Why Kebbi cannot look back

Until 2015, Kebbi state has had, all through, the misfortune of being governed by men in uniform. Since its creation in 1991 up to 1999 when the soldiers retired to the barracks, all the men who superintended it as governors were, naturally and obviously, military officers. While every other state had experienced a post-military-rule respite […]

Until 2015, Kebbi state has had, all through, the misfortune of being governed by men in uniform. Since its creation in 1991 up to 1999 when the soldiers retired to the barracks, all the men who superintended it as governors were, naturally and obviously, military officers. While every other state had experienced a post-military-rule respite as civilian and democratic rule set in, Kebbi had, unfortunately continued to have men in uniform, ex-custom officers at that, calling the shots. All its life, Kebbi has been ruled by men in different types of uniforms, until the emergence of Atiku Bagudu in 2015 when the spell was, quite pleasingly broken. The purpose of this piece is not to ridicule the contributions of the men in uniform who have served Kebbi as governors, but to underline the fact that the post-military rule had, more or less, been antithetical and adversative to the progress of the state. Without doubt, Kebbi has had the misfortune of being referred to, and rightly so, as Nigeria’s most underdeveloped state. Birnin Kebbi, the state capital is also seen as a glorified local government headquarters due mainly to the level of backwardness in both infrastructure and physical development deficits. As at today and until the change of baton to Atiku Bagudu who has already changed the narratives, Kebbi can easily be said to be at the receiving end of democratic rule owing to the mess these men in uniform have bequeathed after all these years.

But what is wrong, for crying out loud, with the rule of ex customs officers that the people of Kebbi state are terrified by a possible relapse to another set of misrule by another ex-customs officer as the country gears up for another set of general elections? Conversely, even before Adamu Aliero assumed office in 1999, Kebbi had, shortly before the late General Sani Abacha took over, been governed between January 1992 and November 1993 by Nigeria’s one-time National Director (Comptroller General) of Customs Alhaji Abubakar Musa. Although his tenure was too short to fairly assess him, his management style and body language had given an insight into the lackluster nature and attitude of both ex-customs officers in particular and men in uniform at large. By the time Adamu Aliero came on board in 1999 at the beginning of an 8-year (two term) tenure up to 2007 when he handed over to another ex-customs officer Sa’idu Dakingari, no one was left in any doubt that Kebbi was not likely to keep pace with its peer states in terms of development, not to talk of surpassing them. Of course, some attempts were made to leverage on road and school infrastructural development, but the way Kebbi was ultimately taken years backward in comparison with its peer states as well as the apparent commonality in the lack of vision and articulation of the very leaders who were responsible for Kebbi’s bout of woes had obfuscated whatever good intentions they harbored.

A classical example of the total lack of vision of past leaders was the way and manner they neglected the agricultural sector. The potentials inherent in the state particularly its capacity to produce enough rice, sugarcane and wheat to feed the whole of the West African sub-region due to the availability of soil-reach Fadama land and human resources, tells a graphic story of how barren and bereft of ideas the leaders were. It took Atiku Bagudu just few months in office to launch an ambitious rice production program which has greatly helped Nigeria to cut its 3 billion dollars annual rice import bill by about 80 percent. Today, Kebbi can boast of about five rice mills, with quite a few others lined up to be established as well as the attendant improvement in the economic well-being of its purely agrarian populace. Look also at the speed with which Birnin Kebbi and other major towns are receiving attention in roads, health, education and other critical infrastructure. Gradually, Kebbi is shifting away from its notoriety in infrastructure decay that has made it a laughing stock within the comity of other states into a period of prosperity driven by a quest to ensure a systematic and sustainable growth, anchored on the need to make life meaningful and worth living for its people within the framework of the resources available to it. It has been proved beyond all doubts that Kebbi has fared badly in the hands of men in uniform that have, from all indices served themselves rather than work for its progress. The dislocation and its attendant consequences can be seen in all facets of its life. Apart from Atiku Bagudu’s success story in the economic and infrastructure spheres of the state in so short a time, it will gladden the heart of the people of Kebbi state to see a complete reversal from the leadership mediocrity associated with our leaders in the past. I once had the privilege of meeting one of the Governors in the North and his testimony about ‘’Kebbi Governor’s calmness, intellect, charm and articulation at high level meetings’’ made my day and for the first time, I was personally elated and proud to be from Kebbi state. It will therefore be utterly uncharitable and unwarranted for any attempt to be made to reverse the new found gait that has already catapulted Kebbi to the zenith of its potentials through self-serving antics that are being sponsored by agents of the old order of servitude and retrogression. Kebbi cannot afford to jettison this much awaited journey of self-recovery and freedom on the altar of providing rehabilitation to a clique of rabble rousers and jobbers who are clearly buoyed not by a call to serve, but by a tendency to disrupt a match to economic emancipation for a people battered by years of cumulative leadership deficit.

Ibrahim wrote this piece from Kofar Kola, Old Town, Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State