Much ado about the Sardauna Foundation

One keeps wondering what a governor of a state that has no single standard primary or secondary school in his home state was doing in raising funds for a foundation which was meant to immortalize Sardauna? What the 19 Northern states governors today need is not snatching an event like that to show how really […]

One keeps wondering what a governor of a state that has no single standard primary or secondary school in his home state was doing in raising funds for a foundation which was meant to immortalize Sardauna? What the 19 Northern states governors today need is not snatching an event like that to show how really they love Sardauna, but to use the resources at their disposal to improve the standard of life of their poverty stricken citizens. Of what benefit is the foundation if the same money that was meant to provide water, schools and hospitals is set aside in a foundation that has no executive powers? Ninety percent of the present leaders of the Northern region are direct beneficiaries of Sardauna’s foresight of implementing good policies that bordered around education and improving the quality of life of his subject. The best way to immortalize him is to ensure they have done something similar to what the Sardauna did for the region 43 years ago.

Notwithstanding, our scepticisms and criticisms are of no use for now. The Foundation has been launched. Pledges and cash have been realized, ours here as usual is to suggest to the organizers what we think may be done so that the good intention of some of the organizers does not go in vain. For me, as many suggested, with the existence of Arewa House, the need for the Foundation does not arise in the first place. Arewa House, although some argue that since the centre is under ABU Zaria would not be as independent as a foundation, but Arewa House is a legacy that would have been considered in setting up the whole idea of the Foundation. It would have been easier for Arewa House to be adjusted to meet the aspiration of the Sir Ahmadu Bello Foundation. Arewa House as it is now has just been turned into an archival centre where most of the materials stored are in various stages of decay. How best can we immortalize Sardauna than to preserve his legacies?

According to the organisers, the objective of the Foundation is to undertake research on the life and legacies of the late Sardauna, in the areas of values in service, leadership, development strategies, education, religious and ethnic tolerance, transparency and accountability. However, this should be extended by really applying the funds raised to undertake a long term sustainable poverty reduction in a meaningful way that would make discernible impact on the life of the people of the North. Then a holistic approach has to be undertaken by the Foundation in making Arewa House to become research centre, inviting resource persons from time to time to undertake research in the areas of poverty alleviation, empowerment of the poor and also coming out with core programmes in economic and social development, health, education, and human rights. Thus, Arewa House has saved the initiators from building new offices for the Foundation, which may take years to finish.

Much as we want to help the North, our effort will be in vain if the political will is not there. Therefore it is the sole responsibility of state governors to drive the social change which the North is much in need of. In the last decade, the region has received an unprecedented revenue from the federation account which the Sardauna has never seen even 5% of it, plus also the excess crude funds and internally generated revenue. But the evidence of these revenues are not seen in the lives of our ordinary people. What characterized the region today is millions of school age children roaming the major streets of Kano, Katsina, Gombe, Maiduguri etc with begging bowls, large chunk of unemployed youth in every corner with little or no hope, religious and ethnic violence, which claimed over 20,000 lives in Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Bauchi, Maiduguri, the recent one being the Kala Kato incidence in Bauchi.

We are in deep crises as a society, but few, if at all, realize this. Is it not an evidence of hopelessness that derives Umar Faruk Mutallab to try to blow himself in a plane with hundreds of other passengers in far away Detroit? The North needs to organise itself. Our society is dying and we are busy squandering every opportunity given to us. The Sardauna Foundation therefore is not and should not be the last solution to our heaps of problems, but rather a starting point. The Foundation should start by identifying various societies around the North who are presently working with the poor, especially women and children to see how they can engage them in developing multifaceted development interventions and striving to promote positive changes in the quality of life of our people. But above all, we need sincerity of purpose to achieve our goals in changing the lots of our people.

Lawanti writes from Area 11, Garki, Abuja