Southern Kaduna, democracy and the way forward
For the people of Southern Kaduna, the scenario was the same with many opining that gains had been recorded, while others insisted that nothing had changed. In truth, the area has not fared badly. There are new roads while some old ones are better. There are bridges over some rivers, notably Bondong and Kiffin, where […]
For the people of Southern Kaduna, the scenario was the same with many opining that gains had been recorded, while others insisted that nothing had changed.
In truth, the area has not fared badly. There are new roads while some old ones are better. There are bridges over some rivers, notably Bondong and Kiffin, where people had lost hope. Such bridges have opened new vistas for many.
Democracy also brought chiefdoms in baskets and shared out. It introduced judicial reforms, established a state university and catapulted our people into offices hitherto considered impossible. And this has climaxed with one of us becoming the governor!
The gains are much, really, but the basic problems of injustices are still there. A mass of the people are till poverty-stricken. Education has been our main industry as it opens windows of opportunities, but our eminently qualified children are still denied university admission to read key courses like medicine, law, engineering, ICT, mass communication, et al.
The lucky ones get admitted into single honour courses so as to qualify to teach in secondary schools.
And, for those in service, discrimination is still their lot, a classical case being the refusal to appoint Prof Andrew Nok as Vice Chancellor of ABU, Zaria, even when he floored every co-competitor after a very strenuous test. Dr Yusuf Bungon suffered same fate in Kaduna Polytechnic some years ago.
In the hinterlands, the inhabitants are still helpless, hapless and hopeless, while the future for many youths is just bleak, blank and black as they are hardly guaranteed equal opportunities to compete for either uniformed or civilian jobs.
To worsen matters, funny politicians still push local agendas to deceive gullible ones. Thanks to such jingoists, the headquarters for the proposed Gurara State has travelled from Kafanchan, to Zonkwa, and now Kachia, depending on the team handling the project at a time.
To tackle collective concerns, we must seek out visionary leaders, who will put the people above individual considerations. Leaders, who understand our peculiar history and values and are prepared to promote, defend and protect them.
A task for the current generation is to identify such leaders, queue behind them, support them fully, and hold them responsible and accountable.
Democracy does offer a good chance to do that. So, we must see it, and by extension, the Patrick Yakowa governorship, as a means to an end, and certainly not an end in itself.
But to really explore the opportunity democracy offers, we must reject the situation where we have become a rubber stamp for just anyone thrown up by PDP primaries where “delegates’’ are openly bargained for, and bought. Politics, like the Americans would say, is too serious to be left in the hands of politicians alone.
We must also avoid any attachment to hollow ethnic turfs. I recall a top Jaba politician telling some delegates in 2007 that Senator Isaiah Balat, a candidate for the governorship, had bleak chances from northern delegates because he was Kataf. My shamefaced friend only got wiser when his kinsman, Nok, was denied the ABU top job.
Again, we must keep people in elected and appointed offices on their feet. They must show a sense of responsibility and be ready to shore up our fortunes. They must not be neutral on matters bordering on our collective values.
More importantly, we must reject elected people, who remain incommunicado, only to surface at election time with peanuts and petty things like wrappers, salt and soap, to get votes. We certainly can’t seek to grow and remain that cheap.
But it is also very crucial that we offer some solidarity to the governor, who is one of us. Without being sheepish, we must support him, offer advice and criticize constructively.
We must appreciate the pressure on him, especially what appears to be a media gang-up against him. Booby traps appear strewn on his part to distract him and colour him as a failure. For some individuals and groups, nothing he does can be good. A rights group just woke up from slumber and is in court asking for details of expenditure on the age-old Zaria waterworks!
Recall, too, that the governor has been under severe attacks for starting work on the Kafanchan campus of the State varsity. This is strange, coming from an area that host the ABU, FCE, State Poly, School of Agric, NITT, Aviation College, Leather Research Inst, College of Health Technology, Special Hospital, Shika, among many others.
Lest I am misunderstood, we must point out Yakowa’s shortcomings; he needs such criticisms to navigate a complex Kaduna State that is a meeting point of contradicting interests. But we must avoid playing to the gallery so as not to join, perhaps, inadvertently, the crowd eager to pull him down to prove some primordial historical perceptions.
Simply put, critics of the Yakowa government must be sincere and principled. The man sure has his minuses, like picking his age mates atop local government care-taker teams, when emphasis should be on grooming future leaders. Or even his somewhat slow approach to issues. Unfortunately, most “critics’’ merely hurl insults at people in offices to settle personal scores.
In fact, I know people whose only grouse with Yakowa is the claim that they were denied appointments promised them. Such Koko-da-kosai critics are of no use, really.
Again, a general sentiment in southern Kaduna, has revealed too much focus on the governor. This is wrong. We must put the searchlights on our law makers, appointees, and chairmen of local governments.
We should insist, for instance, that our National Assembly members must seek out the recruitment and admission patterns in federal and state organizations and fight to ensure that we get our quarter. I am not sure any of these representatives has ever bothered to get the employment or admission data of our ABU!
They should ask questions and insist on answers. They should also seek to know, again, if it is by sheer coincidence, that no southern Kaduna fellow had ever headed the ABU, or the Kaduna Polytechnic.
Really, our representatives must do more. There have been complaints that no law maker, state or federal, has visited survivors or victims of recent attacks, much less offer any succour. This is a huge shame!
At a more individual level, the professionals and the well-to-do must offer to help the less privilege. We must give a little back to the society. Retired AVM Ishaya Shekari, for instance, is building a university at Zango-Kataf. We must support and encourage him to complete it.
Chief Danjuma Laah has invested immensely in Kafanchan, ditto Gen. Nom, who has opened a ginger process factory. Adamu Marshal’s local tabloid, “Kabido’’, has also proved very crucial in information dissemination. Dr Thot used to offer free medical services to the poor. We need more of such foresights.
Office holders must also synergise to encourage skills acquisition to gainfully engage youths, while farmers should be encouraged to form cooperative societies so as to improve their yields and enhance market value of produce.
For a people heavily marginalized over the years, expectations are understandably very high, which may explain the pressure on Yakowa, but things won’t improve if we remain in any cocoon of pity, or become over expectant of the state government.
Indeed, democracy may not automatically offer solutions to our concerns, but it does give us the impetus to insist that we must be treated as equal stakeholders with one’s ascendancy to the ultimate not based on, or limited by one’s tribe, religion or any other consideration.
Tokan wrote this piece from Kaduna