Zorro’s Politics of Constituency Engagement
In a setting where aberrations have not only been well embraced, but well entrenched as norms, it would take a sheer courage to dare to come up with divergence. But even where there’s wealth of guts, the ability to conjure up fresh ideas, ready to be deployed for challenging the status quo, can be a huge challenge.
It’s within this context, therefore, the Greater Gumel quarterly lecture series, initiated last weekend by Hon Mohammed Sani Zorro, can be best appreciated.
Zorro, who is the member representing Gumel, Gagarawa, Maigatari and Sule Tankarkar constituency at the House of Representatives, is currently redefining the politics of constituency engagement, in the politics of Jigawa State,and probably beyond.
“We‘ve never seen anything like this before. You‘ve started something that would put your colleagues in trouble if they hesitate in following suit,” was how the Chairman of the state’s ruling All Nigerian Progressive Congress (APC), Alhaji Ado Sani Kiri, summed it up. He wasn’t alone. The State Governor, Mohammadu Badaru Abubakar, also expressed similar sentiment. He wanted to see Zorro’s revolutionary approach emulated.
At the occasion, the ancient town of Gumel was agog for dignitaries from across the country. They all thronged Gumel to witness the commissioning of Zorro’s constituency office. Yet it turned out not the most significant event of the day. The debut of the lecture series was.
The Greater Gumel lecture series is indeed designed to educate the rural, agrarian constituents to take advantage of Federal Government and other intervention programmes, especially in agriculture to better their lot. It’s one huge capacity building and moral persuasion project embarked upon by the former President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), with a view to galvanising his constituents to key into such programmes for their development. Zorro thinks differently from the average legislator in the country. He won’t wait until the government starts churning out intervention programmes before his people understand what they need to do to benefit from them.
To illustrate the significance he attaches to it, the legislator made sure that he attracted stakeholders likes the Managing Director of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Dr. Danbala Danju, many of his colleagues from the National Assembly, the former President of NACCIMA, Alhaji Ahmed Rabiu, among others, to jam-pack the Gumel Emirate Foundation Hall, venue of the lecture series.
It was Rabiu , who first sensitized the crowd to the opportunities that abound if they could take advantage of abundant endowments in the four local government councils within the emirate. His thoughtprovoking speech drew the applause of appreciative crowd.
“Agriculture is key to human development. No society can think of development without attaining food security. Thus there’s no way we can develop without developing agriculture,” noted Rabiu.
Rabiu who further drew the attention of their comparatives advantages in both food and cash crop farming, however, urged them to form co-operatives in order to enjoy facilities and other sorts of supports provided by the government.
“Your sesame seeds are among the best in the country. You can also make fortunes from your gum Arabic. And don’t forget that you are known for fine cereals.” he further observed.
In the same vein, the BOA boss who also spoke at the occasion, explained in details how the people of the constituency could access loans to improve agriculture in their respective domains. He also stressed importance of cooperative societies to the development of agriculture in the country.
Speaker after speaker at the event had all one or two important things to share with the visibly appreciative crowd at the event. And Zorro’s out of box thinking and proactive strategy drew commendations of many, including the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, and National Headquarters of his party which sent a commendation letter delivered by the National Treasurer, Alhaji Bala Gwagwarwa. He was representing the National scribe of the party.
In his remarks, Dogara, who was represented at the occasion by Hon. Goni Bukar, applauded Zorro for the initiative. He congratulated the constituents for choosing “a patriot to represent you at the National Assembly,” adding that “we at the House are benefiting immensely from his wealth of experience and leadership qualities”.
That said, in these times that the North is basking in the euphoria of relocation of power to the region, it’s indeed worth noting to see that the likes of Hon. Zorro are spearheading this revolution of capacity building and attitudinal change for their constituents.
The North has been perpetually muddling along economically despite being in power more than any other region in the history of the country, and thus there’s no guarantee that it would not continue to lag behind in taking advantage of most of Federal Government’s empowerment policies, if its politicians have not reviewed their way of doing things. Even when the region was out of power, some of us were of the opinion that its economic development should take precedence over any other thing.
It now behoves the politicians to continue to organise forums like Greater Gumel lectures series to build the capacity of their people. At the regional level, proper collaboration and policy coordination among the states should be vigorously pursued.
As Professor Pat Utomi recently observed, Zamfara State alone can be richer than oil-producing Bayelsa State if its agricultural potentials are well harnessed. Yet if Zamfara can be that rich, Jigawa State should, at least, aim to be on par with Rivers or Akwa Ibom State.
Musa wrote in from Abuja