The challenges of representing Kano North
The emergence of a vibrant and one-time outspoken House of Representativesmember cum chairman, Appropriation Committee (pre-budget padding era of the erstwhile suspended Representative of Kiru/Bebeji) as a Senator representing Kano North has opened yet another vista of discourse amongst political science students and the electorates on what representation at the hallowed chamber of the Senate […]
The emergence of a vibrant and one-time outspoken House of Representativesmember cum chairman, Appropriation Committee (pre-budget padding era of the erstwhile suspended Representative of Kiru/Bebeji) as a Senator representing Kano North has opened yet another vista of discourse amongst political science students and the electorates on what representation at the hallowed chamber of the Senate entails. Such redefinition has changed the general perception of the electorate from being a crop of beggars who became vulnerable to the dictum of unwilling reps. However, current mantra of representation being witnessed at the northern senatorial district of Kano empowered the electorates to be briefed of the tenure of their elected representatives in form of performance rating, achievements and future plans amongst critical indices of measuring one’s scorecard.
Unlike in the past where the reverse is the case, Senator Barau has upturned the card by making elected representatives to be answerable to the electorate! A fraction of two years out of a four-year elective mandate may not necessarily measure an individual’s performance in view of economic and political challenges that bedeviled the current dispensation. However, the aforestated factor did not hinder Senator Barau from replicating and consolidating his past national calling or achievements while at the lower house with vigor, expertise and experience having wider constituency responsibility and coverage. The Kano north senator has dexterously exhibited courageous leadership and competence to deliver. His recent redeployment to chair the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and Tetfund from Downstream Committee is not only a welcome development but commendable. He vindicated his mettle and constituents that the confidence reposes in him will not be in vain as the objective behind his national representation is being rolled out day in, day out!
It is to the credit of this promising and forward-looking Senator that he tabled before the floor of the Senate the ‘urgent need to repair the deplorable state of immotorability of Karaye-Kiru-Bebeji federal highway. This section of his senatorial jurisdiction is not only Kano’s farmers’ pride zone but an untapped economic goldmine! Other significant national contributions tabled by Senator Barau and endorsed by the nation’s red chambers are additional federal roads that require urgent or complete overhaul not limited to Dayi-Kabo-Yalwan Danziyalupto Gwarzo/Kano road. What a positive way to transport farm produce and ginger economic activities for critical and sustained economic growth of the electorates and Kano State in general.
Kano North’s senatorial district would have perpetually remained a backward zone but for the ‘power of card reader and collective people’s will’ to change the status-quo’ which reshaped their destiny. Unlike the heartbreaking culture that pervades the zone for 16 consecutive years of misrepresentation, the zone is currently a potential host to federal institution. Recent moves by Senator Barau have made his sponsored bill to pass first reading for the ‘establishment of Federal Polytechnic at Kabo town.’
The quest to serve the public is not limited to northern senatorial districts in Kano State but recent strategy and effort of the distinguished senator has spurred him to sponsor and get the nod of his colleagues in the Senate to approve for the conversion of FCE Kano to “Federal University of Education.”If the senator were selfish and lacking in political sagacity as well as capacity to accommodate all he would not have promoted a cause that is beyond the shores of his senatorial zone.
Constituents of Senator Jibrin Ibrahim Barau consider his chairing of the Tertiary Institutions and Tetfund Committee as divine, as it enables his senatorial district to be emancipated from the retrogression that characterized 16 uneventful years by his predecessors. Kano North and other senatorial zones in the state would have recorded significant development in terms of human capital and economic development capable of repositioning the state in the comity of Nigeria’s federating units had it been its elected representatives at the national level had set a bar comparable to that of Senator Barau. However, the bar set so far has not only shut doors for opportunists to sneak their incompetence but has redefined the very essence of senatorial representation. What would have been the indices to measure the inestimable benefits derivable for the presence of a Federal Polytechnic in Kabo town and conversion of the FCE Kano to an elevated status of University of Education?
However, it is also not a forgotten memory that Kano State in spite of being the state with largest population lacks the presence of federal polytechnics, compared to others with less than one third of its human capital. The state would no doubt be an exporter of manpower skills in the fields of education, technical and others to neighboring states at the same time groom and serve as a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the needed manpower to drive and actualize the state economic roadmap for the next century. Whereas cynics and the established would have loved the status-quo against the paradigm shift that focuses on self-reliance, to critical development and investment in infrastructure.
While one is not cynical to Senator Barau’s prior chairing of the Downstream Committee, it is the general consensus amongst stakeholders in Kano State that the current national call for the senator is preferable and beneficial to his zone. We are living witnesses to the executive arm of government commendable deregulation of the prices of petroleum products which made the products available in all the nooks and crannies of the country, Nigerians would have been in queue or spending productive hours in this ember period but for the bold decision of Nigeria’s No. 1 change champion – President Muhammadu Buhari for which the input of this silent and vibrant senator while holding forte as the chair of the downstream committee would not be ignored.
Posterity will judge the duo of President Buhari and Senator Barau that it is during their stewardship that Nigerians stopped spending hours or days in search of fuel for their vehicles.
It is the general call of stakeholders of Kano North senatorial district and other critical interest groups that a robust and all embracing platform that serves as a ‘data bank for qualified and employable state indigenes’ not limited to Senator Barau’s constituency be sustained through employment placement and school admission hitherto lacking in opportunity. The senator’s acknowledged accommodative posture to people should be a platform of opportunity to potential students for universities and other tertiary institutions nationwide. This is because the presence of 3 universities in the state cannot comfortably accommodate the massive growth of admission-seekers annually. This is imperative to the sustenance of redefining national representation by focusing on manpower development and economic progress of youths whose quest to self-standing remain essential, and the bedrock for future growth.
Ayagi wrote in from Central Business District, Abuja.