Inuwa: Katsina, No Longer Rustlers’Haven
Secretary to the Katsina State Government, Alhaji Mustapha Muhammad Inuwa! says it took the support of President Muhammadu Buhari to rid Katsina of cattle rustlers and illicit drugs users. He spoke with Peter Ishaka, Bolaji Adebiyi, Charles Ajunwa and Ibr
Katsina State had a reputation for insecurity and youth restiveness, how far has the Masari government gone in bringing this under control? I think both are related. The level of security affects behavioural attitude of the youth, particularly those who are jobless.
It’s, however, important that you have an idea of the situation we met on the ground so you could appreciate what we have done. When we assumed office, the state was under siege. In our major towns, Katsina in particular, businesses had to close by 9 pm because there was serious insecurity situation caused by the youths, especially those called Kaurare (area boys).
They could attack you anywhere regardless of who you are. They could attack you in the house, in shops, on the streets, anywhere! So, the Ibrahim Shema administration could not do anything about this for political reasons. The only thing the police insisted on was to impose more or less a curfew in the state. In the rural areas, especially along our major roads, it was a case of almost armed robbery on a daily basis especially on roads leading to Katsina from other parts of the country.
What did this government do about it?
Realising that it was impossible to bring development to the state without security, the governor had to tackle the problem head-on. We sat down with all the security agencies to map out our remedial programmes and strategies. We also formed a task force with the Ministry of Health, Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), security agencies and traditional rulers to address the problem of illicit drug use by the youths. Then we had different empowerment programmes. There was in the office of the governor under the SSG. A directorate was also established, the Katsina State Economic Empowerment Directorate, headed by a Special Adviser, with staff from the Women Affairs Ministry and the Girl-child Department.
These agencies also linked up some Nongovernmental Organisations (NGOs) and federal institutions offering similar empowerment programmes. At the state level, we initially trained about 140 through our foundation. We organised them into eight different trades- poultry, ICT, tailoring, catering, oil extraction and beautification.
We then put them into groups and financed them 100 per cent. This was successful. The poultry group has now gone into irrigation and is doing very well. We also trained about 1,020 other youths in their areas of vocational interests. We had 11 different trades and they were also financed 100 per cent. Some of those who were qualified for employment were taken to the State Primary Education Board, others to the Head of Service to take little jobs available.
The rest of them who had interests in business were given start-up capital. The government spent over N300m to set up this group. All of these were done in Katsina Senatorial District as a pilot scheme. Following its success, we intend to re-enact it in Daura and Funtua Senatorial Districts. We also set up a lot of empowerment programme for women being handled by the Women Affairs Ministry and the Girl-child Department, which is headed by a special assistant to the governor.
How did this impact on the security situation?
We knew that idle minds would host the devil. That was why we had to engage our youths and women. Governor Masari then had to engage the security agencies to deal with the security challenges. We set up a security team, consisting the military, the police, the State Security Services (SSS), civil defence and the NDLEA. Well-funded and equipped, they broke into 10 patrol teams. This lasted for almost one year and we recorded a huge success because we were able to arrest a lot of these bandits and prosecuted them. We were also able to recover 30,000 cattle and almost all were handed over to the owners because we had a committee that was established to handle this type of situation. But after a year, we found out that we were not getting to the end of the situation, so we decided to engage these people because we realised that they were also not happy with the situation. Some of them told us that they had been in the bush for eight years and would also want peace.
The governor, therefore, granted them amnesty in return for their guns and ammunitions. With the help of the Miyetti Allah Fulani Cattle Breeders Association we were able to get them to accept the amnesty. On the 15th of January, 2017, we had a very big celebration and lots of them were there, about 400 of them then, and from there the governor set up an amnesty committee.
This helped as we recorded more successes we couldn’t record before. But we had some challenges as some of them did not accept the amnesty. Then our vast borders with Niger Republic, Zamfara, Kaduna and even Central Africa. We, therefore, had to engage the other governors because no matter what we are able to do here, if the others are not doing something similar, these people will just move out and move in.
So His Excellency organised a meeting of the North-west governors, and then engaged the higher authorities of the security, the GOC and so on. So the meeting agreed on joint operations where we were to make contributions; and the governor, as usual, was the first to contribute the money agreed.
It would appear you had issues with Zamfara and Kebbi States?
The issue is the attitude, depending on how a particular government understands and maybe reacts to the situation. This involves a lot funds and once the security agents are not getting the cooperation and understanding of the states, they cannot be effective. So we try to see if we could do it effectively and jointly, but honestly that aspect did not work.
Why didn’t you seek the help of President Muhammadu Buhari to rein them in?
The president directed that he would reimburse the states for their expenses on the joint operations. Presently, joint operations are taking place, from Zamfara to Kaduna states. It involves both the Army and the Air Force because the president directed that the security agencies must ensure that they clear the forest of all these criminals. Honestly, the federal government is supporting our actions.
What is the level of cooperation from the traditional rulers?
One thing with this government is that in whatever we do, we ensure that all stakeholders are carried along. So all these committees I have talked to you about, we have representatives from the two emirates. There is nothing that the government will do that requires the cooperation, understanding and participation of major stakeholders that they are not involved in. So where you need the traditional rulers, they are there; where you need the civil organisations, they are there, where you need the NLC, they are there; that’s why we don’t have any problems implementing the decisions we make because everyone is carried along.
How have all these measures impacted on the Katsina project?
What we believe is that government is supposed to provide an enabling environment for enterprises to flourish. With the vastly improved security situation, economic activities have picked up. Our markets are now fully functional. So the economy of the local people is growing. Many of them don’t even know about the oil money, because it does not go there.
So, the security has provided ample opportunities for the micro-economy to thrive. Politically, people believe that this government is for them. The governor before could not go round freely. But our governor drives himself int town. Politically, people now understand that the government is for them. So we have very good support from the populace. All government functionaries, we are free to move around which never existed before. Honestly, the government has done so much and the people are appreciating it. So, I think both economically and politically, the people of the state are happy. We are also getting investors; we had an economic summit here and we had people coming from different parts of the world.
Whatever we do, we ensure that all stakeholders are carried along