In a rare moment of reflection, the governor of Katsina state, Rt. Hon Bello Masari recently shared his vision for the development of the state in education, agriculture, water and health with stakeholders and the media.
There are moments when Katsina State governor, Rt. Hon Bello Masari spoke like a father to the members of his own cabinet. In such moments, he spoke softly, pausing his sentences with a sigh, on such occasions, there were no frills and the airs of office were stripped off. Masari merely spoke, shared his vision and poured his heart out.
Such a moment came recently when he shared his administration’s vision with the people of the state and members of the press at the Kastina state Media Summit. It was meant to be an occasion to showcase the achievements of the state government, but governor Masari turned it into an avenue for sober reflection and a door to glimpse into the future.
“There was an opportunity, it was never used,” he began. A pin drop silence enveloped the room, one could see the pain written on the edges of the governor’s face as he tried to master his emotion. “There was an opportunity to restore education it was never used, it all amounted to leadership and how you are able to use it,” he said.
Governor Masari is not a stranger to politics in the state, he had been a civil servant and politician rising to become the Speaker of the state House of Assembly at a time. But in 2015, he was elected governor on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC). That was when the burden of the state’s underdevelopment confronted him. It was a burden he said he had tried to unravel in the last two years of his administration.
20 percent of Katsina budget goes to education
The statistic of the educationally developed states in Nigeria does not favour Kastina state, in recent times, the state has constantly hovered close to the bottom three positions. This was a great source of sadness to the governor and his cabinet, but it was also an opportunity for change.
Katsina has not always been in this sorry pass, its history was tied to education and the people pride themselves on their Islamic education system. Also, three generations of Nigerian leaders of northern extraction schooled in such high profile schools like Katsina College and Government College.
But Masari is not dwelling on current failures, for him turning the education fortunes of the state around would require a continuous massive investment that may not yield fruit in 20 years. In this manner, 20 percent of the state’s budget has been going to education in the last two years, but the governor said the ability of Katsina students to compete with other states is a priority.
“Please understand with us when our intervention in education involves 20 percent of our budget,” Masari said in a tone which conveyed so much emotion. But Masari was not done; his vision is that students from Katsina will be able to compete with other states in the next five years.
[quote font_size=”18″ color=”#000000″ bgcolor=”#dda552″ bcolor=”#dd3333″ arrow=”yes”]Unfortunately now, Katsina was among the bottom three most backward states in education in this country, this is how far we have descended, to us is a challenge, it is a failure of leadership, over a long period, we were speaking and nobody was taking notice, maybe in our lifetime or those behind us they will see the gap, definitely there will be a gap.
That is why we have chosen education; we agreed that we will devote 20 percent of our budget to education that is why education has been taking the lion share since we came in 2015. We know investment in education is what you see the result in 20-30 years by that time, most of us here would be gone, but at least we will prepare the next generation for the competitive world of tomorrow – Masari[/quote]
The governor’s unshaken faith that education is the way to progress in the future was infectious; there has been massive investment in infrastructure in education in only about 24 months. But Masari said he is already thinking beyond today to the future.
“The only way we can fit into the future is through education, in Nigeria, we are competing with other states, we can’t compete without education, so I hope you will understand us that we are working towards the key areas in restoring the pride of place for Katsina in the context of one Nigeria.
“We are preparing ourselves to compete when there will be no more federal character and disadvantaged states, we never know the face of governance in the next 20 years, and the only way you can prepare yourself is to provide sound education to the people of tomorrow that will compete with other states that is why our priority is in education, health and agriculture,” the governor said.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Education, Professor Halimatu Sa’adiya Idris reeled out the investment in education in the state. Two new secondary schools have been constructed while 27 secondary schools were been renovated, upgraded and reconstructed. These investments did not come cheap; they amounted to N2, 801,712,313.68.
Boarding schools are also close to Governor Masari’s vision establishing additional five boarding schools including Government Girls Junior Secondary Schools in Shema, Rimaye, Barkiya and increasing the feeding per student from N80 to N100 per meal. The government also paid the examination fees of students in 2015 amounting to N998, 857,000 and in 2016 N607, 558,600.
There is also the ‘little’ issue of girl child education which the state government has pursued aggressively with the disbursement of girls scholarship to 7981 Primary one girls at N20, 000 per girl child and the School Improvement Grand (SIG) to 510 Primary schools at N250, 000 for Primary school and N150, 000 for Pre-primary schools.
A classic example of this was seen at the Government Girls Science Secondary School in Ajiwa which currently has 1,800 students. The Principal Hajia Jajara Abdulkadir was ecstatic as she showed stakeholders around the changes that have taken place.
“There used to be about 120 students in each class before the intervention, but now there are only 45 students, in the dormitory, we used to have 200 girls but now only 70 students. The state has renovated many of the buildings and new ones are being constructed. We have a new dormitory, new classrooms, new kitchen and if you go into the classes, you will see the girls are very happy in their clean and spacious environment,” she said.
We will supply Katsina with water
Not a few people in Kastina are aware that Governor Masari spent his younger years in the Kastina State Water Board rising to the position of Assistant General Manager when he retired in 1992. He was there during the productive and formative years of the water works and retired when it was at its peak.
When he returned as governor in 2015, the water situation was at the worst state ever with all the water treatment plants operating below 50 percent capacity and water supply in the urban towns less than 10 percent of the required average of 120 litres per capita per day. Most of the water supply schemes were unserviceable and less than 20 percent of the 41 semi-urban waster schemes in the state operational.
“Masari would have none of it,” says commissioner for Water resources, Hon. Salisu Dandume, being the governor’s area of core competence, he immediately declared a “Marshal Plan,” in the water sector. The plan involves projects under the Urban Water Supply; Semi Urban Water supply; Hydrological services department, Rural Water Supply and collaborations with international organisations.
The governor rehabilitated the Daura Water Scheme with the sum of N34million which was completed in November 2015 and has since supplied the town with at least 2,500,000 million litres daily. Malumfashi which has been in comatose for seven years is revived at the cost of N141million and is now operational, a contract for the total rehabilitation of Ajiwa Treatment Plant and Dam was awarded at the cost of N1.9billion to increase the production capacity to 50,000m3 per day.
In the Rural Water Scheme, about 64 solar borehole water supply schemes were rehabilitated and over 102 hand-pumps repaired and new ones constructed. The revolution in the water sector is a great source of reflection for Masari.
“We met a decayed infrastructure water if we take the example of Ajiwa that was commissioned in 1974 with the capacity of 5.5 million gallons per day which is about 20 million litres, by 1981, the treatment plant was doubled. If you look at the population of Katsina between 1974 to 1981, I was the officer in charge of Katsina water supply by 1981 and I know by the census that Katsina and environs where we were supplying water then, the population was 381,000 people, I want you to look at the population of Katsina today, we can put it at least 1m.
“Today, the waterworks the pumps are being changed, the pipeline have developed serious leakages, the booster is not functioning as a booster, it is pumping directly into the mains, this is the situation that we face, the efforts we are making is to make the water works to produce 40million litres,” the governor said.
In walking his talk, Masari said he has spent over N5billion on the water works since 2015 and in the 2017 budget, N14 billion has been allocated making it the second largest allocation in the budget.
Our work in healthcare delivery
Doctor Kabir Mustapha, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health stood at the entrance of the General Hospital Kastina and smiled. In the last few months, what used to be a sore has taken on new infrastructures and equipment.
“The work in this hospital is in three phases, we are converting all the theatres into twin theatres, machines lime the MRI, CT scan are being provided and 620 medical personnel have been employed in the state,” he said.
The Commissioner for Health, Mariatu Bala Usman expatiated further that four General Hospitals in Kastina, Daura, Funtua and Kankia are undergoing refurbishment while about N900 million was expended in 2016.
[quote font_size=”18″ color=”#000000″ bgcolor=”#dda552″ bcolor=”#dd3333″ arrow=”yes”]Generally, the motive for the renovation is to address the wear and tear of the facilities while the upgrading is mainly to enable the deployment of modern equipment for treatment and diagnosis and also provide adequate security – Commissioner for Health[/quote]
Usman said about N700million has been released for the purchase of modern equipment for the hospitals, already Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computer Tomographic Scanning Machine (CT-SCAN) have been installed at the General Amadi Rimi specialist hospital.
But addressing the critical shortage of Human Resources for Health seems to be paramount in the plans of the state government. In the short term strategy, the state has engaged Locum Consultants from Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital and other specialists’ hospitals to provide specialists care in Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Obstetrics and Gynecology.
In November 2016, the state employed 621 health care personnel across 19 cadres including 53 doctors and consultants, 184 nurses and midwives, 54 pharmacists, 29 laboratory scientists and 94 ward attendants.
A word of hope
Governor Masari loves to talk enthusiastically about the future, it was a conviction he carries deep in his heart and on such occasions he would speak as a prophet. “There was a time when agriculture and livestock under the native authority system when Kastina was a province under the Northern Nigerian Government was everything we had, if we can do it then under agriculture and livestock, who says we can’t do it now, we can do it,” the governor cried.
He spoke about his dreams for Kastina and not allowing any natural or human hindrance block the way of progress. “With the advancement in solar and other sources of power, renewable energy now is the in-thing., here we have a potential, the construction of 85 megawatts solar will commence in Kankia and we hope before the end of the year, other sources of energy also in Kankia will be 120 will come up on stream, all preparations have reached 70 percent.”
He was philosophical to: “The journalists need to educate the ordinary Nigerians that in every part of this country, if people look inwards, they will find what can sustain them and their economy, it is possible, if someone who lives in the Sahara can survive and live fairly well, don’t even tell me that I can’t survive in Kastina. We depended on oil for too long and we have seen the consequences of that.
“People must sit up and leadership must be responsive and responsible and accountable, we in Kastina, we remit account of the first and last kobo we receive, you may not agree with what we have done but you cannot accuse us that we have swallowed it, as human beings we can make mistakes and any mistake we make, and our attention is drawn to it, we will accept correction.”
But above it all he had a message of hope for the people: “If the worst comes to worse, Katina people must survive, they must progress, we must use what we have to define where we want to go, in the next five years, we will be in a position to compete with any state.”
