If Senator Sani Ahmed,Yerima Bakura,the first civilian governor of Zamfara State was a confirmed disaster, the incumbent Visiting Governor Abdul’aziz Yari ,can best be described as a calamity. Yari hasn’t disappointed Yerima,who wanted someone worse than him, after all a leopard must give birth to a leopard and not a lion. Visiting Governor Abdul’aziz Yari,and Chairman of the Governors Forum,is a modern day Nero,and like Nero,he is ineffectual, and as Nero fiddled, and Rome burnt, so has Yari been gallivanting the world, as Zamfara State continues the certain and steady slide into decay. How on earth can Yari in good conscience be part of the Presidential Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly,while Zamfara State is at a stand still? Was the President aware that the Zamfara workers were on strike? If he was, why didn’t the President drop him? For certain Yari wouldn’t have been missed,except the President needed a court jester!
Zamfara State,has been viciously and mercilessly raped by the very backward and decadent Yerima Political Dynasty, that has neither vision,nor convictions. The tragedy is that the Yerima Political Dynasty is obviously very determined to ensure that Zamfara State remains a basket case and that the people will continue to live in abject poverty. In the Sahara Desert of leadership,there was some hope that the more “urbane” Mamud Shinkafi, would have changed the fortunes of the state, but he proved that in orientation and philosophy, he was one and the same with them. Shinkafi , Yari and Mukhtar Koguna commissioner of finance that is being groomed to take over from Yari, are fervent disciples of the Yerima Political Dynasty,akin to the Lamidi Adedibu Molete School of Politics,where all that matters is the sharing of State resources. When Adedibu was asked his grouse against his erstwhile political godson Ladoja , Adedibu responded that Ladoja was stingy. “He collects N60 million as security vote every month, is it bad if he gives me one quarter of it?Shinkafi ,has since returned to the Yerima Political Dynasty, after what looked like a revolt. For the Yerima Political Dynasty the people are not part of the equation, they don’t count or matter.And so long as the next governor emerges from the Yerima Political Dynasty,they will never matter.
Mike Myatt in his seminal work “15 Ways to Identify A Bad Leader”, argued that many societies and organizations do not seem to recognize good leaders,from bad ones. ” It’s important to realize that just because someone holds a position of leadership, doesn’t necessarily mean they should”. Going with his assertions,Yari from the very outset ought not to have been more than a Chief Clerk,by training, capacity and competence. The monumental crisis confronting Zamfara State,is a confirmation that Yari, is an obvious misfit as governor, coupled with his limited world view.
Yari, was never and is never going to be the best man for the Zamfara job. There are very competent men and women who can turn around the fortunes of the State. The snag is,they don’t belong to the Yerima Political Dynasty,where you must never question. Where absolute loyalty is your ticket for mobility. This is Yari’s only qualification for the top job.As a commissioner under Sani Ahmed,he was one of the several Zamafara State officials charged with money laundering.Was the Zamfara governorship,the reward for silence? And like the saying goes old habits die hard,so Yari has continued from where he left off. The old EFCC customer has reopened his dormant account with the EFCC.Yari, has been fingered as one of those who helped themselves with the Paris Fund refund.
Early this year,Zamfara State witnessed the outbreak of cerebrospinal meningitis,in which more than 400 lives were lost.Yari, attributed the outbreak to God’s anger with the poor peasants,who in his opinion seem to rival Sodom and Gomora in sin.Before that goof, Nigerians never took note of him,he was that anonymous, as there is nothing of note happening in Zamfara State,except crisis. The other time people took note, was when he thought he could add Zara,the president’s daughter to his harem, a delusion that Zamfara State coffers suffered heavily for. Yari had to behave like his mentor, who equally specializes in “fresh” young girls.Didn’t Shinkafi,also marry Aisha Babangida? Sources confirmed that if the money spent wooing Zara,was spent providing facilities and drugs,those lives could have been saved
The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has knocked the final nail in Yari’s coffin of pedestrian performance, with his disclosure that Zamfara State has 23 doctors, managing the 24 health institutions.With the zero State of healthcare, why won’t the “sinful people” of Zamfara die? A governor with the genuine interest of his people at heart,will find a solution like Aminu Tambawal of Sokoto State,has found one. The Sokoto State Government to address the shortage of personnel entered into a Strategic Partnership with the Federal Ministry of Health,under which the Federal Government-owned Usman Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, would deploy idle doctors to the state hospitals, to help enhance health care delivery. This is keadership. Kaduna State has such a partnership with Ahmadu Bello Teaching Hospital.Such partnerships is not rocket science,but a product of constant enquiry and desire to better the lot of the people. But Yari,is never on the “ground” to think through such a programme and so the people will continue die from meningitis,from malaria,and pregnant women will also die at delivery, because the government has willfully failed to provide the necessary facilities.Zamfara State has the highest infant mortality rate in Nigeria.
But Yari,is a joker,a very big one at that,probably why the more serious minded governors,have allowed him to hold on to the Chairmanship of the Governor’s Forum. A position that is now part of his title. Yari would never cease to shock,when he speaks. For instance,Yari only discovered last week after more than 6 years in office, that personnel shortage is one of the factors affecting healthcare delivery in the state. His Imperial Majesty,the Visiting Governor has thankfully promised to remedy the situation.Maybe by the year 2023!
The problem is that Yari,is irredeemable. And this is rather worrying. Last year the Nigerian Meteorological Agency(NiMet), had sufficiently warned states that there would be an outbreak of meningitis. The worry is that in spite of the experience of this year, Zamfara State is yet to put in place policies to guide against a reoccurrence next year.I recommend the Kaduna Strategy to the Visiting Governor. He should urgently employ Disease Survilance Officers, who should be trained to know the signs of the major diseases, as early detection is critical. He should also copy the example of Kaduna State,by setting up a Drug Supply Company that will have drugs in stock for all the major diseases,so that in the event of an emergency, the hospitals can be issued with the drugs, unlike the present situation where contract would first have to be awarded. But prevention and containment remains the way to go.
But when a Governor only visits his State,how can the necessary consultations and planning ever take place?The state Commissioner for Health up to the point of the meningitis outbreak, had not set eyes on the Visiting Governor of Zamfara State in three months.That’s not surprising as his ministry is not the “happening” ministry- Commissioners are Finance and Works,must see Yari,he can’t be too busy not to see them. So it wasn’t really sin that led to the death of those who died. It was lack of planning,and dereliction of duty on the part of Yari.
The Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, was right that Zamfara State which started the implementation of Sharia law in Nigeria has the highest poverty rate in the country. Sanusi was also right that the Yerima Political Dynasty have used religion as a tool for acquiring and retaining power. Yerima deserves some praise for understanding that he could build his Political Dynasty on Religion. Yerima in 1999, was fighting for survival,with the likes of Aliyu Guasu breathing down his neck,he had to embrace Sharia. Sanusi is spot on that it is only a question of time and lies will collapse. “It’s a matter of time for people to realise that this is all deception, this is all politics, this is not religion; it is about politicians appropriating religion as a discourse for getting into power.”he said.
The governor also seems to realize that the people are tired of his lies and deceits,especially on the amount he has spent on security. Yari claims to have spent a whooping N13billion fighting armed banditry,cattle rustling, and kidnapping and Yari is asking for a refund from the federal government to refund to Zamfara State. The people doubt Yari,because their situation has not changed- villages are still being ransacked by the bandits. So precisely on what did he spend the money on? And the people deserve to have a good laugh,because they finally caught him out. And the Visiting Governor hasn’t found this funny. When he received the Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, Hajiya Sadiya Umar-Farouq, he didn’t hide his indignation that the people have the guts to question his figures.”People should learn to respect their leaders and what the leaders say and ask for clarification on what they do not know”, he said.The flip side to his statement is,has he as leader by his actions and deeds deserve the respect of the led? No security,no hospital,no schools.
The other indication that the people have had enough of him is the ongoing strike action embarked by the State Civil Servants. The Chairman, Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) Zamfara State, Bashir Mafara, said the strike is to force Yari to seriously face governance. He said: “Zamfara workers are faced with a number of problems which include: failure to pay the salaries of 1,400 recruited by the government more than two years ago; nonpayment of backlog of pension and gratuities; nonpayment of minimum wage to primary school teachers and local government employees as well as nonpayment of annual salary increment”. But in what can best be described as contempt for the people, he didn’t bother visiting the State,as he joined the President for the New York trip. It’s doubtful if the gallivanting governor has any plan to visit Zamfara State anytime soon.
Zamfara State is an all round disaster case – from health to sports. And this is legacy of the Yerima Political Dynasty that has governed the State from 1999 – date. The educational sector,that should hold out hope,is very distressing. If there are no schools if out of more than 8,000 teachers,only about 4,000 are qualified to teach,where is the hope? For a long time to come Zamfara State is going to remain educationally backward,as there are no indications that the necessary hard work has commenced.The literacy level stands at about 40%. The performance in internal and external examinations is woeful. In a particular year,it entered 55,694 students for WAEC,and only 4,249 obtained 5 credits and above,but the snag is that a good number of the students are non- indigenes of the State.
Yari, has two more years of gallivanting round the world, on cheap Zamfara State funds. The hope is that another disastrous 4 years would be averted by ensuring that no candidate,in the mould of Yerima, Shinkafi and Yari emerges. If Yerima installs the next governor, Zamfara State would be a write off. A candidate opposed to the ideology of the Yerima Political Dynasty is what Zamfara State needs.
I don’t believe that Yari’s abysmal performance has anything to do with his level of education.But he owes himself that duty of going back to school,to improve himself.
