Abba Dukawa

I use this medium with  anticipation those responsible with press cut will allow the  latter to reach your table. I know You are aware this responsibilities bestowed on you by God it is a test on your faith both here and hereafter and definitely you will account for every deed and decisions you make under the oath as a president on the last day of judgement.Hope you are well. I pray that Allah to provides you  more wisdom to make Nigeria great again.

  It is unfortunate the level of uncertainty in the Nigeria’s economy and hardship becoming unbearable to the citizens, conditions are not getting any better and the life was little bit better off from pre May 2023.  Even though becoming a president of the federal Republic of Nigeria was your life time ambition which you have actualize it as it’s a rare opportunity for many to achieve their own dream  at one shoot.

Since your inauguration on May 29, 2023, all hell has been unbound in the economy leading to the difficulties and uncertainty we are now face as a citizens and the country at large. Mr President, to be honest, very few in Nigeria now believe that your economic reforms, can take the country anywhere but more into hardship.  

It’s seem most of the policies, the administration announced them without an accompanying comprehensive plan of implementation that would benefit the majority of the people of the country. The administration inflicted more hardship on Nigerians like you don’t want for the second term. Let those close to the corridor of power have the gut to tell you the truth on the ground.

Your policies have killed the strong and resilient ‘’informal economy’’ which formed the bedrock of sustenance of many Nigerians; and apparently you came with no concrete remedial economic plans to ameliorate the pains you have caused, leading Nigerians to believe you actually came to continue the woes Buhari inflicted.

Few weeks after your inauguration, poor people encounter uphill tasks of surviving as the prices of food items, transportation, and essential goods skyrocketed. Hunger, starvation and lamentation have become the order of the day. All the hardship the citizens and the country are going through were as a result of the removal of subsidy on petrol and later floated naira to compete with the dollar as a means of stabilising the volatility in the forex market.

These tough decisions taken by the administration. Has cause unspeakable damage to the well being of Nigerians the purchase power has greatly diminish where many homes goes to bed without food in their table. Now Nigerians sought food leftover from eatery and hotels dustbin I saw different sexes are looking for food at the garbage. Buying medicines at patent medicine stores, has gone beyond the reach of the ordinary person as everything has become unaffordable.

To comprehend the situation one may looks at the faces of poor people to see   the pains and anger their going through let one go to market stale to hear how people venting their anger on the administration. The administration’s Renewed Hope is increasingly turning into Renewed Frustration for citizens. As Million Household been dehumanised by the economic hardship.

Only, realistic thing to do under the circumstances is to go back to the drawing board as the administration economic reforms have lost whatever reverence and regard they have of you as a crusader for social justice in the country. Within one year of your administration in office the economic policies implementing by your government has triggered more economic hardship to millions citizens one minute have a reason to smile, the very next second, make them feel heartbroken as the hardship is biting very hard the situation has pushed many people to take extreme measures.

Dukawa write in from Abuja can be reached at abbahydukawa@gmail.com

By Hassan Sani Indabawa

Following, closely, the trajectory of evolution of Kano’s political leadership and its performance, by any keen observer, would reveal an obvious loss of values. The banality in governance and absence of clear and well defined policy further demonstrate the profound loss of values by the charlatans that now parade themselves as leaders in Kano.

In an article published by the  _Daily Trust_  of 10th May, 2023, titled, _”Kano: Losing Its Past Glory”,_ I discussed the decadence and retrogression of Kano in all spheres of life due to dearth of quality leadership. I recalled, by going back to history and highlighted some of the glorious, historical moments of Kano, when leaders, were then more focused and concerned with the progress and welfare of the people of Kano, unlike the present day where governance is reduced to personal whims and caprices of some extremely few ” prebendal and rapacious politicians.”

The past leaders of Kano were God-fearing and conscientious. They placed Kano in the forefront by spearheading masterpiece policies that inspired other states and the federal government to emulate and replicate.

Kano found itself deep in the present malaise due to the misfortune of having a bunch of “rapacious and egocentric charlatans, garbed as leaders,” and this, I argued, had made Kano to be paying  “a heavy price of mis-governance and maladministration.”  And this has consequently paved the way for “retrogression and decadence…that Kano (now) remains distant in all spheres of development; especially in the field of education, agriculture, health and even in politics.”

With an increased FAAC allocation to all states, the state government allocation under president Tinubu’s first year rose by 38.64 per cent to N4.09trn compared to the N2.95trn disbursed in the preceding period under Buhari. For the local governments, the revenue disbursed under President Tinubu rose to N3trn from the N2.18trn shared under Buhari, which represents a 37.61 per cent. Similarly, allocation to Kano State rose by 39.11 per cent to N120.35bn from the N86.52bn released by FAAC. Kano was among the states that got the highest amount during the first year of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration.

But instead of translating this humongous earnings into well conceived landmark projects that may facilitate critical infrastructural and social development of the state, Kano witnessed a wasted year in a needless political witch-hunt and vengeance. Major infrastructures like primary and secondary schools, health care, urban and rural roads, affordable transportation systems, and agricultural hubs, that drive development and generate revenue were all neglected due to needles distractions with government dissipating precious time and resources, fighting perceived “political enemies.”

This is a veritable symptom of a leadership failure.  In _”Politics as Dashed Hopes in Nigeria,”_ (2019) published by a historian and a political scientist, Auwal Anwar, he described how a good leader should conduct the affairs of the State: _”The appropriate manner in which a worthy leader is expected to behave, especially on achieving victory, is that he should not harbour ill feelings, or carry out act of vengeance or vendetta against his enemies.”_

In Kano, since the herald of the 4th republic, in 1999, the two major political actors that dominated the political space, proved to be the main problems of Kano, throwing a cog in the wheel of progress of the state. While other states, especially neighboring states with lesser potentials than Kano have been continuously recording remarkable achievements and progress, due to sustained continuity, in spite of having succeeding administrations from different parties, Kano has, however, remained stagnant under the firm grip of two of the most extremely wicked and egotistical politicians.

The concept and definition of how politics should be practiced has been completely redefined by the duo to suit their insatiable quest for political and material power. In a clearly well played out script, the duo exaggerated a split, by promoting enmity, misgivings, Ill feelings and rancour among their followers and supporters to hoodwink the public; while busy looting the state’s common wealth. The duo have no known businesses apart from politics, but yet, they are alleged to be amongst the most richest politicians in Nigeria.

While the boss was known to have initiated the looting of Kano resources, by carefully designing multi-billion projects, to serve as a conduit pipe, the second-in-loot, surpassed the boss by  involving  his immediate family in the looting spree, when he received the baton, and ruled for 8 years, of what can best be described as the years of massive plunder of state treasury.

This did not go well with the boss, who has now assumed a new title of a “kingmaker,” —of both political and royal. To out do the second-in-loot, a dyed-in-the-wool, who doubled as a son-in-law, was carefully chosen, prepared and now installed to entrench the continuous rape of Kano. With similar inlaws, cousins, nephews, brothers, friends and cronies forming the administration, the plot to perpetuate the familial continuity of the death grip against Kano has been perfected with a biological son of the kingmaker, an apparent heir, being placed in the cabinet, to be likely groomed for possible succession. Kano has never had it so bad. In the whole of the Nigerian federation, there is no administration as nepotistic as that of Kano. The idea of liberal democracy and its meaning is lost to the good people of Kano. An ancient city known for progressive ideas and politics, world class statesmen and world renowned scholars, has now been reduced to a personal fiefdom of the kingmaker.

As I posited elsewhere, Kano has now become a pitiable state, due to intense political power struggle, characterised by unhealthy competition and rivalry between extremely few (just the two of them — kingmaker and the second-in-loot), rapacious and prebendal politicians.

In the labyrinth of Kano politics, I still maintained my understanding that the only difference between these two wicked political jobbers is absolutely none existing, because both of them are egotistical and megalomaniacal.

What I prefer to call an elite nonchalance, is what brought about the loss of values in Kano politics and its leadership. As a community deeply rooted in culture, tradition and religion, allowing a few opportunitists to impede the collective aspirations of an entire society is certainly suicidal. There is an urgent need for the good people of Kano to rise to the challenge and chart a different course that would extirpate the corrupt politicians that now pose as an existential threat to Kano and its people. This should be by aggressively forging an elite consensus; and, by going back to rediscover our lost values.

In _”Rediscovering a Lost Value”,_ a sermon delivered on February 28, 1954, to an audience in Detroit, Michigan, Martin Luther King Jr, said, _“If we are to go forward, if we are to make this a better world in which to live, we’ve got to go back. We’ve got to rediscover these precious values that we’ve left behind.”_ 

This call should or rather must perfectly resonate with the people of Kano; that unless and until we do away with these pretenders, whom we all identify as our major problem, that proved to be a clog in the wheel of progress of Kano and its people, we shall continue to be looked down and mocked by others for having charlatans, mediocre and egotistical figures as leaders. And the problem is, this set of political class has no value, no shame or the fear of Allah to provide the kind of leadership that Kano deserves. They will only continue to promote hate, enmity, division, mutual suspicion while busy stealing our common wealth and without even pretending to be working for our welfare.