Jigawa @30- Let’s Look At Lamido’s Achievements (2007-2015)

By Mansur Ahmed

On this day that Jigawa State is celebrating her 30th anniversary, I am happy to share in the joy, just as I like to reveal here that the state too has been a source of inspiration to my generation, especially beginning from Sule Lamido‘s era.

Before the advent of the Lamido administration, the state was called a New World of decay. But Lamido changed all that by transforming it from a frightening hamlet in 2007 to whatever it is today.

Lamido’s golden era in Jigawa State will remain the yardstick for measuring whoever God grants the opportunity to govern the State for a long time to come. With an old-school discipline and the panache of a 21st century diplomat, Lamido has succeeded in proving that when human resolve is wedded to genuine vision, critical transformation of the human condition occurs.

The clarity of his governance approach and ideological framework were very clear game-changers. Therefore, in spite of everything, whenever the history of responsible and accountable governance in Nigeria is written, Sule Lamido’s name will surely be written in gold.

I say so because before Lamido became the governor, Jigawa was the title holder to so many inglorious and unenviable positions. Among those were: poorest of the 36 States of the Federation, the least developed, the most inaccessible and the most backward as it had the highest maternal and infant mortality rate in the country. Also, hospitals and other health institutions were simply imaginary structures, just as it had highest number of out of school children, scattered and unattended ministries and agencies of government. Others were: a civil service that existed only in name and manned by invisible civil servants, who live several miles away from the state capital.

Sule inherited a divided state whose people were more concerned with their immediate environment, district, and emirate. Internal harmony, cohesion and cooperation that are necessary ingredients for effective administration were lacking.

Mindful that, Jigawa is an agrarian society, and worried that farming was being done in an old-fashioned way, Lamido introduced high-yielding seeds, subsidised tractor prices and hiring, provided loan facilities for work bull and appliances, provided farm extension services, crop fumigation and aerial spray against pest, opening up of Fadama irrigation and government’s purchase of excess harvest as incentive for farmers to grow more produce. All these, led to dramatic improvement in the sector and empowerment of the farming communities.

Again, at inception of Lamido’s administration in 2007, he inherited only 21 doctors, 6 pharmacists and less than 200 nurses/midwives, in what was clearly a collapsed health sector. By May 2015, when Lamido handed over power, there were 236 doctors, 1095 nurses/midwives, 84 pharmacists, in a healthcare system that boast of a staff strength of 7,136.

In education, his footprints were also there, for the sole purpose of securing the future of our children. The disheartening cow sheds that he inherited, which passed for classrooms were immediately destroyed and brand new ones provided.

In his first term, he constructed 1,061 classrooms across the state, and purchased 62,981 classroom furniture. Out of the 779 dilapidated schools he inherited in 2007, Lamido renovated and restored 648 to full standard, and equipped most of their laboratories to WAEC standard.

He also established 21 new junior secondary schools, as well as 216 nomadic schools across the state. Lamido also initiated and implemented an overseas scholarship scheme for the best 100 students in the sciences. He capped all these with the establishment of a completely modern state university, which has continued to blaze the trail.

His innovative economic empowerment policy led to, among other things, the construction, reactivation and equipping of skills acquisition centres in Hadejja, Birnin Kudu, Ringim, Gumel, Kazaure and Dutse. Thousands of youths were trained in various trades and services, ranging from shoe-making, cellphone repairs, chalk-making, paint-making, photography, tailoring, horse decoration, plumbing and mechanics among others.

Apart from constructing about three thousand kilometres of roads, Lamido also embarked on the transformation of all the local government headquarters into modern cities, with asphalted township roads and drainages, complete with street lights.

Enlisting the rural state in the league of Nigeria’s most promising states, is a feat that should be applauded by all people who have a sense of justice and fairness.

To the best of my knowledge, since I have worked with him closely, Lamido has never claimed perfection. As the most experienced governor Jigawa has ever had, he knows that governance is like a military barracks: ’soldier come; soldier goes, barrack remains.’ All he did was within the limit of available resources and human capacity, but with the best of intentions to truly serve the people of Jigawa state.

Ahmed wrote from Jahun