By Lola Idahosa, Kaduna
Never in the history of Kaduna state has an elected Governor like Malam Nasir Ahmed el Rufai taken a stand that has affected salaries and allowances of chief executive, his deputy, lawmakers and political appointees and nobody is raising an eye brow to kick against it.The reactions so far clearly show that every citizens in the state is ready to accept any change and reforms that come from him.
Governor El Rufai first started with himself when he said that he was going to cut his salary and that of his deputy to fifty percent after which he paid a visit to the state house of Assembly to appeal to them to borrow suit by also cutting their salaries and allowance.
He did not stop there but went as far as stopping all fertilizers meant for traditional rulers and put smile on the faces of farmers by giving fertilizers at fifty percent subsidized rate.
The governor also made it clear to the people of Kaduna state that he was going to restructure the ministries thereby reducing them from 24 to 13. The reason he gave was that “This is intended to cut costs, spur efficiency and improve service delivery. The machinery of government will now be driven by the following ministries:1. Ministry of Justice;2. Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry;3. Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism;4. Ministry of Local Government;5. Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture;6. Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources;7. Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development;8. Ministry of Water Resources;9. Ministry of Health and Human Services;10. Ministry of Education, Science and Technology;11. Ministry of Budget and Planning;12. Ministry of Finance and 13. Ministry of Works, Housing and Transport”
“The realignment of mandates has also resulted in the emergence of two new departments. The erstwhile Ministry of Lands, Survey and Country Planning is being moved to the Governor’s Office as a department. Similarly, the former Ministry of Rural and Community Development becomes a department in the Deputy Governor’s Office.
Also affected by the restructuring is the Ministry of Information whose functions have now being decentralized. Each ministry will henceforth have its own public relations unit attached to the office of its chief executive”.
Another surprising decision he took was that anybody living in Kaduna state is part of the state and should be treated as such.
Malam El rufai did not only say that alone but has also appointed non native men Olumuyiwa Adekeye as special Adviser on media and communication and Jimi Adebisi Lawal Special Adviser, Investment Promotion, an appointment that no other Governor has made.
He did not waste time by directing the ministry of justice to decongest the Prisons in the State after President Buhari told all the Governors to decongest the various prisons in their state .Kaduna state Chief Judge has Freed 95 Inmates awaiting trial on the orders of malam El Rufai.
He is of the belief that there is no room for excuses, “we have no time to waste, neither do we have time to play, we have a duty to work hard for the development, unity and progress of the state” “after being elected by majority vote, can we uphold a system that solely serves the pleasures of a servant-minority?”
“One damning consequence of this skewed expenditure pattern, for instance, is the education of our children” “50 per cent of our primary school pupils sit on bare floors. Many of our schools lack decent toilet
“How many good roads or decent hospitals can we build when we leave so little monies for the things that actually matter? “Can we deliver significant service for the majority of our people if we devote only 20% of available resources to their needs?” “The stark fact is that Kaduna State spends 80% of its total revenues on its public servants and political office holders.”
“Change requires partnership” says in address to the Kaduna State House of Assembly at Lugard Hall.
Some of the reactions so far from people includes, ”this man means business in Kaduna, APC Legislators need your tutorials for this change to be effected. He is preaching the ‘new gospel’ we have to swallow and digest as quickly as possible
El Rufai has repeatedly stated that the Kaduna state government must direct more of its resources to delivering public services and that such a move requires a reduction in the proportion consumed by government.
If El Rufai is to succeed, he must stop the usual government practice where scapegoats are sought as soon as something goes wrong: we must punish those who inflate contract prices but focus on why contracts can be inflated in the first place and plug such lapses that encourage the practice. We must recover funds from the thieves who loot our treasury but we must focus more on the reasons why this looting is possible and block those leakages.
The practice of seeking scapegoats can be justified by the fact that we all represent the system and quite honestly it gives the posture of an effective government, but he must first start with reforming the people and this does not necessarily center on the people themselves. It centers on rebuilding state institutions and checking systemic failure.
If people are simply reoriented without fixing the systems, the underlying issues which encourage negative behavior will still linger and any change achieved under such circumstances will be temporary at best.
What the Kaduna State Governor and all others who contribute to governance at similar levels must do is ensure that systems that lead to attitudinal change are fully operational. This is the only sure way to check collective indiscipline and all other ills that plague society. They must know that obedience is most effectively enforced if perpetrators know that there are grave consequences for their actions.
