Zamfara: Sagir Hamidu set for victory

LATEST UPDATE: Zamfara: Sagir Hamidu set for victory

BY TONY AMADI

The race to Govern­ment House, Gusau, has reached fever pitch even though it is still some three or four months to the election day. Meanwhile bouts of Sagir Hamidu-mania has gripped the state, as the new breed politician, who has been laying solid political and economic structures across the length and breadth of the state over the past two years, is talk of the town in the state. Also, his gover­norship campaign has gone into a higher gear.

Alhaji Sagir Hamidu, the Sarkin Rafin Gusau, is not only the new kid on the block as far as Zamfara politics is concerned, he is also considered by many as the next governor of the state, as the run up to the 2015 elections take centre stage. Sagir had to retire from his plush Director of Protocol position in the Federal Capital Territory Administra­tion (FCTA) because “I could no longer stand aloof and watch my people languish in backward­ness, ill-education and the devas­tating effect of poor leadership.”

“If you check the statistics” he said, “Zamfara is the state with about the worst performance record in the WAEC, NECO and JAMB league table. And it is not because the people are the poor­est in the land and not because the youths are not educationally endowed; rather it is because the past and present administrations had failed to lead the people on the right path of progressive leadership.” He told journalists in Abuja that he had come to rescue the state from apparent slumber and ensure that Zamfara takes its rightful place in the comity of Nigerian states.

Still young at 50, Sagir Hamidu decided to forsake his lucrative employment to go and help his people, believing that after four years of laying a new foundation for the state, he has all it takes to turn it around. At his FAMAK nursery and primary school office in the heart of Asokoro district in Abuja, which happens to be one of the best institutions for bringing up young kids from that difficult foundation laying stage of de­velopment, Sagir Hamidu gave a graphic account of his plans to take Zamfara out of poverty and bring the state to a high level of educational uplift. His campaign team is all set to spread his three- point agenda to voters in the state, which should see him move into Government House, Gusau, on May 29, 2015.

His three-point Agenda

EDUCATION.

“Within the first 100 days of my administration in Zamfara State, I will declare a state of emergency in the education sector. We must uproot the de­mon, holding our young people backward educationally. In short, the main thrust of my leader­ship is education, education and education. There are no two ways about it. We must exorcise anything holding us back,” he said.

Alhaji Sagir Hamidu is already an accomplished educationist, so that he is well qualified to lead the drive and if it means that ev­ery money generated in Zamfara State will be ploughed back into education, he is ready to deploy it into educating his people. If you go to FAMAK, a high brow nursery and primary school in Asokoro, Abuja, there is no other evidence required to prove that he can achieve his ambition in setting a new standard of educa­tion in Zamfara State, which is at the moment educationally backward.

“By the time I finish with education in the state, Nigeria, Africa and the world at large will know that it can be done success­fully.”

Quoting from the former Brit­ish Prime Minister, Tony Blai, who made education the centre piece of his education policy during the Labour Party years in Britain, he said:

“Our top priority was, is and always will be education, educa­tion, education. To overcome decades of neglect and make (Zamfara) a learning society, developing the talents and raising the ambitions of all our young people. At a good school, children gain the basic tools for life and work. But they ought also to learn the joy of life: the exhilaration of music, the excite­ment of sport, the beauty of art, the magic of science. And they learn the value of life: What it is to be responsible citizens, who give something back to their community.”

YOUTH EMPOWERMENT

“The second agenda I will pursue in Zamfara, as governor, Insha Allah from May 2015, is to create empowerment options for the youth through skill acquisi­tion.

It should be remembered that the Sagir Foundation, a non­governmental organisation was already set up for some years now helping young people to find a foothold in their lives with a view to empowering them, particularly via skill acquisition and microfinance. With him in Government House, Gusau, the possibilities for more achieve­ment will be great for the people. He has learnt from the Tunisian experience.

“I intend to learn from ‘the fate of Tunisian vegetable seller Mohamed Bouazizi’ and from other examples across the world where youth unemployment has been successfully tackled. Early in 2011, he (Mohamed Bouazizi) torched himself and sparked a revolution.”

The gubernatorial aspirant said: “I will revise the trend where government drives away small business people, sell­ing their wares on the street. They may constitute nuisance but I will encourage them to grow their business by creating microfinance support for them and watch them grow. That will reduce youth unemployment crisis currently ravaging Zamfara State thereby creating recruit­ment avenue for Boko Haram.

AGRICULTURE

The third plank of his mani­festo will be rooted in agricul­ture. “My administration will move heavily into mechanised farming, dry season farming and training of farmers to extend the value chain and boost food production. Zamfara communi­ties are an agrarian society and the government that I will head will heavily invest to ensure that there is enough food for all and also export to other states in the country and export abroad to improve the political economy of the state.”

“The above three-point agenda of my government, if elected next year, will also be mind­ful of the state of health of the citizenry. I have noticed that the poor health situation during my extensive tours around the state is a direct cause of the extreme poverty in the state. In some cases, there is lack of food to sustain the poorest of the poor. The maxim that health is wealth will be key philosophy of the administration, so that by keep­ing the population healthy we shall be killing two birds with one stone.

“Diagnostic equipment throughout the state hospitals will be upgraded while emphasis on primary health care will be a top priority. Our aim will also be to reduce the high incidence of child mortality whose rate in the state is too high for comfort.”

According to sources, Hamidu, who is highly connected to PDP hierarchy, has been busy setting up structures across the state to enable him actualise his gover­norship aspiration.

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