As Governor Bala Muhammed of Bauchi State steps forward for the commencement of his second term, it is expected that more dividends of democracy are in the pipeline to benefit the people within available resources.
One remembers the 35th President of the United States of America, late John Fitzgerald Kennedy, whose early days in office were so eventful that history hoisted him as a rare leader who didn’t need a long stay to prove his mettle in leadership. In only two years, Kennedy revived his country’s low balling economy with legislations and policies that sought to eliminate America’s debilitating racial fault lines and bring succor to the disadvantaged of the society.
According to a Wikipedia account, “The economy (under Kennedy) experienced steady growth, low inflation and a drop in unemployment rates. He established the Peace Corps and promised to land an American on the moon which he did.
This is how committed leaders think positively and the government they lead to color their tenures with ray of achievements more than others combined that never attained in full term or two. It has been said of Kennedy that his mid-term rating surpassed the records of most of his predecessors. Observers still rank his short lived but eventful administration as one of the best in the United States contemporary history. The charismatic JFK was assassinated in 1963 when he had spent less than three years in the White House.
Critics’ opinion about what is experienced in Bauchi State under Sen. Bala Muhammed’s watch also suggests that the people are face to face with a fast paced administration which works as if each day would mark its last in office. This has led many to conclude that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration is working with the speed of a hurricane. Nothing stands in the way of the storm. Every hindrance is brought down for its passage. Its royal route repels obstruction, no matter how firmly rooted.
Leaders who want to make a difference don’t wait for the end of their time to present their report card for appraisal by the people. They want to be judged by their everyday activity. It is the impact of the actions of each day that determines the verdict of history. That has been the story of Sen. Bala Muhammed over the past four years of his residency in Bauchi Government House.
For the common people and civil servants in Bauchi State, what remains indelible in their minds on the model of governance is his renewal of their faith in the civil service. Workers are now enjoying job stability traditionally identified with government work. Kaura is not only considering lifting the embargo placed on workers promotion and yearly increment of salaries including payment of leave grant but has ensured prompt payment of monthly salaries and pension allowances.
The education sector has also felt the impact of the ‘hurricane’ pace of Kaura. The system has been overhauled to make way for the scrapping of certain outdated policies that retarded educational growth and the modernization of teaching methods to rhyme with the digital age and diversity of standards. To be sure, these have yielded top dividends for the good of Bauchi State.
In the health sector, the people have seen Kaura’s Midas touch at work. Several health centres were constructed, renovated and equipped in almost all the 20 local governments in the state owned hospitals and maternity hubs are in addition being renovated and upgraded while being kitted with modern equipments and stocked with the most essential drugs. The government is equally making efforts to put in place a progressive health insurance package that will be beneficial to both public and private employees. Along with these strides in health, agriculture is undergoing a revitalization that may engage the private sector and financial institutions for the delivery of an agrarian revolution in the state. The idea is to make Bauchi State self sufficient in food production for local and national consumption.
The Sen. Bala administration is carefully studying submitted proposals by commissioned experts for the establishment of Bauchi State Ethanol Bio-Refinery Factory. If government keys into the idea and fully established, the factory will be planting, harvesting and transporting and converting cassava into ethanol for final marketing. The project will create 1000 job opportunities and reduce the rising rate of poverty and unemployment that today poses threat to national security.
As for the menace of flooding that has wrecked havoc on several communities during rainy seasons, the Bala Muhammed administration has constructed and rehabilitated over 30 most essential roads with economic value across the state measuring over 500 kilometers with spacious drainages and plans to clean all drainages, dredge the waterways, ponds and streams in identified areas known to have experienced the insufferable consequences. The menace of flood and desertification has over the years led to dislocations in the economy and unbearable trauma for the victims. The situation gave sleepless nights to the administration in search of immediate solutions to provide safety nets for lives and property.
In the period under review, the government’s commitment to the welfare of the people was put to test with the onslaught of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic. But the administration rose to the challenge as it rolled out containment plans that prevented the plague from causing wide spread havoc within the state. The government responded swiftly, by providing and equipping designated isolation centres, distribution of free face masks, sanitizers and essential drugs among other supplies during the lockdown including the even distribution of foodstuffs and other domestic essentials.
The people also received packages of assorted palliatives in form of foods, drinks and cash to prove official sympathy in their moment of need and despair.
Not only that, those Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) as victims of insurgency, banditry and ethno-religious crisis that trooped to the state from neighboring states, were accommodated and assisted as expected from a compassionate leader.
In his words: “IDPs should be treated as indigenes of Bauchi State in desperate need. My government believes in unity and cohesion. We shall remain focused and determined in our quest for good governance anchored on probity and sincerity of purpose. We shall neither discriminate nor treat our brothers and sisters in need as second class or settlers”.
While it has been an eventual time, the past four years also demonstrated the ability of Bala Muhammed’s administration to prove that it is a worthy custodian of the people’s mandate that was freely and willingly given without strings in 2019 and repeated with additional vigor in 2023.
It is testimony of successes so far that indicates the people were not wrong to have elected Bala Abdulkadir Muhammed to govern them possibly beyond 2023 going by his giant strides that are visible, touchable and undoubtedly.
As he proceeds into his second tenure, in unison the people singing praises of encouragement and support for the better days ahead. Indeed, Governor Bala Muhammed has justified the trust reposed in him as an illustrious son of the hitherto underdeveloped and malnourished Bauchi State that was surviving on assumptions as policies.
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues
