Nasarawa: Still waiting for development

I too feel the pains we all feel as we gaze in disbelief that all of 100 days have passed so unceremoniously, so uneventfully and so sadly whereas we were supposed to have been swiftly swept into a tsunami-powered Eldorado of dramatic change. Rather than hitting the ground running, our pilot hit the ground and […]

I too feel the pains we all feel as we gaze in disbelief that all of 100 days have passed so unceremoniously, so uneventfully and so sadly whereas we were supposed to have been swiftly swept into a tsunami-powered Eldorado of dramatic change. Rather than hitting the ground running, our pilot hit the ground and got half-buried because he did not look before he leapt. So much time is wasted in trying to extricate the pilot from this self-inflicted predicament that I am vindicated in my conviction that Nasarawa State as we have known it can never be transformed by mere pronouncement, pomposity and populism, not even by our manufactured magician! The job is arduous and requires political maturity, public service experience and sincerity of purpose to deliver dividends of democracy without distraction.

When I last paid a visit to Lafia, it was for the purpose of getting close to the supposed engine-room of the Almakura Administration, perhaps to know what is cooking in the 100 days since the administration came into office so that perchance I might find reason to attach some hope to the hopeless situation I had been describing since May 29, 2011. That hope was dashed when I was reminded by several people I enquired from that what we have in Lafia is not an administration but a government, and that our government is currently without a cabinet because villagers across the state are yet to send in their candidates for the first talakawa regime in the state. Not wanting to be seen in the midst of these enemies of “change”, I went to the state secretariat to check on some friends who should be better informed about government, administration and 100 days. By a strange coincidence, all my friends were “not on seat” and this made the secretariat appear emptier than ever before. The few civil servants I sighted on my tour were looking dazed, yet to regain their composure following the double jeopardy of summary beheading (of over 30 permanent secretaries) and political promotions (assistant directors turned permanent secretaries) visited upon the civil service recently.

My worse worries were however wished away when one of my friends suddenly turned up and assured me that Nasarawa State needed neither government nor administration since it had already been dramatically changed into a, wait for it, jamahuriya or peoples republic! The permsecs were sacked because they only knew about running governments through administration and the talakawa unanimously agreed that junior officers in senior positions would adequately change the face of the civil service to their satisfaction which is the sole objective of a jamahuriya. I couldn’t disagree when I noticed that my friend had obviously joined what he could not beat! He was not alone in this although many have since retraced their steps out of frustration and disappointment about paralysis of governance taking the place of “positive change” since May 29.

It now dawned on me that unless I took time to gather my disjointed thoughts, I might not find my way back to Akwanga without the help of a talaka from Bukan Sidi, most of whom are widely believed to be consultants and change agents awaiting confirmation as commissioners and special advisers sometime in 2012. Straight I headed to the very heart of the jamahuriya located clumsily opposite an abandoned project. As the shrine of the jamahuriya, Government House, Lafia was remarkably in need of people.

Nasarawa State democracy is now a selected consultative assembly intent on sacking the state’s elected legislature for redundancy. At the top of this Tower of Babel is Governor Tanko Almakura fighting tooth and nail to get to the bottom of the tower so that he can hear from the grassroots what they really want him to do when he cannot hear their voices from the top. As at September 6, his 100th day in office, he was struggling to get to the bottom while the people are crying loud for leadership and development.

Akwati wrote from Akwanga