Before Boko Haram, bared its jangs in the Northeast, the Yan Kalare was a thorn in the flesh of people in Gombe State. But on coming to office in 2011, Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo outlawed the group. He turned the band of youths into security and traffic marshals among others. But they have abandoned the job to return to the streets as urchins – a development the government is not ready to accept. VINCENT OHONBAMU reports
They were before Boko Haram. The Yan Kalare held Gombe State by its jugular as it transformed from political thuggery into monster unleashing on the citizenry.
They held sway until the coming of Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, who after his inauguration in 2011 outlawed them. He created the Talba Youth Orientation and Rehabilitation Programme which captured 4,000 youths in two batches, trained them into Environmental, Security, Traffic and Ward Marshals. They were engaged by Gombe State Agency for Social Development and other Related Matters under the Ministry of Youth Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation.
The aim is to change the youths’ psyche and get them to channel their energies into the development of the state. They were paid stipends. But after about four years on, some of the youths are now abandoning their jobs, preferring to return to their old habit of hanging around offices to harass top officials or personalities at public functions for money
Uncomfortable with the recent developments, the Commissioner for Youth Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation, Malam Farouk Yarma, expressed concern over the underutilisation of the Marshals and the youths’ penchant of going about to harass people for money.
The commissioner last vowed to ensure that the youths become more productive and justify government’s investment on them.
He said the ministry would collaborate with “organisations, donor agencies, other state governments, individuals, corporate bodies, etc in making our youths a productive generation because Governor Dankwambo has initiated a lot of youth oriented programmes and the Ministry has to complement his efforts in making the proactive programmes succeed as far as the youths are concerned.”
Yarma said: “We (the Ministry) will do our best to see that they are rehabilitated again through another round of orientation because we’ll change their thinking; and of course, we’ll assign responsibility to each of them so that they will always know where to go and report for duty daily.
”This is one of our paramount responsibilities and I think we are going to achieve that because I will do my best to see that we make this Ministry to the next level in line with activities and expectations of the government of Dankwambo.”
Farouk Yarma who doubles as the Commissioner overseeing the state Ministry of Cooperative where he equally took over the reigns of leadership the same day spoke on other issues which essentially bother on both ministries with the determination to place high premium on revenue generation to complement the dwindling allocation from the Federation Accounts taking the front burner.
”We are all aware of the financial situation, the financial difficulty, the economic meltdown of the country. We must diversify; we must find a means of supporting the government. I’m talking about the revenue generation,” he said; adding that employees in both Ministries are going to do everything in their power to evolve new ideas and new development on how government will be generating funds from them.
But he acknowledged it would be an impossible task going it all alone hence he promised to work closely as a team with the staff of both Ministries for the present administration, informing them that their works should speak for them because he would he judge people based on performance.
The Commissioner nevertheless cautioned that it would no longer be business as usual for the staffers; therefore, they should amend their ways and put the people of Gombe first by being constantly conscious of how to give back to them through conscientious discharge of the responsibilities entrusted to them because what accrues the state from the Federation Account presently goes entirely into the payment of civil servants salaries which according to him must be justified.
”Therefore, I urge you all to brace up for the challenges of government’s efforts to diversify sources of income by being more proactive in doing things; come up with ideas on how to make the Ministry more productive because it is incumbent on us everyone to contribute his quarter in the development of the state,” said Yarma.
He also emphasised the need for workers to be punctual, urging everyone not to cover for anyone by to reporting directly or indirectly any absentee or those discovered to be on the payroll but are never always there for work, stressing: “Government is now determined more than ever to prune the system and weed out those that not part of us indeed because if we don’t weed them out, government cannot plan effectively for workers. So I urge you to report according to what you know, please.”
That took him to the issue of staff audit which he already kick-started at the Ministry of Cooperatives with the aim of fishing out the ghost and absentee workers on government payroll, pending the biometric data capture of staffers.