Guest Column

   

NigerianNews

Dauda Sulaiman
Southern Kaduna
Nigeria

Era of suffering in silence while state officials divert public funds into personal accounts at the expense of the masses is over. Enough is enough, the politics of religious and ethnic domination may have worked in the past but that kind of policy will not work in the 21st century.

Kaduna State Governor offers no apology for adviser's inciting remarks
by Dauda Sulaiman

The governor of Kaduna state Namadi Sambo has been silent and unapologetic to his state constituents in the south about the remarks made by his political adviser Hussaini Jallo on the December 9th issue of This Day paper. Jallo was quoted as saying "there is no vacancy in Kaduna State Government House come 2011 for a Southern Kaduna candidate" adding "even their ancestors know that they cannot ascend that post"

One may wonder what will make a political adviser say something that careless, but for those who are aware of northern politics know that groups who were conquered by the caliphate and became muslims were given political power over those who defeated the caliphate. Political leadership in the north is based on Islamic allegiance versus competence and good governance.

The statement also affirms the intent of Namadi Sambo and his cronies plan to steal the election in 2011 just like he stole the one of 2007 under the PDP umbrella.

Illegitimate Government, Poor results

As you travel in Kaduna and other towns in the state you get the feeling of living in a communist society. Along the streets are pictures of the chubby faced governor claiming to be doing a "good job" and providing "good governance". If you deviate from any of the major roads you better make sure your shock absorbers are in good condition because of pot holes and lack of construction.

I recently visited one of the local hospitals and the facility could not pass as a clinic, talk more of a government hospital. In the mist of this ill-equipped hospital with under paid staff and no medication is a nice colored poster of thegovernor on the wall of the "hospital". The poster showed Namadi Sambo examining a child with the promise of free: "Health Care for Pregnant Women", "Health care for children", "War Against Malaria".  The irony of the situation is that we were discussing the need for maternity and paediatric wards while this poster hung on the wall. I also wonder how much it cost to produce, print, and distribute these posters statewide, could that money have gone to better use.

Kaduna town has high traffic congestion and high cost housing issues. The governor's solution is to create a "new Kaduna City" which will only be affordable for the richest of the rich. Then again how does his plan solve the high cost housing and traffic congestion dilemma?    

Hiding behind Faith

Nigeria like most other African countries did not deal with the critical issues needed to be dealt with in other to create an all inclusive modern state which respected the rights of every citizen and equal distribution of state resource. Issues like separation between religion and state, and representation from the old emirate/chiefdoms to a new elected official were never addressed to fit a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society.

Both Sambo and Jallo are beneficiaries of the emirate system because even though they are non state indigenes, they were put into power because they are muslims over the Christian majority in the state. In the North, you will also not hear of a Christian being sworn in as a governor in a predominantly Islamic state even if he is the best candidate.

In a normal democracy this should not be a problem since the state has institutions which are there to serve people. What we have seen in this and previous administrations is a disproportional distribution of state resources (both human and capital). Northern Kaduna has the higher educational institutions, the best health facilities the state can provide, and every important political position with the exception of the deputy governor which is reserved for a Christian stooge. If sambo's policy was state wide instead of area wide he won't have to put up those posters to tell people he is doing a good job. They will know it themselves because they will live the prosperity.

This political paradigm does not only affect Christians, it serves to benefit the muslim elite only. Kaduna has high unemployment and has lost her industrial edge of the past, yet the same docile inept crop of people who call themselves leaders keep recycling themselves and their friends into office.

The muslim poor get the shorter end of the stick. They feel proud like they are in power but yet they live in abject poverty. They work around aimless, unemployed, uneducated, and ready to be used by the elites for Islamic causes. The "na mu ne" (our own) attitude in the north has to be destroyed. Namadi Sambo was picked on the sole basis of islam, he has no ideas, no new policy, and no plan to make the state great. All one needs to know is that, in his eleven point agenda, security is number one and not development. Citizens of the state who are ignorant believe that the emphasis on security was to curtail so called political crisis disguised as religious conflict, but reality is Namadi Sambo and his co-travellers are so paranoid with holding on to power to the extent of continuing the politics of "Democratic Dictatorship" in Nigeria. This is the only state apart from the Niger Delta region with the kind of security apparatus that has been put in place in order to complete the clamp down of perceived enemies, especially from  southern Kaduna to guarantee the perpetuation of his iron fist rule.

Moving Forward

An apology from the governor is not only needed but an acceptance of the resignation of Mr. Hussaini Jallo.

Secondly, there needs to be a close monitoring of the 2011 elections in Kaduna Sate to make sure the peoples wishes are granted and the result fair. Nigeria as a whole needs to stop the accepted practice of election rigging as it undermines the core tenets of democracy and representative government. The masses of this country with particular reference to Kaduna state, welcome in totality the political reforms initiated and soon to be implemented by Mr. President as well as strict adherence to the rule of law. This will eliminate the open brigandage and rape of political will that was witnessed in 2007, which promoted mediocrity over excellence with the attendant miseries that we are witnessing today in the state.

Politicians like Sambo who play the politics of ethno-religion and bribe any voice of dissent need to be replaced with visionary leaders who have an all inclusive agenda to develop the entire state. In the same vein the political usurpers from the geographical section known as southern Zaria who sacrifice the group interest in return for government patronage which comes in the form of SA/SSA etc or more appropriately described by the youths of the area as "poverty alleviation" for southern Kaduna misfits, must be avoided like the political vultures that they are.

Era of suffering in silence while state officials divert public funds into personal accounts at the expense of the masses is over. Enough is enough, the politics of religious and ethnic domination may have worked in the past but that kind of policy will not work in the 21st century.
 

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