Recalling the well articulated moment between The Special Adviser on Media and Communications to Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State with some news men (THE SUN) Governor Shettima is running an inclusive government – ISA GUSAU, Media Aide From TAIWO AMODU, Abuja Isa Umar Gusau is Special Adviser on Media and Communications to Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State. In an interactive session with newsmen in Abuja, he explains why his boss has been able to make appreciable impact in the lives of the citizens of Borno State, despite unnerving security challenges. Excerpts: Let’s start by asking you this; what is your boss, Governor Shettima, doing regarding the persistent security situation in Borno State? I would crave your indulgence not to speak much on this matter so that I do not contradict an appeal made by my boss last month. You may want to recall that in a Sallah message after the Ramadan, Governor Kashim Shettima had pleaded with the media not to publish efforts being made concerning the need for a peaceful resolution of the crises through dialogue. The governor has been consistent on the call for dialogue since 2011 when he was elected, even before his inauguration. He pioneered that call, really. What I can tell you is that Governor Shettima regards the restoration of peace and security in Borno State as his number one priority and he is working to achieve that. How good is Borno, under Governor Shettima, how has his experience as an accomplished banker helped the State? Residents and indeed those who have visited Borno in the last one year, especially those closely monitoring trend of governance appreciate changes going not only on infrastructure but importantly on the welfare of people. Let me summarily add that from my own review, Governor Shettima adopts seven wise principles, naturally, I suppose, which summarize his style of governance that is already producing results. First, Kashim Shettima is a receptive and highly consultative governor who respects professionalism and sense of responsibility; he is not ‘Mr. know everything,’ he loves to listen to ideas and opinions of those responsible for particular subjects, he also acknowledges and strongly commends people with good ideas while he sometimes takes immediate action where he is satisfied with the ideas. As you know, many leaders don’t have the patience of listening to those working under them, they mostly give instructions only. Look, you do not win Shettima’s heart with sycophancy; he is more attracted to brainpower than anything. Even in cases where he has full knowledge of a subject, he would still ask the opinion of the person directly associated with the subject whether a commissioner, special adviser, permanent secretary, special assistants, directors or whoever maybe to have varied views. Ability to hear out subordinates is very important in leadership. Some other leaders would probably be arrogant to do that especially when, as it is, the governor is as smart as the smartest of his appointees. Secondly, he is scientific in making policies, programmes and projects. He relies so much on research. For instance, when Borno State recorded poor result in WAEC exams in 2011, the year he came in, he set up a silent committee that went round all the secondary schools to do some investigation including physical headcount of pupils and teachers as well as number of class rooms, examine learning atmosphere, curriculum, etc. It was discovered that the three senatorial zones had varied problems; in the central and northern Borno in particular, there were empty class rooms and teachers without pupils, in the southern part, there were pupils without class rooms and adequate teachers but generally, there was lack of task force to supervise teaching and learning, there were problems of improper feeding. I remember a case he asked a principal how much she was getting for feeding of pupils per month from government and after some arithmetic, it was clear that less than four naira was being budgeted for a student per meal and that money couldn’t buy a sachet of pure water. How can a student learn under such a situation? So, there is a high powered feeding committee with highly respected people, designated to each of the three zones, there is a quality assurance inspectorate taskforce to monitor educational activities made of effective and efficient educationists, and at the moment, class rooms are being built so that there wouldn’t be more than 40 pupils in a secondary school class, the culture of night studies is being restored. In summary, massive projects are going on in Government College, Maiduguri, Government Girls College, Yerwa and many others spread across the state. So, Governor Shettima is laying a fresh and solid foundation of education which is bedrock of any society that seeks to progress. He is scientific on different sectors. On industry for instance, Government resuscitates collapsed industries and owners pay back with products of fixed industries and employ an agreed number of people. In the area of poverty alleviation, for instance I will give just one example, Governor Shettima initiated a skills acquisition programme with different centres where youths are trained on how to make bricks, roofing tiles and interlocks with all raw materials sourced from suppliers in the state while the youths get paid. Now many of these youths make bricks, build classrooms with the bricks, roof the class rooms with the sheets they also made interlock surroundings with the interlocks they made; look at the chain! What happens here, is that youths are trained and empowered, suppliers of raw materials are patronized, class rooms are built, learning is made more conducive and education is enhanced. The Governor has been able to redirect everyone’s psychology back to agriculture; he breaths agriculture, talks agriculture, walks agriculture, sleep agriculture and in fact, he lives agriculture. So, villagers now know that the only thing that attracts the governor is farming. So, everyone wants to display farm produce anytime the governor is passing through local government areas, the governor has set up an agricultural transformation team with experts fully in charge, there is functional interplay between the state government and the Chad Basin Development Authority which has led to thousands of bags of wheat and onions, rice has been built to cultivate over 100 thousand hectares of land. Borno is getting back on track. The third principle of the governor is that he runs an open and government, making Borno the hub of many capable individuals and institutions within and outside Nigeria. He in search of intelligent hands, regardless of where they come from. In Abuja, he goes to meet heads of key federal establishments to win them to have focus on helping Borno. Thank you. LONG LIVE GOVERNOR KASHIM SHETTIMA LONG LIVE ISA GUSAU LONG LIVE BORNO Signed: Comrade Shettima Umar Comradeshettimaumar@gmail Concerned Borno State Citizen For: #BORNITE
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 16:38:10 +0000
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