SOKOTO’S 3 YEARS OF TERRIFIC ENHANCEMENT
BY
AMINU BINJI
It will be understating the obvious to posit that Sokoto state has witnessed and is witnessing terrific enhancement in all spheres of social and physical development over these years of purposeful leadership by the Ahmed Aliyu-led administration. When the good people of Sokoto state trooped out enmass to vote-in Ahmed Aliyu as their governor in the 2023 general elections, what was paramount in their minds was to bring in a government that will make things easier for them and right a lot of wrongs that were normalized in the course of the immediate past administration.
It’s not a misnomer to relate that, Ahmed Aliyu’s emergence as governor of the state was a by-product of divine intervention as countless booby traps and smear campaigns were mounted and championed to derail his journey to the government house. However, and fortunately the people were disenchanted with the manner in which the then outgoing administration conducted it affairs particularly in the twilight of its time.
Many projects were left strategically abandoned by the then outgoing administration to the chagrin of the general public. The Diplomat area and the Dandima flyovers were notably two of such projects, in a swift response to the clamour of the people, Ahmed Aliyu decisively moved in and within the first one hundred days in office was able to complete the two flyovers.
History will watermark Ahmed Aliyu’s in its annals for his remarkable strides in constructing the road networks in the Sahara area within the metropolis. Sahara area being a commercial hub peopled by automobile spare parts dealers and retailers most of whom are from the south-west part of the country, making the access roads there more passable has eased the transportation of goods and services there, and by extension made the transactions of business very easy. Before the historic construction and reconstruction of the road networks there, movement within the expansive commercial area was difficult especially in the rainy season.
The Mabera area in the metropolis was rather infamous for its poor road networks which made movement in the bustling community painful and tedious during the rainy season. It was Ahmed Aliyu who circumvented the odds and opened up the area with beautiful roads, culverts and even roundabouts where necessary. As I write this, Mabera area is today one of the finest in the state capital in terms of motorable roads adorned with solar-powered streetlights.
The Arkilla area was equally another community in the metropolis that enjoyed a touch of Ahmed Aliyu’s improvement strategy as the road networks in the area were terrible and almost impassable. The same laudable treatment was applied to the famous Mai-kahon karo road that links Diplomat area to the Shehu Kangiwa square. I had a talk with an elderly resident of the area who told me that, the road constructed decades ago was neither reconstructed nor repaired until when Ahmed Aliyu came and did the marvelous job within the first one hundred days in office.
Looking at Bodinga road, the road behind UDUTH that runs from off the NIPOST complex to the roundabout connecting to the Western bypass, was to say the least in a deplorable state. It was Ahmed Aliyu who constructed the road into what it’s today; comfortably passable.
We were all witnesses including visitors to the state capital to the deplorable state of our metropolitan roads and roundabouts, it still beats our imagination how the past administration was nonchalant and unconcerned to the plight of people plying those terrible metropolitan roads. The horrible state of the round Mai-ruwa in the state capital with its unique strategic location was left in a sorry situation of disrepair. Today, that roundabout stand tall bedecked with aesthetics and lighting to the admiration of both inhabitants and visitors alike.
We still recall how within record time the Kara and Abbatoir road networks were improved to pave way for easy access to the commercial outlets.
As a pupil of history, I’m tempted to wonder how fast our people forget things, otherwise, how would any person living in Sokoto identify with the vestiges of the past administration to side with the opposition, opposing Ahmed Aliyu’s second term bid ❗
In the sphere of moving against the tide of insecurity, Ahmed Aliyu has done remarkably well in the last three years that he’s comparable to no other governor at least in the core north. Apart from the timely payment of stipends and other financial commitments due to security operatives stationed at the flashpoints, he floated and created the Sokoto State Community Guards with about 2000 able-bodied men to augment the efforts of other security personnel in confronting the problem of banditry and kidnapping. Just recently, the Nigeria’s defence minister was in Sokoto to commission 62 security vehicles fitted with high-tech equipment and 320 motorcycles to support anti-banditry and kidnapping operations in the state. That singular stride did no doubt demonstrated Ahmed Aliyu’s unalloyed vow to fight the menace of banditry and kidnapping. The truth is, from day one in office, Ahmed Aliyu has never relaxed his resolve to effectively wrestle insecurity as he undertook in his campaign days.
In the concern of social engineering, Ahmed Aliyu has in the last three years left no one in doubt as to his unflagging determination to positively rewrite history. Before his coming, the monthly stipends payable to our people with various disabilities were halted for more than a year without cogent explanation; on assumption of office, Ahmed Aliyu instituted a committee which verified all those entitled and promptly settled the backlog of their denied stipends. This same magnanimous treatment by Ahmed Aliyu was extended to the Imams , their deputies and Muezzims, including key Arabic Mallams across the state. It will not be out of tune to recall how the deductions from the salary of civil servants in the state employ in the name of State of Emergency on Education was halted, in response to the clamour of the civil servants who expressed displeasure with the deductions that did not produce any tangible results commensurate with the volume of the deductions over the almost 7 years the Emergency functioned. Similarly, knotty issues about the inability of the immediate past administration to settle school fees of state indigines studying in institutions of higher learning like the Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto were resolved. Civil servants too had it so good in the first hundred days in office of Ahmed Aliyu as backlog of unpaid salaries were defrayed, and since then salary and pension are being paid from 19th of every month unlike in the immediate past when uncertainty and excitement were the norm whenever it’s month’s end. The release of monthly cash allocations to MDAs which was stopped for months on end was restored as a booster to the morale of the civil servants. We still recall how gratuities of retired and dead civil servants were left unpaid and allowed to accumulate into billions of naira. Governor Ahmed Aliyu came up with a workable template of settling the humongous debt of gratuities and concurrently paying those civil servants who retired or died during his time. This payment of gratuities has restored confidence and hope in the retirees and families of deceased civil servants. I’m good to submit that, this particular noble act should be enough to garner tremendous support from the people for Ahmed Aliyu’s second coming.
Renovation of schools and colleges across the state has equally received noticeable attention from this administration these three years, we commend the monthly release of imprest to school principals for routine running of their schools, and of course with the provision of school buses to some schools in the state alongside the introduction of metropolitan School bus system to facilitate easy transport of students in the morning and after closing time.
The Wamakko-Bunkari-Binji road has for long remained abandoned in a state of serious disrepair as the movement of goods, people and services suffered untold torment. Finally, Ahmed Aliyu has resolved to reconstruct and put the road in a new shape. That particular act has won him applause and commendation from people including his political opponents. Another road worthy of mention is the Gidan Madi- Binji road also penciled for reconstruction, we cannot but salute Ahmed Aliyu for this and many more laudable projects as a lot of road construction projects are either ongoing or in the pipeline for execution.
The State Mass Transport Authority that was moribund before the coming of this administration is now fully functional with buses plying state and inter-state routes, and this has gone extra miles in bringing succour to the people in their transportation needs.
These three years, the Ahmed Aliyu administration has done well to command the commendation and praise of people of goodwill across the state and even beyond.
The various interventions of this administration in terms of the provision of foodstuffs to the vulnerable and the needy, free fertilizer for farmers, skills acquisition programmes with starter packs and financial support and other such projects are too voluminous to accommodate here. The crux of the matter is, posterity will certainly engrave Ahmed Aliyu’s name in the best of calligraphy as a governor who came, saw and conquered.
Now that the chips are coming down, it’s unmistakable that by the grand grace of our Creator, Ahmed Aliyu’s second journey to the government house which is in God’s hands is assured, if populist policies, programmes and overwhelming goodwill of the people do count.
It was Abraham Lincoln who in his Temperance address on July 1st, 1842, said, ” the legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but cannot do, at all, or cannot so well do for themselves in their separate and individual capacities”.
Binji writes from the desk of Sokoto Liberal Democrats Media Foundation (SOLID)
