By Femi Oyelola
One month is quite inadequate to assess the performance of a political leader, but for indigenes and residents of Kaduna State, Governor Uba Sani has laid a road map that delighted the citizens as they can clesrly see signs of peace, progress and developments coming in their way in nearest future.
Sani, immediately after taking the oath of office, hit the ground running, having a series of meetings and reconciliations with political actors, religious and traditional leaders, and other stakeholders in the state.
The key points of the various meetings are to give assurances of carrying all citizens along in his government. He reiterated
the assurances in his Eid El-Kabir speech on Wednesday, June 28, 2023 in which he said that his Government is committed to delivering on its promises to the people of Kaduna State.
Sani in his speech said his Government in a short time from now, shall commence its rural transformation drive. “It shall be all embracing and extensive. The economies of the rural communities will be revived through massive infrastructural development.
“We shall adopt the bottom – up, inclusive approach. Key stakeholders will be fully involved in this task.
“Our administration has initiated dialogue with key stakeholders on the key challenges facing Kaduna State and the pathway to sustainable peace, progress and development,” Sani said.
Gov Sani however, said for this to happen, it requires peace and stability, saying troubled communities must experience peace again. “We need to step back and ask ourselves some hard questions. Have we been fair to our neighbours?
“Have we contributed to enhancing or undermining peace in our communities? Are we happy with the level of distrust, disharmony and disillusionment in our communities?
“Can we, in all honesty, say we have been doing the will of Allah? If we sincerely search our consciences, it would be clear to us that we have indeed distanced ourselves from Allah and urgently need to seek His forgiveness.”
The Governor opined that for Allah to forgive, people must first reconcile with their neighbours and contribute to peacemaking in communities; stressing that the citizens must realize that they are one person, noting that differences are only artificial and their strength lies in unity.
“We must see dialogue as the path to sustainable peace. We can transform conflicts into opportunities for understanding and sustainable development.
“We must approach our problems with an open mind and leave a window for forgiveness. Rapprochement by warring communities is key to checkmating criminal elements in our midst,” he added.
Walking his talk on tackling the insecurity in the state, the governor in collaboration with security agencies in the state are up in their game, making Kaduna no longer at ease for criminal elements. Some crimes visible within the metropolitan city are gradually fading away. The same goes to communal clashes and herdsmen/farmer clashes.
Giving credence to this, the State Commissioner of Police, Musa Yusuf Garba, in a recent interactive session with newsmen said the Command working under the directives of the new IG of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, in collaboration with the Kaduna State Government has taken the battle to the criminals’ enclave.
He said a popular kidnapper in the state, Ibrahim Isa, a.k.a ‘Yellow’ who has been on the force’s radar watch has been arrested.
According to the Police Public Relations Officer, (PPRO) of the Command, DSP Mohammed Jalige, Yellow’ and one other who is on the run recently kidnapped one Kabir from Maijere village and killed him after collecting N120, 000 ransom.
He added that within the same, period the command busted a rail vandalism gang where three trucks loaded with rail sleepers were intercepted.
Also, on the order of Gov Sani to fish out the killers of Ardon Birni and Kewaye of Zazzau, Alhaji Shuaibu Mohammed, and his four children, the command switched into action and has arrested three suspects
This is a deviation from the norms where suspects commit crimes and still walk free.
A resident of Zaria city, Mohammed Isa, said since the inception of this Government, common crimes in Zaria such as dangling dangerous weapons to snatch phones, drug and substance abuse has reduced drastically.
Similarly, trader in Kawo market, Abubakar Ladan, said bags and phones snatching has also reduced since this Government came to power. In his word,”the criminals’ are now aware that if they do anyhow, they will see anyhow.”
Governor Sani within the time frame also constituted a committee to determine the status of the ongoing capital projects spread across the 23 local government areas of the State as inherited from the immediate past administration of Nasir El-Rufai.
The Committee, chaired by the Special Adviser to Mr Governor on Investment & Promotion, Sabiu Sani is to also look into those projects in the pipeline – all in line with the government’s commitment to speedily complete all priority projects in the State.
In addition, the committee has the mandate to get the details of contractual agreements/obligations, find out the funding arrangements and commitments of the parties, find out the completion period of the projects and come up with specific recommendations on each project.
Similarly the Governor also constituted a high powered Committee to probe activities of the state government parastatals, with a view to review their performance.
The Deputy Governor, Dr Hadiza Sabuwa Balarabe, will be the chairman of the committee which will be assessing the complete records of the Heads of the Parastatals to ascertain their qualifications and experiences.
Explaining reason for the committee Governor Uba Sani’s Chief Press Secretary, Muhammad Lawal Shehu said, the decision to review the parastatals activities was made in line with the Governor’s commitment to ensuring that government agencies are operating at the highest level of efficiency and effectiveness.
According to him the Committee will be responsible for conducting a comprehensive analysis and appraisal of all state government parastatals to assess their performance, identify areas of improvement, and make recommendations where necessary.
Senator Uba Sani as the welfare man he is on June 23 approved the payment of salaries for Kaduna State Civil/Public Servants as well as the Pensioners for the month of June 2023.
Accountant General of the State of Mrs Shizzer Nasara Bars said those affected will start receiving their salaries and pension alerts from June 24th 2023.
The Kaduna amiable Governor also wade into the Federal Government College (FGC), Kaduna, land issues when he
met with the old students of Federal Government College (FGC), Kaduna, over the annexation of the school’s land by former Governor Nasir el-Rufai administration.
The old students, under the auspices of Unity Schools Old Students Association (USOSA) and Federal Government College Kaduna Old Students Association (FGCKADOSA), had staged a protest, at the College premises, calling on Governor Sani to restore the college’s landed property annexed by the El-Rufai’s government.
At that meeting, Governor Sani told the old students that he had not closed his mind to the request by the college stakeholders, with the belief that the former governor decided to annex the land for security reasons.
A source at the meeting told journalists that the Director General of Kaduna State Urban Planning and Development Agency (KASUPDA), Ismail Umar-Dikko, who was invited to address the meeting, explained that the land was excised due to the ravaging insecurity and kidnapping of school children in North West.
According to the DG, that was why the portion of the land remained undeveloped for over 50 years, and that because the school is close to River Kaduna, it is open to easy attack by bandits.
The governor noted that, as a senator, he knows that the 1976 Land Use Act puts all lands in a state under the control of the governor.
He said: “The governor has the power to allocate and re-allocate land, especially if it borders on public interest. So, I believe El-Rufai decided to annex the land for security challenges, which have been compounded by ungoverned spaces.
The former government, in its wisdom, felt it did not have to wait for insecurity to happen around the FGC before taking action, because the portion of the land annexed borders River Kaduna and Keke Community of New Millennium City, where series of kidnap cases have been reported.”
The meeting was a welcome development,President General of USOSA, Michael Magaji, who led the delegation to Government House, thanked the governor for the invitation and expressed USOSA’s displeasure over what he called the encroachment of FGC Malali, Kaduna’s land.
Magaji requested that the governor carries USOSA’s executives along when he embarks on the visit to the school.
Gov Uba Sani may have not stayed long as the hayman in Kaduna State, but his morale support to the ground and air troop has drastically put a panic in the hearts of bandits in the bush that hitherto has made life miserable for citizens.
It is not surprising that the last thirty days of Gov Sani’s administration, there is a new breath of air of confidence among the citizens, however in the word of Jonah Dickson, a youth leader from Chikun LGA, they hope Government will sustain the momentum to regaining the Crocodile’s city lost glory.
