By JAFAR SANI BELLO GAMA
I start this piece with a sorrowful, heavy but untainted heart, with a major surgical insight into Governor Shekarau's five-year maladministration of an unprecedented in-flow of mind bugging revenue figures with nothing to show for it, apart from the media propaganda perpetrated by the state owned electronic and print media with even the private and federal owned, such outfits not spared with his government's 'paid for' chat programs (that's all they are), articles and advertorials.
This is the result of a government without a manifesto, built on the onus of deception and alters of fake Shari'ah governing. By default, even the doubting minds have now realized, as attested to by recent events, where Kano indigenes performed one of the rituals of Holy pilgrimage at one of the newest but temporary sites within the walls of the ancient city. Though a lot has been said by agents of the government, but all are stories as every indigene of Kano is aware of the incident. This settled in the climax of the matter when in an interview anchored by a Voice of America (VOA) correspondent Shekarau said “General Buhari was the root of all his travails”. I think, it's rather 'General Buhari is the cause of Kano's travails'. I believe Buhari will in due course tender his apologies to the people of Kano for his part in the advent of this government. Shekarau has promised to take it up with the management of VOA, let's cross our fingers and watch for I assure you nothing like that is going to happen remember Sunday Champion, of September 10, 2006 page 11.
I can not imagine where a revenue of over 400 billion Naira (see Federal Ministry of Finance allocations publications) with 49.5 billion of it spent in just part of this democratic year alone i.e May 2007- April 2008, two-third of Kwankwaso's four years blessed tenure expenditure, with over 600 capital projects to showcase.
Water supply being the crux of this administration, remember Bala Mohammed's article back page of Daily Trust captioned Kano's first rains of 2008. Here Bala assured the people of Kano of Governor Shekarau's promise of steady water gushing taps through out the greater Kano metropolis and its environs. The Governor and his foot soldiers are habitual of making false assertions with a view to confusing the populace. Remember that not all the people can be fooled all the time, as they can be fooled some of the times, some of them all the time, but never all the people all the time. This is the reality they have failed to come to terms with, thinking everyday is Sallah day. The people of Kano in their majority have come to realize the deceptive jargons used daily to distort their rationale. They cum perpetually ask what sort of Shari'a is been practiced, when being part of the Commission is a sure path to illicit wealth, when government officials embezzled over N4.5 Billion in just 2006, what has been the benefits from the N11 Billion worth Tamburawa water treatment plant? The people of Kano naively accepted the “Diban karan Mahaukaciya” according to the Malam Governor, not knowing he meant a fruitless effort in addressing the water crisis, only to be bombarded later on with excuses of power failure as if at the commencement of the project there was steady power supply but at the completion of the project power became erratic. Seeking for answers that have not been provided yet!
We have a Governor that doles out money for the pleasures of the elite, few in the name of pilgrimage, lesser hajj and medical trip sponsorships and dashing out state of the art cars of Honda, Mercedes and of recent, Toyota makers of Prado Jeeps recently distributed to our District Heads and members of the state's Emirate Council, Kano-Japanese and Germans smiling all the way to their accounts sipping the poor masses dry. The problem with this largesse is the misappropriation of priority and the extra budgetary expenditure. I challenge them to show me where such an appropriation was made either in 2006 or 2007 budgets. They might be quick to point out that the Jeeps where procured by the Local Government Councils, agreed, was it budgeted for in the Council's respective budgets? I bet not. Since when has the responsibility of buying cars for members of Emirate Councils and the District Heads become the responsibility of our Local Governments? Take it that the District Heads have a role in our society's governance, what about the purchase of those expensive Honda cars for our lower and upper National Assembly members, what about those Mercedices for our bourgeois, leadership of the ANPP and including a former Vice President.
All these events are taking place at a time when our taps have never been drier. This Governor is not serious. In the 2007 budget, the sum of N100 million was said to have been expended on the construction of a new reservoirs on Bompai Hill. The rest of it was a hoax as it was for so many other budgetary provisions, for there is no water to store in it. They have bundled tax payers money into Tamburawa and now they are moving to Watari with another N1Billion said to be spent. That was how Tamburawa started as a N5.6 Billion (see 2007 budget) project, but gutted a whopping N10 Billion before its purported completion, to which now Governor Shekarau has nothing to show apart from the massive big elephant structure as he recently said in hausa “Wallahi ko injinan da ke wurin kadai mutum yagani ya san munyi kokari” machines with no purpose. In the same 2008 not a word was made mention of in relation to the construction of the N100 million, new reservoirs on Bompai Hill (see 2007 budget).
Kano is witnessing another fraud in the name of the N15 Billion (see 2008 budget) Kanawa Trade Center; it seems that we have not heard of the last of multi-Billion Naira scams with the demise of fertilizer importation. The fertilizer contract was given to a person with no track record of ever handling such a huge procurement contract. This caused the state hundreds of millions of naira. Shekarau has not learnt any lesson and now it is the Kanawa Trade Center. The project handler with no experience in real estate development has lured the Shekarau's administration in using millions of tax payers' money to secure the site and this is another big hoax waiting to explode. The development of the much talked about Kanawa Trade Center is nothing but a mirage and as is the proposed 20,000 housing units. Ask why and I'll ask you, how can an administration that has failed to deliver on the Rural Housing Scheme of 12 houses in each of the state's 44 Local Government Areas, i.e a total of 528 units since 2004, we are now at the tail end of 2008, with nothing on ground yet; this is at a time serious administrations, like that of neighboring Jigawa have completed the first set of 500 units, already occupied in a span of one year.
With a decimal of honor this administration ought to have resigned, for it had severely breached the constitution on countless occasions. The people of Kano had to wait for 5years to learn that the former Governor Engr. Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso left the sum of over N3Billion in the state's coffers, as he said he did, when Shekarau swore he'd only meet N300Million in the treasury, even exclaimed “lissafi baya ci” truly “ko bai ci ba?” At the instance of a lawyer before a judge during a trial, the states SSG was squeezed into confessing that the money used in the scandalous fertilizer contract was left by the previous administration of His Excellency Engr. Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. Booooom!!! Came in the shocker from an insider, as it's said in hausa “karya fure ta ke”.
Shekarau has over the period of 5 years turned into a globe-trotter, as if a player of one of the top flight European clubs in the Champions League, junketing around the world a record number of times in the name of attracting foreign investors. What do we see for it? Nothing, with all the Billions spent in airfares, hotel accommodation, feeding, transportation etc, I challenge this administration to show me any of the gains obtained so far. All that is brought back to the people of the state is stories. Few of such stories; Shekarau was in Serbia over the issue of NECCO that is partly owned by Energo Projeckt. Take a look at NECCO today along Zaria road, its in ruins. The dawn of Governor Shekarau has obliterated it (see the march towards good governance 2004). He was in Germany and promised to bring in refuse to fertilizer conversion plants. When in Libya they said the abandoned Islamic University project will continue, its three years now nothing has happened yet. While in the state of Wisconsin on the invitation of the Mayor of Madison city, they said they have secured employment for 4000 of Kano youths, not a soul has departed our shores yet. Remember the earlier on mentioned 20,000 housing units with a part of an allocated sum of N1.9Billion (see 2008 budget) to facilitate its take off, Hmm!!! That was “Truly Asia” from Malaysia , to mention but a few.
Shekarau's administration has contracted out the expansion project of some metropolitan roads to three lanes, not a single design is available for this project. At the Ministry of Land and Physical Planning or KNUPDA to cap it, it's a committee headed by the Commissioner of the Ministry of Budget and Planning who provided for his ministry the sum of over N1Billion (see 2008 budget) for the roll out plan expenditure in the 2008 budget that is over-seeing the project. You don't get it right, alright, they are all into PLANNING.
Kano will survive; I assure Gov. Shekarau what ever the grand design perpetrated against the interest of the state and its citizenry, what ever the challenge, we will survive you and your collaborators God-willing. ■
LONG LIVE!!! KANO STATE !!!
Bello Gama can be read: jafarsanibello@yahoo.com