If it were possible for men to turn back the hands of the clock, if it were within us to slow down the march of time, majority of the people of Kaduna state would have at this point pushed back the progress of time by four years. Or more.
A few days to May 29, most of us in Kaduna state are wishing that the constitution had provided for a third or more terms in office for elected political leaders. Just so that the scintillating, enchanting renditions of Malam Nasiru El-Rufai will continue to chirm for yet another season of four years.
Everything that has a begining inevitably has an end. However,in spite of this timeless sequence of the state of nature, human beings are given to grieve at points of breaking away from the bonds of loved ones, relatives, acquaintances or friends. Emotions at such parting moments can well up to the point of tears.
But, we cannot but brace up to the painful moment of bidding farewell or, good bye when the time comes. We are then left to grapple with lingering memories and nostalgia of the great times, the good, happy old days. So is the general mood today in Kaduna state as citizens are confronted with the reality that their enigmatic, cerebral and zestful El-Rufai is truly, at the exit gate, taking leave of them.
How time flies. In 2015, which today, appears as if it was just a few years ago, the state literally went agog in wild celebrations when he emerged victorious in that year’s governorship election. The excitement was rooted in the belief that, with the wizkid in the saddle, the state was at the threshold of a new phase, a new era. Judging from his antecedents, there was no doubting the capacity of the man to deliver on his campaign promise of progressive socioeconomic transformation of the state.
At the end of his two terms of four years each, Governor El-Rufai left astonishing and enduring milestones in the history of leadership and development of Kaduna state. He went far beyond expectations to hitherto unimaginable heights by his gigantic strides in infrastructural development and transformation programmes and projects in almost all spheres of the society.
With a blueprint akin to the American inspired Marshal Plan for the reconstruction of Japan in the aftermath of the Second World war, El-Rufai unfolded and executed a massive Urban Renewal Programme. Under the scheme, he carried out breathtaking reengineering and transformation of the capital city of Kaduna and other major towns such as Zaria and Kafanchan.
Zaria and Kafanchan experienced the construction of bridges, new networks of roads and the rehabilitation of old, dilapidated ones. For the first time ever, people in the two towns enjoyed the beauty and benefits of street lights, pedestrian bridges and dual carriage ways. The People of Zaria will be especially grateful to the administration that broke the jinx of decades in resolving the crisis of getting water supply to the sprawling ancient city.
The impact of the Urban Renewal Programme on Kaduna city is, to put it mildly, an unprecedented, revolutionary restoration beyond words. While it was ongoing, the entire landscape of the city became a huge construction site. The picture at the end of the day, is that of a beautiful, elegant Kaduna city: dizzying, enchanting, fantastic and mesmerizing. The city of Lord Frederick David Lugard and Sardauna Ahmadu Bello.
What with the dual carriage ways, the expanded streets with sewages, flowers and street lights, the galaxy of flyovers and pedestrian bridges, the underpasses and, the clearing of shacks and dilapidated structures that had been for years, eyesores and habitats of men of the underworld? In Kaduna, El-Rufai will very certainly, go down as a folk hero whose tale will be told from generation to generation in ages to come.
The legacy accomplishments in the eight years of El-Rufai’s epochal tenure are as well, manifest in his economic transformation programmes and projects. Pertinently, the feats recorded in this regard were, in spite of the ruinous incidents of banditry, the dislocations occasioned by the COVID 19 pandemic beside, the machinations and subterfuge of political detractors.
Under El-Rufai, Kaduna state attracted foreign and local investments especially in the agro allied industries to the tune of over 500 Million Dollars. Some of the tangible results of the new wave of investments include, the multi Billion Naira industries of Olam Hatchery and Feeds, the Crown Flour Mills, the $200 million Tomato Jos, the Damau Farms and the Barbedos Fertiliser. The Dangote Peugeot Automobile Assembly Plant recently added to the pile of the new businesses in the state.
To enhance the internal revenue generating capacity of the state, the relevant statutory agencies were reformed and refocused. The digitization and sanitisation in the state Internal Revenue Service Board and the state Geographic Information System, KADGIS, led to the elimination of age-old banes of corruption, waste, bureaucratic lethargy and incompetence. In a short space of time, the internal revenue profile of the state spiked from below N5 billion to over N70 billion annually.
To his credit, El-Rufai is bequeathing a much improved security situation than it was a few years ago. Through deft admixture of the strategies of deployment of stupendous resources to aiding security agencies, promotion of dialogue and proactive measures, the plague of banditry and kidnapping has been waning. The state is also enjoying substantial thawing in the frequency of fratricidal and inter-communal conflicts.
The visionary, radical transformative years of El-Rufai ushered in a rebirth in quality and standards at the early stages of education in the state. First, through a massive project of construction and rehabilitation of hundreds of primary and secondary schools and ridding premises of educational institutions of encroachments by illegal structures and land grabbers, the government created serene, aesthetic, secured and conducive learning environments.
El-Rufai’s other remarkable records in the education sector, include the vigorous drive of the policy of free and compulsory education to all children of school age, the sifting and weeding of the teaching staff to make for only qualified and competent personnel leading to increase in the statistics of school enrollment as well as, an unprecedented upswing in the quality of education.
The El-Rufai’s gale of change and rebirth also swept through the health sector. In this phase, most of the primary health care centres in communities in across the state, were refurbished and equipped thereby, making healthcare delivery available and affordable to majority of the people at the grassroots. While secondary health care institutions located in the urban centres were similarly improved to enhance efficiency, the State University Teaching Hospital has been completed to further raise the profile of the state’s health care delivery system.
In a nutshell, the advent of El-Rufai on the political scene represents, by all accounts, an era, a renaissance. It is, to put it, metaphorically, the passage of a rare dazzling meteor that shone through a hitherto dark, cloudy firmament. Just like every meteor in flight, when the people, like the proverbial “people of the cave” are regaling and celebrating the new dawn, the light is going out.
Surely, the greater number of denizens of Kaduna state are wishing, fantasy, some are wont to say, that it was within them to take back the hand of the clock, or, that they had the powers to hold back the day from rolling away. And, but for the inhibition of the constitution, most will happily go for another four years of El-Rufai’s experience.
There are of course, the motley few, the revisionists, the reactionaries who are feeling otherwise. They are rejoicing that the man they love to hate is going away. That is not surprising because, such is the nature of those that are congenitally averse to change and sunshine. Those with the maladies of prejudice and bigotry ingrained in their marrows.
Ahmad writes from Doctors Quarters, Kaduna via 08022230274 (SMS only)
