By Ahmad Muhammad Danyaro
Thomas Mann once declared that: “the destiny of man presents is meaning in political terms.” That is to say, in our contemporary experience, it is difficult to make clear separations or distinctions between the politics of life and the life of politics.
Once again, Governor Muhammad Badaru Abubakar (Sardaunan Ringim and Walin Jahun) added triple caps to his feather as he received the title of ‘Dokajin Machina in Yobe State,’ Award of Excellence from Hadejia Ina Mafita and Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) award as ‘Most Labour Friendly Governor,’ the first governor to be so honoured by the union.
Earlier in the life of the administration, Badaru identified the mindset of the human element as material in the building of the Jigawa State of his dream. The new Jigawa paradigm is properly articulated re-orientation initiative, aimed at preparing the people to face the challenges of the new thinking consistent with the government’s renewal agenda.
In the state today, he (the governor) has secured an orientation shift that promotes “business unusual” policy as a veritable platform to build a state as envisioned by his ‘calculative philosophy.’
Often times, our human inhibitions tend to make us think that real leaders are mortal with messianic mission.
That perception or thinking is totally flawed as our daily experience demonstrates that real leaders are just ordinary people with extra ordinary amount of determination.
However, the governor so stands on a different pedestal as he added triple awards and laurels within a short period.
The state government under his leadership famously known as ‘Baba Mai Calculative’ has aggressively been pursuing a well-articulated vision of aspiring to be a leading state with prosperous, healthy and well educated citizens living in harmony with people and nature and pursuing their legitimate interests in freedom moderated by good governance.
Explicit in this unique vision is a proven roadmap of where we are, where we want to be and how to get there.
His administration places very high premium on education and skills development as education is pivotal to human capital development.
This is considering the fact that no state would develop without quality education because educated citizens are rationale pillars and promoters of development.
There is no doubt that many aspects of development by individuals and nations have been fired and propelled by vision which is regarded as an indispensable ingredient and catalyst in the dynamics of human existence.
This is why Woodrow Wilson once emphasized that: “no one that does not see vision will ever realize any high hope or undertake any high enterprise,” a pragmatic statement reinforced by that of Ralph Waldo Emerson who said: “Where there is no vision, a people perish.” To the governor’s credit, many reputable media agencies, ranging from the media, academia, community, labour and even the most cynical transparency/budget rating organizations, he has been praised to high heaven for living up to his bailing on good governance and adequately awarded with laurel of honour by such reputable bodies.
Even his implacable enemies and those who see nothing good in the way he governs the state could attest to the fact that he is not employing executive fiat to milk the treasury of the state as he only uses his swagger stick to scupper corruption and ensures prudence.
In a letter signed by His Royal Highness, Alhaji (Dr.) Bashir Albishir Bukar Machinama, Mai Machina, on the conferment of the traditional title ‘Dokaji of Machina’ on Governor Abubakar, it stated that: “this is in recognition of your standing commitments towards peace and economic empowerments of Jigawa State in particular and Nigeria at large.”
According to the chairman of Hadejia Ina Mafita Initiative, Malam Baidi Muhammad Elleman: “we are honouring and awarding the Jigawa State governor, His Excellency, Alhaji Muhammad Badaru Abubakar as “beacon and most fulfilling trustworthy leader and silent achiever,” in recognition of his outstanding projects carried out in our area and Jigawa State as a whole that uplift and scale Jigawa on top and ahead of its contemporaries in numerous fields; economically, agriculturally, health wisely, infrastructure and road networking among several others.” In Jigawa North-East Senatorial District, apart from the establishment of 14 numbers of senior secondary schools, many JSS were also established in addition to renovation and construction of new blocks of classroom.
Various capital projects were undertaken at Sule Lamido University, Kafin Hausa as well as conversion of Bilyaminu Usman College of Agriculture to Bilyaminu Usman Polytechnic.
In Jigawa North-East zone, over 400kms of roads (including feeder roads) were constructed. The foresighted leader calculatedly reduced high cost of recurrent cost of administrative governance as well as review of all inherited liabilities and commitments that lead to save as much as N8.28 billion through soliciting and bargaining for discounts.
This made it possible to complete all of the inherited projects and accomplishment of unprecedented landmark recorded despite the daunting challenges of economic recession and Covid-19 pandemic. It is not gain saying that Governor Badaru’s administration has embarked on the empowerment of youth and women in various aspects of trades through the provision of requisite technical and financial support.
That is, disbursement of working capital, equipment and other business inputs, such as tailoring, welding, poultry, rice milling, aqua culture and others. The Labour Friendly Governor and Award of Excellence to the governor NULGE were due several reasons as postulated by the union.
They include; periodic elections of council chairmen and councillors and democratic consolidation; direct funding of local government councils; prompt and up-to-date payment of salaries and allowances and composition of substantive Local Government Service Commission.
Others are improvement and sustenance of operations of the State and Local Government Contributory Pension Scheme; implementation of 30,000 National Minimum Wage and non-retrenchment; non-rationalization or sacking of workers; support to ALGON and close collaboration.
This is the first the union has given out such an award to any governor in its history since its establishment in 1978. By any benchmark one deploys to assess him, and in whatever clime in our firmament of the planet earth, Governor Abubakar is a stunning success, a unique gift to the nation and he deserves to be celebrated by all and sundry within the nation’s geography as he receives accolades upon accolades.
Danyaro is Senior Special Assistant (Print Media) to the Governor and can be reached at ahmaddanyaro2017@ gmail.com.
