Thank you Mallam shekarau! A youth perspective.

“A leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don't want to do, and like it”.
Harry S. Truman (1884 - 1972)
U.S. president.
It is evident to note by now that, no society has ever progressed and developed infrastructure wise with its human populace being handicapped.
It is on this premise that I will put forth my views on Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau’s person and administration. By party affiliation, I belong to the shekarau opposition camp, but the effort put in place is so glaringly clear that even a blind man could testify, so, I put political party affiliation aside, say the truth and shame the devil, and to remind you dear readers, my admitting the golden era of Mallam shekarau does not in any way make me less of an opposition that I was and will always be. It’s nothing personal, it’s strictly politics.
Categorically put forward, it could be deduced that the first four [4] years of Mallams administration was geared towards Human development, while the second part of the four [4] year tenure is being driven by Infrastructural development.
If you and I are hungry, impoverished, unemployed, insecure, and if our aging and dependent fathers who served this great state are not given their dues in good time or not paid at all as the case was, if portable pipe bone water had eluded the general populace and in their place we had instead, well tarred and glamorous roads, fancy Sallah events, world standard hospitals, extravagantly furnished ministries, fancy round-abouts and the likes. Then let me tell you something, a beautifully paved road and fancy clinic will not have people to walk it and admire it if the people are not well equipped, thus empowering the people to be employed and engaged would guarantee enjoyment of the facilities that would later be provided, and this is just what Mallam shekarau did in a nutshell, and it is what we are going to dwell upon, adore and appreciate and once again collectively say thank you.
“It is everlastingly true that on the whole the best guide to the future is to be found in a proper understanding of the lessons of the past”.
Warren G. Harding (1865 - 1923)
U.S. president.
Whatever the leaders of today put in place will be for the benefits of the youths of today who are presumably the leaders of tomorrow. We are going to start by examining the human development aspect of Mallams administration then later focus on the supposed infrastructural development and subsequently marry the two giant efforts together to rival and supersede the administrations of the likes of former governor Abubakar Rimi and Late Audu Bako of blessed memory combined.
The Mallam shekarau lead administration started off with a set of programs that were aimed at directly making an impact on the life of the poor and the downtrodden, the middle class and subsequently the elite to begin with;
• This administration restructured the salary package of the class room teacher, paid them in good time and looked into their general welfare.
• The A daidaita sahu program was put into mainstream governance which greatly helped in producing a more well behaved and refined citizen of Kano state thanks to constant radio messaging that readily reaches the common man in Kano state i.e “daidaita sahun nan yana nufin….mata su zauna gidan miji…daidata sahun nan yana nufin yan achaba su daina ganganchi.. e.t.c
• The same program brought in buses and tricycles that both young and old were employed by, which fed extensive families with, gave others the opportunity to be married , paid bills and school fees with, and gave out “sojan haya”, a term given to a person who works off a vehicle already assigned to another and still make money to survive. It also gave shelter to our mothers and grandmothers who instead would have been exposed to the dangers of Achaba riders and sex offenders.
• The Hisbah board systematically sought to and made a giant effort towards sanitizing our billboards which hitherto contained explicit and sometimes nude depictions of sensual female models in the crafty name of advertising and marketing.
• The Adaidaita Sahu inspired program was instrumental to the partitioning of almost all Kano state ministries bringing an end to free mixing of the sexes in their bit to contribute to nation building. What more of a Sharia system would we be asking for? [ I mean anywhere in the world].
• The Tsangaya system [ a system of Islamic education in northern Nigeria] sought to sanitize the Almajirai/allo system of education and thus, documented the ones worthy of caring and educating the young minds, provided them with the necessary learning materials, enlisted them in free food distribution during Ramadan, and provided them with soft financial assistance and strict monitoring as a pilot project to begin with.
• We the youth have been witnessing a near perfect and stress free Kallon Hawan Sarki due to effective and pro active arrangement jointly put in place during the whole week of Sallah by the Nigerian police force.
• The primary and post primary school within the government in question has witnessed a surge in its total staff employment list, the largest of its kind in the history of the education sector. Young and energetic N.d, N.c.e graduates were at last taken off the streets for good.
• The food handed down to people which is evidently well prepared is one of the greatest achievements of this administration towards improving the human lot of this great state because it is evident that feeding in the month of Ramadan is very much rewarding
• It was during Mallams administration that we as tertiary institution student got a 100% rise in scholarship and course with practical studies were recently given a rise, how sensitive of a humble fellow!
The soft loans handed out to unemployed youth after empowering them through seminars and workshops on things like soap making and poultry is a normal occurrence and a good sight to behold as some of those youths shot off on track to becoming great poultry farmers feeding families and dependents from a supposed paltry loan.
The seemingly inexhaustible roll call of Mallams human development oriented first four [4] years could be said to be simmered down in order to save space for the infrastructural side of the story. Thus, with the generality of the populace being humanely empowered, we could say that they are now ready to enjoy whatever infrastructure will be put in place at ease. A hungry man they say is an angry man and thus we might have been indisposed towards enjoying the supposed social amenities then.
Infrastructure is defined as ; public services or systems, the large scale public systems, services and facilities of a state or a region that are necessary for economic activity, including power and water supplies, public transport, telecommunications, roads, and schools. In this regard, we could however bear witness to the giant stride by the Shekarau administration to among other things provide;
• An enviable road network rehabilitation, upgrading and at most trying times demolition and renewal. We saw roads pass through the most remote locations never imagined in the history of the state and it is ongoing.
• Our state specialist hospital popularly referred to as asibitin murtala or birni was rehabilitated to the world standard that it was and a new well tarred road inset, the nasarawa specialist hospital popularly called Muhammad Abdullahi wasse was equally refurbished and a new tarred road inset also.
• We are witnessing the building of two world class ultra modern hospitals at giginyu and zoo road respectively, an effort we cannot seem to remember which of our past military and civilian governors made.
• Street lights and traffic lights in Kano were considered a thing of the past, alas!! We can now enjoy the comfort of a well lit street while we cruise the beautiful road networks of our dear city.
• A fly over bridge we were meant to believe is only for riverine areas and too expensive to build, thanks to this administration, a fly over bridge is almost at 60% completion stage at the outskirts of Kano to ease traffic.
• To compliment the aging water processing and supply plant at Challawa, Mallams administration built from scratch the Tamburawa water processing and supply plant and now, places with ghost pump head terminals are seeing water for the first time in ages.
• The same program ushered in once again a more refined and well structured Hisbah board, their presence on our junctions to help when the traffic warden is off at six o clock really touched the high and the low [we all know the traffic jams we witness]. Their mere presence prevented us, especially the youths from committing countless crimes, their words although always mocked at, are always a reminder for people of understanding, they sanitized indiscriminate alcohol consumption that hitherto was spreading like wild fire in our society, advised ladies to dress decently e.t.c.
• The turmoil that surrounded our post office environs was laid to rest by a fair compensation which sought to relocate the skilled youths to a well designed and equipped market at farm centre. It was evident that three months ago the road leading to the post office and the post office buildings themselves were quite elusive to the view and passing through which took a minimum of ten [10] minutes then, now takes less than two minutes to get through and the view of the post office is a spectacular sight to behold.
• The illegal refuse dump sites and street corner refuse dumps are now a thing of the past, thanks to the effort of the refuse management and sanitation board REMASAB. Overtime recurring potholes on our roads are constantly filled up and maintained through the effort of the state ministry for land and physical planning and Kano state urban development and planning division KNUPDA. Many thanks to mallams efforts in providing them with over twenty [20] heavy duty trucks, [all painted yellow for reference].
• The recent effort of this administration to equip kano line with long commuter buses for a start is a move that only our fathers saw during the Rimi and Audu Bako era.

As inexhaustible as the roll call of this administrations infrastructural development effort might seem, time and space will warrant our limiting the efforts here and move on to simply marrying the two move together.
Thus, it is becoming increasingly clear that human development should supersede infrastructural development which will ensue maximization of the opportunities provided by an equally capable citizenry.
As for our royal father, I would also like to use this medium to say a big thank you and a big “Ran Sarki ya dade!” It is evident that the most advanced and sophisticated civilizations which today pride themselves as being the best democracies did not find any cause to separate politics from the monarchy on who’s foundation politics was built and strongly relies upon. The romance between our political administration and our humble monarchy is a symbol of the level of trust and confidence the common people have for this administration which tends to transcend itself in the royal approval and blessing given to the leader of the administration I call “The Golden Era”
The above notes, although not statistically documented are the pure observations that we as the youth have seen on the ground and can’t help but say thank you to mallam shekarau once more for a job well done, so far so good. God bless him and give him the vision to move on as humbled as ever, if his supposed dreams for the highest seat of governance is going to be beneficial to his being, religion and our beloved nation, may God see him through to it, amen.
Long live the federal republic of Nigeria!
Long live Kano state!
United we stand, divided we fall [like a house of cards]
Nigeria! Good people, great nation!

Muhammad Tijjani Nakande, a free lance writer, neo pan africanist, you can reach him at www.muhammadnakandesworld.blogspot.com or email him at memzycool@yahoo.com