Wamakko: Why we can’t fill Sardauna’s shoes

Governor Wamakko said the region’s population is much bigger than it was in the 1960s and there has been an exponential increase in demands by the people. The forces that are at play in the region today are very different from the ones that obtained in the premier’s days, he said. The society’s values have […]

Governor Wamakko said the region’s population is much bigger than it was in the 1960s and there has been an exponential increase in demands by the people. The forces that are at play in the region today are very different from the ones that obtained in the premier’s days, he said. The society’s values have completely changed due to foreign cultural influences, he said, and the level of societal indiscipline has greatly increased. Also, he said, the growth of the news media in the region has accelerated the pace of discussion and complaints and has made leadership much more challenging.

 

Alhaji Aliyu said infrastructure in the region is much more developed now than it was in the 1960s, and that there could be as many kilometers of tarred road and as many schools in just one state today as there were in the entire region in the 1960s.  He said one of his biggest challenges in Sokoto State is the scattered nature of settlements with small towns and villages being far from one another and each demanding the provision of amenities. It would have been much easier if they were clustered together, he said.

He said governors of the Northern states are deeply committed to tackling the region’s many problems and that they meet regularly to compare notes and to work out region-wide solutions. He said as chairman of the Northern Governors Forum’s security committee, he has recently visited Maiduguri, Jos, Kano and Kaduna where he met with community leaders, clerics and other stakeholders. He said he cannot at this point reveal the discussions that took place, but said the insecurity challenges in the North are not only for governors to tackle but everyone else has a role to play. He said, “I was in Maiduguri for this assignment, but some newspapers said I was there to persuade the Governor of Borno State to decamp to PDP. It is not my duty to do that and that was not why I went to Maiduguri.”

Wamakko also said, “The problem of insecurity in the North is not the problem of the North alone. It is the problem of Nigeria as a whole. When one part of your body is sick, then you are sick. When the OPC problem persisted in the West and when the problem of militants bedeviled the Niger Delta, we didn’t see it as their problem alone, but as a problem for the country as a whole.”

The governor also said although state governments do not control the security agencies, they shoulder most of the responsibility for their upkeep. He said while the Federal Government pays the salaries of security personnel, it is state governments for the most part that provide vehicles, communication and other gadgets as well as welfare needs of the security agencies. He added, “But when there is a problem and as governor you call the Police Commissioner, he will say no, he must first clear with the Inspector General, who in turn must clear with the National Security Adviser, who in turn could say he must clear with the President.”

Governor Wamakko was received at Media Trust Limited by the managing director/chief operating officer Alhaji Isiaq Ajibola and the Editor-in-Chief, Malam Mannir Dan Ali.