By Abu Shekara
After the governorship election of 2023 in Sokoto State, which the political party I supported and under whose administration I was serving at the time lost, I made a pledge to cease making public comments on politics and governance in the state.
I had then advanced the reasons for my decision, which were (and still are) that there was nothing more to say and that my perspective on politics and governance tended to be divergent from the belief in so many quarters across all political camps, that a discussion would always turn into acrimony.
Politics, I had also realised, was too rough for a simple, naive journalist as myself.I have, since then, by and large, resisted the temptation to speak on those matters, as they affect my state and instead, engaged in commenting on national issues and producing drafts for the views of other people strictly as business, whether or not, what I write agrees with my personal opinion. My posture has since the 2023 remained that of hoping the fears for which I opposed the emergence of the current administration in my state would be proved unfounded. As to whether my reservations have been proved wrong, is subject to the judgement of all.
I am however now constrained to break my vow and venture an opinion, which is not necessarily on how the state is governed but concerning a development that poses a serious threat to the level of politics in Sokoto State. My task is again made more difficult by the subject of my intervention, a personality I had held in high esteem as a principled individual, a symbol of purposeful and progressive politics. I am nonetheless compelled to join issues with him by the obligation to respond to what I consider to be a careless misrepresentation of the state certain affairs, in which I was a central stakeholder, as one-time Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning in the state service.
The matter of concern to me is the criticism by the former Minister of Water Resources and past Deputy Governor of Sokoto State, Mukhtari Shagari of the budget of Sokoto State under the administration of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal. Shagari, who was speaking at the People’s Budget forum for 2024, made comments to the effect that the state’s budget in the previous administration were lacking in transparency and accountability.
As a prominent figure in the governance of the state within the period in reference, the former Deputy Governor would certainly know the truth in my response for, even if in politics there are no permanent friends, facts will remain unshakable and constant. And ironically, the very public function at which he made his utterances was actually carried out for the first time in Sokoto State in 2019, prior to the presentation of the Budget by the administration he was targeting for attack.People’s Budget is an integral requirement of the States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability project (SIFTAS), a tool for ensuring the best global practices in public sector fiscal policy implementation.
Strict adherence to these standards conferred on Sokoto State in 2020, the World Bank award of the Best State in Nigeria in SIFTAS, with a grant of N8 billion, which the then Minister of Finance personally presented to the Governor at Government House Sokoto. That was followed in 2022 when Sokoto again secured three awards of excellence from the World Bank to make it the best performing state in Nigeria for “diligent implementation of the World Bank-assisted States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability Project.”In 2019/2020, Sokoto State under Aminu Waziri Tambuwal became one of the few states in the country to migrate to the International Public Sector Accounting Systems (IPSAS) a program for instilling accountability as a systemic element of governments budget implementation. Tremendous effort and resources were devoted to the training of the state’s budget finance and revenue personnel on the execution of the system and Tambuwal presented to the State Legislature, an IPSAS compliant 2020 Budget.The fiscal policy profile of Sokoto State since 2020, barely a year into Tambuwal’s second tenure had become a model for other states to emulate. This fact was acknowledged by national and global agencies like the World Bank and Federal Ministry of Finance in their widely published assessments of states in various induces of performance. And Mukhtari Shagari was an attendant of a number of the events at which these high rankings were officially declared and formally applauded.It is therefore, exigent to express regret at the situation, in which a respected personality such as the former Minister, assumes postures that are in clear defiance of documented truth, even if due to the inducement of partisan sentiment. For, he was, indeed, among politicians, who were held in high regard as an epitome of principle and maturity and it would be a tragedy, if the accomplishment and role model are lost on the alter of political expediency.
The expected role of elder politicians in government, regardless of which political party is in power, is to serve as the voices of sanity and reason, which can only be discharged with composure and not giving in to extreme partisan resentments. Hence, Mukhtari Shagari owes a duty to the Sokoto to guide the government of his new party more towards constructive engagement with all political camps in the state in the interest of service to the people, rather than joining the bandwagon of partisan hostility at the expense of peace and good governance.Abu Shekarawas Permanent Secretary,Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Sokoto State.
