El-Rufa’i’s town hall parley: matters arising

Penultimate Sunday July 2, Malam Nasir Ahmad el-Rufa’i, the Executive Governor of Kaduna state hosted the second in a planned series of his administration’s town hall meetings. The venue was the prestigious Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar Assembly Hall within the premises of the iconic Barewa College in Zaria. There is an unmistakable despondency pervading the […]

Penultimate Sunday July 2, Malam Nasir Ahmad el-Rufa’i, the Executive Governor of Kaduna state hosted the second in a planned series of his administration’s town hall meetings. The venue was the prestigious Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar Assembly Hall within the premises of the iconic Barewa College in Zaria.
There is an unmistakable despondency pervading the entire country following the wind of change that has blown away the stale “breath of fresh air” of the immediate past. Nigeria is now flying on fumes and oscillating between a crisis of expectation and a “post-revolution crisis”. Therefore for any fledging political leader to risk convening a town hall meeting in the same primary constituency he shares with his immediate predecessor in office is like embarking on a suicidal quest to provide “serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions”.
If at the Zaria town hall meeting el-Rufa’i’s information management and political strategists had wanted to ruffle establishment feathers in Kaduna’s most temperamental but influential power base they did so beyond leaps and bounds. From the symbolic proximity of the governor’s female chief of staff with Zazzau emirate council’s esteemed Waziri at the venue’s high table to the governor’s detailed explanation of the Land Use Act (obviously the precursor for a renewed ground rent drive which most landlords in the state have never paid) and other populist posturing including a tirade multiple “Walahi” on keeping public trust no matter whose ox is gored worked the jam packed attendees to a near 3 hours of unprecedented frenzy.
But far more importantly the meeting addressed the longstanding dichotomy between the traditional capital centre within the ancient city walls and the outlaying districts. The Zazzau rural gentry poked its finger at the fortress mentality of Zaria city elite, with the simmering and bitter rivalry between the uneducated but politically active underclass and the intelligentsia corollary. All that within the context of the perennial settler/indigene crisis was deftly addressed by the governor who offered a panacea of an issues based governance. The general reaction was predictably muted since a majority of those present consider politics to be a vocation and therefore grudgingly harbour an exaggerated sense of entitlement. And a shrinking attention span. The main point of meritocracy was however established, how it will play out at the grassroots depends on how quickly and efficiently el-Rufai can turn around the state having been bequeathed a gubernatorial assignment with monumental challenges of equity, developmental lopsidedness, ethno-religious fractionalization and inter- communal cynicism.
How can el-Rufa’i successfully navigate through this political labyrinth unscathed?
 By fully implementing the far-reaching recommendations of the Kaduna State Peace and Reconciliation Committee, that’s how.

However the truth is Governor el- Rufa’i no matter his accidental public service dexterity cannot be conveniently equitable to the rest of Kaduna state by bridging inequality without hurting the fortunes of his primary constituency of Zaria and its other territorial fiefdoms of Giwa, Igabi, Ikara, Kubau, Kudan, Lere, Makarfi, Sabon Gari and Soba. According to the 2006 census figures Kaduna state has a total population of 6,113,503 with Igabi (430,753) and Zaria (406,990) being the most populated local government areas. This greater Zaria has always controlled the main levers of government and dominated other socio-economic parameters in the state. Will a home boy now be its political nemesis? No doubt Zaria will be the eye in any coming political storm but the governor is himself a stormy petrel of repute.
There is however a glimmer of hope. It is only by arresting impunity and an avowed commitment to accountability that el-Rufa’i can incubate the issues based governance that he so enthusiastically craves. Since no meaningful public or private sector driven development can take place without an executive confidence building posture.
The strongholds that have always held the state prostrate will however not give up without a fight. It is against this background that the kick off demolition of alienated state government properties across the state and particularly in Zaria (Alhudahuda College) will be Governor el-Rufa’i’s make or break litmus test. If he doesn’t thoroughly implement that exercise to its fullest extent then he must be ready to promptly return all the Mission schools seized in 1972 to their original owners since they were taken over for “the overriding public good”.
No doubt el-Rufai is a man to watch as a formidable heir apparent, particularly to the political pundits who have been assiduously counting President Muhammadu Buhari’s “senior moments” with growing, perhaps premature, concern.
While it might be too early to call in jury from its recess on the governor’s tenure so far, Malam el-Rufa’i’s gubernatorial performance as the clock ticks must be assessed by his past words and set standards.
 On May 29th 2013, when former President Goodluck Jonathan openly challenged the nation on his mid-term score sheet, el-Rufai the next day on his blog enriched the nation that his assessment of that administration entitled Jonathan’s Half Time: The Hard Facts was carried out “by listing a number of the campaign promises he (Jonathan) made in 2011” adding that “those promises were not easy to measure because in essence, they were just broad generalizations with no targets, deliverables or timelines”. The good Malam then argued “perhaps, that was the point of making such vague promises; so that performance cannot be measured and failures would not be easily evident”. A colourful 20-page bilingual manifesto that included a “code of ethics” of the APC in Kaduna State was widely distributed at the venue of the Zaria town hall meeting; however it did not contain “targets, deliverables or timelines”!

Yahaya-Joe wrote from Rock Road, Wusasa, Zaria<[email protected]>