By The Third Eye
HOTPEN– At a time when people have become disillusioned about democracy, development and modernization eluded for a very long time, able bodied youth loitered around with nothing to do, the people of Hadejia Local Government area are basking in the lights of the dividends of democracy under the true, innovative, insightful and dynamic chairmanship of Hon Abdulkadir Umar a.k.a Bala T.O.
Though, Third Eye is from Gumel, but Hadejia being home to me and my family for over thirty years now, a careful observation on how things are going from 1991 to date shows that, the one year of this youth who is celebrating his 47th anniversary this September, revealed how good leadership should look like, what governance at local level should be, what democracy is, and how best to take it dividends to where they matter most.
The development on ground in Hadejia local Government Area gave indications that the Honourable chairman, T. O is a man of vision and values who solemnly believe that an effective leadership is a collective function of the leader, followers and the environment, with the onus of the desired performance been on the leader.
Bala’s perception of democratic leadership is based on the idea that no man is an island, as two good heads may be better than one. This made him to consider the views and criticisms of others Including “Hadejia Ina Mafita Initiative” as a vehicle for arriving at people oriented decisions.
The dynamic administration of Hon.Bala T.O in Hadejia gave weight to democracy, bestowing to the people what belongs to them, including civil and social. On the later right, social are those that require the enjoyment of certain minimum standard of economic welfare and security. The chairman achieved this by effecting welfare provisions in almost all the sectors of the local government, ranging from water supply, health, education, roads and culverts, palliative measures for the ongoing flood related problems etc.
The logo of Bala Umar government is now known to the youth of Hadejia as ‘’Without shelter life is no more than a shadow of death’’ when he allocated free Plots of land to over thirty Youth, who are about to get married. This prompted the local council to spread its tentacles towards provision of Job opportunities to such youth through his environmental protection scheme, where he employed about one hundred youth to be cleaning streets on casual payment.
The administration of T.O is doing its best in improving faith and morality, this came out when the council planned in collaboration with Court Judges and police to enact a law that will guide the utterances of our traditional herbalist who always flood our markets and streets with their vulgar tones on different sound system including highly amplified loudspeakers, in the name of selling medicine. Hadejia local government council is also becoming an epitome of fairness, transparency and accountability. According to the Hon Chairman Bala Umar, “better things are yet to come in my regime. What I need from my people is just cooperation and enabling environment. I will teach my colleagues how to judiciously satisfy the needs of people at the grassroot through democracy and good leadership“ he said.
On that note, we hasten to tender our congratulatory message to Hon Abdulkadir Umar Hadejia, the executive democratically elected chairman of Hadejia LGA for his 47 years of purposeful life in this world. wishing you many more years ahead.
CHEERS