The Executive Governor of the World.

Ruling a state as big as the world is a daunting business. Things have fallen in scramble for the current administration in Kano which makes officials struggle to keep under control. Besides lack of clear-cut policy directives, the administration seems to relish in communicating through  rumor, unnecessary back and forth or controlled silence.

Strolling around the streets in the state will dead cert tell a story of a slumbering government. The excuses are as follow: Every well-meaning citizen must have to show understanding to Ganduje’s government and offer him the benefits of the doubts to have settled well and understand the situation. You will land straight into failure if you recklessly rush into government take-the-bull-by-the-horn way.

The economy is terrible. Unlike his predecessor, he will not enjoy ample allocation of funds from the federal government occasioned with fact of governing without fuel subsidy removal funds the previous administration had been receiving since early 2012.

Mind you, Ganduje spent years as senior civil servant at federal government level, two times deputy governor and served simultaneously as Hon Commissioner for Local Governments in the last term, and now a governor carrying onboard some key government officials from the last regime. It is tragic to discover that the government is still scrambling by now. 

It will be assumed that new initiatives would begin in 2016. The governor has just presented appropriation bill for the year this month. But there are other projects that do not need 2016 to come to continue. Rubbish collected on some of the major streets around the metropolis.   KAROTA, a traffic regulatory agency that brings huge amount of internally generated revenue to the state’s coffers had witnessed an overhaul but without commensurate outcome as used to in the past.  The state Governor has been contemplating cuts or entirely ending SSCE funds intervention allocation for students who passed their Qualifying Examinations.

This brings me to my point. I am suspicious of the governor’s cries over harsh economic reality. The appropriation bill presented for 2016 went above any of the four fiscals budgets presented during the last administration from 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.

In 2012, the appropriation bill tagged Budget of Economic Restoration and Development stood at Nb 219.28

2013 appropriation bill tagged Budget of Economic Consolidation and Fiscal Discipline was Nb 235.2 (235, 304, 929, 000)

In 2014, the fiscal bill was tagged Budget of Consolidation and the total amounts stood at Nb219.2

Budget of Celebration of Success 2015 also stood N210.76billion

Governor Ganduje presents N274.8 Billion Appropriation Bill for 2016 tagged “Budget for Self-Reliance ”which he said “is higher than that of 2014 with a sum of N43 billion.”  In addition, the breakdown for each sector allocation has increased than in the previous years. For instance, education receives N23 billion this year as against N18billion during the Kwankwaso administration. This is despite fall in oil price and presumed absence of funds from fuel subsidy removal.

We owe Ganduje detailed explanations of the cuts in some public programs despite increase in government revenues. How Kwankwaso was able to achieve tremendous success with less resources and Gandjue is fretting and slashing and ending some programs and initiatives? The same state, the same people with even more funds. How come? Someone is clearing his way to dupe people into believing that there is less money so that he can eat to his fill.

It is seemingly noticeable that he is not going to outperform his predecessor. During the general election, Ganduje did not promise anything other than completing what his predecessor started. I  voiced fears on the eaves of election that it is tragic if the only thing he can do is to complete some fractions of what his predecessor started in four years in his own four-year term. On the onset, he was not much concerned about telling people his plans and programs during campaign season. Instead, he paid much attention to the political jobbers in the media believing that he must win under Buhari confusion.

We don’t want him to fail. We want him to finish the carryover projects from the last administration and created his own projects. It is understandable that monies for these contracts had been paid already. Does the Ganduje administration need more funds to be pumped into uncompleted projects before they get finished?

Why more cuts in government spending? We need to ask what has happened: his 2016 budget exceeds any of the four from the last administration and yet he is slashing funds on certain projects without clear roadmap as to what he is going to do with the funds and how he intends to spend them. You should tell us what exactly your plans are. You just can’t ambiguously appropriate funds without clear-cut projects that would consume the funds. How many roads, how many schools, how many houses are you going to build specifically?

You may think it is real. Slashing the salary of the state government top officials, like governor and his deputy, is a scam if they continue to retain hundreds of millions of naira as security votes and other exorbitant allowances. It will appear like moving cash from the right pocket to the left.

However, while paying examinations fees is parents’ responsibilities, the state government must have provided standard teaching and learning facilities that will ensure quality education in public schools before ending SSCE intervention funds program.  Taking such decision will be ill-advised. It is a crossroad for hundreds of thousands of children in which many will go out of school if government ends this program. The state governor needs to reconsider his position to avoid setting bad example for local government chairmen whom the local people only eke out little benefits from only on occasional instances.   Pay for those who passed and ask the local governments to set their own standard and pay for those who got the credits.

Little by little, politicians are stealing benefits that have direct impact on the poor. It is not only the poor that should be forced into making sacrifices. We know we have problems.  That is why you are there. If you insist you can’t continue the program because you don’t have money, why not quietly resign?