El-Rufai and the choice of his running mate

BY AMIRU HALILU

“Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.” – George Gordon Byron

A vigorous discourse about the nomination of Dr. Hadiza Balarabe by Governor Nasiru el-Rufai as his running mate has totally and completely dominated public sphere; aroused all sorts of extraneous debate about her faith by the populace and the creation of inciting headline by a rather insensitive newspaper. This rub salt to the existing wounds; fanned the flames of hatred among the populace; put governance into lower ebb, turned the state into a shred of mockery, and finally, stuck the discussants in a retrogressive mode. All these are products of absolute shortsightedness born out of inability to look ahead.

Where logical reasoning trumps irrationality, the scorecard of the governor would have been the subject of measurement as election is drawing near, not the faith of the person he picks to be his running mate. But unfortunately, this needless debate will keep on carrying considerable weight in public domain and influence the electorate’s decision on who to vote and not to vote for because “religion is the opium of the masses” as Karl Marx put it. We will not progress until momentous issues outdistance worthless issues; until we are able to distinguish between our priorities and inferiorities as human beings and as at when due.

Governor el-Rufai has spent virtually four years in office, and he is now seeking re-election. Therefore, we should endeavour to ask ourselves crucial questions like: What has he done to deserve re-election? Can we entrust him once more with a job that requires a certain degree of trust? Has he met our expectations? What type of government has he been running? One Man business or inclusive government? Has he makes Kaduna great again or he has taken the state back to 19th century? Has he been a leader who listens to the people? Does he safeguard lives and properties as the chief security officer of the state? What are the conditions of our hospitals and roads? Does he give a damn about the welfare and well-being of the people?

The above, are the parameters that can be used to assess a leader’s performance and should have been the central theme for every discussion at this point in time. El-Rufai was a child of necessity when the good people of Kaduna state were desperately in need of political savvy to take over from the then seemingly mediocre and puppet governor. Thus, he was seen as the perfect man for the job based on his purported performance as FCT minister. But that particular belief perhaps opinion is no longer widely held by those who massively voted for him in the 2015 election, and the confidence and hopes vested in him were since eroded.

Sadly, he has not so much distinguished himself from his predecessors; neither his undoubted erudition translated so much into his style of leadership. He begins as a well-versed, with adroitly cutting down the size of commissioners in order to cut the cost of governance; he introduced and fully implemented TSA in order to block leakages, and started staff verification exercise just to get rid of ghosts workers. He established a security outfit – Kastelea to enforce law and order within the metropolitan city of the state, and he finally wooed Olam to invest in the state. These are his notable achievements.

Thereafter, the governor begins to behave like a loose cannon, turn the state into a world of virtual hardship where the fight for survival is very stiff; creating artificial pain in numerous families around the state. He persists in saddling numerous people with tension, fear, discontent and hardship. All in the name of civil service and education reform, and restoring the state’s master plan. Reform provides a moment of sooth and comfort from the array of distress and destitution; any reform that will torment people and enmeshed them into misery is a disease but nothing better.

As crime gangs day to day in the state, over fifteen thousand civil servants both at state and local government level were sacked from last year to date, and some will still go according to an unconfirmed source. It’s really a difficult time and gut-wrenching for the sacked workers. When one’s services were said to be no longer needed, his entitlement must be paid to him to relieve him from his financial hardship. But that’s not the case here, one year after, the sacked workers have been wallowing in abject penury without receiving their entitlement from the government.

When he descends on primary school teachers, many expressed fear that he may end up bastardising the sector rather than the reform he claimed to embark on, and what transpired was not far from that. He sacked 21,780 primary school teachers across the state after they were said to have failed to score 75% in an examination where propriety doesn’t matter at all. Where the newly recruited teachers are not better than the sacked ones. He promised to replace them with the best and brightest 25,000 young talents. One begins to wonder how on earth a 34,915 salary can woo a competent BSc holder.

How can a young talented graduate trap himself in a job whose take home pay can’t afford to put a decent meal on his table? That is more of a joke than a reality. Many have seen the education reform as a blueprint for cutting down the state’s wage bill rather than a real reform as those who spent twenty years and above and with higher wages were the ones who badly affected. The newly recruited teachers started receiving salary five months after employment when those in Kajuru L.G staged a protest. Those who were unlucky found themselves in rural primary schools had since dumped the job for fear of their safety. Most of the primary schools across the state now left with inadequate teachers.

“Insecurity is an invisible bogeyman hiding in the closet waiting for the light to go out” as it suggests. Therefore, the civil servants shouldn’t be seen as extras that need to be uploaded. Instead, they should be seen as people with capacity that can be reignited on a different part should the governor listens to the people and heed to their advice. Security is not about the presence of police and military, is about livelihood and economic brightness of the community. When the community feel abandoned and have no stake in governance, they will be readily available to unleash terror on the society. And anyone who can offer them that alternative part of survival, will readily get their commitment. This is the atmosphere the chief security officer of the state is somehow creating.

When you talk about roads, Kaduna state has the most terrible roads in the north-west region. Most of our roads have become death traps and our hospitals are no more than mortuaries. Some were successful in a short period of time but this government spent almost four years lurching from one controversial demolition issue to another, without commissioning any laudable project. Empty promises like the construction of five-star hotel, light rail, building six flats for teachers and bungalow for head-teachers, conversion of Rimi College into boarding etc are completely laid to rest.

Finally, let our leader’s performance should be our major instinct in the voting process, not anyone’s faith.

Amiru Halilu writes from Kaduna. Follow me @AmiruHalilu