Amidst woes resulting from the Sabon-Gari Market fire, Kano state Governor, Dr Umar Ganduje set up a committee to work out relief measures for the traders. BASHIR MOHAMMED reports
Perhaps, the greatest litmus test of a performing leader is emergency situations. It is a period like this you can separate the committed leader from ordinary men or as the say; men from the boys. For the creative leader to prove the stuff he is made of is in the face of a daunting challenge or his ability to act decisively in an emergency situation. No doubt Governor Umar Ganduje of Kano state fits into the description of a performing leader because he is on top of an emergency situation caused by Friday inferno at the popular Sabon-Gari Market that razed 90% properties estimated at 2 trillion naira.
Where such politician failed to live up to his billing, those who had voted him to power no longer repose their confidence in his ability and capacity to deliver, leading to series of curses, castigation and censure which would eventually ruin his political career.
A politician must also endeavour to weather the storm in the face of the bashing by his critics who often take solace in every blunder he had committed thereby putting him on the defensive.
Governors in respective states had been tested on their resolve to lead their people with the burning ambition to show leadership by example a result of which many had abysmally lost the battle to fulfill the promises they have made during their electioneering campaign leading to the collapse of their influence on the political landscape of the nation.
The 2015 gubernatorial election, had undoubtedly sent some incumbent governors packing, woefully losing their bid to retain power, either defeated at the polls by their opponents whose agenda was more amenable to the electorate.
Taking Kano as a case study, governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje is one who can be said to have succeeded his boss Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso in the fog of one crisis after another ranging from inheriting a ramshackle treasury and a whooping debt of over#200billion couple with persistent pressure from those who had wanted to have their fingers on the tiller.
Out of his penchant to survive the litmus test of his leadership, Ganduje saw the compelling need to introduce a new tax regime for the state for the revenue base to blossom knowing that with the appalling debt burden he had inherited it would be hard for him to effect some giant strides.
The governor had also found himself in a cul-de-sac following the recent cold war between him and his predecessor, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso over the controversial condolence visit the former paid to the latter.
Ganduje had again found himself in new dicey situation following the recent fire disaster that razed 90% of the famous Sabon-Gari market leading to the loss of properties estimated at 2trn Naira.
With the inferno becoming the greatest litmus test of his leadership, Ganduje quickly responded by establishing a high powered Commission of inquiry to ascertain the remote and immediate cause of the calamity in addition to recommending ways and means of averting future disasters.
However his consistent opinion on creating a new master plan for making Kano markets secure and accessible, was an initiative he believed would go a long way towards effecting a new paradigm shift in his calculus as one who had considerable experience in town planning.
Ganduje had been known to be consistent in emphasizing the need for restoring the lost glory of Kano as a commercial nerve centre in the West African sub-region predicated his effort on the premise that by making Kano a revered mega city a new master plan had to be created to avoid a systemic failure.
Knowing the political forces up in arms against his leadership in the wake of the recent fire disaster, Ganduje had assured victims of the disaster that his administration would never rest on its oars in coming to their aid through the introduction of a special compensation package to be churn out based on what one lost in the inferno.
The Committee which is being headed by a renowned legal luminary in Kano, Justice Wada Umar Rano was of the opinion that the Ganduje administration had to come up with an enabling edict to regulate the operations of Kano markets as a way of facing future eventualities.
The fire incident had also elicited the concern and sympathy of the monarchy in Kano under the leadership of Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi ll who had consoled the traders not to lose faith in the wake of the calamity and also reminded the political leaders on the responsibilities on their shoulders.
According to the monarch, every disaster had been ordained to befall mankind without premonition and equally charged the politicians to take into cognizance that they have an abiding obligation to be responsible and responsive to the yearnings and aspirations of those who had voted them to power.
What is however becoming a jigsaw puzzle to many people in Kano, is the manner the immediate past governor of the state, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso commiserated with the victims of the disaster, commiserating the victims alone but failed to commiserate with the emir and the governor.
Leading political pundits in the state had expressed a discordant tune on the steps taken to put out the fire which had wreaked havoc for more than 48 hours.
According to a Kano based political commentator, Malam Aminu Idriss Fagge, Ganduje must be absolve from blame for the longevity of the fire before it was eventually put put, since he is facing myriad of crisis which had almost proven intractable.
But in the words of a PDP Chieftain in the state, Alhaji Isah Dazino, the governor should have taken a cue from previous fire disasters by taking steps to purchase more sophisticated fire fighting vehicles to face any eventuality.
What is now on the lips of pundits and leading political gladiators in the state is how the findings of the Commission of inquiry would form the decision of the Ganduje administration on the remedies to bring relief to the grieving traders.
