Barrister Kaloma Dahiru Musdapha is the Special Adviser to the Jigawa State governor on inter-governmental affairs. In this interview, he talks about the changing dynamics of the present administration, the construction of airport in Dutse by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government and other issues. Excerpts:
It’s now six months since the governor of Jigawa State, Badaru Abubakar, assumed office. What would you say has changed in the state?
From the assumption of office, this administration has painstakingly studied the landscape of the state. It is trying to realign the focus of the state on having a clear vision of ensuring that democracy does not end on voting day. Even the allocation of resources for development is done in a democratic manner. For instance, we do not see any justification why maybe 70 or 80 per cent of the state resources for capital projects is directed towards certain projects that affect maybe 5 or 2 and even in some cases, less than one per cent of the population. If it is a democratic government, then the expenditure has to be democratic. If we will embark on projects in the state, we have to ensure that they will affect majority of the people.
For example, we have an airport in the state which was done by the last administration. Of course, it is a good thing for us to have an airport in the state, but considering the fact that 90 per cent of our people are farmers and agrarian people living below the poverty line, it would be difficult for you to connect the significance of the airport to the bottom line. In economic terms, they say, in an environment of scarcity and competing needs, you have to prioritize your expenditure. Though the construction of an airport is an important infrastructure for development of our state, but we have to weigh that expenditure against the more pressing needs of the majority of the people.
The focus of this government is to refocus government expenditure in a way that it affects the bottom line issues that are affecting the majority of the people that voted for this administration. That is the issue of economic empowerment, improving the welfare of the people, having better access to healthcare, education for children and youths, employment for the youths, improving developmental indices like infant mortality rates and things which affect the majority of the people but not projects that are white elephant projects.
You are the first occupant of this office in Jigawa. Your office would be here in Abuja to manage the image and relationship of the state government with other agencies of the federal government. What are the challenges? What has your office specifically done thus far?
First, I was appointed about a month ago and this is not the first time the inter-governmental office has been fielded in Jigawa State. The administration of former governor Saminu Turaki created this office between 1999 and 2007. The last administration of Sule Lamido did not continue with that practice. It is to ensure that government actions are done on a sustainable and transparent framework. Part of what we intend to do is not only to run this on the basis of having a special adviser to run it, which makes it more or less look like an ad hoc assignment. What we are doing right now is to create a legal and administrative framework for this office backed by legislation and supported by the State House of Assembly. We will ensure that the functions are clearly defined by law and expectations of the office are measurable so that succeeding administrations will be able to understand the importance or otherwise of these functions on the basis of administrative structures put in place and the goal and objective of that office.
Perhaps, part of the reason the last administration did not continue with this office was because the functionality was not institutionalised. This is what we are doing now. There are so many programmes which are being run by the federal government, for instance, the federal scholarship scheme, which is run from the ministry of finance. About 15,000 Nigerians have enjoyed that programme from 2008 to date. From records available to us, only three indigenes of Jigawa State are beneficiaries of the programme. These are the statistics that we presented to the senior people from Jigawa State for them to ensure that it is accepted without any form of nepotism. Their responsibility and allegiance is to the whole country and not only to Jigawa State alone. They have to help us in driving all the developmental indices so that in any thing which is a positive index, Jigawa would be the highest.
You said Jigawa has not taken its proper place in the national polity. Would you blame anybody for that?
The constitution in the country has quota system and federal character principle. But the mechanisms put in place to ensure that these principles are implemented are not things determined by the constitution. There are no specific laws that insist on how these things are done. To a large extent, it is not a question of you blaming somebody. For example, if you have a scholarship that is ongoing and if people in your state are not aware that these things are happening, they will not know that they should go and place application for them. Perhaps, officials of the education and information ministries in many states are finding out what is happening and making sure their citizens are participating. This is part of the reasons why this gap was identified, and why this office is necessary, so that we identify those opportunities and ensure that our citizens are given their own fair share. We have a lot of competent hands and educated people who will play their part in national development.
What is the position of Jigawa State government on the minimum wage issue. Are you ready to pay N18,000?
The executive governor of Jigawa State has made it very clear that he will pay the minimum wage. There is no question about it. We will pay and we have been paying. Jigawa is the only state in the country that does not owe workers even one naira. The last administration did not leave us with a backlog of salaries. Consistent with the vision of this present administration, all workers in Jigawa have been paid up to date. The more critical question that should be asked by Nigerians and labour unions is on the economy of Nigeria as a country and the economy of Jigawa as a part of the country which are developing economies. The term developing economy is an economic term which describes how your budgets should be able to reflect economic reality.
The budgets in Nigeria, both at the federal and state levels, resemble those of developed countries where you have all infrastructures and capital intensive projects already in place. The budget is going toward management and maintenance of these existing infrastructures. As opposed to the reality on ground, that we are a developing country, majority of the resources are going toward managing such a huge government. The task before not only Jigawa State but the entire country is to significantly reduce recurrent expenditure and government overheads over the next four years on a consistent basis.
Specifically, if your office is called upon to state the things that Jigawa State is in dire need of from the federal government, what are they?
Fundamentally, Jigawa is not different from other states of the federation. Our problems are similar to the needs of most parts of Nigeria. We need better access to healthcare, micro credits to develop cottage industries; we need more financial inclusion to be able to take the majority of our people out of poverty. These are some of the things already identified and as political people, we receive complaints from people from our various constituencies on a daily basis.
But we can tell you where it is pinching the people the most. There is need to expand the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to include larger percentage of the population and increased funding so that people can have proper education and more qualitative teachers. These are problems that we all share and we are willing to utilise this office to share ideas and experiences with other states that have similar problems for the benefit of our people.
Daily Trust
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