I have been a keen observer of your political journey to the Katsina State Government House. I remember vividly that before and during the campaign period where you clinched the party’s ticket, one of your brothers was killed by bandits and another was kidnapped for ransom, as banditry surged in Katsina.
It may have been a ploy to stop you, but then it gave you a firsthand experience of the tortuous ordeal that victims go through in the hands of these man-made monsters. From then on my intuition was that if you do win the elections, you would be the best candidate for the job, as there was nothing plaguing Katsina State like the scourge of bandits and with your experience, their days would be numbered.
Your government’s development of the Katsina Community Watch Corps where over 2,500 personnel, picked from each and every ward of all the local governments, to fight banditry, came as no surprise.
Thousands of motorcycles along with hundreds of Hilux vans were provided for them to help their operations. You also provided them with armoured personnel carrier vehicles which give them protection as they access the forests where these bandits are stationed.
Your government was able to provide them with communication gadgets and proper training in combat, communication and intelligence gathering by state security agencies in the state. This has been quite successful in the war against banditry as even the police and the army have commended the gallantry of these watch corps and have expressed how vital they have been in the success of the war. Katsina has been the better for it.
I have seen how determined you’ve been in empowering youths in the state. So many youths in their late 20s and 30s head so many agencies in Katsina. The state’s executive council is largely populated by youths. Your administration is also spending a fortune in sponsoring hundreds of youths to study abroad in different areas of specialisations, especially medicine. In a few years, the state will benefit from a huge pool of specialists and experts in different medical and technological fields.
Your drive for skills acquisition also among the youth population is second to none in the country. You’ve created an agency that will be providing loans and empowerment to youths in different skills and business development initiatives, to the tune of about N5 billion. I learnt that some businesses have already been identified in all the wards of the state and they will be further trained and empowered by your government.
Grants of up to N2 million and even above, will be provided for them. In an era where employment is very scarce, skills acquisition and business development are the keys to the economic development of the state, and the emancipation of the youth population. I believe you should continue to pursue these vigorously and perhaps increase the pool of funds, as more youths subscribe to the programmes created.
Do not listen to the naysayers as their voices are only those of distraction, and not of solutions. The successes of the programmes will drown their voices.
I see that you have continued to build on the infrastructural development programmes of the previous government. You have not gone the naive Nigerian way of abandoning previous government projects that have not been completed. You have completed almost all of them. You have even ventured into finding lasting solutions to the Kano-Katsina federal highway that has had some stumbling blocks. You have turned Katsina into a huge construction site, with roads and bridges being constructed all over the state. No local government has been left behind. You have not allowed the fight against banditry to stunt your urban renewal drive. This is so good to see.
Even before the federal government’s drive to entrench local government autonomy, I have seen how you introduced the Community Development Programme in Katsina State. This is the largest programme you have pursued, which seeks to bring effective governance to the grassroots. Your approach towards having the communities directly involved in policy implementation and budgeting processes is quite innovative. This will definitely resolve the redundancy of projects.
In your proposed model, the communities will tell the government what they want or need, instead of the government applying a blanket approach where communities are overburdened with what they do not need, and left lacking of what they want. The three-layered approach with the governor involved in the Steering Committee, to the Joint Planning Committee with the Deputy Governor and local government chairmen, and lastly the Community Level Committee with members of the community and programme officers from the wards; would definitely ensure a seamless and effective two-way communication, monitoring and implementation model that will hasten the delivery of developmental projects to the grassroots.
The community centres incorporated in the model are meant for: infrastructure and economic development; care for the vulnerable, women and children; and the promotion of education and moral values. With this approach, an individual from the ward can tell the governor what he/she needs in their locality and it can be delivered to them. This is quite innovative. It obscures the complexities and bureaucratic processes of governance. Just as the Community Watch Corps is being replicated in other states, I’m certain other governors will be trooping in for the blueprint to the community development programme as well.
This is the kind of approach we expect our leaders to have when it comes to providing effective governance to the people. They should have clarity as to what their communities need, and provide blueprints that would effectively manage the implementation of the solutions. I am more than impressed by your programmes and initiatives and the way you are systematically pursuing their implementation.
If I were a governor, I wouldn’t change a thing, to what you are currently pursuing in Katsina State. Even though I’m from Bauchi, I have observed with great admiration, the efforts you are putting in, and the glaring results therein. I therefore seek an honorary citizenship from you. As a traditional title holder in Bauchi, I cannot leave my state, but I will consider myself as Bakatsinen Bauchi. I look forward to your kind response.
