Kaduna's Lord of Flies and his Fraudulent Style of Governance

 A classroom for pupils in Kaduna State

 'Pick a leader who will keep jobs in your country by offering companies incentives to hire only within their borders, not one who allows corporations to outsource jobs for cheaper labor when there is a national employment crisis. Choose a leader who will invest in building bridges, not walls. Books, not weapons. Morality, not corruption. Intellectualism and wisdom, not ignorance. Stability, not fear and terror. Peace, not chaos. Love, not hate. Convergence, not segregation. Tolerance, not discrimination. Fairness, not hypocrisy. Substance, not superficiality. Character, not immaturity. Transparency, not secrecy. Justice, not lawlessness. Environmental improvement and preservation, not destruction. Truth, not lies.'

-Suzy Kassem 

By NASIRU JAGABA: jagabanasiru@gmail.com

It is over three years now that citizens in Kaduna State fell in love with the slogan ‘Make Kaduna Great Again’. How time flies! Again, the masses seem to have fallen out of love with it as quickly as they had fallen in, although not quick enough before the concession of the mandate to Gov. Elrufai. The outcry of scarce funds as made across the nation by several governors especially from new political party(ies) at that time was not the case with Kaduna State where the predecessor left a fat check of about N24bn.

There is nothing better than taking stock now to reflect on the figures since the performance is shameful for the incumbent to advertise and reveal. We will dwell on the report of ‘the lord of flies’ that was sent to Sir Kashim Ibrahim House on May 29^th 2015. As at today, the only document available about the 2019 Budget is a proposal not the law. In a bid to hide the truth, our government as ‘open’ as it claims to be fails to make public the performance in revenue generation; the actuals in capital expenditure, recurrent expenditure.  The approved estimates statements have hidden the truth of actuals in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, (MTEF) leaving citizens groping. The figures are leaving behind questions. ‘Ina ta fada?’,  ‘Ya aka yi da dukiyar  mu?’ meaning ‘Where have these fallen into?, ’What has happened to our common wealth?’.

Your curiosity is as good as mine. The money proposed to have been expended on capital projects from 2016-2018 by the current administration stands at N370.94bn. Yes, that includes the ‘short flag post’ for street naming, township roads, waste transfer stations and so many more of the projects that may have started earlier than 2016 and still remains uncompleted. Most of which are abandoned with no apologies.

Our Internally Generated Revenue, VAT, Statutory allocations, stands at N 343.14bn within the period under review. There are several other grants: Internal grants which include the Universal Basic Education Commission UBEC fund, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETF), Inclusive Education Trust fund (all of which are special, normal or usual). There are also the Presidential Needs Assessment, Presidential Fertilizer Initiative and several other interventions where the government of Kaduna State have declared solemnly as hers. If you add all that to the external donations like African Development Bank, World Bank, Islamic Development Bank, DfiD, UNICEF amongst others, these amount to about N72.405bn.

If not for the declaration by the Federal Government, Kaduna State government had been silent about the sharing of the NLNG allocations. We have since the emancipation of the outlaw, witnessed a sharp dwindling of the state’s workforce reducing the numbers with yet insignificant improvement in the real figure that constitutes the state’s recurrent spending.  

Loans as high as N 176.741bn, were key sources to make up for the deficit in the budget and were needed just to implement most of the capital projects in the entire MTEF. Paris Club Debt Relief fund came and clearly ‘ba san inda ya fada ba’-nothing points to where these humongous amount has been sunk. The first, second and third readings were said to have been carried out in one day by the State House of Assembly and the funds dispensed just a few days before the close of the state’s financial year. Excesses after every fiscal year are claimed to have been saved in a ‘Capital Development Fund’ a coinage of the executive whose management is shrouded in secrecy. The Elrufai led government hijacked Federal Government’s roads rehabilitation project linking travellers from around the world to Abuja through a tight hustle that has clearly benefited the ‘handlers and hustlers’ of the project and left the citizens underserved. I am talking about Nnamdi Azikwe Way(Western bye-pass), Kaduna International Airport stint. All the accolades issued in the past may have been retrieved. Kaduna actually got hustled under the choking high handedness and vested interest of the lord of the flies.    

As healthy as the estimates have been tendered, there is clearly in the overheads reasons for the absence of capacity in several Ministries meeting up to the expectations of citizens in areas of services delivery. No other sector has been worse hit than the economic sector of the state’s development plan. Agriculture, tourism, trade, industry, road and rural electrification have enjoyed nothing but lip service and fake promises. The Save a million lives program has shown clearly that the once celebrated MTEF running on the Zero Based Budgeting is nothing but a hoax. Comparisons of performances from 2015 to that of 2018 has shown clearly that it is a joke of the century for the citizenry.

The lack of transparency in governance has deepened corruption and marred our services delivery system under the atmosphere of fear, insecurity, uncertainty and underdevelopment of the state. The widely celebrated Open Government Partnership the government has signed onto has been gagged by an administration that would not allow for co-creation of the budget from the level of MDAs with citizens. 

While the immunity enjoyed by Mallam Nasir Elrufai remains valid, citizens await the day the governor’s stewardship will be brought to account. The compelling allegations of fraud, executive lawlessness, recklessness and financial misappropriation amongst others that may have sunk Kaduna will surely come to trial as citizens make a date with the ballot.