Ibrahim Shema: Katsina’s unforgettable governor clocks 67

BY OLAWALE OLUWABUSOLA

On September 22, Dr Ibrahim Shehu Shema, a former governor of Katsina state, clocked 67 years of age. Born in 1957 in Dutsin-Ma, Dutsin-Ma LGA of Katsina, he had his primary education at the Nassarawa Primary School, Katsina, between 1964 and 1971 and thereafter proceeded to Government Secondary School, Kafanchan, in 1972, for his secondary school education, which he completed in 1976.

Upon successful completion of his IJMB examination at the College of Arts, Science and Technology in Zaria in 1980, he enrolled at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where he earned the degree of Bachelor in Law in 1983. His call to the bar followed immediately after he successfully completed the mandatory Law School Programme in 1984.

His belief in personal development through education saw him further enrolling for and obtaining two master’s degrees from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The first is a master in business administration (1998), and the second is a master in international affairs and diplomacy (1999). He is an undisputed architect of modern Katsina state as a result of massive human and physical infrastructural development executed by his administration.

The Channels Television presenter, Nneota Obase Ogbe, in December 2023, during an interview with Shema for the station programme, News Night, asked, “Some people referred to you as a stingy governor?” Shema responded, ” a stingy governor? Why wouldn’t I be stingy with public funds for my administration to record landmark achievements? You can’t be sharing public funds and record meaningful achievements? ”

Truly, Dr Shema, as a governor between 2007 and 2015, may be said to have been stingy with public funds. He was loathed by many political elites in the state for his refusal to be ‘generous’ with public funds. However, there is no Katsina state indigene, including his detractors, who can deny the fact that his administration executed laudable projects such as the construction of over 3000km of roads, 361 clinics in 361 political wards, built a 250-bed orthopaedic hospital, 86 primary health centres, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua University, over 200 new secondary schools, 100 ALLO Model schools to support Almanjiri education, built ICT and Business Institute, established Youths Craft Village, built 35,000 sitting capacity Olympic size stadium, new Government House, Katsina City Mall, Dubai International market, provided over 3500 housing units across the state.

Shema’s financial discipline also enabled his administration to build over 100 semi-urban water schemes, procure and distribute 340 Messi Ferguson tractors at discounted prices to farmers, establish Songhai agricultural projects in three senatorial districts of the state. He also bought over 100 vehicles for Katsina State Transport Company, procured road-making equipment, and dualised township roads of Daura, Mani, Malumfashi, Kankia, Funtua, Dutsin-ma, among many other numerous road projects.

Shema’s frugality made it possible for his administration to not only pay civil servants salaries between the 22nd – 24th of every month without owning any month throughout his eight years as governor, but he also left over N14 billion in the coffers of the state and local governments. He did not borrow money from any source. Hence, he left a debt-free state. So for anyone conversant with the political trajectory of Katsina state, it will not be far-fetched to discover that the grouse of some people in the state with Shema was premised on his style to channel public resources for public course, rather than opening it up for sharing among few political elites by been generous with the public funds.

However, Shema’s name is a toast and darling of people on the lower ladder of society, even in the remote area of the state. They always remember him for making education free for their children, including sponsorship of many of their children to study abroad. He made fertilisers available to farmers at a cost lower than N1900 throughout his tenure in office. He provided a rural ambulance health service scheme for rural dwellers at no cost to any of them. He nipped in the bud any security challenge and thus made the rural areas safe for farmers to practice their farming.

Katsina State is an agrarian society with very low internally generated revenue. Also, being a civil service state, the main source of revenue is the monthly allocation from the federation account. In such a state with huge monthly wage bill for civil servants, it will be difficult for any meaningful infrastructural development to take place under any Governor except the person who is ready to be stingy with public funds.

The tone of being stingy with public funds in the state was laid by Shema’s father, mentor, and leader, the late Umaru Musa Yar’adua (Katsina state governor between 1999 – 2007). It sounds amusing seeing some of the elites including his aides who suddenly became Yar’adua’s apostle, using his name in death to write books and for political campaigns, eulogising the late former governor and president of Nigeria. However, to state the truth, many Katsina elites hated Yar’adua simply due to his stinginess with public funds. Yar’adua’s name resonates more and louder among the poor and masses whose communities were transformed by his policies.

The attributes of being stingy with public funds by Yar’adua when he was a governor made the political elites and some of his aides to usually gang up to sabotage his political activities. It was not an easy ride for him to win his re-election as a governor in 2003. In the election where the opposition party, ANPP won two out of the three senatorial seats in the state. Towards the end of his second term in office, before he was chosen as PDP presidential candidate, some of his aides started to abandon him to pitch their tent against Yar’adua’s political interest. It was a sudden turn of events of his emergence as PDP presidential flag bearer and his election as President of Nigeria, which made many of them quickly make u-turn to give him support.

Yar’adua, an apostle of transparency, honesty, and integrity, through prudent management of resources, laid a solid foundation for the modern Katsina state. He was abused, accused, and hated by the political elites in collaboration with some of his aides due to his refusal to make public funds available for sharing.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Shema who followed the footsteps of Yar’adua as a governor, became despised and envious by some political elites for his refusal to open the public treasury for sharing, and also due to his intimidating record of his achievements. However, his greatest assets are the mass populace of the people, whose children his administration sponsored to be trained abroad to become Doctors, Nurses, Physiotherapists, Radiologists, Dentists, Engineers, Pharmacists etc; people who suddenly became house owners through his administration’s mass housing projects of building more than 3,500 housing units across the state including the FCT, Abuja. Also, the parents whose children enjoyed free education, including payment of WAEC, NECO, and NABTEB exam fees by the government.
The list also includes pregnant women and accident victims who enjoyed free medical care in all the state-owned hospitals.

Shema, a cosmopolitan and ingenious politician is a class on his own. He does things with precision and a touch of excellence, and no wonder whatever he touches becomes gold. In the school of political mentorship of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua, Shema stands out as the most enduring legacy of service to humanity. In my relationship of over 20 years with him, his passion and commitment to a progressive society are legendary.

He prioritises common good over personal benefits. I can recall vividly in 2015 after he completed his second term in office as a governor and was succeeded by Aminu Bello Masari in an election won by the then-opposition party, APC, he told me and all the people around him not to do anything to undermine the success of the new administration in the state. According to him, politics aside, the progress and development of the state is dear to him and this can only be achieved if the new administration is allowed to concentrate.

He appointed me as his spokesperson and head of his media team when he left office in 2015. Immediately the new administration took over in the state and started hauling stones at him, although he was not in Nigeria then, his associates and supporters were feeding him with the news of the turn of events in the state.

Rather than urge them to react, he would persuade them not to do anything that would affect the progress of the state. Each time he received such news, he would put a call through to me with an appeal never to do anything on his behalf that may distract the new administration. He held the belief that the success of Governor Masari’s administration is the success of Katsina, which matters to him. In one of our discussions, he specifically told me the need for us not to undermine the new administration in the interest of the state.

He holds the belief that politics that will not serve the interest of the people should not be practised. Whether that is the norm in Nigeria or not will be a matter for another day. In this present dispensation, he has spoken to me time without number about Katsina and Nigeria, on the need to give maximum support for the success of the administration of Governor Umar Dikko Radda and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He emphasised that the duo are leaders who mean well in providing good governance for the populace. According to him although the present situation is tough and challenging, it is going to be temporary due to the sincerity, dedication and commitment of the leaders I earlier mentioned.

He is a well-cultured and polished politician. In the eight years of his travails of persecution, abuses, malicious allegations and insults, he remained calm and polite to others. There is no insulting, abusive or derogatory statement against his detractors that can be attributed to him. To maintain this position assiduously, he gave me a standing instruction not to react to issue on his behalf no matter how highly provocative without discussing the matter with him. This I have kept religiously with just one exception, and the exception is my annual tribute on his birthday, which I usually do without him having an inkling into my writing until when it is published.

As a lawyer, Shema had no problem navigating the terrain of legal practice, especially in the area of international law, which he chose to focus on. One can say unequivocally that the successful outcome of the legal challenge mounted against Boeing Seattle, Washington: the US manufacturer of the Nigerian Airways plane that crashed in Kaduna in 1995 was much to the credit of his legal practice. As a result of this, Dr Shema and his US partners, the Law Offices of Sterns and Walker, were able to compel Lloyds of London to pay compensation, running into millions of Naira to victims and dependents of passengers of the ill-fated flight.

In addition, Dr Shema has handled numerous other corporate and aviation cases in Cameroon, France, the United Kingdom, the USA, Saudi Arabia, and others.
As a professional legal practitioner, Shema is also a member and fellow of several distinguished professional bodies including the Nigerian Bar Association, International Bar Association, American Bar Association, International Institute of Arbitrators, International Dispute Resolution Institutes and Centre for America and International Law, to mention just a few. He is also a Notary Public of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

Beyond his distinguished legal practice, his sojourn in other areas of the business world is also no less impressive. He was at different times the managing director of Solidary Holdings Ltd, Kaduna, and Tools Manufacturing Company Limited, Lagos, He served as the chairman of Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), and he’s also on the board of other companies.

Happy birthday to my oga, mentor, exemplary leader, and first-rate administrator.

Olawale Oluwabusola is head of the media team of the former governor, Ibrahim Shehu Shema