A second look at Nasarawa’s Governor Al-Makura

Virtually everyone who knows Umaru Tanko Al-makura, the incumbent Governor of Nasarawa State would testify that the man is an achiever having made a success of every previous assignment he handled. As if he was destined to take Nasarawa out of the woods, he sought to reverse with much passion his discovery that the state had “since its creation been held hostage to the folly and excesses of its rulers”, Governor Al-Makura on assumption of office, did two rather simple things which his predecessor, for inexplicable reasons, couldn’t dare. First, he appropriately relocated the state owned College of Agriculture from Lafia to Doma. Second, he approved the use of the new House of Assembly complex which for longer than makes sense could not be commissioned notwithstanding that the legislature was in a tardy make-shift accommodation. With this posture the question on the lips of all, was: could Al-Makura be the long-awaited redeemer of Nasarawa State? It was that question which informed the article in this column on Sunday, July 17, 2011 titled “For states like Nasarawa, it is now or never.”

The article drew attention

IBy Danladi Ndayebo

t is no longer news that the race for Minna Government House is a straight one between Umar Mohammed Nasko of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Abubakar Sani Bello of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The reason for this keen competition in Niger State is not far-fetched. Like in the remaining states - with the exception of Ogun and Oyo States where the Social Democratic Party (SDP) is poised for a big fight - in the Power State, only the PDP and APC are in the reckoning of the electorate.

Although the Action Alliance (AA), United Peoples Party (UPP), African Democratic Congress (ADC) and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) will be on the ballot for the April 11 governorship poll, the majority of the people in the state can hardly recall the names of their candidates. This leaves the ring for Nasko and Bello who now seem set for the 100 metres dash.

Currently, opinions are sharply divided on the likely outcome of the poll, mainly across party lines. While PDP supporters believe that Nasko’s brand identity and the strength of PDP structure will deliver the votes, APC thinks that the popularity of General Muhammadu Buhari, the party’s to the fundamental issue of Nasarawa still crawling at its 15th anniversary and admonished the achiever-governor to take steps to make a difference. We imagined that if he did otherwise, the good people of Nasarawa State will have in their hands a failed state hence we urged him on. As an impetus, we reminded him of the feat of two former visionary Governors, Audu Bako of Kano and Samuel Ogbemudia of the Midwest who in the 70s overwhelmingly transformed their states within a short period and with fewer resources than available today. Indeed, till date, Ogbemudia in particular has remained a living legend to his people. To gain an insight into how Al-makura would fair in Nasarawa, we decided to keenly follow developments in the State with the aid of two research questions. i) Will Al-makura heed our advice and purposefully serve as an agent of transformation in his state? ii) Based on Nigeria’s political culture of greed and pervasive corruption, will politicians particularly the legislators in the state let the governor be? With less than one week to Al-makura’s re-election or rejection at the governorship polls of April 11, 2015, today appears appropriate for us to present some of our key findings as follows:

First, the governor has since repaid the debts he inherited. According to the yet to be refuted widely publicised claim by Yakubu Lamai, Chief Press Secretary to Governor, over N40billion has been paid off. Again, although salaries of civil servants in the state have risen sharply from N800million to N1.2billion per month, payments have been consistently regular. That the payment of inherited debts, current salaries and all other expenditures are made from state resources without resorting to bank loans adds ample credence to the decision of the Foundation for Transparency & Accountability (FTA) to confer the award of “Most Transparent Governor in Nigeria” on Governor Al-Makura on Saturday, February 21 2015. The story of how he was able to achieve this is told everywhere in the state. He reportedly organized a template for prudence, accountability, fiscal discipline and open government which was intertwined with costcutting processes, so as to make great savings for the public good. For example, like Kwankwaso of Kano, he stopped the old practice of indulging some privileged persons with the payment of various perks, including contingency allowances. He organized a staff audit of civil servants in the state which revealed the existence of 846 “ghost workers” leading to a monthly saving of about 63 million which he deployed to good use.

Having stabilized the state, Al-Makura, obtained a N10 billion bond from the capital market to provide infrastructural facilities across the state. In commerce, he constructed modern markets in Lafia, Akwanga and Karu; in Information, he concluded in record time, the digitization of radio and television facilities at the Nasarawa State Broadcasting Service (NBS); in health, he built three Ultra-modern hospitals in Lafia, Akwanga and Nasarawa; in education, he constructed thirty six (36) Model Schools in all the thirteen (13) local governments and Development Areas. The list in fairness is virtually in-exhaustive

On the second issue of whether or not politicians in search of comfort would allow the governor to be, Al-Makura is about to make history as the only governor in Nigeria who refused to succumb to political blackmail and yet could not be impeached. Balarabe Musa, Governor of Kaduna State in the 2nd Republic, himself a man of accountability could not make it in the midst of hawks. Others in the same situation either bought their way through as in the case of Edo where Comrade Adams Oshiomhole got his opponents to defect to his party while some others used brute force supported by federal might as in the case of Ekiti where Ayo Fayose redefined democracy as the rule of the minority by scarring majority legislators from his state. In the case of Nasarawa where Al-makura bluntly refused to be intimidated, the legislators did put up a severe fight; they sought to compel the governor to implement their otherwise advisory resolutions, they queried the governor for not obtaining permission to travel outside the state and even tried to pass retroactive legislations to criminalize actions already undertaken- a good example being the inchoate amendment to the Nasarawa State Local Government Law 2009 concerning the composition of management committees for local development areas.

Perhaps the most contentious battle was the attempt to impeach Al-makura. Unlike the ease with which their counterparts used their federal connection to undo Governor Murtala Nyako in Adamawa State, the attempt by Nasarawa legislators to sack Al-Makura met a brick-wall as the masses that had being taken along in the governance of the state through people-oriented policies revolted. This, along with the governor’s sincerity of purpose and the fear of God provided an impregnable defence. However, in these days of the nation-wide popularity of the governor’s party-the All Progressive Congress, time will tell if the masses will be with Al-makura again in next Saturday’s election.

Having stabilized

the state, AlMakura, obtained a N10 billion bond from the capital market to provide

infrastructural facilities across the

state