A group rooting for the renewed growth of Kebbi State has dismissed as unrealistic, untenable and unattainable a recent media report suggesting that two former governors of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu and Usman Saidu Dakingari and a failed governorship candidate in the state, Abubakar Gari Malam, were being considered as likely minister in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s cabinet.
Rather, a recent study by the group showed that concerned stakeholders in the state prefer fresh faces such as Professor Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu of the University of Port Harcourt who is currently on a leave of absence serving as the Federal Commissioner representing Kebbi State at the National Population Commission (NPC).
Some of the group whose members are believed to have moved to Abuja last week to root for Professor Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu’s appointment have disclosed that neither Bagudu, Dakingari nor Gari Malam passed a recent acceptability test it conducted in the state.
They said that majority stakeholders across different levels and demographics in the state are very tired of old, failed, recycled, self-serving and uninspiring characters to represent them henceforth.
The group of young progressive intellectuals in the state under the auspices of Progressive Actors for a New Kebbi State (PANKEBBIS) in a statement in Abuja yesterday jointly signed by its coordinator, Dr. Ahmad Muhammad Aliyu; and secretary, Comrade Zamzam Rilwanu respectively disclosed that the test it conducted revealed the fresh expectations of the people.
It stated that majority citizens, indigenes and critical stakeholders in the state want a paradigm shift from transactional politicians in the appointment of people to represent Kebbi State at the Federal level henceforth. It said that most of the respondents want highly educated persons with proven record of competence, diligence and performance in their past or current assignments.
It stated that the current recruitment process had often excluded the state’s best and brightest limiting the choices of representing the state to only old, failed and recycled politicians whose aggregate impact in the life of the state is zero. The test revealed that the people now want new faces and a breath of fresh air.
According to the group, an acceptability test it conducted on the trio of Atiku Bagudu, Saidu Dakingari and Abubakar Gari Malam being touted in the media recently as ministerial hopefuls from the state returned a verdict of Not-Applicable, saying that they did not reflect the choice of persons desperately needed by the state to key into the Government of National Competence which President Tinubu has promised to put in place.
PANKEBBIS’ coordinator, Dr. Ahmad Muhammad Aliyu; and secretary, Comrade Zamzam Rilwanu, said that the test which was conducted in three phases employing current empirical parameters with very minor margins of error revealed that Atiku Bagudu, Saidu Dakingari and Abubakar Malam failed the integrity/acceptability test with several respondents saying that even while no appreciable impact and influence were ascribed to them in turning around the fortunes of the state, they are not the kind of persons that can bring anything new to the table.
‘’While the respondents did not have much to say about Abubakar Gari Malam since he failed in all his attempts to govern the state in the past, Abubakar Bagudu and his predecessor, Saidu Usman Dakingari got huge bashing for taking the state very low in all indices. After the excellent foundation which Governor Adamu Aliero laid for a rapid growth and transformation of the state between 1999 and 2003, Dakingari blew all the chances due to his incompetence.
‘’Governor Abubakar Bagudu’s tenure after Dakingari practically arrested the development of the state. He was more interested in hobnobbing with the Aso Villa cabals seeking his personal political interest than developing Kebbi State. Little wonder Adamu Aliero defeated him resoundingly in the last senatorial elections to show him he is the master.
“We don’t need such a man as minister representing our state. if truly he worked for the people, he won’t lose the election but because he was far from the people, they showed him the way out. He is retired so he should go and rest’’, Dr. Ahmad Aliyu said.
Asked if the test was also extended to personalities that might be well considered by the people of the state as likely candidates with high acceptability ratio, the coordinator said that its recent searchlight on possible fresh faces as credible nominees revealed two persons whose proven track records qualify them for wide acceptance. According to him, while his group was yet to conclude on one of them, it has returned a resounding positive verdict on the present Federal Commissioner representing Kebbi State at the National Population Commission (NPC), Professor Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu.
He said that majority respondents described Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu as very fit for consideration as Minister of Education in the new cabinet, saying that his sound background as a certified primary educator, Grade Two teacher, polytechnic tutor, university lecturer, administrator, well-traveled scholar with a deep and profound passion for Nigeria’s educational growth stand him in good stead for ministerial appointment in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s National Government of Competence.
‘’And not surprisingly, Associate Professor Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu’s name is being repeatedly mentioned in many circles now. Important people are loudly calling on the president to include competent hands, such as Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu as a possible minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
To us in Kebbi State, where our support to APC and particularly to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the last elections was certain and total, we ask to be part of his government of national competence in the person of Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu as Minister of Education. Our quest is justified, legitimate and merited because our nominee is competent. He ticks all the boxes’’, Dr. Ahmad Aliyu declared.According to him, by sheer coincidence, Prof. Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu’s name is presently on many lips at the same time of the result of his group’s test, pointing out that he is fit to be the next Minister of Education based on his rich pedigree as an educationist form the basic elementary through the polytechnic to the university level of over 45 years’ standing when he passed Grade 2 examinations at Government Teachers’ College, Dogon Daji, Sokoto State (1976-1981) alongside the newly-elected Speaker of the 10th House of Representatives, Dr. Tajudeen Abass.
“He has been a major player in the Nigerian education sector for over four decades. It is evident that Haliru Bala Jikan-Daudu is a most suitable and eminently qualified candidate to be considered for the office of Minister of Education in the incoming dispensation especially because he holds the rare pan-Nigerian schooling and teaching record at Usuman Dan Fodiyo University in the north where he hails from, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife where he bagged his M.Sc and PhD degrees and the University of Port Harcourt where he is a senior tutor’’, Dr. Ahmad Aliyu said.‘“He has been a major player in the Nigerian education sector for over four decades. As a senior member of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Associate Professor Jikan-Daudu will, as a matter of national urgency and priority, deploy his progressive passion, wealth of experience in teaching, research, mentoring and community service rooted in deep industry knowledge and wide network of colleagues and contacts to put an end to the perennial issue of strike actions that currently bedevil Nigerian public universities, polytechnics and colleges of education. His mantra for university education is: 4 years is 4 years.
“He has been in the vanguard of advocacy for massive reforms in the education sector to make it more innovative, people-oriented, forward-looking, result-driven and government-led, running on his firm belief that a progressive government under the presidency of a dyed-in-the wood progressive such as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, education will again begin to take its rightful place in the country”, he said.
