(Monday Editorial)
The recent response by the Spokesperson of Governor Dauda Lawal Sulaiman Bala Idris concerning Zamfara state students studying at Cyprus has generated serious mixed reactions.
Plenty of people, including the students, have have raised counter arguments regarding the narration by Mr. Bala Idris arguing that it does not reflect the reality of the condition of these students at Cyprus.
As information managers and after reading the release by Sulaiman Bala Idris we were so sure that, people may not agree with him in totality for the simple fact that the matter has become a serious source of concern and also looking at the fact that, we have been following the development, written an editorial almost a month a go trying to plead with the government of Zamfara to squarely address the crises faced by these students in Cyprus in the interest of justice and fairness.
For Mr. Bala start with he needs to be reminded that as information manager and official spokesman of the Governor not every delicate issue requires a response by way of writing.
Some issues which are of delicate concern to the citizens are better manage through dialogue because no amount of defense can convince people, especially where they already built some perception on an issue at stake.
If we were him what he shall do as professional manager in handling this matter is to convince the Governor to allow for media dialogue/interaction between the Commissioner for Education Madawaki other members of his team that went to Cyprus and the parents/guardians of these students.
If Bala has championed this from inception we are sure the meeting would produce positive headway because the Commissioner and his team will states their version of the story and parents of these students would also narrates their own site of the story based on the information they received from their wards and the meeting would have produced a lasting way forward.
But now that the response has created a serious face-off between the citizens and government what is the cause?, the simple reason is that citizens from the response coming on the site of the government have already built an impression that the dynamics had clearly signifies a “condition of no hope” for these pupils.
It is our prayers that government will not make any public release about this issue except a release to notify the public that the matter has been resolved because any continuation of debate and arguement on this matter will further aggravate tension and anxiety.
As for the issue at stake we are pleading with the government of Zamfara led by Dauda Lawal to as a matter of public interest removes all technicalities and settle whatever liabilities that are at stake for this matter to rest.
We want to remind the Governor that “Governance is for the people and a responsible government must accord priority to the demand and concern of its citizens”.
We are sure the Governor knows very well that if he can use the entire state allocation for a month by settling the accrued liabilities of these students and set them free from their dilemma nobody in Zamfara will raise a question mark on his government.
These students are citizens of Zamfara and they have absolute right to access the resources of the state just like every other privilege citizen of the state.
The government shall not wait until the situation gets out of hand because recently the video released by Dr. Tijjani Salihu Shinkafi has exposed the fact that about two of these students have been arrested and jailed due to lack of resident permit.
Again the issue of payment of their monthly up-keep should be re-instated un-conditionally because same video by Dr. Tijjani has revealed that some of them have ventured into hard labour to earn some means of living.
The government of Zamfara has to dignify these our very senior citizens by ignoring all technicalities and addressing their issues forth with so that the matter can be laid to rest.
The Ministry of Education in the interim should please urgently meet with the parent of these children to chart the way forward.
All these defense and counter defense will not resolve the problem and the earlier this issue is addressed the better for all of us.
