Lamido and Jigawa’s political chancers

The state’s growth was stifled and its development distracted making the goal almost unrealisable.Keen political observers in the state have attributed the situation to past leadership failure, which they say Governor Sule Lamido has now restored, giving hope to the less privileged and clearing ways for ground breaking achievements.To a large extent the emergence of […]

The state’s growth was stifled and its development distracted making the goal almost unrealisable.
Keen political observers in the state have attributed the situation to past leadership failure, which they say Governor Sule Lamido has now restored, giving hope to the less privileged and clearing ways for ground breaking achievements.
To a large extent the emergence of Governor Lamido in 2007 has correc-ted the problems. His strategies have restored the lost confidence, and paved the way for the state’s rapid development. The state has now found a lasting solution to its various ailments. Lamido has provided the panacea to state’s development through his leadership and towering political figure.
Two things ought to be put into perspective: the history of political development in Jigawa State even before its creation out of the then Kano State, and the various roles played by its past administrators after its creation in 1991.
In sequence, six chief executives have served as governors prior to the emergence of Governor Lamido in 2007.
Before 2007, Jigawa was rated among the poorest in the country with so many challenges confronting it. Some even referred to it as a “glorified rural state”. Its work force was almost bewildered and confused.
Keen political observers attributed the state of affairs in Jigawa then to the era when “political day dreamers” were in control of affairs. The immediate goal of this category of politicians was just to grab power and oil their political relevance at all cost.
As leaders who were given a chance to serve but failed to act rightly, they suddenly turned as political critics and resurrected with “a brand name” to deceive people and revive their diminished identity and relevance. One good lesson about this class of politicians is their persistent agitation to remain relevant even though they are conscious of their failure to govern very well. Come close to them, they remain in perpetual lamentation as they always live in the past, striving hard to revive their lost glory. The same people who lost bearing are now busy misleading others as self-acclaimed critics.
In Jigawa State certainly, there are problems whose roots one can trace back to the military era. However, as keen political observers say, most of these problems were aggravated by amateur politicians whose trade in democracy is to feather their nest. But we cannot always use that history to justify incompetence, mal-administration, lack of economic vision, inept economic planning, poor execution, and now clumsy strive for political relevance. The time for excuses is gone. Jigawa people are now wise and are not ready for any slip into the past woes. Therefore rather than dissipate energy on aimless effort, politicians given the chance in the past but failed to meet up with the challenges must wake up, take responsibilities of their actions and own-up.
Two facts remain clear. One is how the Lamido administration is tackling the economic challenge and its knock-on effects on the state’s economy and the other on how he is tackling the “indignant” previous administrations’ set of agenda which inadvertently had been fluid and unfocused.
To a large extent, that might be the missing link, which the present administration has identi-fied and is vigorously wor-king hard to correct. The truth is that no leader that has his head in the right place should be looking out to dissipate his energy on people living in a state of permanent lamentation.
A leader who grabbed an opportunity to lead on a platter of gold but frittered it away must obviously bite his lips. But instead of living in a state of permanent lamentation after losing power, it is more honourable to own up and toe the line of greatness by appreciating the administrative acumen of Governor Lamido.
A careful comparison of the previous eight years with the current administration would humble anyone to appreciate the marked difference. The status of Jigawa has changed from a “rejected stone” to a “corner stone”. What the state is experiencing now is metamorphosis of a onetime “glorified rural state” into a great city-state with modern features capable of addressing its future needs.
In the past there were no good road networks, no structures to match a befitting state capital, no standard hospitals and the educational standard was falling. The list was endless. Now the Three Arms Zone comprising of the Judiciary building, the bureaucracy and the civil service building structures’ all located within the same district have been constructed by the present administration in a manner that the structures can compete favourably with Abuja’s Three Arms Zone.
Observers are of the view that while previous leaderships apparently focused attention more on things other than these basic rights to the people, the Lamido administration has changed the graphic picture by addressing them. The administration has also been taking leadership beyond the ordinary way, making the state a role model among its peers. The experience was so revealing with multiplier effect in terms of jobs creation, good governance and standards.
Indeed, the greatest arbiter of all the efforts when the history of Jigawa politics is written, is not man, not even the Jigawa people nor the insatiable elite, but inevitably, posterity.

Mago is Jigawa State Com-missioner for Economic Empowerment.