You don’t have to be a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for your child to enjoy free education in Katsina State. You don’t have to lobby anybody for your child to be sent abroad to read medicine, pharmacy, nursing or environmental engineering, or indeed get free medicare for yourself and family in government hospitals”.
This was part of the declaration Governor Ibrahim Shehu Shema made to the people of Katsina State at the outset of his second tenure. Shema had made a pact at the inception of the first tenure which he kept, and which earned him the second tenure. Now, in his second tenure, the governor is building on the solid foundation he laid during the first tenure. In Katsina, Shema builds bridges of understanding that there should not be discrimination on the basis of political affiliation. That is why he pointed out at his second inauguration that government services shall not be dispensed on the basis of whether you belong to the ruling PDP in the state or the opposition.
Ibrahim Shema
Indeed, government should serve all the people without discrimination. But this is a society where government services are sometimes dispensed according to party loyalty. This sets the politician apart from the statesman. The politician continues to play politics after election has been won and the government formed by taking care of only his loyalists. The statesman does not know the difference between his loyalists and the people once government is formed. He takes care of all the people without recourse to political affiliation .Shema demonstrates that he is a statesman. He has passion for the people. He believes they are the very reason he is in government. The governor sees education as the instrument to transform Katsina.
“We believe that education is the key to social mobility and the general transformation of the lives of people in any society. This is our concept of fairness and justice to all political zones, justice to all strata of the society – the poor, women, children and rural dwellers”, he once said. Indeed, all strata of society are being educated in the state. All hands are on deck by the Shema
administration to, particularly, educate the girl-child. Societal culture inhibits the education of the girl-child. To break this barrier, the state government gives allowance to parents who sent the girl-child to school. Several girls schools have been built across the 34 local government areas of Katsina to make this a reality. The Almajiris – child – beggars – are also being educated and they get allowance to encourage them to stay in school. The Almajiris being sent to school is a process to make them useful to themselves and their state in future. The children have, in the past, constituted public nuisance. There is even the claim that being idle, they were ready instruments to be used by those seeking to forment trouble.
Taking these children off the streets is a plus for social security in the state. Shema’s massive investment in primary and secondary education has shot-up school enrollment at the primary school level from about one million in 2005 to close to 1.5million in 2011 – about 50 percent increase – and, at the secondary school level, from 142,729 in 2005 to 280,973 in 2011. “This was achieved
through free education up to secondary school and payment of WAEC, NAPTEB, NECO and NCAIS (National Colleges of Arabic and Islamic Studies) fees which motivated children from humble backgrounds with an assurance that they will write their final examinations for free”, the governor said. The icing on the cake of the Shema giant strides in the education sector in Katsina is the completion of the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua University Project started by his predecessor and mentor, the late President Yar’Adua.
Not only that, he gave out more than N1b(including land, school buildings and hostels) to the newly federal university in Dusinma as part of the state government contribution to its successful take off. And for the youth disposed to learning trades, Shema built the craft village. In this village, there is virtually all the trades that you can find under the sun for anybody to learn. From GSM and computer repairs to tie and dye, welding, carpentry, etc. This human development project has
produced so many graduates that today contribute to the socio-economic development of the state. Mechanics produced by the village have been the ones taking care of the governor’s two official cars that he has used since his first term. Shema is a believer in the age long saying that health is wealth. All that has been done in the health sector since 2007 when the governor took office is geared towards attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the sector including cutting the child and maternal mortality rates by 2015.
The star projects of the Shema administration in the health sector include a multi-million Naira 250-bed orthopaedic hospital, the best(in terms of infrastructure) in the country presently, rehabilitation of General Hospitals across the state and construction of six comprehensive health centres in addition to the renovation and upgrading of nine healthcare centres to comprehensive health centres.
Agriculture is the major occupation of the Katsina people and the sector has a pride of place under the Shema administration. This is one state where farming goes on all-year-round because of the attention the governor pays to irrigation. So whether it rains or not, farmers have no problem watering their plants. There are several irrigation dams across the state supporting large scale agriculture, one of which is Jibia Dam which increased yield from 100 hectares of land in 2007 to 3,500 in 2011. So prudent is his management of the state resources that his administration has not borrowed any money whether internally or externally to execute its projects.
Rather, he has generated interests on funds placed in banks to execute some projects. The new Government House is one of the projects being built from the bank accrual.
Shema, a successful corporate lawyer, has come a long way since he joined the administration of then Governor Yar’Adua in Katsina as attorney-general and commissioner for justice. From being a commissioner, he was seconded to the PDP national executive as national vice chairman, North-West. Shema acquitted himself in that job and would have been returned to Katsina from Abuja to become the secretary to the state government (SSG). But he believed that the opportunity should be given to another person. He eventually became the governor in 2007, thanks to the vision of Yar’Adua, his mentor, who, as it has turned out, made no mistake in putting him at the helm of affairs in Katsina.
There is another attribute most people do not know about Shema. After Allah, the closest word to his mouth is “thank you”. There is no deed, errand, greetings or gift, however so minor, Shema would appreciate you. Said he:( The holy books also confirm it. When you appreciate a good deed, you not only endear yourself to the person, but it also helps you in your future endeavors. It is inconsequential but it is a moral booster particularly if you are leading people. It does not take anything from you, rather it makes you accessible and approachable”.
Apart from Fatimah (a graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, ABU – same with her hubby) and, until last month when Yamani, his first son, a Harvard graduate, wedded, very little was known about his family. It is deliberate, he says.” They prefer to be indoors and with their friends. They may not be known everywhere like children of other governors, that is their lifestyle. I think that is our nature generally. If not for public office, I am sure my name would not have mattered to you, because I would just be your average next door neighbor”.
Shema is a loyal party man. This was aptly demonstrated recently when he subsumed his ambition to be the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) under the PDP leadership position that the chairmanship position should go to Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State. But beyond chairmanship of NGF, Shema is contented, not only as chief executive office of Katsina State but more importantly, grateful to God for using him as a channel of development in his state.
