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How we tackled the Sharia and Miss World Crises-Ex Gov
Makarfi
Newsdiaryonline Sun Oct 9,2011
In what appears like an open advise to the present governors in
crisis ridden states,Former Kaduna state governor, Ahmed
Mohammed Makarfi has taken an
open and retrospective
look at his eight- year governance of the state and concluded
that identifying the yearning aspiration of the people was
key to addressing the
problem of incessant crisis in the country.
Speaking at a community dialogue forum organized by the
Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution in Kaduna, the
former governor gave an insight into how his administration was
able to overcome the Sharia and Miss World crises that engulfed
the state during his first tenure in office. He noted that after
the sharia crisis, many people believed that it was the end of
the state and by extension, the Nigerian nation, adding that his
administration took concrete steps to identify what need to be
done to restore the confidence of the people.
Having identified what
needed to be done, he said, the government moved to restore the
people’s confidence by providing purposeful leadership, pointing
out that with such efforts, Kaduna was beginning to take back
its pride of place before the eruption of the post-election
violence in the state. Inspite of that he said, Kaduna still
remains substantially a state where the thread of trust amongst
various communities has not broken, strained as it might have
been.
Equally noteworthy is the choice of the four implementing local
government areas of Zaria, Kaduna, Zangon Kataf and Jema'a,
which are homes to all shades of the diverse peoples of the
state and the country.
According to the former governor, “occasions such as this
provide an opportunity for a soul searching exercise; to enable
us ask ourselves certain questions and answer them as honestly
as we can. Questions like: how were we living before? What was
the basis of the mutual trust that used to exist among us? What
went wrong? Where did we derail? What can we do to return to
those good old days?
“These are some of the questions that need to agitate our minds
as we seek to search for solutions to some of the problems and
challenges that currently confront us as a country and as a
people. Trying to run away from problems does not make them go
away; confronting them head on does. That is why I believe that
honesty of purpose should always be the driving force in any
search for solutions to such problems.
“I believe that our people are substantially peaceful and peace
loving. What then happens that at the slightest provocation some
elements amongst us seize on the moment with such bloodletting
that portrays all of us as some bunch of vampires? Idon't know.
“This is what fora such as this and agencies such as the
Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution should seek to find
answers to. But one thing I am sure of is that given the right
atmosphere and the correct kind of leadership, our people can be
steered away from this primitive disposition to productive and
mutually beneficial endeavors. And I should know.
“With all humility, permit me to state, ladies and gentlemen,
that my eight-year stewardship in Kaduna State from 1999 to 2007
taught me a number of lessons, one of which is that the moment a
leadership strives for, and succeeds in earning the confidence
of the people, harnessing their diversity for productive
ventures becomes a lot easier exercise.
“You would recall that the initial period of our tenure was
somewhat turbulent; with so much violence erupting that some
pessimists were beginning to predict that that was the beginning
of the end for the state, if not the entire country.
“But once we got down to business and the people got convinced
that we meant it, there was no stopping the radical
transformation that changed the face of the state, because the
people enthusiastically keyed in into our programmes.
“How does a leadership earn the confidence of the led? Our
Kaduna experience taught us that identifying the yearnings and
aspirations of the people and making conscious and genuine
effort to meet them is key.
“Also in a state like Kaduna, acknowledging the fact of its
heterogeneity and working towards harnessing the diversity for
common good is another crucial ingredient. Once we got those
things right, the coast became relatively clear as a
relationship developed between the government and the people
that was based on mutual respect and understanding to such an
extent that even developmental projects evolved on the basis of
consultations with benefitting communities.
“It was largely what they wanted that they got, not just what
the government decided to dish out from Kaduna. To complement
these, among others was the two-way communication traffic that
evolved based on the unlimited access we guaranteed the people.
We never locked them out”.
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