Dr Danburam Abubakar Nuhu is the Kano State Commissioner for Information, Internal Affairs, Youths Sports and Culture. In this interview with Kolade Adeyemi, Nuhu assesses Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s achievements and other issues. Excerpts
What would you say are the achievements of Governor Kwankwaso’s administration?
As a visionary governor, Kwankwaso, having noticed the yawning gap in the education sector, took the bull by the horn towards bridging the education gap by sending over 3,000 students abroad and to local universities to pursue specialised courses, so as to be self-sufficient in the manpower needs of the state. Already, he has established a bi-lingual school in Niger Republic because we have appreciated the importance of our relationship with Niger Republic. In terms of proximity, it is next door to the state. Also, if you look at the entire sub-African regions and the West African regions, most of them, if not only Nigeria and Ghana, are French speaking and if we migrate to their territory, there will be language barrier in relating with them and because the governor is futuristic, visionary and tackles issues ahead of time, he decided to prepare people ahead of time. That is what informed his decision on the establishment of a joint bi-Lingual secondary school with the state government’s funds, which is the first boarding secondary school in the Republic of Niger. Meanwhile, we have 100 students in the school, who have been joined by another set of 100 students from the Republic of Niger.
This idea also informed the governor’s decision on how to sharpen the skills of our people in other areas, following his vision. For now, the government has taken another giant leap to let our people learn the Chinese language because we are aware that China is almost the largest economy in the world and for strategic reasons, we need to have our people in China, so that tomorrow when anybody wants to have a business transaction with the Chinese, it will be our people who would be the link, there will be no language barrier. Just recently, the governor approved that some of our teachers that were taught here are to undergo about three months programme in China.
Also, we have our concept of the integration of the Almajiri system and for now, we are trying to figure out the schools where they are and see what we can do in providing facilities to those schools, rather than embarking on the establishment of a brand new Almajiri school. This is so because we have to consider the sensibility of calling a name like Almajiri school, which may give the impression that the school is just there for different kind of people.
They are also human beings like us and we feel that what we should do is to support those who are running the schools to see what we can do in upgrading those facilities. This will be an easier way of assimilation.
There was this belief in the past that the North is educationally backward; do you still subscribe to this notion of bridging the gap with the South?
Yes of course, people have been saying that and it is correct that the North is backward in education. But I can tell you that for us, we have been able to bridge that yawning gap. First, you need to have somebody with foresight who can champion that course, you need to have a leader, who should be on the driving seat. When you talk of a boss, he sits there and tells you to go ahead and would be watching you to see how you are performing, but a leader would be the one in the front and say follow me, as he leads you to the right way. Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is leading us to the right direction and that is why he is taking it very aggressively in terms of the proper way that it should be done on education. We need to have a sound education plan.
As the Information Commissioner, where do you think the state is lacking in terms of manpower?
Well, when you talk of manpower, there are so many areas and those are the areas we are making efforts to bridge the gap, particularly those areas that we need to do more. For example, the governor sponsored about 100 females to study Gynaecology because we realised that it is an area that we are lacking behind within the state and that it is very important. On completion, the 100 females would only provide their expertise to Kano State alone but would also extend their services to other parts of the country, especially to those areas that require their services; so in that regard, you need to have someone who will be able to sensitize our minds to prepare for that, as well as to encourage our people to diversify into that field of study because we acknowledge the fact that we have a gap in that area and need to bridge it. And one other area that we also realised that we need to bridge the gap is the issue of teachers. We realised that there is the issue of misplacement of some of the teachers. For example, you have the issue of a teacher, who is better qualified than where he is teaching, just as you can find a teacher who is supposed to be in tertiary institution but teaching in a secondary school. Also, we presently have a situation, where you have teachers that are not supposed to be teaching in tertiary institutions but are teaching there, so we needed to harmonize such positions, which is the exercise that the governor is making efforts to effect. Also, those that are required to proceed for further training, so as to fit into where they are, which informed the decision to commence a programme for our teachers. For example, we are aware that we have shortage of technical school teachers and that is why the state has sent so many teachers to the United Kingdom to study emerging technology in technical education.
It should also be noted that we have 44 local governments within the state and when you look at the programme, the governor decided that we need to have strategic schools to cater for certain areas that we feel our people would be interested in. For example, the School for Islamic Studies (SIS) is specifically to support what our children have learnt either in the Almajiri, Arabic or in the Quranic schools, so as to be able to upgrade themselves. For now, we have techniclal schools spread across the 44 local government areas of the state, where we send some skilful people to because at the end of the day, not everybody will end up in the education field, as some will want to become artisans, while some will want to become craftsmen, so we needed to provide such category of schools that will provide such skills, so as to bridge that gap. And that is why we also have the sports institute , as we realised that there are some children interested in sports. So, that is how we are carefully building human capacity.
Do you think the ongoing construction of flyover projects will be completed at the end of Kwankwaso’s tenure in office?
I can tell you that when we came on board, we realised that it will amount to total waste of time to encourage people to invest in Kano without the provision of infrastructure. So, our primary objective was to embark on the construction of infrastructure, which will attract investors on their own volition and that is why so many airlines are flying the Kano route, not because they are interested in Kano but because the metropolis is being transformed to a mega city. Apart from that, the programme of Gov. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is an urbanisation programme. He appreciated the need to improve facilities in Kano, particularly the provision of infrastructure, so as to further open up Kano, as well as to decongest the metropolis and to ensure that it is transformed to a mega city. And that is what informed that decision to concentrate on network of roads and the very first time, one is noticing flyovers criss-crossing the metropolis, a two kilometre flyover, which is perhaps the second longest bridge in the country and the hinterland, as there is no flyover that is as long as the one in Sabon Gari, which is still under construction. The Sabon Gari area in Yan Kura is one the central business district areas, as Kano is popular for its commerce. The city attracts people from all walks of life, including the neighbouring countries for business transaction. The only way to make that possible is to open up the city, where they will arrive and have hitch-free access to our markets for their business transaction. But in order to put all these facilities in place, you need to have somebody who is visionary. People have been talking about flyovers for the past 40 years but today the government has transformed that dream to reality and that is why I am insisting that what we have is a real programme and not an abstract programme. However, one of the most critical and important success of the incumbent government is the issue of accountability, probity and transparency because we needed to ensure that whatever we are doing must be very transparent, as well as accountable and to also block all leakages and that is why as at today, we are doing well and our workforce do not complain about non-payment of salaries because they are paid as at when due. Also, we have done so much to the pensioners. When we came on board, there were pensioners, who were receiving N500 but the governor decided to create a bench mark that all pensioners, who were earning below N5,000, will now have a benchmark of N5,000 and above. That means that those who were earlier receiving N300 will now be receiving N5,000 and from that benchmark, the state government will embark on upgrading of the various scales and have a ladder of how the increment will rise, and it has never happened in the history of Kano, as those who were earlier receiving N300 are now collecting N5,000. Also, our pensioners, who will retire will retire comfortably knowing they will receive their pay as at when due.
Another important aspect is that we realised the need to block leakages, which the governor started from his office by stopping wastages.
