EDITORIAL
PIPING IN TO ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY: MESSAGE FROM SEN. KABIRU MARAFA
A recent interview in Zamfara Radio with Sen. Kabiru Garba Marafa on Governor Matawalle’s one year anniversary is not only a reflection of the bitter side of the picture of the government but a reality that only a good partner who really means well can be bold enough to voice out without mincing what the consequences will look like.
I know for the organiser, Zamfara Radio, may have thought if it contacted Senator Marafa, he will be blowing lies, possibly to please spiritual psycopancy in the eyes of the Governor.
But as funny as Sen. Marafa he put it back to them by telling them what ordinarily they did not expect to hear from his mouth and as God wants, it was a live programme they could not disconnect the controversial Senator.
The Anchor was too relaxed because he was trapped in between reality and eye service. From the video clip, one will know that, the anchor was regretting the moderation of the interview.
Now back to the main issue, Marafa pointedly informed the Governor to be wary of those hidden forces that have likely ganged up against him and his reasons are they always block the Governor from hearing and seeing the truth. They always point at the positive side of his government and even narrate what has not actually happened to the hearing of the public .
And he challenged the Governor of taking some decisions that are considered not viable and useful to the people for now.
He also talked about genuine implementation of Shariah legal system especially the state government decision to be silent on the issue of discovery of ritual homes, and Ramadan feeding. He also challenged the Governor on his unending reception of political defectors to the ruling PDP.
It’s our humble opinion that, Senator Marafa had spoken about our inner heart picture because, in the past one year, these are the issues we have been raising concerns on.
This government even from our editorial of last week where we raised alarm that, things are not done corporately and there are a lot of projects that are executed out of the 2020 budgetary appropriation.
We have also raised concerns on lack of coordination in terms of political appointments and high level of policy inconsistencies.
To buttress this argument, if one listened to the Governor’s pledges during Sallah homage on the Emir of Maradun, one will keep wondering if at all we have a sense of direction as a people. The construction of 147 hospitals, 2.7 billion naira completion of Shinkafi referal hospital, construction of 14 WC Hospitals to mention but a few, these are projects that one needs to know at what level they were conceived after the 2020 budget was passed and approved and what steps the government is taking to absorb them in the same 2020 appropriation law of the state because for now, they cannot be executed because they are not appropriated.
Even the Ramadan feeding where conflicting figures of 2.9 and 1.2 billion naira were alleged to have been spent, we doubt if the money for that programme has been appropriated in the 2020 budget and these are deliberate corporate errors every serious leader needs to avoid.
Our concern always is that, you cannot run a government without a strategic plan and the essence of annual appropriation law is to enable you as a leader/government to carefully capture all your plans and tie them to your resources. Government cannot be conceiving ideas midway in to the annual journey and begin to smuggle them into the system and fund them through the state appropriated resources.
Zamfara State Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning needs to make available, copies of the approved 2020 budget to all the MDAs for them to know what has been appropriated for them and apply for execution.
The Finance Commissioner should be extra ordinarily careful in releasing money for the execution of unappropriated projects because it will run him into trouble even after he leaves office (God forbid) . This is the naked truth. The commissioner should learn to caution the government to do things appropriately, I think that is the essence of being the Chief Financial Adviser to the Governor.
All projects are good but they should be done and executed in more appropriate manners in such a way that, things do not backfire.
As for the state lawmakers, the whole burden of the corporate errors in this government lies on them because their number one duty is to ensure checks and balances. They are to approve everything which is to be done by the executive arm and make sure that, a single naira is not spent by any part of the executive without their approval.
But because of same psycopancy which Marafa referred to, they have unceremoniously surrendered their political powers to the executive arm and this is doing more harm than good to the system.
So, the celebration of one year anniversary should serve as a good step for the Matawalle government to reposition things and do things the way they are supposed to be done.
Like Senator Marafa said, government should be ready to hear the other part of the narrative because there must be people that are ready and willing to say the truth not because they have a personal hate against the government or anybody within it but for the purpose of getting things right.
Some wonder why some people always look after the negative side of the leaders. The right answer is because the leaders usually enforce unpopular decisions on the people. If the government for instance, formulates its annual budget in consultation with the people and gets it executed, why would there be criticisms from same people?.
But in a situation where a government acted against the popular wishes of the people and goes ahead to execute projects to its satisfaction rather than the satisfaction of the people, then what do you expect?, reactions offcourse.
Governance is for the imporvement of the living standard of the people and every serious government should not act against the wishes of its people.
On the final note, we want to ride on to the position of Sen. Kabiru Marafa that, government should not see anybody criticising its policies as its enemy. We criticise because we want to see improvement, we critisize because we want to see us moving from old to the new position. We just have to grow a system that is citizens’ driven.
It’s our hope that, Zamfara State government will see our constant talks on issues as a wake up call to doing things rightly for the betterment of everyone.
