By ’Tunji Ajibade
Residents of Kaduna State had been taking a look at the past seven months since the new administration under the flagship of All Progressives Congress, APC, took over in the state and concluded that so far the choice made by the people in the last April governorship election was right. They maintained that the governor of the state, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, had in the past few months led an administration that showed a sense of purpose in the face of various challenges that it met when it arrived the Kashim Ibrahim House, Kaduna, on May 29, 2015. Speaking on some of the policy steps taken so far by the government, most residents who responded to questions observed that the administration had conveyed to the people that it had a sense of mission and direction of where it intended to lead them, and that with time many of the government’s people-oriented programmes would be executed.
While speaking about his own perception of how serious he thought the El-Rufai administration had shown itself to be in the last seven months, Adamu Huseini, a businessman who lives in Zaria said he had no doubt that the new administration was serious. He was of the view that from some of the steps that the government had taken, it was clear that it had focus and was ready to work for the people, while he enumerated a few of the government decisions that he liked. “Actually, I like this government based on the way it planned what it wanted to do. The government make mention of free education from primary to secondary school. It also plans to feed school pupils free; that one I really love it, although I see that it has not started. I don’t know when it will start, but I actually like it,” Huseini said.
Recalling some of the difficulties he encountered in his childhood days, Huseini said the plan by government to feed school children would be a major benefit for the poorer segment of the population, and that this would assist to improve the quality of pupils coming out of schools. “Like me, I grew up in a background where we had to struggle even over what to eat. I attended public primary and secondary school that way. I knew how difficult things were,” he said. “When we were in primary school, sometimes we would go to school without eating food. We would bath and just go to school like that. When we came back sometimes we got the food, and on some days we would not get any food to eat. This was also how we attended secondary school too. Now if the government would provide food, truthfully, it would help the pupils and based on this pupils would be able to do better in school. So I prefer the step (the feeding programme) because this is something that would make pupils to concentrate better in school, more than we did in our time.”
Aside from the programmes that the government had plan to implement, Huseini said the El-Rufai administration had shown seriousness going by its approach to some issues. “I can say that the government shows seriousness,” he said, pointing out however that resources had been a constraint in its readiness to perform. “What has not allowed it to perform the way it should is because of the budget. When they have a budget, everything they promise to do I think they will do it. Equally in trying to combat the cattle rustling challenge in the state, I can see the way the governor has been doing his best. He has engaged the police and we can see success in this.” Huseini was confident that in no distant future, the government would have achieved much considering the determination it had shown, even as he also ventured to rate the government’s performance in spite of the resource constraints. “I believe in the next five months, the government will come out and really deliver on its promises, but for now, I give the government 50 percent,” he added.
Another resident, John Eke, who is into interior décor business and residing in Kaduna metropolis, expressed a positive view. He said what he heard in the news gave him a good impression about the government of the state, pointing in particular to the issue of removal of illegal occupants from government property. He said no matter what happened, land that was meant for public school building should not have been taken over by individuals, praising the effort of the government to correct this error, although he wished the government would compensate those who had acquired such land from the past government. “One of the things I have heard is that the government removed houses from the premises of government schools in some places. I think it is a good step, because no one should take property that is for the public. This step has been taken in the interest of the public and I feel it is good, but the government should take care of those who got the land from government officials,” Eke said.
Solomon Haruna, an event manager who resides in Kaduna metropolis viewed a few of the actions of the government as an indication that it was not only serious, but compassionate. “I have heard of the step the government took to resettle some people. The governor took them from Rigasa (just slightly outside the Kaduna metropolis) and resettled them in some other places for the purpose of development. I think this is good. Also, there was a time the (Interim) Chairman of Kaduna North Local Government Council (Kaduna metropolis) demolished some houses and shops in an area populated by printers. The governor was not in town at the time, but when he returned he stopped the demolition and removed the chairman. That is good, because it shows that the governor has good intentions for the people,” Haruna said.
In his own opinion, Musa Ibrahim Mohammed, a businessman who lived in Zaria said the sanity that the El-Rufai administration had brought into a few issues in the state was what he liked most. He pointed out that in some indirect ways, the government was taking steps that would lead to the creation of employment for many qualified but unemployed people. He noted the challenge of ghost workers in public institutions which he said the new administration had shown its seriousness to combat. Mohammed was of the view that once this was dealt with, resources would be available and opportunities would be opened up for people to be gainfully employed. “What I see in this government and which I like is the screening of the staff of Kaduna State Polytechnic. The screening makes sense, the way they do it,” he said. “I like it because some of the staff members do not have original academic qualifications. They used godfather in order to get employment there, and based on what I heard sometimes one staff collects the salary of about ten people. These are people who are dead or have been sacked. Meanwhile, their names remain on the register and someone collects the salary that neither the owner nor the family could collect. So cleaning the system by screening workers is a wonderful step that the El-Rufai administration has taken.”
Speaking on the benefits of such an exercise to the people of the state, Mohammed said the benefits were that syphoning of public fund would stop, and appointment in the Polytechnic would be open and fair. “The advantages are that each staff’s salary can come directly from the government and no one can block another person to collect his salary. Also the removal of ghost workers would clear the way for the government to know the number of staff the school has. With the vacuum now created after the screening, people would be appointed to fill positions that were originally deemed to be filled but which were not. So people that seek jobs but have not been employed will now have vacant spaces to fill. To me I think this is where the step taken by the government has direct impact on the people of the state. It creates opportunity for employment, the issues of godfather is removed and no person can block the chances of others from getting employed.”
Mohammed was also excited about how the property of one of the more prominent schools in Zaria city was retrieved by the government from those who had grabbed it for personal uses. “I am happy about the issue of Alhuda-huda Secondary School, Some people occupy the land. The way the government comes and removes the houses is good. This is because the land belongs to school but some people turn it into personal property. So it is good as the government moved the illegal occupants out,” he said. He went further to rate the El-Rufai administration, noting further that with the seriousness it had shown, it deserved the encouragement and support of the people of Kaduna State. “In percentage, out of 100, since the government has just started and it is not up to a year, I will give the government 90 percent because this government is very serious. In terms of seriousness shown to attend to the needs of the people of the state, I give the government that percentage,” Mohammed said, while urging the El-Rufai administration not to be deterred by anything but do everything it could for the benefit of the people of the state.
