Crafting a future for Yobe
There is a popular saying that ‘children are the leaders of tomorrow’ and the composition of Nigeria’s early leaders depicts and confirm this adage. Past leaders continue to be recycled and there is almost no fresh recruitment into the nation’s political leadership. This has left Nigeria with an aging leadership class and an oblivious young […]
There is a popular saying that ‘children are the leaders of tomorrow’ and the composition of Nigeria’s early leaders depicts and confirm this adage.
Past leaders continue to be recycled and there is almost no fresh recruitment into the nation’s political leadership. This has left Nigeria with an aging leadership class and an oblivious young population who know very little about governance. Many feel that, unless something pragmatic is done in this country, we would one day wake up to a country in the hands of a generation whose most competence is in texting, tweeting and twerking.
Gladly, one of the leaders of this country, picked the signals and has therefore began to take strategic action in his own way. When he got the ticket to contest governorship election in 2019, Mai Mala Buni drew up a manifesto around youths’ involvement and participation. He then, began to sell the idea at campaign rallies, during interactions with youth groups and through the media. Yobe state people bought in and elected him into office on that premise.
Mr. Buni constantly draw attention to Yobe State’s looming leadership gap with a simple but sensible example. He says that every civil servant who joined the service before 1990 would be retiring before the end of his first term. And those politicians in the state that are being recycled as heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies are now mostly in their late seventies. And so, when that happens, the state would undoubtedly face obvious leadership and governance skill gap.
Shortly after his inauguration, he began to talent-hunt for appointment into government. He knew he needed to look outside the box to find young indigenes who are already doing very well where they are. He also wanted brilliant, young men and women who could learn easily. So he began to look to the universities, the humanitarian/development circle, federal civil service, the private sector etc. By bringing this creed of people into government and matching them with their competencies, he has set in motion a process to bridging the emerging leadership gap the state is coming to face. Because in the four years duration that he would governor, these new entries would acquire the necessary leadership learning skills to continue building their individual capacities on the job.
Governor Bun’s first statement on youth inclusion and participation was through a series of appointments of youths as chief executives of key government institutions in the state starting with Dr. Mohammed Goje appointed Executive Secretary, Yobe State Emergency Management Agency. Dr. Goje is a 40-year-old vet doctor from Melinda & Gates, with an extensive experience in public health.
On taking over, Dr. Goje setup youths volunteer emergency response group, with members drawn from every community in the entire state. These youths are trained as first respondents during emergencies of sudden displacement due to attacks, Floods, rain storms etc. This has strengthened the state preparedness for emergencies. Thanks to the coming of Dr.Goje , the relationship of Yobe State government with Humanitarian partners is now restructured to how it should always be: Government takes the lead and partners support. This is already helping in minimizing duplication and misapplication of resources.
Next was a 40-year-old consultant psychiatrist from University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, appointed to head the state Primary Healthcare Development Agency. Dr. Babagana Kundi left a well-paid job as a consultant in UMTH to serve with Yobe Hospital Management Board, before the current appointment.
Dr. Abubakar Kagu, a former magistrate who just returned from University of Sussex, UK , to teach at the Yobe State University Faculty of law was appointed the Executive Secretary Yobe State Scholarships Board. On assumption of duties, he began to build a robust scholarship application portal that’s linked to a comprehensive, intelligent database that easily segregates categorized students’ data. This information is now a powerful tool in the hands of Yobe State government with which it makes evidenced-based policy decisions on education.
Governor Buni also appointed a 41-year-old Architect who was the State Program Manager of the defunct Presidential Committee on the Northeast Initiative (PCNI) as the head of the Sustainable Development Goals implementation coordination office. Upon assumption and perhaps reading the governor’s mindset on economic empowerment, he prioritized fight against poverty. He launched a series of youths empowerment programs to reduce unemployment and redundancy among young people in the state . Fifty young men were selected from across the state and sponsored for an intensive three months course in Engine Repair, Mechatronics and Air Conditioning at Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria Learning center in Kaduna. On return from PAN,these young men would be clustered into working groups and be setup as registered small scale businesses . Yobe SDGs under the new leadership also partners Guaranty Trust Bank under the CBN/SANEF program, to empower 200 young men and women in the state by engaging them as subagents. Within this year, Yobe SDGs is launching a series of empowerment programs with specific focus on skill development and entrepreneurship.
Almost all key agencies in Yobe State today are headed by young people. And the energy and capacity they brought has already started changing the business of government in the state.
Governor Mai Mala plans to model Yobe State’s political leadership structure after Lagos where Bola Ahmed Tunibu predicted the future and set a team to bring it about. Many today, are fascinated by Lagos’ continues upward trajectory of development since the Tinubu days. Lagos state has completely eliminated trail-by-error public servants .
By starting this generational shift, the Governor seeks to craft the future of Yobe state built on competence, intellectual capacity and efficiency. The fresh blood Gov Buni is injecting into the system are not politicians. They are young men and women that are good at what they do in their life paths. Most recently, Gov. Buni appointed 39-year-old PhD student as governing council chairman of the state Legal and Islamic college – a position that usually went to seventy-year old people.
Quite intriguing is the fact that, not one of these new appointees has any blood relationship with the governor. In fact, he was only meeting many of them at first briefing after the appointment.
The main objective of Governor Buni is to reinforce the view that youth inclusion should go beyond election day. It should be about giving our young, passionate and energetic people who have capacity, a fair chance to drive the processes of government. Many political leaders have been and are still sceptical about handing the lever to young people. But Governor Mai Mala Buni has taken the risk to venture into this enterprise of letting the youths become part of decision making-so far the outcomes are impressive.
Arc. Musa Sule Damagum wrote from Yobe State University