How far can Atiku Bagudu go in Kebbi? (I)

The sun was up and it was terribly hot. The Total petrol service station roundabout was choked with vehicles. People and vehicles coming from the direction of the Wazirin Gwandu, Malam Umaru Nassarawa’s home, Ahaji Haruna Maigishiri’s residence, Local Government Service Commission’s headquarters and Bulasa all met at this roundabout and movement slowed down to […]

The sun was up and it was terribly hot. The Total petrol service station roundabout was choked with vehicles. People and vehicles coming from the direction of the Wazirin Gwandu, Malam Umaru Nassarawa’s home, Ahaji Haruna Maigishiri’s residence, Local Government Service Commission’s headquarters and Bulasa all met at this roundabout and movement slowed down to a snail’s pace.
At the “stadium” itself, there was only one thoroughfare as men, women and vehicles jostled for space. The arena lacked absolutely any sporting facility. It certainly had no football pitch or goal posts, basketball or badminton courts; it had no tartan tracks and certainly no changing rooms or functional toilets. Someone just made an enclosure and named it stadium.
It was a dusty and noisy “stadium”. There were gun-toting security agents consisting of army, police and civil defence corps personnel all over the place. It pleased God that there was no crisis, otherwise there would have been no way to evacuate people. If there had been any need to shoot, there certainly would have been many casualties. Emergency measures were near absent and people going in and out used the same and only gate. The arrangements inside were shoddy; from where the Governor and other dignitaries sat, they couldn’t even see the podium as people kept milling around them. It was a real security threat and the cursing and shoving of people by the gun-wielding security personnel came to nothing.
There was total lack of coordination, or there was serious disinterest in the whole ceremony by the former administration. Former governor, Alhaji Sa’idu Dakingari, who had fled the state by road en route to Abuja was said to have mandated the former Secretary to Kebbi State Government, Alhaji Rabi’u Kamba, to hand in the reins of power to the incoming governor. But by the time Rabi’u Kamba and the former Deputy Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Aliyu, arrived the grounds of the swearing in ceremony, the new Deputy Governor, Alhaji Sama’ila Yombe had been sworn in. The protocol was tardy indeed and many prominent citizens of Kebbi who had waited for an invitation to witness the transfer of power from the former government to the new one were disappointed.
Be that as it may, the oath taking ceremony of Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu went on peacefully, even if not colourfully. Reports have it that the former administration refused to cooperate with Bagudu all through the transition. Unlike in other states, the former governor refused to extend any courtesy whatsoever to his successor; there was no stopgap residence, no official vehicles, no allowances to offset transition expenses, not even a congratulatory message as Dakingari remained shell-shocked by the victory of Bagudu, his nemesis.  Almost the entire people of Kebbi were traumatized by the primitive attitude of the former governor. It is such a shame that the new governor was actually said to have committed his own resources to organise some of the requirements for his inauguration.
Can Governor Atiku Bagudu turn around the fortunes of the state? Can he develop a viable economy for Kebbi? Can he do something differently from his predecessors had done? There are two things that stand out in the underdeveloped status of Kebbi: agriculture and human resources. Over 90% of the population is made up of farmers whose methodology is backward. Bagudu has the onerous task of turning around agriculture in Kebbi by assisting farmers to move away from subsistence practice to commercial cultivation. If the people don’t take advantage of their land to produce food and cash crops and establish a value chain that improves income and combat unemployment, the state is doomed. Land is about the number one resource of Kebbi and the fortunes of the state are dependent upon how it is developed. Thank God our people have now understood that we can grow crops without waiting for rainfall. Bagudu must persuade the youths to form cooperatives and go into agriculture while he provides them land, loans and extension services so they can derive maximum benefits. Perhaps, the new government could tread the path of Kwara and Katsina states by inviting Zimbabwean and Songhai farming community to come and establish shop in Kebbi. We can grow beans, cassava, maize, rice, onions, spices, etc.
The menace of desertification is also something that Governor Bagudu’s administration should tackle urgently. A visit to the outskirts of Alwasa, Ambursa, Argungu, Birnin Kebbi, Dalijan, Gwandu, Gotomo, Kambaza, Masama, Zauro, etc, reveals a vast amount of land increasingly being enveloped by aridity. Unless conscious steps are taken to protect this area and others, in a few years time, the land there will be lost in which case agriculture will be threatened. Planting of trees is not rocket science; it was done very well in the First Republic and can be done again if there is the will.
Incidentally, agriculture – and the fight against desertification – is a veritable means of battling unemployment. As said elsewhere, youths can be given the task of planting and nurturing trees all across the state. A sizable number of these youths can be mobilised around tree planting with food vendors to feed them, musicians to entertain them and vehicles conveying them to and from the fields. The state government can then find a way of paying them some wages to encourage them.