KWENU: Our Culture, Our Future

Attahiru Bafarawa: A non-indigene's observation

MAX GBANITE

maxgbanite@yahoo.com

Tuesday, June 4, 2006

Some time in 2002, a close friend of mine who is also a very good friend of the Governor took me to meet His Excellency, Alhaji (Dr.) Attahiru Bafarawa, the Executive Governor of Sokoto State, the seat of the Caliphate. The meeting took place at the states’ lodge in Asokoro.

Whilst my friend and the Governor were engaged in a very serious discussion, I could not help but observe with keen interest the soundness of mind the Governor exhibited, colored with a simplicity, humility, integrity, and sense of focus. What fascinated me more were the intricate princely markings carved on his face, probably with a very sharp surgical instrument that obviously rewarded pains to the receiver; in this case, the Governor.

The marks stretched from temple to the jaws on both sides of the face; if counted, the marks could probably be more than fifty (50) straight lines measuring about seven inches in length. I saw similar marks on the face of the Governor’s father, the royal District Head of Bafarawa community, later in 2006 when I visited him. The only other man I had seen such elaborate markings on his face was the late multi-millionaire Chief Dennis Okafor, Whum of Enugwu-Ukwu, Anambra State.

The meeting ended with a sudden visit of General Wushishi (rtd.). I came away from that meeting respecting the Governor and believing that any man who withstood the pains of such markings at a very young age is a man blessed with intense discipline and great capacity for endurance.

So on March 5, 2006, I called the governor to get an appointment to discuss some political matters tabled by my friends in the United States, and it was duly granted. When I got to Sokoto, I was greeted by the driver/protocol sent to meet me, and I immediately asked to be driven around the metropolis for exploration purposes. My heart was gladdened because, throughout the drive around town, I never experienced any potholes on the roads traveled. For a moment I thought I was back on Abuja roads.

After the city-cruising was done, my chance to see the Governor came that evening. We discussed why I had come. I commended him on his unshaken stand against the then third-term agenda; from which, had it sailed through, he would have benefited. He insisted that the people of Sokoto State deserve the right, the respect and the unreserved dignity to elect a new governor in 2007, a governor who will continue with what he has built as a legacy for the people’s trust in him. His position during our discussion was that there is time to serve and a time to move on. As for him Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, his term of office as the State governor expires on May 29, 2007, not a day longer, God willing.

Sensing my excitement with the projects executed under his tenure, he recommended that I take a tour of the State, meet with the people, and see more projects implemented for the people of this great state of Sokoto. I did, and I saw the following:

ROADS

Charity, they say, begins at home, so off we went to the Governors home town of Bafarawa. The almost two-hour trip on a well-built asphalt road was magnificent. From Bafarawa, we went to Sarbon Birini, on the border with Niger Republic. I was later told by a senior engineer of PZ Engineering, the company that did all the work, that they have completed over 800 kilometers of road in the state. There’s a link road from the capital city to all the local government headquarters. The only horrible roads are Federal roads. Within the city metropolis, I was driven around Aliyu Jodi Road, Moyijo Road, Emir Yahaya Road, Abdullahi Fodio Road, Sultan Abubakar (all dualized), and many other single-lane roads rehabilitated under Bafarawa’s tenure since he came to power in 1999.

HEALTHCARE

The Governor provided primary healthcare centers in every local government, fully equipped to function like a full-fledged hospital. He revamped the School of Health Technology, Gwadanawa, and the School of Nursing in Sokoto to train the support manpower required to run these health centers, and realizing the deficiency in indigenous medical doctors, the Governor embarked on the recruitment of qualified young men and women with science backgrounds and sent about 50 of them to Bulgaria and 55 to Nigerian universities on full scholarships for training as medical doctors. Most of them will be returning in 2007 to help their people. With the precedence set for the training of more youths in various Universities within the country, the legacy will outlive the Governor.

EDUCATION

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education took special pride in conducting me around the schools within the City of Sokoto before my trip to the rural areas. Within the City, we went to the newly rehabilitated Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto State Polytechnic. The polytechnic has a newly constructed School of Engineering (Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Communication, Chemical, Transportation, Thermal-Hydro Engineering) departments fully equipped with the state-of-the-art equipment built and installed by Germans. The 500-room Auditorium, fully furnished with executive arm chairs, air conditioners, and modern communication equipment left me gasping with joy. I had never seen such marvel in any of the first-class universities in the country. When I saw the Library center, its sheer beauty and design and the over 45,000 volumes of books inside reminded me of the kind of library seen in good United States’ universities.

Then off we went to Sultan Abubakar College, where the Principal swore to me that the Governor was the best thing to happen to him as an educationist. He reasoned that, as a principal, he has been given the requisite tools to teach his students and provide them with good education. He boasted that he has 3,500 students in his facility with adequate classrooms and desks, fully equipped science laboratories, water-boreholes, Generators, elaborate staff quarters, and even a 20-room dormitory built specially to accommodate Youth Corpers, who are sent to teach in the school from other states and to ease their housing problems.

The Attahiru Bafarawa Institute of Qur’an and General Studies is best described by Elendu Reports in one of his articles titled, “A visit to the seat of the Caliphate” of 6/1/2006. As for me, the experience will endure a life time. One needs to see these things to understand the vision articulated by Bafarawa when God allowed him the freedom to use his common sense to build the edifice. Suffice it to say that the school, a combined primary and secondary school with a population of 3,000 pupils, has the best science and computer laboratory I have seen, even better than any within private or federal owned schools within the country. The 400-seat auditorium is wonderment.

Within the Local Government Areas, at least the ones I went visited, I saw a replica of Sultan Abubakar College. Schools with 3,000 student capacity built all over the local government areas and fully equipped. Then I visited the Olusegun Obasanjo School of Science and Technology in Bafarawa, the Governor’s home town. It is a master piece in the delivery of education facility. I was later to learn that almost 4,500 blocks of classrooms have been built by Governor Bafarawa since he came into office. Now I fully understand where all the children went to, unlike many other cities within the North where they stand on the roads in large numbers begging. Governor Bafarawa deserves big kudos because education is the beginning of emancipation. This year alone, the government paid the academic registration fees of all Sokoto State indigenes attending schools anywhere in Nigeria. And you wonder why Sokoto students love their Governor.

WATER

Barrister Mohammed Bello in his article titled ‘Kudos to Gov. Bafarawa (Leadership Newspaper-6/12/2006), wrote  “…the Governor on assumption of office reactivated Sokoto Water works and supplied the station with the necessary chemical, and thereafter replaced broken down pipes with ductile iron pipes….the Governor constructed a two-million imperial gallons capacity tank at old market Sokoto, in addition to the provision of a booster station at Amanawa, an ultra modern drilling rig for the drilling of boreholes across the states was purchased for the drilling of 1,000 borehole across the state.” The Governor confirmed that 500 have already been completed and the others will be done before he leaves office. I agree without reservation because I saw some of them myself.

RURAL ELECTRIFICATION

News Engineering Construction Company is the major beneficiary of the entire ongoing rural electrification project. Its project manager, with whom I spoke, admitted that the company has connected all the 23 local government areas with electricity and adequate transformers installed in various adjoining villages.

RELIGION

In respect of the people’s wishes as a 95% Islamic population, the Governor has provided a place of worship for every community within the state totaling about 212. The Governor, though very religious and God-fearing, is not an advocate or supporter of extremism. He insists on coexistence of all religions and all peoples. This was confirmed by both the Imam of a Yoruba-dominated mosque located around old market, and the current Eze Ndiigbo Sokoto, when I paid them a surprise courtesy visit.

JUDICIARY

Governor Bafarawa appointed the first female Chief Justice in Sokoto State. The judiciary is expanding with addition of two extra courts to ease congestions and to bring justice closer to the people. The Sharia courts are very vibrant and in accordance with the Constitution of the Federation, not the newly introduced political Sharia. There is an ongoing computerization of the courts, and the introduction of digital audio recording systems in all the courts to assist the judges in rendering better and faster judgments.

OTHER VISIBLE PROJECTS

Rima Television Sokoto was built and equipped with four hundred million naira (N400m) and with booster stations at Goronyo, Isa, and Shagari to provide extensive coverage of the state. In addition, the Governor provided his people with a 60 KVA capacity FM radio station, with mobile van equipped with antennas to extend the coverage of the stations, including an 18 block housing accommodation for the staff. The same television station was copied as-is by Governor Adamu (the man who wants to be President) of Nassarawa State at the cost of N1.4 billion naira. Go figure this one out.

The Presidential Lodge is fully rehabilitated to an international standard. I went there. The estate includes additional 5 independent villas to accommodate presidential entourage. The Attahiru Bafarawa Housing Estate is a 500 housing estate constructed at the old airport land. The abandoned and deteriorating land was purchased from the Federal government and put to good use by the Governor, and the low-income houses built and sold to civil servants at affordable prices.

The new Governor’s office is nearing completion and will be enjoyed by an incoming governor to be duly elected in 2007. It is important to mention that since coming into office in 1999 the governor has been living in his modest but spacious personal house at no cost to the people. He welcomes visitors to his house without much protocol.

The Governor has given away more than 50,000 motorcycles, and 10,000 bicycles to his people (civil servants and the youths), and more than 100 farming tractors to local farmers. Some of these farmers were reported to have sold their tractors, and the governor swung into action by charging the police to assist the state in the recovery of these tractors, and most have been recovered and given to other more serious farmers.

There are many other worthy-of-mention dividends of democracy delivered to the good people of Sokoto by Attahiru Bafarawa but, due to space and time, I will leave them for another time. However, to avoid misinterpretation of facts, I challenge anyone with doubts, especially print-media journalists to visit the ‘Seat of the Caliphate’; they too will be astonished.

It is now left for senior Sokoto State indigenes like Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji (AAA), and Alhaji Shehu Malami, men of impeccable integrity who have served their people and Nigeria, in partnership with indigenous businessmen, to organize a Sokoto State Investment Business Forum conference; a conference-forum that will bring together businessmen from the state to pull their financial resources together and develop the rich resources in the state and help in industrializing the State. There is an urgent need to create additional employment opportunities for the youths that will soon be graduating from all these schools established by Bafarawa.

His Excellency, Alhaji (Dr.) Attahiru Bafarawa, has clearly demonstrated that the spirit of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the late Sarduana of Sokoto, lives on. That spirit is a simple spirit of service delivery to the people: provision of education, roads, electricity, health care, and food, creation of employment, peaceful coexistence, and responsible leadership.

If other governors within the North and other parts of Nigeria perform as well as Governor Bafarawa has done, the masses will have more to celebrate. Other governors in the North should visit Sokoto and see for themselves. I can say this because I have visited all the states in the North.

It is imperative that DFID, USAID, EU and other donor nations take note of Sokoto State  and assist them to reach millennium development goals (MDG); the government is very credible.

Thank you, Garkuwan Sokoto: You came and you served your people dutifully, and may God bless you and the good people of Sokoto and the Sultanate.

Long live democracy and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.