Governor Lamido and the downtrodden in Jigawa

In Jigawa state today, Governor Sule Lamido stands not only as a clear demonstration of the people’s will but also as a paradigm shift to populist leadership style that holds democratic power as surest way of providing good governance to the electorate. The governor carved a niche for himself by deconstructing leadership through his involvement […]

In Jigawa state today, Governor Sule Lamido stands not only as a clear demonstration of the people’s will but also as a paradigm shift to populist leadership style that holds democratic power as surest way of providing good governance to the electorate.

The governor carved a niche for himself by deconstructing leadership through his involvement with the people by replying text messages he received from all who sent one.

Evolving an all encompassing consultative leadership through consultation sessions with stakeholders such as the academics, the religious leaders, the business class was one way the governor used in gauging the impulse of the people he served. This behaviour, posed a new trend in the leadership culture in the state and the North in particular, though it did not come as surprise to the electorate who were conversant with his radical political antecedent.

His constant hobnobbing with the downtrodden was elucidated even before he was sworn-in when the blind, the cripples and the lepers met him and articulated their own demands. His response at one of such meetings was that the government under his leadership would take care of them more than they ever imagined but “not because you are blind but because you are, first and foremost, citizens with all the rights it entails.”

He expatiated that their citizenship status should not have been affected in any way by their disability and that whatever policy of rehabilitation that did not make this distinction would have been based on a patronizing or condescending understanding of disability and the crisis of human waste, not only in the state but also in Nigeria. He promised to make a law that provide succour and solace to such special social categories.

In the case of women, for example, Lamido is reported to have once argued that they are the only people who do not run away from the family in the face of the enormous privations that confront the poor. The men do run away either to join the urban migrant labour force or to rural vagrancy but never the women who stay back, no matter the odds, he had said. If he still remembers this argument, then he might be contemplating something profound as a policy response to the women question in Jigawa.

There is no doubt that Governor Lamido has so far triumphed against all odds, particularly as he still hold firms to the democratic tenets along the lines of Malam Aminu Kano who reportedly said that his party in the first republic, the Northern Elements Progressive Union, (NEPU) interpreted democracy in its more traditional sense and that is the rule of the common people, the poor and the illiterate.

He posed this against the conservative perspective of democracy as “the rule of the enlightened and prosperous minority in the supposed interest of the common people.”  This is evident in the way and manner he traversed the state, building infrastructure and attending to the basic needs of the common people.

It was not a surprise when Governor Lamido was picked as the best even though the state faced a stiff challenge from Kano, Zamfara, Kwara and Lagos States in the area of education by the This Day newspaper last year. Lamido’s initiatives, which include a comprehensive rehabilitation of classroom facilities for conducive learning and retraining of the teachers both at primary and secondary school levels, were considered to be far-reaching and worthy of emulation.

His radical political posture which is reminiscent of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP)’s definition of the Nigerian crisis has since being contextualised in Jigawa state. The party has defined Nigerian politics in its general programme in the Second Republic to be “a sad chronicle of unfulfilled promises, dashed hopes and unrealized expectations. As a result, the common man has continually suffered deprivation, hardships, exploitation and oppression. In contrast, the privileged few roll in wealth derived from super profits, fronting for foreign business, kickbacks on government contracts, price speculations and ill-gotten gains.”

That is why not long ago Governor Lamido released a total of N137 million for onward distribution to low income earners in the state in line with the state Talakawa summit, a programme aimed at alleviating poverty among citizens of the state. The Talakawa Summit was launched on October 18, 2008 with a view to alleviating poverty among low income earners including the local traders and craftsmen in the state.

The aim of the soft loan was to encourage citizens of the state to become self reliant, adding that, the programme would alleviate poverty among people and also reduce redundancy among youth in the state. Over N107 million was shared among various categories of small traders as well as traditional craftsmen.  

About 500 local birth attendants in the state were trained on simple hygiene and given working facilities with a view to improving their business. This is part of the administration policies of reducing the rate of maternal mortality rates in the state. They were given gloves and modern equipments to enable them conduct their business within the tenet of the global trend.  

Even his critics have testified that Lamido is indeed bent in providing the state with education, health, agriculture, rural development,  economic empowerment, employment, provision of infrastructure. The governor must be commended for doing his best in salvaging Jigawa the agrarian but poor state. His job is herculean bearing in mind that he inherited a state, which in the assessment of the Central Bank of Nigeria, remains the poorest in the country.

, Governor Lamido has vowed to deliver the state from the clutches of poverty. Despite his critics’ machinations, Governor Lamido seems to have maintained his government determined focus to reverse the poverty index by turning Jigawa around through empowerment of the Talakawa, who constitute the majority of the population.

Kiyawa, Dutse, Jigawa State.