on revamping the existing production machines. It was forwarded to the governor by the Hon. Commissioner of Agriculture. The state executive council approved our request and the machines were repaired.
After reviving the machines, we applied for the purchase of ingredients required for fertilizer production. It was approved and we acquired them promptly. Production thus started. We will go round with you. At least we produce and evacuate from this factory all the fertilizer that will be distributed to various wards in the state. We don’t need to buy it from elsewhere.
Me: Apart from fertilizer, what do you have for livestock farmers like me?
MD: We produce improved animal feed especially for cattle. You will see it too.
Me: What else do you deal in?
MD: We also provide seeds of various crops for farmers. They are right now available. The same is with herbicides and pesticides. They are available in our zonal shops at Bichi, Wudil and Kura for the three senatorial zones, in addition to the one here.
Me: Now, how much do you sell the fertilizer and how do you distribute it?
MD: The fertilizer is sold at N1,900.00 a bag. It is distributed through our Community Reorientation Committees in various wards. Then there are arrangements for large scale farmers, farmers’ societies, and establishments under the ministries of agriculture.
Me: And you are sure that the distribution will not be limited to members of “Kwankwasiya”?
MD: Not at all. The CRC in every ward is composed of traditional rulers, teachers, malams, members of opposition, etc. It involves all segments of society in the community.
Me: What message do you have for farmers?
MD: I want to tell farmers that their old fertilizer is now back. It has been improved and, in fact, tested and approved by the Institute of Agriculture, Ahmadu Bello University (I was given a copy of the chemical analysis and approval by IAR). So they can use it without any fear. We have fulfilled our campaign promise in this respect.
Me: When state owned factories like this are formed or revived, the issue of their sustainability becomes a problem. They often return to government for financial support to pay salaries, allowances and even to purchase inputs for production, having stolen their proceeds or squandered it or run the entire factory at a loss. What are you doing to avoid that in your new KASCO? And what assurance will you give that at the end of the tenure of this administration you are going to handover a viable KASCO, not a kasko, once more.
MD: We are doing our best to make this place self-sustaining. The proceeds from the fertilizer we produce will be recycled, for example. And so we would handle all aspects of our operations. I assure you we will hand over a viable KASCO as we once did in 2003.
Me: Finally, when do you think KASCO will provide sufficient fertilizer to all farmers in Kano at all seasons of the year? This question is pertinent because many times fertilizer carried to villages in Northern Nigeria are not sufficient. Some farmers end up with only two or three kilograms. When would that level of sufficiency be attained by KASCO?
MD: We are on track, I assure you. We have started with production. Two, the governor has directed the repair of all agricultural stores throughout the state. Once the renovations are completed, we will continue to stock them with inputs as we produce them.
Me: When will the renovation be completed then?
MD: This year, in sha Allah.
Me: Ok. I will take you on that next year when I return. Thank you so much.
Kano
8 June 2012
Kano Interview Series (3): KNARDA
Kano Interview Series (4)
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Kano Agricultural and Rural Development Authority
I visited Kano Agricultural and Rural Development Authority along Hadejia Road on 31 May 2012 and met with its Managing Director, Engr. Kabiru Jibril. This is our brief interaction with him the achievement of his department in the past one year.
Me: Good Morning. What achievements have been made under this authority since the inception of this administration?
MD: There are a number of achievements. First, when we came in, we found all our farm training centres were not functional. The governor directed that we survey the schools and make recommendation for resuscitation them such that they can provide training centres for youth empowerment. The schools are located in four places: Rano, Kadawa, Gwarzo and Dambatta. We went round and surveyed all of them and arrived at a figure of about N42million. The money was approved and disbursed to us. We renovated the schools and admitted youths from farming communities using ox-plough from all the 484 wards in the state. The schools can accommodate 500 students at a time. That figure was admitted in the first batch and on completion each student was given N140,000.00 to buy an ox- and a plough, as interest free loan.
In the second batch of admissions, we admitted 400 students in animal traction. The remaining 100 trained in poultry, as part of the students admitted into youth empowerment programs in twenty different schools in the state. The third batch is now in session.
It was realized that it will be of immense benefit to include tractor usage. This component is now included in the course.
Two, there is a loan facility of N1billion provided to the state by the federal government for disbursement to farmers in the state, if the state government will serve as a guarantor. The previous administration failed to utilize this facility. We informed the governor about it and the responsibility of the state government to guarantee the loan. He immediately approved it. A committee was set up to screen beneficiaries of the loan under the chairmanship of the deputy governor. Initially, people were reluctant, given their bad experience under the previous administration, but later they understood that it was for real. So we visited the farms of those applicants and came up with a list of beneficiaries. The interest on the loan is just 6.5%, very low when compared to 25 – 30% that obtains in commercial banks.
The loan is earmarked for farming maize, rice, fishery, poultry, agro-processing, and cattle rearing for dairy and fattening. A farmer makes a choice among these seven areas, his farm is visited and after his practice is established, the formalities are completed and the loan is given.
Seeing this, farmers started to flood KNARDA with their requests. Now, it is a revolving facility. As some pay back, the money recouped is given to fresh ones. The loan given to the first batch is about to mature. Once the money is collected, it will be given to the new applicants.
Me: What do you like the government to do to further boost agriculture in the state?
Despite the present effort, we would like to be offered the opportunity to search for new techniques and introduce them to our farmers. Apart from this, we would like to sell the idea of assisting each zone in its crops of specialty. We would like to follow the value chain to completion: from seed procurement, to cropping, to processing and to marketing.
Me: The planting season is already here. What are your plans for providing farmers with inputs this year, since, unlike last year when it met you during the transition, this time you have had a complete year to prepare for the season?
MD: What is interesting is that even though we were in transition last year, we were able to do our best to the appreciation of the public. At least a truck load of fertilizer, for example, was delivered to each of our 484 wards in the state last year. Each bag was sold at N2,000.00 including the cost of transportation. This year too, we have made arrangement for similar deliveries. The difference is that this time, it is our own fertilizer, produced solely by KASCO.
Me: Wasn’t KASCO functional when you came this administration came in?
MD: When we came it was not functional at all. The place was dead and the staff there were almost dead too. This administration revamped the place and it is now functional, processing fertilizer and trucks are delivered to various wards right now. Our allocation for demonstration plots is about to be approved.
What people should realize is that agricultural production revolves around three things: good seed, fertilizer and insecticides. But many think that it is all about fertilizer. If you do not have good seeds, fertilizer will be of little use. We have therefore focused our attention on procuring good seeds and distributing them to farmers.
Me: Talking about good seeds, don’t you think you can provide them by establishing large farms, or by KASCO if you like, in conjunction with institutions like IAR, such that you save your farmers the havoc of the poor seeds now peddled in our markets?
MD: This is a good question. KNARDA had a process called “out grower.” We acquire good seed and distribute it to our farmers. After they grow it, we purchase it through a program called “buy back”. If after examination, we realize that its vigour is not lost, we treat it, package it and sell it again. That arrangement is there. It will be a viable area to resuscitate. We will see how government will improve on the system and possibly open large farms as you have suggested that will exclusively grow improved seeds for farmers.
Unless attention is focused on good seed production, it will not be possible even to sell our product in the international market. When you harvest grains of different sizes and qualities, for example, it will be rejected in such markets.
Me. Thank you, MD. We wish you success.
Kano,
8 June 2012
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Kano Agricultural and Rural Development Authority
I visited Kano Agricultural and Rural Development Authority along Hadejia Road on 31 May 2012 and met with its Managing Director, Engr. Kabiru Jibril. This is our brief interaction with him the achievement of his department in the past one year.
Me: Good Morning. What achievements have been made under this authority since the inception of this administration?
MD: There are a number of achievements. First, when we came in, we found all our farm training centres were not functional. The governor directed that we survey the schools and make recommendation for resuscitation them such that they can provide training centres for youth empowerment. The schools are located in four places: Rano, Kadawa, Gwarzo and Dambatta. We went round and surveyed all of them and arrived at a figure of about N42million. The money was approved and disbursed to us. We renovated the schools and admitted youths from farming communities using ox-plough from all the 484 wards in the state. The schools can accommodate 500 students at a time. That figure was admitted in the first batch and on completion each student was given N140,000.00 to buy an ox- and a plough, as interest free loan.
In the second batch of admissions, we admitted 400 students in animal traction. The remaining 100 trained in poultry, as part of the students admitted into youth empowerment programs in twenty different schools in the state. The third batch is now in session.
It was realized that it will be of immense benefit to include tractor usage. This component is now included in the course.
Two, there is a loan facility of N1billion provided to the state by the federal government for disbursement to farmers in the state, if the state government will serve as a guarantor. The previous administration failed to utilize this facility. We informed the governor about it and the responsibility of the state government to guarantee the loan. He immediately approved it. A committee was set up to screen beneficiaries of the loan under the chairmanship of the deputy governor. Initially, people were reluctant, given their bad experience under the previous administration, but later they understood that it was for real. So we visited the farms of those applicants and came up with a list of beneficiaries. The interest on the loan is just 6.5%, very low when compared to 25 – 30% that obtains in commercial banks.
The loan is earmarked for farming maize, rice, fishery, poultry, agro-processing, and cattle rearing for dairy and fattening. A farmer makes a choice among these seven areas, his farm is visited and after his practice is established, the formalities are completed and the loan is given.
Seeing this, farmers started to flood KNARDA with their requests. Now, it is a revolving facility. As some pay back, the money recouped is given to fresh ones. The loan given to the first batch is about to mature. Once the money is collected, it will be given to the new applicants.
Me: What do you like the government to do to further boost agriculture in the state?
Despite the present effort, we would like to be offered the opportunity to search for new techniques and introduce them to our farmers. Apart from this, we would like to sell the idea of assisting each zone in its crops of specialty. We would like to follow the value chain to completion: from seed procurement, to cropping, to processing and to marketing.
Me: The planting season is already here. What are your plans for providing farmers with inputs this year, since, unlike last year when it met you during the transition, this time you have had a complete year to prepare for the season?
MD: What is interesting is that even though we were in transition last year, we were able to do our best to the appreciation of the public. At least a truck load of fertilizer, for example, was delivered to each of our 484 wards in the state last year. Each bag was sold at N2,000.00 including the cost of transportation. This year too, we have made arrangement for similar deliveries. The difference is that this time, it is our own fertilizer, produced solely by KASCO.
Me: Wasn’t KASCO functional when you came this administration came in?
MD: When we came it was not functional at all. The place was dead and the staff there were almost dead too. This administration revamped the place and it is now functional, processing fertilizer and trucks are delivered to various wards right now. Our allocation for demonstration plots is about to be approved.
What people should realize is that agricultural production revolves around three things: good seed, fertilizer and insecticides. But many think that it is all about fertilizer. If you do not have good seeds, fertilizer will be of little use. We have therefore focused our attention on procuring good seeds and distributing them to farmers.
Me: Talking about good seeds, don’t you think you can provide them by establishing large farms, or by KASCO if you like, in conjunction with institutions like IAR, such that you save your farmers the havoc of the poor seeds now peddled in our markets?
MD: This is a good question. KNARDA had a process called “out grower.” We acquire good seed and distribute it to our farmers. After they grow it, we purchase it through a program called “buy back”. If after examination, we realize that its vigour is not lost, we treat it, package it and sell it again. That arrangement is there. It will be a viable area to resuscitate. We will see how government will improve on the system and possibly open large farms as you have suggested that will exclusively grow improved seeds for farmers.
Unless attention is focused on good seed production, it will not be possible even to sell our product in the international market. When you harvest grains of different sizes and qualities, for example, it will be rejected in such markets.
Me. Thank you, MD. We wish you success.
Kano,
8 June 2012
Kano Interview Series (3) Kano Informatics
Kano Interview Series (3)
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
KANO INFORMATICS SCHOOL
On Ahmadu Bello Way is the temporary site of Kano Informatics School. It is started by the present administration to empower youths in e-commerce and other internet related businesses. The Director is Hajiya Zainab Abdulkadir. She conducted me around the premises that included computer laboratories, a large internet café and classrooms. In one of the classes, she granted me a chance to speak to a class of about 100 of her young students about blogging. After that, we sat in her office to record the following short interview:
Me: Hello. Malama Zainab. What is the rationale behind this initiative?
Zainab: This is a program under the youth empowerment initiative of the represent administration. It is intended to turn Kano into a centre of e-commerce in addition to its renowned position as centre of commerce. The governor wants everything to be computerized as the world is now reduced to our palms.
Me: So he wants trade to be transacted online…
Zainab: Exactly. A research has shown that 82% of Nigerians going to China are from Kano. So if people will be taught how to email and transact online, that will help a lot. This is the major reason, in addition, of course to job creation in this area for thousands of youths.
Me: When did the school start?
Zainab: It was started last July. We started with 200 students from various local governments in the state. From each local government, ten candidates were examined, from which we admitted 204. They were our initial intake. Later, we took off. Last December, they sat for an international certificate examination called International Foundation in Computer Studies under a UK-based regulating body. The result is already out.
Me: So it is an internationally recognized program?
Zainab: Informatics is an institute in Singapore. Jigawa State has a master franchise of that institute in Nigeria, while we have a sub-franchise agreement with them. All study guides and examinations are done by the institute in Singapore. You know it is the IT-hub of the world. This is what made the governor choose it as the platform for the program.
Me. That is good. When I came here, I have seen various sections of the school. I have seen laboratories where students learn practical skills of what they are taught in the classroom. Now, if you bring a youth from the village and teach him how to use a computer, don’t you think he may never be able to use one or acquire it after graduation? Are your students leaving this place empty handed?
Zainab: No. As it happened to our first set of students, every graduate of this school is given new laptop by his local government. We have admitted another set of students last month. The first are now undergoing a diploma course. After that they will go for the advanced diploma, then for a degree that will be awarded from a recognized university. It is a B.Sc program. So it is just not training but a real academic work.
Me: Knowing that the world is always advancing and man is never short of wishes, what additional thing would you like the government to do here?
Zainab: Alhamdulillah. As I repeatedly say in the media, we are deeply indebted to the governor for the attention he has so far paid to this centre. Regarding courses, yesterday I was appeared before the state executive council and we are promised an approval to enable us increase the number of courses we offer here. For example, on networking, a group from the United States has just visited us. The governor has asked for the submission to enable him approve it soon.
This is our temporary site. Government has started developing our permanent site in Kura and we hope one day we will relocate to it shortly.
Me. Hajiya Zainab, we are grateful. Thank you.
Kano,
8 June 2012
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
KANO INFORMATICS SCHOOL
On Ahmadu Bello Way is the temporary site of Kano Informatics School. It is started by the present administration to empower youths in e-commerce and other internet related businesses. The Director is Hajiya Zainab Abdulkadir. She conducted me around the premises that included computer laboratories, a large internet café and classrooms. In one of the classes, she granted me a chance to speak to a class of about 100 of her young students about blogging. After that, we sat in her office to record the following short interview:
Me: Hello. Malama Zainab. What is the rationale behind this initiative?
Zainab: This is a program under the youth empowerment initiative of the represent administration. It is intended to turn Kano into a centre of e-commerce in addition to its renowned position as centre of commerce. The governor wants everything to be computerized as the world is now reduced to our palms.
Me: So he wants trade to be transacted online…
Zainab: Exactly. A research has shown that 82% of Nigerians going to China are from Kano. So if people will be taught how to email and transact online, that will help a lot. This is the major reason, in addition, of course to job creation in this area for thousands of youths.
Me: When did the school start?
Zainab: It was started last July. We started with 200 students from various local governments in the state. From each local government, ten candidates were examined, from which we admitted 204. They were our initial intake. Later, we took off. Last December, they sat for an international certificate examination called International Foundation in Computer Studies under a UK-based regulating body. The result is already out.
Me: So it is an internationally recognized program?
Zainab: Informatics is an institute in Singapore. Jigawa State has a master franchise of that institute in Nigeria, while we have a sub-franchise agreement with them. All study guides and examinations are done by the institute in Singapore. You know it is the IT-hub of the world. This is what made the governor choose it as the platform for the program.
Me. That is good. When I came here, I have seen various sections of the school. I have seen laboratories where students learn practical skills of what they are taught in the classroom. Now, if you bring a youth from the village and teach him how to use a computer, don’t you think he may never be able to use one or acquire it after graduation? Are your students leaving this place empty handed?
Zainab: No. As it happened to our first set of students, every graduate of this school is given new laptop by his local government. We have admitted another set of students last month. The first are now undergoing a diploma course. After that they will go for the advanced diploma, then for a degree that will be awarded from a recognized university. It is a B.Sc program. So it is just not training but a real academic work.
Me: Knowing that the world is always advancing and man is never short of wishes, what additional thing would you like the government to do here?
Zainab: Alhamdulillah. As I repeatedly say in the media, we are deeply indebted to the governor for the attention he has so far paid to this centre. Regarding courses, yesterday I was appeared before the state executive council and we are promised an approval to enable us increase the number of courses we offer here. For example, on networking, a group from the United States has just visited us. The governor has asked for the submission to enable him approve it soon.
This is our temporary site. Government has started developing our permanent site in Kura and we hope one day we will relocate to it shortly.
Me. Hajiya Zainab, we are grateful. Thank you.
Kano,
8 June 2012
Kano Interviews Series (2): Murtala Mohammed Hospital
Kano Interview Series (2)
MURTALA MOHAMMED HOSPITAL, KANO
On 7 June 2012, I visited Murtala Mohammed Hospital where I met the Chief Medical Director, Dr. Munkaila Usman Yusuf. The following is my interview with the Chief Consultant Physician, Dr. Mansur Nagoda and the Chief Medical Director. After the interview, I was conducted around the premises of the hospital, which I found very tidy after it the recent renovation works which included the pavements of interlocking blocks in all hitherto unpaved areas of the hospital. There was also a good traffic control of visitors, especially women, to the maternity ward. I also visited the newly renovated Accident and Emergency Section that is located across the road. This is how the brief interview went:
Me: Hello sir. Can you please introduce yourself?
Dr. Mansur: I am Dr. Mansur Nagoda. I am the Chief Consultant Physician of the hospital.
Me: Can you briefly tell me any achievement recorded in this hospital during the past one year?
Dr. Mansur: Yes. We have witnessed many achievements. First, the hospital was visited by His Excellency, the governor of the state, immediately he was sworn in. The first thing he noticed was the small size and unkept nature of our emergency section. He immediately approved the renovation of the place and delivery of all the necessary modern equipment we need, including a mobile x-ray such that whenever a patient is brought he can receive all the necessary first aid attention he needs. The renovation is completed and the equipment are delivered and installed there. I will conduct you to the section after the interview.
Me: Are you sure the equipment will not end up stolen by your staff?
Dr. Mansur: No. No. That is impossible.
Me: Okay. That is one. What else?
Dr. Mansur: Good. The next place he visited was the maternity ward where he saw the ugly nature of the place. He immediately sent a renovation team to the place. It is now paved with interlocking blocks and properly landscaped with shrubs and trees. If we go around now, you will see how beautiful the place is looking. The hospital now looks neat, dustbins have been placed everywhere, and so on.
The third development is in the attitude of staff. Many members of staff arrive late for duty before and leave before closing hours. But knowing that there is a close supervision now, people come to work promptly and wait until their replacements come at the end of their shift.
The fourth is the regular provision of sufficient diesel to our generators. This has enabled us provide 24 hours of electricity to the hospital daily. Theatres can now run without any fear of blackouts. Refrigerators and other appliances are now fully utilized.
Me: Wao! You mean if I visit this place at night, which I will surely do, there would be electricity, always?
Dr. Mansur: I am inviting you to come at any time. There will be electricity. This is not a small achievement.
Then, relating to salaries, whenever it is 24 or 25th of the month, every worker receives an alert that his salary has been paid into his account.
Me: It wasn’t so before, you mean?
Dr. Mansur: No. Previously, there used to be delays and the day of payment was always unknown. Every worker is now happy with this development.
Me: What will you say about drugs?
Dr. Mansur: Drugs for pregnant women and children are now provided to such patients freely. We are lucky that our chief medical director is a member of the drug distribution committee. It is assured that every month these drugs are delivered on time and in sufficient quantities. Immediately there is an emergency case or when a woman comes for delivery, nothing – absolutely nothing – is requested of her. All she needs for operation in terms of blood and drugs is given and done freely in this hospital now. The same thing with anyone brought on emergency. He gets treated free of charge, including blood transfusion.
Me: That is good. Now what about people on admission…
Dr. Mansur: Government has directed that all patients adjudged poor, who cannot afford to pay for their treatment, should be treated free of charge, including the provision of drugs.
Me: And this is really done?
Dr. Mansur: Yes. That is done. Whoever complains of his inability to pay for treatment gets treated freely here.
Me: What about diseases related to poor sanitation and lack of hygiene which Kano city is renowned for especially two years ago. I can see a lot of effort has gone into sanitizing the city. There are no more mountains or even heaps of refuse, unlike before. Does this have any impact on the occurrence of diseases like gastroenteritis?
Dr. Mansur: There is a reduced occurrence of sanitation related diseases and communicable diseases like Meningitis. Like when the CSM incident occurred a short while ago, apart from extensive vaccination exercise, sufficient drugs were sent here to improve our capacity to treat such cases. I personally received those drugs on behalf of the CMD. Due to the prevalence of such diseases before, there used to be so many admissions that you find some patients admitted even on the corridors and many were transferred to isolation ward. All these have reduced now.
Me: What call would you make to government and the general public regarding their public health?
Dr. Mansur: I will call on people to report to the hospital at the earliest signs of sickness. They should not become bed-ridden before they come to the hospital. Government should also continue with its effort in providing sufficient drugs and free treatment to patients.
Me: Sorry, I forgot to ask you about HIV-AIDS. What development was made in that area given that it is a disease that has become endemic?
Dr. Mansur: Apart from free screening for HIV and TB patients, in this hospital we have an ART clinic for TB and AID patients where patients are screened and receive drugs freely; sometimes they are even given some money to enable them take better care of themselves. The clinic is across the road. I will take you there too.
Me: And there is no break in the provision of the services and drugs?
Dr. Mansur: The drugs are given freely and they are sufficiently available.
(And now, turning to the Chief Medical Director, I asked him if he has more to add. He earlier preferred Dr. Mansur to speak because it is barely three months since his posting as CMD of the hospital)
Me: CMD, do you have anything to add?
CMD: In addition to what Dr. Mansur has said, there are items given for the sanitation of this hospital every month under the state Committee on Cleansing and Cleaning.
Me: Is that not for this hospital alone?
CMD: It is for all the thirty-four hospitals in Kano. Then, given the on-going incidents of bombings and shootings, the governor has directed that all victims of such incidents be treated freely and we are complying with the directive. We have such patients right now in the hospital who are enjoying such free services.
A team has been sent from the Water Board to improve on our water supply.
Me: So as in the case of electricity, you mean you will also have continuous flow of water in the hospital taps?
CMD: The work is ongoing. The situation has improved greatly. With the help of the current administration, all our boreholes are operational now.
Me: Do you have any wish you would like the government to accomplish for you?
CMD: Alhamdulillah. Government is providing free services. It pays salaries regularly; patients are admitted freely, including some operations like maternal care. In some clinics some of such operations are done at about N100,000.00 but we do them for free here. What is needed now is for the rich to compliment the effort of government and chip in their contribution.
Secondly, people need to be patient with our workers. Sometimes the places become too congested for our work. So visitors should please try to comply with our visiting schedules.
Then, we will be glad if the government would expedite action on increasing the number of staff that includes nurses, midwives, doctors, lab and pharmacy staff, etc. Government has promised to do something about it. We hope it will do so as soon as possible.
We are also worried about the market just outdoor. It is a big nuisance to the hospital. It should be relocated. Government has done it before and it can do it again. For example, it is difficult to convey a patient from our accident and emergency section or from the Old-Murtala to the main hospital. They overflow into the hospital sometimes and even throw excreta across the wall. Government should please help to find a place for these traders such that we can have a free atmosphere to operate.
We are glad that government has promised the delivery of dental equipment to the hospital. I even heard that it has been approved by the House today. We are anxiously awaiting their arrival.
Finally, we are presently using two 500Kva generators. We have been promised an 850Kva which will improve our electricity generation capacity. We hope it will be fulfilled as soon as possible. That is all.
Me: Okay. Thank you very much sir.
Kano,
8 June 2012
MURTALA MOHAMMED HOSPITAL, KANO
On 7 June 2012, I visited Murtala Mohammed Hospital where I met the Chief Medical Director, Dr. Munkaila Usman Yusuf. The following is my interview with the Chief Consultant Physician, Dr. Mansur Nagoda and the Chief Medical Director. After the interview, I was conducted around the premises of the hospital, which I found very tidy after it the recent renovation works which included the pavements of interlocking blocks in all hitherto unpaved areas of the hospital. There was also a good traffic control of visitors, especially women, to the maternity ward. I also visited the newly renovated Accident and Emergency Section that is located across the road. This is how the brief interview went:
Me: Hello sir. Can you please introduce yourself?
Dr. Mansur: I am Dr. Mansur Nagoda. I am the Chief Consultant Physician of the hospital.
Me: Can you briefly tell me any achievement recorded in this hospital during the past one year?
Dr. Mansur: Yes. We have witnessed many achievements. First, the hospital was visited by His Excellency, the governor of the state, immediately he was sworn in. The first thing he noticed was the small size and unkept nature of our emergency section. He immediately approved the renovation of the place and delivery of all the necessary modern equipment we need, including a mobile x-ray such that whenever a patient is brought he can receive all the necessary first aid attention he needs. The renovation is completed and the equipment are delivered and installed there. I will conduct you to the section after the interview.
Me: Are you sure the equipment will not end up stolen by your staff?
Dr. Mansur: No. No. That is impossible.
Me: Okay. That is one. What else?
Dr. Mansur: Good. The next place he visited was the maternity ward where he saw the ugly nature of the place. He immediately sent a renovation team to the place. It is now paved with interlocking blocks and properly landscaped with shrubs and trees. If we go around now, you will see how beautiful the place is looking. The hospital now looks neat, dustbins have been placed everywhere, and so on.
The third development is in the attitude of staff. Many members of staff arrive late for duty before and leave before closing hours. But knowing that there is a close supervision now, people come to work promptly and wait until their replacements come at the end of their shift.
The fourth is the regular provision of sufficient diesel to our generators. This has enabled us provide 24 hours of electricity to the hospital daily. Theatres can now run without any fear of blackouts. Refrigerators and other appliances are now fully utilized.
Me: Wao! You mean if I visit this place at night, which I will surely do, there would be electricity, always?
Dr. Mansur: I am inviting you to come at any time. There will be electricity. This is not a small achievement.
Then, relating to salaries, whenever it is 24 or 25th of the month, every worker receives an alert that his salary has been paid into his account.
Me: It wasn’t so before, you mean?
Dr. Mansur: No. Previously, there used to be delays and the day of payment was always unknown. Every worker is now happy with this development.
Me: What will you say about drugs?
Dr. Mansur: Drugs for pregnant women and children are now provided to such patients freely. We are lucky that our chief medical director is a member of the drug distribution committee. It is assured that every month these drugs are delivered on time and in sufficient quantities. Immediately there is an emergency case or when a woman comes for delivery, nothing – absolutely nothing – is requested of her. All she needs for operation in terms of blood and drugs is given and done freely in this hospital now. The same thing with anyone brought on emergency. He gets treated free of charge, including blood transfusion.
Me: That is good. Now what about people on admission…
Dr. Mansur: Government has directed that all patients adjudged poor, who cannot afford to pay for their treatment, should be treated free of charge, including the provision of drugs.
Me: And this is really done?
Dr. Mansur: Yes. That is done. Whoever complains of his inability to pay for treatment gets treated freely here.
Me: What about diseases related to poor sanitation and lack of hygiene which Kano city is renowned for especially two years ago. I can see a lot of effort has gone into sanitizing the city. There are no more mountains or even heaps of refuse, unlike before. Does this have any impact on the occurrence of diseases like gastroenteritis?
Dr. Mansur: There is a reduced occurrence of sanitation related diseases and communicable diseases like Meningitis. Like when the CSM incident occurred a short while ago, apart from extensive vaccination exercise, sufficient drugs were sent here to improve our capacity to treat such cases. I personally received those drugs on behalf of the CMD. Due to the prevalence of such diseases before, there used to be so many admissions that you find some patients admitted even on the corridors and many were transferred to isolation ward. All these have reduced now.
Me: What call would you make to government and the general public regarding their public health?
Dr. Mansur: I will call on people to report to the hospital at the earliest signs of sickness. They should not become bed-ridden before they come to the hospital. Government should also continue with its effort in providing sufficient drugs and free treatment to patients.
Me: Sorry, I forgot to ask you about HIV-AIDS. What development was made in that area given that it is a disease that has become endemic?
Dr. Mansur: Apart from free screening for HIV and TB patients, in this hospital we have an ART clinic for TB and AID patients where patients are screened and receive drugs freely; sometimes they are even given some money to enable them take better care of themselves. The clinic is across the road. I will take you there too.
Me: And there is no break in the provision of the services and drugs?
Dr. Mansur: The drugs are given freely and they are sufficiently available.
(And now, turning to the Chief Medical Director, I asked him if he has more to add. He earlier preferred Dr. Mansur to speak because it is barely three months since his posting as CMD of the hospital)
Me: CMD, do you have anything to add?
CMD: In addition to what Dr. Mansur has said, there are items given for the sanitation of this hospital every month under the state Committee on Cleansing and Cleaning.
Me: Is that not for this hospital alone?
CMD: It is for all the thirty-four hospitals in Kano. Then, given the on-going incidents of bombings and shootings, the governor has directed that all victims of such incidents be treated freely and we are complying with the directive. We have such patients right now in the hospital who are enjoying such free services.
A team has been sent from the Water Board to improve on our water supply.
Me: So as in the case of electricity, you mean you will also have continuous flow of water in the hospital taps?
CMD: The work is ongoing. The situation has improved greatly. With the help of the current administration, all our boreholes are operational now.
Me: Do you have any wish you would like the government to accomplish for you?
CMD: Alhamdulillah. Government is providing free services. It pays salaries regularly; patients are admitted freely, including some operations like maternal care. In some clinics some of such operations are done at about N100,000.00 but we do them for free here. What is needed now is for the rich to compliment the effort of government and chip in their contribution.
Secondly, people need to be patient with our workers. Sometimes the places become too congested for our work. So visitors should please try to comply with our visiting schedules.
Then, we will be glad if the government would expedite action on increasing the number of staff that includes nurses, midwives, doctors, lab and pharmacy staff, etc. Government has promised to do something about it. We hope it will do so as soon as possible.
We are also worried about the market just outdoor. It is a big nuisance to the hospital. It should be relocated. Government has done it before and it can do it again. For example, it is difficult to convey a patient from our accident and emergency section or from the Old-Murtala to the main hospital. They overflow into the hospital sometimes and even throw excreta across the wall. Government should please help to find a place for these traders such that we can have a free atmosphere to operate.
We are glad that government has promised the delivery of dental equipment to the hospital. I even heard that it has been approved by the House today. We are anxiously awaiting their arrival.
Finally, we are presently using two 500Kva generators. We have been promised an 850Kva which will improve our electricity generation capacity. We hope it will be fulfilled as soon as possible. That is all.
Me: Okay. Thank you very much sir.
Kano,
8 June 2012
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Interview (4): Kwankwaso
Interview (4)
By dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Kwankwaso
My readers may recall that in my interview with Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, the former governor of Kaduna State, he was sincere enough to acknowledge that performance among governors did not end with the PRP governors of the Second Republic. If properly searched for, he said, it is possible to find "even as we speak now in 2012" some governors who are performing equally well.
I did not press him to mention any. However, from my observation, I can suggest two here in Northern Nigeria: Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State and Governor Rabi'u Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State. Not coincidentally, the two PDP governors are both scions of the old PRP. I have four yeas ago written a page on Lamido when I crowned him my best governor of 2008. But where Kwankwaso may excel is that in addition to his spectacular performance in the last one year, which I have studied in the past two weeks while in Kano, is his wholesale subscription to the talakawa doctrine of Malam Aminu Kano. His austere lifestyle and approach to governance, his financial prudence and his pro-poor oriented programs, all combine to make him in the eye of the dispassionate a faithful disciple of Malam Aminu Kano and a rare gem among Nigerian governors.
We should be large-hearted to give honour to whom honour is due, whoever it may be. For me, it is a duty, especially in these days when all hope seems to be lost. I have seen a lot in Kano and prepared materials which I will avail my readers with shortly. The materials are a must read, not withstanding their number and lengths, especially for our youths who have turned despondent. Reading them will help to rescue the youths from the disturbing grip of pessimism, narrow-mindedness and political intolerance that have become commonplace in Nigeria today.
However, as a start, I think it is suitable to open the gate with an interview that Newswatch and I held with the governor at midnight on Tuesday, 13 June 2012, in his office. The questions, except the last, were asked by Mr. Kayode of Newswatch. In the interview, the governor speaks of his achievements eepecially in the area of education and poverty alleviation, why he brands every project with the "kwankwasiyya" mark, how he lost the 2003 election, why he has not probed his predecessor (yet?), his tight grip on the finances of the state, why he does not have the office of the first lady, how he saves much to execute projects, his disapproval of security vote, the next governor he wishes Kano would have, the present security situation, the ideological contradictions in the composition of PDP, and why Kano recovered so quickly from the 21st January attacks. Happy reading.
The Interview:
Question: what can you say ae your achievements in the last one year?
Kwankwaso: In the last one year so much has been achieved. We are happy that we didn’t disappoint our people. You can see our achievements in various areas. For lack of time, I will, as an example, briefly dwell on some of the achievemnts we have recorded in education.
We decided to put education as our number one program on our agenda because its critical in transforming the lives of people. During our first term, in the area of primary education, by the grace of God, we were able to build thousands of classrooms in Kano, feed our primary pupils lunch five times a week, give them two sets of uniforms, etc. we are still maintaining those important programs.
In addition to that we have our Community Reorientation Committee (CRC) in all the forty-four local government areas of the state and the supervisory committee at the state level that carry out renovations of old structures and conducts the school programs I just mentioned. In each local government, the CRC is composed of our "best eleven": the district head, chief Imam, local government chairman, chairmen of PDP and the second best party in the last election, member of House of representative in the constituency, a representative each of National Union of Teachers, youths, women, businessmen and elders. You must have seen our one-storey building across the state – the Kwankwasiyya blocks of classrooms. Over 800 classes are completed in the first one year, 400 offices, 400 toilets, furtniture, etc.
By the way, the CRC also runs programs on poverty alleviation in which we support our youths and women. We have trained 44,000 women and supported each with a N10,000.00, free. The training of another 44,000 is going on at the rate of 100 per local government weekly. Youths are also trained on animal traction and given a loan of N150,000.00 to cover the cost of bulls and plough. The Lafiya Jari program is also on, where we have trainEd 1,200 unemployed of from different health institutions on the basics of commerce and give them a loan of N80,000.00 each to open small medicine shops in rural areas and neighborhoods.
In the area of secondary education, you must have visited the newly established Governor’s College. We have three other similar schools. We have improved the feeding of pupils in all our boarding schools. We are paying teachers and other civil servants by the 25th of every month, including the payment of the minimum wage of N18,000.00 that started last January.
In addition to our existing 10 tertiary institutions, we are establishing additional 28 institutes – ranging from nursing school, midwifery, health technology, fisheries institute, livestock institute, agric mechanization institute, horticultural institute, sports institute, Kano Corporate Security Institute, Kano Informatics, etc. Some of these institutes have already started on temporary sites.
We have earlier established Kano State University of Technology during our first term. Now we are establishing the Northwest University, which is a conventional university instead of KSUT that is limited to technology based courses. As the name implies the new university will cater for the six northwestern states. Of course, Kano is shouldering 100% of the responsibility now but at the appropriate time we will link up with our colleagues in other states in the zone to see how we can work together on the project. We are building its permanent site already and have advertised for staff positions including those of its principal officers.it will take off this September. Having noticed that we will have delays due to the civil works, we will use the Ado Bayero House as our temporary site while we are working day and night on the permanent site.
Our investment in education is based on the belief that it helps break the vicious circle of poverty. If you are educated, you can cater for yourself, either in this country or elsewhere. Additionally, we believe it is in the best interest of this country. You cannot have two countries in one: one very educated, the other very illiterate. Then there would be danger. We felt we should narrow the gap, create opportunities so that we can move together. This is very important for the security of our country. At this juncture, I would like to appeal to all those concerned, especially those that are rich enough to establish private institutions especially in the North. I also appeal to those of us in government to give education a priority.
Question: Why do your projects bear Kwankwasiyya mark? Some people think you are personalizing them.
Kwankwaso: When people make such remarks, they are either not aware of our intention or they are our opponents in the first place. We are not the first to brand any project. Why are they not talking of ETF? In addition, PTF stopped in 1999 but its signs are still there. Why are they not talking of MDG whose signs are everywhere. Our action is based on experience. During my first term, I can’t remember one classroom that was marked to indicate that it was done by my administration. Some governors are naming institutions after themselves or locating them in their villages or local governments. We didn’t do that before; we are not doing it even now.
You see some people had the opportunity to perform for eight years. They didn’t do anything other than pick our projects and use them in their calendars. It was very painful. I was in the Ministry of Defence when I saw a calendar carrying projects that I suffered in various ways to execute during my first tenure. That is why when we came back, we said, “Okay. Now we are moving with supersonic speed in the execution of our projects. How do we mark them to enable people know? If MDG and ETF are doing it now, if you have Ahmadu Bello University – and remember I haven’t named the new university Rabiu Kwankwaso University – why not us?
This is politics. You have blow your trumpet. I have learnt that the hard way. We have inherited a project of 1000 classrooms from the former administration that it started since 2008. Yet, only a third of the money was paid. So two-thirds are abandoned. I have asked them to bring the estimates. We will complete them, now that we have made our marks. If I didn’t write Kwankwasiyya on mine, you would have thought that we are still on the drawing table, that our predecessors constructed the buildings.
We are not ashamed to mark the building we constructed. We would only be ashamed were we stealing projects. Now in one year alone, we have built 800 primary school classrooms, 400 offices for teachers, the same number of pit latrines, etc. We have bought equipment worth hundreds of millions of naira for our tertiary institutions. Teachers in these institutes were not even paid salaries because some people were stealing the money. We will not allow anybody to steal. If anyone steals and we catch him, we will punish him. So we will have enough money to execute our projects. We have 28 institutions of various kinds taking off as I said initially. But we will mark them as we build them such that people would know. It is no secret.
Someone would say, “Well, if someone comes, he will scrub it.” Well, if someone comes he can even use a bulldozer to demolish the building. But if he has the time to say he doesn’t like it, why wouldn’t he build his own and write his name? If he is handamiyya – people who steal public money – he should write it. We have seen some buses marked, “donated by so and so.” We did not stop them. If we execute a project, we will mark it such that at least for the next three years people will know that we executed them.
Question: After you left office in 2003, your predecessor probed you and issued a white paper that sought to ban you from holding public office. Why haven’t you chosen to probe your predecessor in return?
Kwankwaso: It is because of our experience. When I was leaving this office in 2003, it was unimaginable that I would return here. The chances were slim. May be, I came back because of the white paper. As they were doing it, I continued moving. I became the Minister of Defence, the adviser to the President, then to NNDC. Obsanjo told them, “You can go and probe. But bring a proof to me that my minister has stolen money. There wasn’t any.” Anybody can ask your enemies to write anything about you and receive it over a cup of tea.
In 2003, I didn’t contest election with them. I contested with Buhari because presidential and gubernatorial elections were held same day for the first and only time in the history of this country. Sentiments were built based on ethnicity and religion such that the political atmosphere was so hazy that people weren’t reasoning well. People were told that if you vote for a religious man, you would all go to heaven. As time went, people saw that these people were drinking SWAN water, building estates when they didn’t have even a plot before, and so on. Their eyes were therefore shined.
I am happy to say that we were able to manage success in 1999 and failure in 2003. When we lost elections in 2003 for whatever reason, I went to the house (of the new governor), in his sitting room, the first and only time in the history of Nigeria and said, “Congratulations! We will support you because this is Kano. If you fail, Kano fails.”
I believed then and now that if performance were the only requirement for winning a second term, I would have won then even if it were among few governors in Nigeria. I knew that in addition to performance, there are many other things. The good thing is if you build schools, as we do now, people will benefit; if you bring in water, people will use it; if you build roads, people will use them. You can criticize that we are writing names on the buildings but your children will go and use the buildings while those who have stolen your money are sending their children overseas.
You see, Kwankwasiyya is an ideology and you can see the result. Go and see how our streets are clean and lit in the night. This is not how we inherited them in 2011. Look at the four major roads that lead into Kano. Additional lanes are added to them, with shoulders, drainages and walkways. Even on the old roads, we are putting interlocking blocks for pedestrians. We are working, day and night.
So I believe it is always good to be responsible, reasonable and mean well to people. That is why I am not in a hurry to probe anybody. Give them the benefit of the doubt. But I know if you build around you so many deep wells and you continue to move around them recklessly, one day you are likely to fall into one. People will reap what they sow. That is my position.
Question: Despite meeting an empty treasury last year, you were able to execute so many projects. Yet, you have not borrowed a kobo from any bank, local or international. What is the secret behind this success?
Kwankwaso: It is the policy of our government, even during the first term, not to borrow a kobo. And when we were leaving, we left behind N4 billion cash in our treasury despite all what we did. So the same thing when we came back, we inherited a debt of over N77billion and over US$200million. But we haven’t paid, and we are not in a hurry to pay. We just said, “Draw a line. I don’t want to open any can of worms. Let me prove to the people that yes, Kwankwaso is back. I don’t want to hear N77billion or $200million. Let's move." And we are moving.
What we did was to introduce checks and balances. I was a civil servant here for seventeen years. As a result, most of the civil servants – especially the senior ones – were my colleagues in school and in the service. Mind you I am also a pensioner though I forewent my pension since I retired in 1991 as a principal engineer. So we know the level of wastages that exists and saved so much from the angle of the civil service. We inherited 43,000 civil servants. Along the line, based on our measures, we removed over 8,000 ghost workers. These were people who were practically getting money for nothing. We met a law that said we should pay civil servants certain percentage of their salary for fasting and purchase of rams, etc. We paid for the first sallah. But by the time the second came, we realized from the files that there were so many problems. Now we would have paid 8,000 ghost workers 50% of their salary. We are now trying to sort out things and pay the civil servants. Our target is the ghost worker, not the real workers that are messengers, permanent secretaries or directors.
On the part of the politicians – myself downwards: advisers, commissioners, SSG, Chief of Staff, everybody, we said, “Look. Let us not start dipping our fingers into government money. It is neither good for us, nor is it for the society. There are people outside there who have also supported us but who are battling with what they would eat daily. Many of them may sleep on empty stomach.” You see, if I take 10 million, for example, it may appear small to me but it can do a lot in terms of education, health, water supply, or even in maintaining street and traffic lights. We started from there.
Between 2003 and 2011, so many things in the cost of running government have been inflated, like overheads and so on. So we said, "let's return to where we were in 2003. That is the one we know. Let us revert to that in terms of recurrent expenditure." I said that if they have any complaint, they should refer to me.
My commissioners and advisers wanted vehicles. I asked the SSG to estimate the cost. It was over N2billion. I said, “No. Use the old vehicles we inherited.” At the Ministry of Defence, I used the only two vehicles that I inherited from TY Danjuma. On many occasions, the 607 would fail on the road. There is nothing wrong with that.
Now we can go on and on. So we not only saved so much money there but we also sent the right signal. Despite what we were executing in terms of projects, from N77billion debt in May when we took over, by January this year when we were opening our books we had over N20.5billion cash. I still believe that up till now we have a similar figure. Commissioners now have to defend their budget by proving value for money. No commissioner was ever declined any request because we don’t have money. We return him only because he hasn’t followed due process or because it is too expensive at that rate. We told them that this government is a serious one. There is no room for anybody – from the highest level to the lowest one – to break the law. You have to abide by it. If you break it, we will put the maximum weight of the law on you. That is why so much is happening in all areas, so much so that nobody, including my humble self, can tell you how much we have done in the past one year.
What is critical is that we have confidence of the people. One thing good is that the people of Kano are law-abiding people. They want to see you lead by example. You don’t, as their leader, say one thing and do the other: You swear by Allah but everybody knows you are telling lies. If you do that, people won’t take you seriously. If you tell them don’t do something, they will go and do it.
On internally generated revenue, the state was generating only between N300million and N500 million when we came in. We believe that everybody must pay tax. If you have enough, even if you’re not paying zakat, you have to pay tax. By December, we were getting over up to N1.2billion. My target, despite the security challenges, is to have enough money to pay salaries and allowances. We are making progress. I wouldn’t need to get money from Abuja to pay salaries. If we cannot pay civil servants and ourselves, then there is something wrong with us. People have to pay. That is why I asked the commissioner of land to assess my ground rent. It now enables me the moral locus to ask others to pay theirs. No matter how big you consider yourself, you are small if you cannot pay your tax. Nobody is perfect. But as far as we can, we want to do the right thing.
Question: Could it be why you jettisoned your security vote?
Kwankwaso: Now, the same thing applies to security vote. I told people that governments are using it to siphon away resources. We have seen records here that, apart from N70million, N80million and so on – in one day N127million was withdrawn as security vote. That was the highest. Since a governor cannot give an approval of more than N10 million, the money was removed in twelve installments of N10million each, plus N7million. (Here, Kwankwaso adjusted his red cap and gave a sardonic smile.) In four years, billions were thus withdrawn in the name of security vote.
So the way we are handling it here is to account for everything. If you come as a big man and I want to dash you N10.00 from my pocket, I give it to you. If I would give you N10,000.00 from public money, I will give it but it will be on record. So if you like it that way, take it; and if you don’t, leave it. That is important. If I want to give money to the police or army – and we give them very little despite the security situation – we write it. We even arrange for their feeding and allowances in addition to what they get from the federal government. Now, what I give the contractors for the feeding is there on record, for example. In addition to that, we follow up. I go there sometimes to count the bread and the cans of fish they are given, just to make the contractor understand that he is not left alone.
I believe that governors, as much as possible, should avoid the issue of security vote. You know mischief-makers used it against me in the white paper. I used N97million as security vote for the 2003 elections. The record is there. I gave N2million to the security committee of each local government. The panel summoned each of the chairmen of those committees and none of them disputed that I gave him the money. They explained how they used it and nobody said he gave me even N2.00.
Question: Has the present security situation affected governance in your state with effect from January this year?
Kwankwaso: Every leadership, throughout history, has faced its own version of challenges. There is none that is not facing one form of security threat or another. We can put it on scale and measure it. Southeast has its own challenges; so does the south-south or southwest. Come to the north, you find the same thing. Of course, you when you weigh them you can say this one is heavier, the other lighter. If you’re in the area where people are kidnapped and your father is kidnapped, you wont believe that Jos is less secured than your place. So it is an issue of how it affects you.
Coming to the issue of how it affects us, you see we didn’t know the security challenges that will face us when we came in last year, just as we didn’t know the ones we would face when we were elected in 1999. From then to 2003, you find Hausas were killed in Lagos. The issue of shariah also came up. I didn’t campaign for it. I didn’t even thought about it in 1999. But it became a serious issue and it cost me even my seat at that time because the sentiments were too much: Obasanjo was our candidate, Buhari was their candidate, so went the sentiments. They blocked roads to polling booths and demanded which of the two voters were going to vote for – mosque or church? If you do the same in Port Harcourt, the persovoter which one he is going to vote for. It’s the same thing in Kano. So we didn’t lose election in 2003 for lack of performance or somebody was more popular than us. No. It was mere sentiments.
However, now, the dust has settled and things are clear. (Smile) By 2011, the young men and women we bred during our first tenure were 18. They were in charge of the polling booths. The women we empowered with a free capital of N5,000.00 – thousands of them – came out. The tertiary institutions and secondary schools we established or supported all came out and voted for us. We had no state government, no local governments, no contracts, and no money; yet, people voted for us and defended the votes. Some people wouldn’t imagine that it was this evil called Kwankwaso that was returning – the most hated Kwankwaso. All the promises of 2003 about Shariah were gone. Kano people, you know, are very smart, very fast.(Smiles) They can surprise you anytime. You can only deceive briefly. But the moment you start moving, they would say, “Ah. God don catch you.” That is why we have this challenge to prove ourselves.
The challenge of security is not peculiar to Kano. It is all over the country and the North in particular. We are working very hard. That is why whenever I have an opportunity like this, I appeal to all people, including all politicians, to join hands. When the attacks happened on 20th January we gathered people across parties, including the ANPP, businessmen, the Emir, the Chief Imam, everybody. We sat down and discussed what could be done. We have been meeting and we will continue to meet in the interest of the state, appealing to everybody to come forward and put the issues , if any, on the table. And if anybody wants us to facilitate anything – the federal government, anyone – we will be very happy to do so to make sure that there is fairness and justice. And unless there is justice from both sides, we will continue to have problems. The problem of security doesn’t help anybody.
Question: Due to time factor, I will put two questions in one. One, you are the only governor in this country that doesn’t have the office of the first lady. Two, when we look at the people in your cabinet, they are almost the same ones around during your first tenure, particularly your deputy. What is the secret behind this practice?
Kwankwaso: I am sure the position of first lady isn’t in the constitution. So, first things first. First of all, my wife is my wife – the wife to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso; then, secondly, if you like, she is the wife to the Governor of Kano State.
You see everybody has his own way of doing things. I am not saying that what others are doing is wrong, but I don’t believe that others should think that my own is wrong. My wife doesn’t go to any ministry. I don’t allow commissioners to go to my wife. In any case, if my wife has the governor at her disposal anytime, why would she need a commissioner? "If you want anything in government, tell me," I told her. But she knows - and everybody knows - that I cannot steal anything in government and bring it to her. If there is anything genuine that everybody is entitled to, then she can also go for it.
To me creating an office of the first lady endangers the wife by exposing her to all sorts of risks – the inherent problems associated with politics, with leadership, etc. If you put all your eggs in one basket, you end up in one problem or the other. Also, if you have people who have not gone through the system – like our wives – they may create one problem or the other for themselves. Sometimes, if you cannot fell the tree, you go for the branches because they are very easy to cut and fell. That is why you should not give your enemies that opportunity. We have people who cannot come to terms with marking buildings with kwankwasiyya, what would they do if they catch my wife stealing public money?
On the issue of the deputy governor, I will say that he is someone I knew very well. We have worked together for long. The issue is you can throw away an object and buy another one. However, it it isn’t the same with human beings. We have only one Dr. Ganduje in Kano, in Nigeria and probably in the whole world. That is very important. If I have made the mistake of picking him as a deputy governor, that mistake was done in 1999. At that time I had the liberty to pick another person. But not now.
He became the deputy governor and we were there for four years. We went into election and lost. He was my SA in the ministry of defence. We had to keep on moving together. And these are the secrets that kept us strong. Friendship is based on mutual agreement between two people. A friend is the sort of thing that you choose willingly, unlike your father, mother or child. The deputy governor is committed to this friendship nd so are other people with whom we are working together.
The longest time I would remain here is three years. Now given the treacherous nature of politics, one has to train many people – not one, not two, not three – such that if anyone decides to defect, there would be others to continue with the struggle. That is why we continue to build up the team.
In fact, the way PDP was constituted doesn’t help matters. In 1998/99 we were just interested in the military leaving. So three groups – MDF and the two groups from PRP – formed the new party. There is no way we can go together. The ideologies are different.
Our ideology is now coming out. We are speaking about the poor, women, children and the sick. Many people don’t want to hear that. They are speaking of the interest of the big man. How much did you give him? What is his benefit? Which benefit? Let him go and sleep well. He has so much to eat, so much to enjoy. That is not to say he doesn’t benefit from our services. When you build road in the city, the poor doesn’t have the road. It belongs to the big man. That is why we put interlocking blocks on the side walkway so that the poor that sells garden egg or motar (turmi) can also walk or sit on a hard clean surface. The large part of the road is for the rich. If you are providing security, it is mainly for them. They have twenty taps in their houses; use twenty gallons to flush their toilet, while the poor would just use his small kettle to clean himself.
So our concern is that the poor should have the minimum requirements for life. It is based on our ideology, that of Aminu Kano. He wears this red cap, white cloth and black shoes. That is the colour of the PRP. Ours is red, white and black; if you like, you can use green in the shoe to represent the colour of the PDP.
That is the PDP by coincidence. But some in the party don’t believe in this. We are not fighting them but we can’t work together. In 1998/99, we were sharing positions amongst the three groups. When I became governor, many people didn’t want to recognize that life is dynamic. They kept on fighting, calling me “this boy.” I said, “Thank you very much. Yeah! This boy, the governor of Kano.” I am afraid that many of them will develop high blood pressure because they are not reconciling their thought with the decree of God.
And you see, people have to understand the dynamics of life; otherwise, they will get frustrated. If God has decreed that you will be xyz, you have to be and I have to prepare my mind to accept it. The least person I expected to come and inherit my seat was the one who came. God had decreed so. I was here. He was a permanent secretary. Now I see my deputy governor, commissioners and advisers. One of them may inherit this seat. I don’t know. The only thing is that I am training them. Everyday, I go out with my cane, if you like, and ask why is this so, why is that so? I just want anybody that would come here to be a competent person. It will be the biggest disservice to this state if I would see somebody come here who would once more allow what we have seen in the past eight years. We want strong and powerful people, those who agree with our philosophy.
Now we go out coloured to show everybody who we are. We are not ashamed of our identity. We are consistent in what we say and believe. That is why people believe whatever we promise to do. During the campaign, we study our facts before we mount the podium. When we said we will give women N10,000.00 support, some people were doubting it, wondering from where we would get the money. But already, within one year we have given it to 44,000 women and we will continue doing so until the last day we are leaving government.
What we want to do in Kano is to help people at the grassroots to start small businesses as we have seen in the emerging economies of China, India, Brazil, etc. That is how they started, not with mega things. If our resources are prudently managed, there is enough to help the poor in different sectors, ranging from health, to agriculture, education, everything. By the time December comes, we would be generating over N3billion. Aliko Dangote, as a demonstration of the confidence that people have in the prudence of this government, gave us N600 million to partially finance our poverty alleviation programs. Again, as we start the second batch now, he is giving us another N600million. So we are happy that people in different levels of society have confidence in us. Of course we have enemies. These are the ones talking about kwankwasiyya. And they are the very ones that motivated us to put the mark. And the more they shout, the more we put it.
Question: I have gone round and seen that Kano has bounced back within a short time. All shops are once more open unlike when I visited it three weeks after the 20th January attacks. People who left the city have returned. One can say that Borno and Yobe aren’t that lucky. They are practically paralysed to date. What is the secret behind this quick recovery?
Kwankwaso: Kano is a centre of commerce. People of Kano really love peace because they know that without peace there will be no business. When the attack of the 20th happened, people were shocked... We placed a 24 hour curfew. Later we reduced it to 18 hours, then 12 hours, and now 6 hours. We are considering ensuring that there is no curfew in Kano. When you came then you might have seen many checkpoints. As the situation is improving, we kept on reducing the number of checkpoints. Now we have few of them and each one is there for a reason. And very soon we will make sure that they are removed from our streets...
Security is the paramount responsibility of any government. And while people are working very hard to ensure that there is security in Kano, at the same time I am calling on everybody to come together and work with us in the interest of the state. This not withstanding, let me say at this juncture that Kano is the centre of knowledge also. We have people who are praying across the state 24 hours a day. In fact, that was why on 29 May instead of celebrating we went to the mosque to pray to Almighty Allah for peace not only in Kano but also throughout the country. The same thing took place in all local governments and wards in the state that day. And you know God is great. We are beginning to see peace coming back in Kano.
THE END
Bauchi,
16 June 2012
By dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
Kwankwaso
My readers may recall that in my interview with Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, the former governor of Kaduna State, he was sincere enough to acknowledge that performance among governors did not end with the PRP governors of the Second Republic. If properly searched for, he said, it is possible to find "even as we speak now in 2012" some governors who are performing equally well.
I did not press him to mention any. However, from my observation, I can suggest two here in Northern Nigeria: Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State and Governor Rabi'u Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State. Not coincidentally, the two PDP governors are both scions of the old PRP. I have four yeas ago written a page on Lamido when I crowned him my best governor of 2008. But where Kwankwaso may excel is that in addition to his spectacular performance in the last one year, which I have studied in the past two weeks while in Kano, is his wholesale subscription to the talakawa doctrine of Malam Aminu Kano. His austere lifestyle and approach to governance, his financial prudence and his pro-poor oriented programs, all combine to make him in the eye of the dispassionate a faithful disciple of Malam Aminu Kano and a rare gem among Nigerian governors.
We should be large-hearted to give honour to whom honour is due, whoever it may be. For me, it is a duty, especially in these days when all hope seems to be lost. I have seen a lot in Kano and prepared materials which I will avail my readers with shortly. The materials are a must read, not withstanding their number and lengths, especially for our youths who have turned despondent. Reading them will help to rescue the youths from the disturbing grip of pessimism, narrow-mindedness and political intolerance that have become commonplace in Nigeria today.
However, as a start, I think it is suitable to open the gate with an interview that Newswatch and I held with the governor at midnight on Tuesday, 13 June 2012, in his office. The questions, except the last, were asked by Mr. Kayode of Newswatch. In the interview, the governor speaks of his achievements eepecially in the area of education and poverty alleviation, why he brands every project with the "kwankwasiyya" mark, how he lost the 2003 election, why he has not probed his predecessor (yet?), his tight grip on the finances of the state, why he does not have the office of the first lady, how he saves much to execute projects, his disapproval of security vote, the next governor he wishes Kano would have, the present security situation, the ideological contradictions in the composition of PDP, and why Kano recovered so quickly from the 21st January attacks. Happy reading.
The Interview:
Question: what can you say ae your achievements in the last one year?
Kwankwaso: In the last one year so much has been achieved. We are happy that we didn’t disappoint our people. You can see our achievements in various areas. For lack of time, I will, as an example, briefly dwell on some of the achievemnts we have recorded in education.
We decided to put education as our number one program on our agenda because its critical in transforming the lives of people. During our first term, in the area of primary education, by the grace of God, we were able to build thousands of classrooms in Kano, feed our primary pupils lunch five times a week, give them two sets of uniforms, etc. we are still maintaining those important programs.
In addition to that we have our Community Reorientation Committee (CRC) in all the forty-four local government areas of the state and the supervisory committee at the state level that carry out renovations of old structures and conducts the school programs I just mentioned. In each local government, the CRC is composed of our "best eleven": the district head, chief Imam, local government chairman, chairmen of PDP and the second best party in the last election, member of House of representative in the constituency, a representative each of National Union of Teachers, youths, women, businessmen and elders. You must have seen our one-storey building across the state – the Kwankwasiyya blocks of classrooms. Over 800 classes are completed in the first one year, 400 offices, 400 toilets, furtniture, etc.
By the way, the CRC also runs programs on poverty alleviation in which we support our youths and women. We have trained 44,000 women and supported each with a N10,000.00, free. The training of another 44,000 is going on at the rate of 100 per local government weekly. Youths are also trained on animal traction and given a loan of N150,000.00 to cover the cost of bulls and plough. The Lafiya Jari program is also on, where we have trainEd 1,200 unemployed of from different health institutions on the basics of commerce and give them a loan of N80,000.00 each to open small medicine shops in rural areas and neighborhoods.
In the area of secondary education, you must have visited the newly established Governor’s College. We have three other similar schools. We have improved the feeding of pupils in all our boarding schools. We are paying teachers and other civil servants by the 25th of every month, including the payment of the minimum wage of N18,000.00 that started last January.
In addition to our existing 10 tertiary institutions, we are establishing additional 28 institutes – ranging from nursing school, midwifery, health technology, fisheries institute, livestock institute, agric mechanization institute, horticultural institute, sports institute, Kano Corporate Security Institute, Kano Informatics, etc. Some of these institutes have already started on temporary sites.
We have earlier established Kano State University of Technology during our first term. Now we are establishing the Northwest University, which is a conventional university instead of KSUT that is limited to technology based courses. As the name implies the new university will cater for the six northwestern states. Of course, Kano is shouldering 100% of the responsibility now but at the appropriate time we will link up with our colleagues in other states in the zone to see how we can work together on the project. We are building its permanent site already and have advertised for staff positions including those of its principal officers.it will take off this September. Having noticed that we will have delays due to the civil works, we will use the Ado Bayero House as our temporary site while we are working day and night on the permanent site.
Our investment in education is based on the belief that it helps break the vicious circle of poverty. If you are educated, you can cater for yourself, either in this country or elsewhere. Additionally, we believe it is in the best interest of this country. You cannot have two countries in one: one very educated, the other very illiterate. Then there would be danger. We felt we should narrow the gap, create opportunities so that we can move together. This is very important for the security of our country. At this juncture, I would like to appeal to all those concerned, especially those that are rich enough to establish private institutions especially in the North. I also appeal to those of us in government to give education a priority.
Question: Why do your projects bear Kwankwasiyya mark? Some people think you are personalizing them.
Kwankwaso: When people make such remarks, they are either not aware of our intention or they are our opponents in the first place. We are not the first to brand any project. Why are they not talking of ETF? In addition, PTF stopped in 1999 but its signs are still there. Why are they not talking of MDG whose signs are everywhere. Our action is based on experience. During my first term, I can’t remember one classroom that was marked to indicate that it was done by my administration. Some governors are naming institutions after themselves or locating them in their villages or local governments. We didn’t do that before; we are not doing it even now.
You see some people had the opportunity to perform for eight years. They didn’t do anything other than pick our projects and use them in their calendars. It was very painful. I was in the Ministry of Defence when I saw a calendar carrying projects that I suffered in various ways to execute during my first tenure. That is why when we came back, we said, “Okay. Now we are moving with supersonic speed in the execution of our projects. How do we mark them to enable people know? If MDG and ETF are doing it now, if you have Ahmadu Bello University – and remember I haven’t named the new university Rabiu Kwankwaso University – why not us?
This is politics. You have blow your trumpet. I have learnt that the hard way. We have inherited a project of 1000 classrooms from the former administration that it started since 2008. Yet, only a third of the money was paid. So two-thirds are abandoned. I have asked them to bring the estimates. We will complete them, now that we have made our marks. If I didn’t write Kwankwasiyya on mine, you would have thought that we are still on the drawing table, that our predecessors constructed the buildings.
We are not ashamed to mark the building we constructed. We would only be ashamed were we stealing projects. Now in one year alone, we have built 800 primary school classrooms, 400 offices for teachers, the same number of pit latrines, etc. We have bought equipment worth hundreds of millions of naira for our tertiary institutions. Teachers in these institutes were not even paid salaries because some people were stealing the money. We will not allow anybody to steal. If anyone steals and we catch him, we will punish him. So we will have enough money to execute our projects. We have 28 institutions of various kinds taking off as I said initially. But we will mark them as we build them such that people would know. It is no secret.
Someone would say, “Well, if someone comes, he will scrub it.” Well, if someone comes he can even use a bulldozer to demolish the building. But if he has the time to say he doesn’t like it, why wouldn’t he build his own and write his name? If he is handamiyya – people who steal public money – he should write it. We have seen some buses marked, “donated by so and so.” We did not stop them. If we execute a project, we will mark it such that at least for the next three years people will know that we executed them.
Question: After you left office in 2003, your predecessor probed you and issued a white paper that sought to ban you from holding public office. Why haven’t you chosen to probe your predecessor in return?
Kwankwaso: It is because of our experience. When I was leaving this office in 2003, it was unimaginable that I would return here. The chances were slim. May be, I came back because of the white paper. As they were doing it, I continued moving. I became the Minister of Defence, the adviser to the President, then to NNDC. Obsanjo told them, “You can go and probe. But bring a proof to me that my minister has stolen money. There wasn’t any.” Anybody can ask your enemies to write anything about you and receive it over a cup of tea.
In 2003, I didn’t contest election with them. I contested with Buhari because presidential and gubernatorial elections were held same day for the first and only time in the history of this country. Sentiments were built based on ethnicity and religion such that the political atmosphere was so hazy that people weren’t reasoning well. People were told that if you vote for a religious man, you would all go to heaven. As time went, people saw that these people were drinking SWAN water, building estates when they didn’t have even a plot before, and so on. Their eyes were therefore shined.
I am happy to say that we were able to manage success in 1999 and failure in 2003. When we lost elections in 2003 for whatever reason, I went to the house (of the new governor), in his sitting room, the first and only time in the history of Nigeria and said, “Congratulations! We will support you because this is Kano. If you fail, Kano fails.”
I believed then and now that if performance were the only requirement for winning a second term, I would have won then even if it were among few governors in Nigeria. I knew that in addition to performance, there are many other things. The good thing is if you build schools, as we do now, people will benefit; if you bring in water, people will use it; if you build roads, people will use them. You can criticize that we are writing names on the buildings but your children will go and use the buildings while those who have stolen your money are sending their children overseas.
You see, Kwankwasiyya is an ideology and you can see the result. Go and see how our streets are clean and lit in the night. This is not how we inherited them in 2011. Look at the four major roads that lead into Kano. Additional lanes are added to them, with shoulders, drainages and walkways. Even on the old roads, we are putting interlocking blocks for pedestrians. We are working, day and night.
So I believe it is always good to be responsible, reasonable and mean well to people. That is why I am not in a hurry to probe anybody. Give them the benefit of the doubt. But I know if you build around you so many deep wells and you continue to move around them recklessly, one day you are likely to fall into one. People will reap what they sow. That is my position.
Question: Despite meeting an empty treasury last year, you were able to execute so many projects. Yet, you have not borrowed a kobo from any bank, local or international. What is the secret behind this success?
Kwankwaso: It is the policy of our government, even during the first term, not to borrow a kobo. And when we were leaving, we left behind N4 billion cash in our treasury despite all what we did. So the same thing when we came back, we inherited a debt of over N77billion and over US$200million. But we haven’t paid, and we are not in a hurry to pay. We just said, “Draw a line. I don’t want to open any can of worms. Let me prove to the people that yes, Kwankwaso is back. I don’t want to hear N77billion or $200million. Let's move." And we are moving.
What we did was to introduce checks and balances. I was a civil servant here for seventeen years. As a result, most of the civil servants – especially the senior ones – were my colleagues in school and in the service. Mind you I am also a pensioner though I forewent my pension since I retired in 1991 as a principal engineer. So we know the level of wastages that exists and saved so much from the angle of the civil service. We inherited 43,000 civil servants. Along the line, based on our measures, we removed over 8,000 ghost workers. These were people who were practically getting money for nothing. We met a law that said we should pay civil servants certain percentage of their salary for fasting and purchase of rams, etc. We paid for the first sallah. But by the time the second came, we realized from the files that there were so many problems. Now we would have paid 8,000 ghost workers 50% of their salary. We are now trying to sort out things and pay the civil servants. Our target is the ghost worker, not the real workers that are messengers, permanent secretaries or directors.
On the part of the politicians – myself downwards: advisers, commissioners, SSG, Chief of Staff, everybody, we said, “Look. Let us not start dipping our fingers into government money. It is neither good for us, nor is it for the society. There are people outside there who have also supported us but who are battling with what they would eat daily. Many of them may sleep on empty stomach.” You see, if I take 10 million, for example, it may appear small to me but it can do a lot in terms of education, health, water supply, or even in maintaining street and traffic lights. We started from there.
Between 2003 and 2011, so many things in the cost of running government have been inflated, like overheads and so on. So we said, "let's return to where we were in 2003. That is the one we know. Let us revert to that in terms of recurrent expenditure." I said that if they have any complaint, they should refer to me.
My commissioners and advisers wanted vehicles. I asked the SSG to estimate the cost. It was over N2billion. I said, “No. Use the old vehicles we inherited.” At the Ministry of Defence, I used the only two vehicles that I inherited from TY Danjuma. On many occasions, the 607 would fail on the road. There is nothing wrong with that.
Now we can go on and on. So we not only saved so much money there but we also sent the right signal. Despite what we were executing in terms of projects, from N77billion debt in May when we took over, by January this year when we were opening our books we had over N20.5billion cash. I still believe that up till now we have a similar figure. Commissioners now have to defend their budget by proving value for money. No commissioner was ever declined any request because we don’t have money. We return him only because he hasn’t followed due process or because it is too expensive at that rate. We told them that this government is a serious one. There is no room for anybody – from the highest level to the lowest one – to break the law. You have to abide by it. If you break it, we will put the maximum weight of the law on you. That is why so much is happening in all areas, so much so that nobody, including my humble self, can tell you how much we have done in the past one year.
What is critical is that we have confidence of the people. One thing good is that the people of Kano are law-abiding people. They want to see you lead by example. You don’t, as their leader, say one thing and do the other: You swear by Allah but everybody knows you are telling lies. If you do that, people won’t take you seriously. If you tell them don’t do something, they will go and do it.
On internally generated revenue, the state was generating only between N300million and N500 million when we came in. We believe that everybody must pay tax. If you have enough, even if you’re not paying zakat, you have to pay tax. By December, we were getting over up to N1.2billion. My target, despite the security challenges, is to have enough money to pay salaries and allowances. We are making progress. I wouldn’t need to get money from Abuja to pay salaries. If we cannot pay civil servants and ourselves, then there is something wrong with us. People have to pay. That is why I asked the commissioner of land to assess my ground rent. It now enables me the moral locus to ask others to pay theirs. No matter how big you consider yourself, you are small if you cannot pay your tax. Nobody is perfect. But as far as we can, we want to do the right thing.
Question: Could it be why you jettisoned your security vote?
Kwankwaso: Now, the same thing applies to security vote. I told people that governments are using it to siphon away resources. We have seen records here that, apart from N70million, N80million and so on – in one day N127million was withdrawn as security vote. That was the highest. Since a governor cannot give an approval of more than N10 million, the money was removed in twelve installments of N10million each, plus N7million. (Here, Kwankwaso adjusted his red cap and gave a sardonic smile.) In four years, billions were thus withdrawn in the name of security vote.
So the way we are handling it here is to account for everything. If you come as a big man and I want to dash you N10.00 from my pocket, I give it to you. If I would give you N10,000.00 from public money, I will give it but it will be on record. So if you like it that way, take it; and if you don’t, leave it. That is important. If I want to give money to the police or army – and we give them very little despite the security situation – we write it. We even arrange for their feeding and allowances in addition to what they get from the federal government. Now, what I give the contractors for the feeding is there on record, for example. In addition to that, we follow up. I go there sometimes to count the bread and the cans of fish they are given, just to make the contractor understand that he is not left alone.
I believe that governors, as much as possible, should avoid the issue of security vote. You know mischief-makers used it against me in the white paper. I used N97million as security vote for the 2003 elections. The record is there. I gave N2million to the security committee of each local government. The panel summoned each of the chairmen of those committees and none of them disputed that I gave him the money. They explained how they used it and nobody said he gave me even N2.00.
Question: Has the present security situation affected governance in your state with effect from January this year?
Kwankwaso: Every leadership, throughout history, has faced its own version of challenges. There is none that is not facing one form of security threat or another. We can put it on scale and measure it. Southeast has its own challenges; so does the south-south or southwest. Come to the north, you find the same thing. Of course, you when you weigh them you can say this one is heavier, the other lighter. If you’re in the area where people are kidnapped and your father is kidnapped, you wont believe that Jos is less secured than your place. So it is an issue of how it affects you.
Coming to the issue of how it affects us, you see we didn’t know the security challenges that will face us when we came in last year, just as we didn’t know the ones we would face when we were elected in 1999. From then to 2003, you find Hausas were killed in Lagos. The issue of shariah also came up. I didn’t campaign for it. I didn’t even thought about it in 1999. But it became a serious issue and it cost me even my seat at that time because the sentiments were too much: Obasanjo was our candidate, Buhari was their candidate, so went the sentiments. They blocked roads to polling booths and demanded which of the two voters were going to vote for – mosque or church? If you do the same in Port Harcourt, the persovoter which one he is going to vote for. It’s the same thing in Kano. So we didn’t lose election in 2003 for lack of performance or somebody was more popular than us. No. It was mere sentiments.
However, now, the dust has settled and things are clear. (Smile) By 2011, the young men and women we bred during our first tenure were 18. They were in charge of the polling booths. The women we empowered with a free capital of N5,000.00 – thousands of them – came out. The tertiary institutions and secondary schools we established or supported all came out and voted for us. We had no state government, no local governments, no contracts, and no money; yet, people voted for us and defended the votes. Some people wouldn’t imagine that it was this evil called Kwankwaso that was returning – the most hated Kwankwaso. All the promises of 2003 about Shariah were gone. Kano people, you know, are very smart, very fast.(Smiles) They can surprise you anytime. You can only deceive briefly. But the moment you start moving, they would say, “Ah. God don catch you.” That is why we have this challenge to prove ourselves.
The challenge of security is not peculiar to Kano. It is all over the country and the North in particular. We are working very hard. That is why whenever I have an opportunity like this, I appeal to all people, including all politicians, to join hands. When the attacks happened on 20th January we gathered people across parties, including the ANPP, businessmen, the Emir, the Chief Imam, everybody. We sat down and discussed what could be done. We have been meeting and we will continue to meet in the interest of the state, appealing to everybody to come forward and put the issues , if any, on the table. And if anybody wants us to facilitate anything – the federal government, anyone – we will be very happy to do so to make sure that there is fairness and justice. And unless there is justice from both sides, we will continue to have problems. The problem of security doesn’t help anybody.
Question: Due to time factor, I will put two questions in one. One, you are the only governor in this country that doesn’t have the office of the first lady. Two, when we look at the people in your cabinet, they are almost the same ones around during your first tenure, particularly your deputy. What is the secret behind this practice?
Kwankwaso: I am sure the position of first lady isn’t in the constitution. So, first things first. First of all, my wife is my wife – the wife to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso; then, secondly, if you like, she is the wife to the Governor of Kano State.
You see everybody has his own way of doing things. I am not saying that what others are doing is wrong, but I don’t believe that others should think that my own is wrong. My wife doesn’t go to any ministry. I don’t allow commissioners to go to my wife. In any case, if my wife has the governor at her disposal anytime, why would she need a commissioner? "If you want anything in government, tell me," I told her. But she knows - and everybody knows - that I cannot steal anything in government and bring it to her. If there is anything genuine that everybody is entitled to, then she can also go for it.
To me creating an office of the first lady endangers the wife by exposing her to all sorts of risks – the inherent problems associated with politics, with leadership, etc. If you put all your eggs in one basket, you end up in one problem or the other. Also, if you have people who have not gone through the system – like our wives – they may create one problem or the other for themselves. Sometimes, if you cannot fell the tree, you go for the branches because they are very easy to cut and fell. That is why you should not give your enemies that opportunity. We have people who cannot come to terms with marking buildings with kwankwasiyya, what would they do if they catch my wife stealing public money?
On the issue of the deputy governor, I will say that he is someone I knew very well. We have worked together for long. The issue is you can throw away an object and buy another one. However, it it isn’t the same with human beings. We have only one Dr. Ganduje in Kano, in Nigeria and probably in the whole world. That is very important. If I have made the mistake of picking him as a deputy governor, that mistake was done in 1999. At that time I had the liberty to pick another person. But not now.
He became the deputy governor and we were there for four years. We went into election and lost. He was my SA in the ministry of defence. We had to keep on moving together. And these are the secrets that kept us strong. Friendship is based on mutual agreement between two people. A friend is the sort of thing that you choose willingly, unlike your father, mother or child. The deputy governor is committed to this friendship nd so are other people with whom we are working together.
The longest time I would remain here is three years. Now given the treacherous nature of politics, one has to train many people – not one, not two, not three – such that if anyone decides to defect, there would be others to continue with the struggle. That is why we continue to build up the team.
In fact, the way PDP was constituted doesn’t help matters. In 1998/99 we were just interested in the military leaving. So three groups – MDF and the two groups from PRP – formed the new party. There is no way we can go together. The ideologies are different.
Our ideology is now coming out. We are speaking about the poor, women, children and the sick. Many people don’t want to hear that. They are speaking of the interest of the big man. How much did you give him? What is his benefit? Which benefit? Let him go and sleep well. He has so much to eat, so much to enjoy. That is not to say he doesn’t benefit from our services. When you build road in the city, the poor doesn’t have the road. It belongs to the big man. That is why we put interlocking blocks on the side walkway so that the poor that sells garden egg or motar (turmi) can also walk or sit on a hard clean surface. The large part of the road is for the rich. If you are providing security, it is mainly for them. They have twenty taps in their houses; use twenty gallons to flush their toilet, while the poor would just use his small kettle to clean himself.
So our concern is that the poor should have the minimum requirements for life. It is based on our ideology, that of Aminu Kano. He wears this red cap, white cloth and black shoes. That is the colour of the PRP. Ours is red, white and black; if you like, you can use green in the shoe to represent the colour of the PDP.
That is the PDP by coincidence. But some in the party don’t believe in this. We are not fighting them but we can’t work together. In 1998/99, we were sharing positions amongst the three groups. When I became governor, many people didn’t want to recognize that life is dynamic. They kept on fighting, calling me “this boy.” I said, “Thank you very much. Yeah! This boy, the governor of Kano.” I am afraid that many of them will develop high blood pressure because they are not reconciling their thought with the decree of God.
And you see, people have to understand the dynamics of life; otherwise, they will get frustrated. If God has decreed that you will be xyz, you have to be and I have to prepare my mind to accept it. The least person I expected to come and inherit my seat was the one who came. God had decreed so. I was here. He was a permanent secretary. Now I see my deputy governor, commissioners and advisers. One of them may inherit this seat. I don’t know. The only thing is that I am training them. Everyday, I go out with my cane, if you like, and ask why is this so, why is that so? I just want anybody that would come here to be a competent person. It will be the biggest disservice to this state if I would see somebody come here who would once more allow what we have seen in the past eight years. We want strong and powerful people, those who agree with our philosophy.
Now we go out coloured to show everybody who we are. We are not ashamed of our identity. We are consistent in what we say and believe. That is why people believe whatever we promise to do. During the campaign, we study our facts before we mount the podium. When we said we will give women N10,000.00 support, some people were doubting it, wondering from where we would get the money. But already, within one year we have given it to 44,000 women and we will continue doing so until the last day we are leaving government.
What we want to do in Kano is to help people at the grassroots to start small businesses as we have seen in the emerging economies of China, India, Brazil, etc. That is how they started, not with mega things. If our resources are prudently managed, there is enough to help the poor in different sectors, ranging from health, to agriculture, education, everything. By the time December comes, we would be generating over N3billion. Aliko Dangote, as a demonstration of the confidence that people have in the prudence of this government, gave us N600 million to partially finance our poverty alleviation programs. Again, as we start the second batch now, he is giving us another N600million. So we are happy that people in different levels of society have confidence in us. Of course we have enemies. These are the ones talking about kwankwasiyya. And they are the very ones that motivated us to put the mark. And the more they shout, the more we put it.
Question: I have gone round and seen that Kano has bounced back within a short time. All shops are once more open unlike when I visited it three weeks after the 20th January attacks. People who left the city have returned. One can say that Borno and Yobe aren’t that lucky. They are practically paralysed to date. What is the secret behind this quick recovery?
Kwankwaso: Kano is a centre of commerce. People of Kano really love peace because they know that without peace there will be no business. When the attack of the 20th happened, people were shocked... We placed a 24 hour curfew. Later we reduced it to 18 hours, then 12 hours, and now 6 hours. We are considering ensuring that there is no curfew in Kano. When you came then you might have seen many checkpoints. As the situation is improving, we kept on reducing the number of checkpoints. Now we have few of them and each one is there for a reason. And very soon we will make sure that they are removed from our streets...
Security is the paramount responsibility of any government. And while people are working very hard to ensure that there is security in Kano, at the same time I am calling on everybody to come together and work with us in the interest of the state. This not withstanding, let me say at this juncture that Kano is the centre of knowledge also. We have people who are praying across the state 24 hours a day. In fact, that was why on 29 May instead of celebrating we went to the mosque to pray to Almighty Allah for peace not only in Kano but also throughout the country. The same thing took place in all local governments and wards in the state that day. And you know God is great. We are beginning to see peace coming back in Kano.
THE END
Bauchi,
16 June 2012
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