Masari and his unintelligent lazy critics
The Nigerian Constitution not only recognises but also guarantees the citizens’ right to free speech, along with other rights therefore no individual, no matter how powerful they might be, can abridge that right by fiat. And it is also why so many people easily open their mouth only to rue their stupidity later.
It is in recognition of this inaliennable right of the citizens to freely express themselves, and in the spirit of openness, that Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State has freed the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Services from the chains of censorship, directing them to allow unfettered access for everyone regardless of political party belief to air their views even if such views are unpalatable to the government. It is his belief that only when there is a vibrant opposition will the leadership be kept on its toes to do right for the people.
In addition, Governor Masari has introduced and embarked on town hall meetings, a novelty in the state at which, in his words, “governance is placed on, not, under the table for the citizens to see, interrogate and add their say on the way forward”.
I have gone to this length to show that those who make ‘Masari bashing’ a pastime are but their own biggest foes, confirming their foolishness in their eagerness to traduce the meticulous Katsina State Governor, who only opens his mouth when he is absolutely sure of what comes out forth.
In his usual rantings two days ago, the Katsina State Chairman of the National Conscience Party (NCP), Malam AbdulMumin Shehu Sani challenged Governor Masari to “make public all the money accruable to the state since he was sworn in May last year”, claiming that despite invoking the Freedom of Information Act, his request for such information from the relevant state agencies has remained futile. A very debatable claim, since the Katsina NCP chairman was always on the invitation list of the Governor’s for all the interfaces he has had with the relevant stakeholders in the Katsina Project. His visibility was always noticeable by his conspicuous absence.
Besides, such claims ring hollow in the face of the openness with which the Federal Ministry of Finance and its Katsina State Counterpart go about their business sans secrecy. For anyone wishing to know how much their state or local government received from Federation Account for any given month all it will take them is a ‘click’ on their computer to access the Federal Ministry of Finance’s websites, and Bingo, all is revealed. Not having access to a computer is assuaged, as the Finance Ministry also publishes such information in the leading national newspapers every month. So even if a state governor attempts to be clever by half, the ‘revelation’ by Abuja ensures that the attempts fail. The story is the same with the Katsina State Finance Ministry.
Even then, at the town hall meetings and the interactive sessions he has had with the ranking sons and daughters of the state, Governor Masari has always placed the “revenues accruable to the state and local governments” as well as the expenditures of the two tiers on the table for the people to interrogate and advice on the way forward.
For instance, at the last meeting three weeks ago he has had with stakeholders at the Government House, the Governor had disclosed that the revenue accruable to the 34 local governments in the state in the month of May was N2.4 billion, even as they require N3.5 billion to pay the salary and pension liabilities for the same month. This means for the local governments to be able to discharge their obligations to the staff, teachers and pensioners, they needed additional N1.1 billion. The story had been no more rosy for the previous months starting from June 2015, during which to date, the state government has had to augment the local governments with a staggering N3.1 billion to enable them pay salaries and pensions. But the state government is in no bouyant position to bailout the lower tier this time around, because its revenue for the month of May stood at N2.146 billion as against the wage and pension bill of N2.234 billion.
As to Malam AbdulMumin Shehu Sani’s claim that the “verification of the local government staff is a personal agenda of Governor Masari”, nothing could be further from the truth, for it is an open secret that the local government administration is virtually grounded no thanks to the many ghost, redundant and misplaced workers that make a large percentage of the workforce at the lower tier. In one local government, for instance, about 20 of the workers in one ‘big man’s’ farm draw their monthly salary from the public till of the Council. And not a few ‘staff’ of the local governments could even say what work they do or where they are supposed to do that work, given that they had hardly ever visited ‘their work place’ since payments of salary through the banks precludes the necessity of physical presence to collect their salaries. In any case, it comes as no surprise that people like the Katsina state NCP Chairman would always cry wolf where none exist, because many of the ghost and or indolent local governments ‘staff’ are found to be the children, siblings and wives of the so-called big people in the society.
That Governor Masari’s administration enjoys the tremendous support of the people in the state is evident from their rejection of and call on the state’s Council of the NLC not to be part of the nationwide strike called by its national body to protest the erstwhile fuel price increase. In a similar passion a couple of months earlier, the Katsina state Council of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) had refused to participate in a nationwide strike called by the parent body, citing the Governor’s commitments in revamping the health sector and his efforts at improving the working condition of health workers in the state as their reason for their zero participation in the strike. The Katsina state NMA even went a step further to stamp their imprimatur on Governor Masari’s administration by writing a letter of appreciation and commendation to him “for all the good things you are doing for the health sector in the state”. Now, need we bother about the unintelligent rumbling of the lazy critics?
Abdu Labaran Malumfashi is SSA Media to the Katsina State Governor