Kebbi: Shunned, stunted (I)

From the Argungu end, the government of Sa’idu Usman Nasamu Dakingari is building a thirteen billion Naira (N13b) airport that is not needed. How many people in Kebbi use airport? Where do they fly to? As I write there isn’t a single school in Kebbi that is worth N13b. The people of Kebbi need schools […]

From the Argungu end, the government of Sa’idu Usman Nasamu Dakingari is building a thirteen billion Naira (N13b) airport that is not needed. How many people in Kebbi use airport? Where do they fly to? As I write there isn’t a single school in Kebbi that is worth N13b. The people of Kebbi need schools for their children not airport. Yet, Governor Sai’du Dakingari has gone ahead to expend 13b on an airport in Kebbi without any debate among the people on its desirability. There isn’t a single project that fascinates the governor like the airport; whether he is travelling out or returning in his endless movements in and out of the state, Governor Nasamu spares time to look in to the airport project. It is not even a fresh new construction project, it is an expansion. It is one project dear to the governor’s heart. It is a shame that despite his clamour and repeated vow that this year’s intending pilgrims to Mecca from Kabbi State would be airlifted from the airport, the project is yet to be completed. The non-completion of the project demonstrates the incompetence of both the governor and the contractor. The project was awarded without bidding to one hungry Chinese company called CGC. CGC has never built airport anywhere in the world, not in China or Gambia or Sierra Leone or Swaziland; that such a company could be given N13b to merely expand an existing aerodrome in Kebbi is symptomatic of the thoughtlessness and weird priorities of those at the helms of affairs in our poor home state.  The inability to get the project completed on schedule is a personal slight on Governor Dakingari.  Would he revoke the contract? Not at all, his hands are tied.
At the other approach to Birnin Kebbi from Jega is another beautiful white elephant. It is a storey building; it is supposed to be a hospital. Even though the building was constructed about two years ago, instead of doctors, patients and the required equipment, it is being occupied by goats, rodents and reptiles. Reason: the governor has provided neither the equipment nor the manpower to make it functional. Nor does he have the wherewithal; certainly, the Kebbi government hasn’t the trained medical personnel to run the hospital. Despite having been in power for six years, Governor Dakingari’s government didn’t make any conscious efforts to train medical doctors and other health professionals who can administer a big hospital in the state. But as usual, the government was more concerned with erecting the building than planning or checking ahead of time to see whether it has sufficient manpower to manage the so called hospital. To buttress his lack of imagination, the governor has named the hospital after Turai Yar’adua, only because she is his mother-in-law. Thus, there is no other mother in his village of Dakingari or anywhere in Kebbi that merits such honour.
Meanwhile, the Kebbi State government has displayed carefree attitude to the question of health care in Kebbi. Since the inception of this administration, medical doctors had had several rounds of strike to press home their demand for improved working conditions. The government has shown crass insensitivity to these demands and now most doctors have left the only specialist hospital in Kebbi – the so called Sir Yahaya Specialist Hospital – in Birnin Kebbi. There is absolutely nothing specialist about this hospital though as patients desert it and troop to the Federal Medical Centre for medical attention. The state government hopelessly watches developments because it has neither the will nor the courage to do what is right to keep the hospital functional. Sir Yahaya is like a ghost town and the few patients who have found themselves there have little or no hope of overcoming their illnesses. At one point, the governor was alleged to have urged the doctors to return to work in the interest of the hapless people of the state because according to him he and his relations would not attend the hospital as they had the resources to be treated somewhere else. It is amazing that despite its failure to maintain Sir Yahaya hospital, the KBSG has gone ahead to build another one.
Meanwhile, Birnin Kebbi is the dirtiest state capital in Nigeria. However, the prize for the darkest and dirtiest government house actually goes to Kebbi Government House (KBGH). The road leading to KBGH is flooded during rains and the approach to the place doesn’t inspire confidence. From the surroundings to its innermost recesses, the KBGH is an eyesore. The gate of the house is ugly, its front is unkempt and the walls are anything but befitting. The governor’s office, not to talk of the offices of his aides, has cracked walls and lacks the requisite furniture. Even before you enter, you are greeted by a place whose occupants possess neither taste nor seriousness. At the residential section from where the governor often attends to official business, there is a monarchical attitude. Whereas the governor remains holed up upstairs – doing God knows what – his commissioners and other top government officials hang around patiently downstairs waiting to take their turns to conduct official business, and this could take hours. Those vital ingredients of democratic governance like accountability to the people, consultation, inclusion or teamwork, transparency, debates, adherence to due process as well as delegation of responsibilities are paid lip service to and the governor acts just like a village head. But unlike the real village head, there is a huge gulf between him and citizens of Kebbi.
If the KBGH section of the governor is this bad, the one occupied by the deputy governor is worse. The correct description of the home of Alhaji Ibrahim Khalil Aliyu is a pig sty. It has to be because Kebbi State Governor Sa’idu Dakingari doesn’t reckon with his deputy; he actually disdains him. Alhaji Aliyu is like a team member not even on the bench. There is so much distrust between him and the governor that Alhaji Aliyu had several times threatened to resign and was prevailed upon to stay by the Emir of Yauri, Dr Zayyanu. On the other hand, the home of Zainab Yar’adua, the wife of the governor, doesn’t appear to belong to the Kebbi clime at all; that house is like a duplex plucked from the French Riviera.
By the way, Governor Dakingari holds no cabinet meetings; in addition to being the governor, he is the cabinet. He rules, and often misrules, as the spirit directs. He alone initiates projects, monitors and pays for them.