By ADAMU MUHD USMAN
Nigeria is a blessed country in both human and natural resources. It is a country where all its socio-cultural groups have reputable and remarkable history. Nigeria, which has the largest black population in the world with over 200 million out of the 700 million, is the giant of Africa and produces a lot of talents in educational aspects, art, music, sport, literature, and even business.
But on the contrary, with all these attributes and blessings, Nigeria seems or probably became a failure or produces no good result in almost all the work of life for its citizens for some reasons, most especially in areas of greediness, selfishness, and corruption, among others.
In one of the lectures delivered by the late Dan Masanin Kano, Alhaji Maitama Sule, he stated, “In Nigeria, there is meaninglessness in philosophy, insecurity in politics, chaos in politics, corruption in the economy, immorality in society, frustration in art, a lack of creativity in literature, etc.”
My reason for the above analysis was the move by the Jigawa State government under the leadership of H.E. Malam Umar Namadi (FCA) to release some tonnes of rice (27,000 bags) and 10,000 cartons of spaghetti, amounting to almost N1,944,000,000, as palliativea. The governor’s decision aimed at reducing the hardship that people face as a result of the high cost of food items in the market to support in the 1445 A H/2024 Ramadan season. This move is commendable for a first-time governor.
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Well, the government is aware of so many problems facing the people, but when it comes to solving them, the execution is not done in the proper way, at the right time, and for the right purpose.
For this Ramadan palliatives released by the state government, if care is not taken, probably only a small percentage (40–50%) of the masses can benefit; even this percentage to be given out to the poor masses is maybe just a formality.
Government officials and recognised high-ranking politicians in the state or even from outside will enjoy the cake, with the largest share.
I am telling you this by experience because it happened in the previous regime of the former Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Muhammadu Badaru Abubakar. It was alleged that the fertilisers were released by the Federal Government to ease the suffering of poor masses in Jigawa State as a palliative to ease some people’s hardship on the effect of flood invasions (disaster) that occur in two to three seasons. If I may guess right, between 2018 and 2022, also during the tenure of his excellency.
Alhaji Saminu Turaki, on the same cause of drought, flood, locust, quela birds, and fertiliser subsidy to poor farmers, was not delivered to the right beneficiaries. If care is not taken, the poor masses may not benefit from the present state government’s aid.
The previous happenings make me devastated because many things were not done in the right way in this country, Nigeria, when it comes to execution.
Life can be frustrating when all efforts produce little or no result, but the mystery of life is that you can win in the same place you have fallen or lost before.
I am appealing to the government of Malam Umar of Jigawa State to address this issue immediately and assign God-fearing people to handle such cases. “One of the first and legitimate objects of good government is to care for its subjects, their lives, happiness, and well-being, not their use, suffering, or destruction.”
Truly, the heart is normally inclined towards the person who is most compassionate towards it.
Also, the feeding exercise should not turn into an opportunity to embezzle government funds and even promote nepotism by giving cooking contracts to members and families of either top government officials or politicians handling the programme. It shouldn’t be a great avenue for Chuwa-chuwa (fraud) since 171,900 people are expected to be fed daily, so about five million people are targeted to benefit from this free Ramadan meal (FRM) during this exercise.
Governor Namadi has to strive hard to reorganise and govern the state very well. You may be doing the right thing, but others are there to pollute your policies and programmes. Though we witnessed the palliatives that were distributed some months ago across the 27 local government areas in the state, there were elements of transparency and accountability.
We hope Governor Namadi will emulate himself and be used as a ladder through which many people will be happy and lifted to success and greatness, since you believe that life is a duty and should be lived in the most useful manner.
Our society must try to add value to lives of others, to help them become great and be a pillar of the society.
*Adamu writes from Kafin-Hausa, Jigawa State.
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