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WHAT IS HAPPENING IN AREWA?

Started by mallamt, May 17, 2005, 11:07:22 PM

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mallamt

Since the inception of democracy in nigeria, nigeria has been in the news for the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I however have noted that there has been a number of very positive/promising developments that are taking place in the country, and these developments are in the south.  The cross river state govt is in some massive development project (i think they call it TINAPA or so), there are all sorts of IPP (independant power stations) cropping up in the southern states, the number of private (not state govt) universities emerging in the south is mind boggling, the number of seemingly very good private secondary and primary schools being established is unbelieveable (I met some secondary school students on a holiday trip in a flight out of Nigeria in their very beautiful uniforms).  I also note how doctors and other medical professionals in the "diaspora" from the south are sending needed medical supplies and equipment to hospitals (govt hospitals in particular) as well as give some of their time to come and treat patients back in their home states for a number of days.  I quite often read about foreign trade delegations visiting southern states, industries in southern states being revived or improved for better performance, foreign airlines looking to have more flights to southern states, even with commercial agriculture farmers are looking more and more to southern states the highest north they go is the middle belt etc.  The list goes on and on, now this is where my problem lies I do not hear of the same enthusaism and hope amongst northerners or from northern states, are there things happening that we do not hear? what is happening to our industries? what are we doing about power generation? what about schools and health care?  I find the south is getting away more and more from waiting for government to do anything for them, they appear to be gearing themselves for a future without government control in anything but only in governing.  It appears this is also senn in the centre as the federal government is also relinquising interest in business enterprise and  let the private sector do it.  This is a very good thing but with very serious consequence for arewa, because the way things ae going the centre will be made very weak financially, that is there will be no financial incentive to be there, so we would be left with what we have done for ourselves, are we ready or are we planning for such a scenario?  What is the plan in area that is industry, education, infrastructure, peace, etc in the next ten years and what have we started implementing?  Those in nigeria I am sure will be in a better position to give those of us out of the country some information.

_Waziri_

This appears to be very frank, sincere and thoughtful submission. I surely will want to bare my mind on this. It is only that I am overburdened now... maybe later.

alhaji_aminu

salam

mallamt should be thanked for his concern on what the inept and  fractured Arewa governors are doing. The answer is a mixed bag. While some, like Shekarau, are paying pension owed since 1979, others like Turaki, up in Jigawa, is setting up a mysterious informatics institutes- wasting huges sums of foreign exchange. For god sakes, how can a state that does not even fills  it quote in nearby BUK think of setting up a high tech institution like the II. I mean Dutse, until recently, was not even connected to the national grid- the infrastructure with which to power their machines in the II.

While Kano, Kaduna, Nassarawa, Gombe and Kogi are setting up and running state university, Joshua Dariye is busy bleeding his state treasury dry. While in Katsina and Bauchi roads are being constructed by reputable firms, Kano state under Kwankwaso was busy awarding contract to SKY, which, by the way, is a terrible company. To pay his tribute to his pal KKwaso, SKY construction chairman, Alhaji Sani Kwangila, gave 150 million to the reelection campaign funds of KKwaso. Now it is either he became really rich off of kano or he is a really generous friend. I think it is the former.

Some good news on the University front is that, there will be 2 private Unis in Kwara, one in katsina and another in Adamawa. They will no be cheap though. It is also a shame that nobody in Kano has joined the band wagon. private ventures, which previously could only be accessed through the govt tend to be very profitable- in many countries. Ask the people in Freedom radio.

The area of power supply is neglected to high heavens in the North. Conidering the fact that the North now get less power per capita, one would assume some state governors, particularly those in Kano and Kaduna and Jos- where industries and dams are located, will be interested in solving the problem. But no. The only attempt, to my knowledge, is one by KKwaso when he invited some romanians to do feasibility studies on whether the Challawa dam can produce hydro-power. Nothing is heard from it since.
In fairness to the states, it is not as easy for them to start IPP's in the north as it is in the south. This is becausealmost all souther states have access to natural gas- a key ingredient in fuelling the modular power plants being built in the south. But guess what, it is the same northern leaders whoneglected the Ajaokuta-Kaduna gas line who are to blame for this. OBJ will not do it for them

Some solutions to out problems lie in about 4-5 key things.

1) Education, especially primary and secondary education.
2)Agricultural Mechanisation
3) Dredging Niger River- this way  transportation cost will be cheaper to deliver item to the hinter land. And the Gas supply could be on LNG trains to baro via the Niger River and then piped from Niger to other places inwards.
4) Increased and simplified banking usage. That is, people should have easy access to funds in very simple terms.

BUt take it from me this will not happen with these crop of leaders. They are more concerned about buying Limos fo Emirs ( as in Kebbi) and junketing around the old  seeking the never-guarranteed FDI.

When I hear poor Nigerians saying things will get better. I just laugh and say, Not with these guys, Not with this system.

Lets just hope I am wrong........

SAAHIB 92

i wish they could read this and change,so that; you will be wrong.
Radina billahi Rabban,
Wa bil Islami Dinan,
Wa bi Muhammadin Nabiyya!"

 ABBAS A YAKASAI

usman11

Here is a question I want to ask though. Before people seek election into public offices, if it is with good intent, do they really embark on a feasibility study of the state (in the case of governorship candidates) in order to really have an understanding of what the true picture is, as in areas that resources need to be committed urgently, areas where attention needs to be focused on, identifying the pressing issues that exist, what kinds of challenges currently exist and the ones that will exist in future as a result of actions taken now, etc? I ask this because a knowledge of these issues will help an administrator to plan better and more effectively during his/her leadership.

A few years ago when I did my internship at a Senator's office in GA, I had an opportunity to work with department folks in city hall on a daily basis and experienced first hand how most cities are managed.  Several years later, some delegation from lagos state government showed up in GA for a leadership summit and met with several Nigerian business people and Engineers in a brainstorming session hoping to find solutions to some of the challenging issues facing the city and State.  In recent years, the Nigrerian Foundation in America has hosted several state and National delegations to America in search of economic and strategic advice on how to better implement projects, etc. I am not sure how many from the north have looked in this direction for consultation.  I think they should. They will get some very practical advice and assistance from these Nigerian groups abroad.

For a city to function effectively, leadership must know what is going on in the city.  That means, in city hall, a command center must be up and functioning to monitor activities in several metropolitan parts of the city. In such a facility,  a huge room equipped with several large screen T. V monitors with camera's placed in different hidden locations of the city needs to exist so that trained personnel can monitor events on a daily basis. For instance, if traffic constantly builds up in one area of the city, the monitoring Reps in the command center can report this to local law enforcement or patrol officers within the location so that motorists can be diverted to alternate routes, or to just ensure that traffic flows rapidly. Another use of such  center woud be for crime watch.  If a criminal activity is in progress, the city officials monitoring from city hall can record the scene which would be valuable evidence in court at some point, as well as dispatch law enforcement to the scene immediately.  

If there is a riot in town for instance, a monitoring command center becomes even more useful because city officials can monitor the crowd activiities and advice police officers on the ground accordingly.  In general the city or state needs a eye to see what actually goes on. The community  also needs aerial surveilance every so often because from above, one can really assess the worth of a city or state. From an aerial view, one really sees what state a community is in.

The city of Lagos for instance from the sky is a complete Junkyard, and believe me, it is a confusing place.  If I was Governor Tinubu, I would have taken an helicopter ride over the city of Lagos and other metropolis just to get a good picture of what I am dealing with as state executive. I think that would give him a proper perspective of things. A place like lagos will require extensive resources and planning if it is to function as a modern day city. My thing is this, one cannot run a city or state from a blind spot, and that is what is happening for the most part in Nigeria.

State leaders have to be on top of things, and quite frankly, in a place like Nigeria, that means working 12-14 hours a day, and that comes with constantly re-evaluating policies, projects, assessing results, reviews and more reviewsjust to make sure things are on schedule and are functioning as intended.

_Waziri_

Actually "what is happening in Arewa" is a legitimate question to ask by any Nigerian living abroad. Because anything business and development  heard about Nigeria abroad comes from the Southern direction or mouth piece.

I am afraid, but then while the question cannot be dismissed as an illegimate one we can also not say there is nothing happening up here that merits our praise since I believe we are not here to only criticize but also to commend where the mettle proves worthy of our commendation.

But then the question may assume another direction or form since if really anything good is happening in Arewa apart from the massive killings that occur during frequent religio-ethnic crises why is it that these good things are not heard?

Nobody will doubt the fact that the many leaders we had in the past both at the state and central levels did not do enough work to place the mouthpiece of Arewa in a strategic position where when it speaks its voice will be heard loud and clear with trumpeting density that  has the capability to sweep the senses of every listener. On this the leaders of Arewa must be blamed completely for it is the reason why the collective interest of Arewa and the little good this interest will do to its teaming population doesn't find clear articulation in the domain of influence of national and international politics, economics and history. It is unfortunate that only things that are negative or represetative of threats to to our collective union, interest(Arewa) that find adequate publicity in the space of politics and administration. It is unfortunate.

While I may not fiind it easy to say all the good things we hear about the Southern states are NOT true, I can conidently say they are not MOSTLY true as compared to the real progress the nothern states have recorded in the past six years. For example, the students bursaries has been very regular in many of the northern states to the extent that I always put forward the claim that many who have graduated in the last six years can boast of having had free tertiary institution education. Those reading Medicine and Pharmacy in Kaduna State were and are still put on monthly payroll. They are given salaries equivalent to that of a civil servant on level 6. This is one thing you can never find any Southern state doing.

Those among us travelleing across the country are quick to tell us that the amount of physical development projects papable in the North cannot be compared to those seen in the south( in the sense that the Southern states appear to be doing nothing on ground). This inspite of the truth that the money Arewa get from Federal Government coffers is far less than what the Saouthern states get. In 2003 alone, the Southern states got 400 Billion Naira while the North got only 210 Billion Naira. Yet even governors like Modu Sherif of Borno and Goje of Bauchi who assumed leadership only in 2003 have done more than what many of the governors of the South have done to their states. Bayelsa State alone has been receiving Federal Allocation more than the the six North Eastern state combined together but then each of these states can boast of having done something to their teaming population more than what Bayelsa state could say it has done.

This is what is really on ground. But I wonder why the media both foreign and local want to potray an image of achievement to the Southerners as the only true reapers of the dividend of democracy. This is not to say that the Northerners or their leaders do not have problems as I have highlighted before, but the truth matter as this thread demands, is the  fact that the Southerners are not doing any better job if not worst thann the Northern governors.

Many of the Southerners I constantly dine and wine with tell me that they believe the Northern governors are most fair in public accountability in comparison to their southern ones. This truth is confirmed by the utterances of Obasanjo when he visited Kaduna State sometime last month. One can further assert the veracity   of this claim when one takes a trip to Sokoto to see what Bafarawa has accopmplished. This governor says it always that he does not want any massive publicity for the good works he does for his people.

I have my problems with Northerners and their leaders but in this and since the matter is that of coming up with comaparative analysis I will give them a distinguished A++++

bakangizo

Quote from: "alhaji_aminu"salam
While some, like Shekarau, are paying pension owed since 1979, others like...

Add that to the mass employment into the state's civil service, coupled with  quality roads (though few), drainage construction etc. Unfortunately, the people here are restless. People have been subjugated for so long that they don't even recognise good governance even if it stares them in the face. They don't know the difference between a government that focused on human development and one that stole the state's treasury blind, building ramshackle roads that do not last for more than a year, sacking workers e.t.c. And I think this is where education plays an important role. There's a limit to which you can twist and manipulate an educated society. Therefore I believe the attention of the northern govs should on education, health and agriculture.