Kano State Government

Say: “Oh Allah!, Lord of Power (and Rule),You give Power to whom You please, and You strip off Power from whom You please;

You endow with honour that You please. And You bring low whom You please; In your hand is all-Good. Verily, You have power over all things.” (HQ 3:26)

These verses truly exemplify the way in which we came into power. In His everlasting wisdom, Allah, the most High, has chosen you and me and entrusted the leadership of the entire populace of Kano State on us.

Leadership is undoubtedly a very heavy responsibility and one upon which we will all be called to account on the Day of Judgment. Let us remember that it is the realisation of having to account before Allah, the most High, on this Day that led earlier leaders like Khalifa Umar (RA) to fear that he would be asked not only about his subjects that went to bed hungry, but also about animals within his territory that went without food, or were pricked by thorns on the streets. We must not be in any doubt that the divine standards by which we will be judged are less than those for other leaders in space and time.

Your legislative positions are heavy burdens of trust rather that crowning glories of elections contested and won. To abuse this trust is to be held in infamy forever. Our noble Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is reported to have said:

“Allah will not entrust the affairs of people with one of his servants and he (the servant) dies deceiving them except that Allah forbids paradise for him ” (Muslim)

One of the ironies of leadership is that, as part of this trust, we must place a higher premium on doing the right thing than on doing things right. In other words, we must never always base our decisions on our convenience or on the popular opinion of the day. It is for this reason that I urge you to join me on the drawing board to map out for our dear State a path that is tenable and realistic, and that can move it to greater heights and prosperity.

Today, the people of Kano State are confident that we will ease their hardships. They are also hopeful that our State will once again take the path of growth. We must not fail them. We must never forget that each one of us present here today has, at one time or the other made a promise to his constituents for a change for the better. Each one of us is therefore an agent of change. On its part, Change by its very character, requires sacrifice, courage, resolve, staying focused and never allowing oneself to be swayed by expediency.

Thus as leaders, we must look beyond today and tomorrow. We must think of the day after tomorrow if we are to contribute in building a society in which future generations can live and prosper.

Let us remember the words of Allah, the Most High, in which he describes the people of Prophet Musa (AS):

They said: “We have had (nothing but) trouble, both before and after you came to us.” He said: “It may be that your Lord will destroy your enemy and make you inheritors in the earth; so that He may see how you act.” (HQ 7:129)

The lesson in this verse is clear: It is so easy to condemn other leaders. But, it is very difficult to establish justice and ensure good governance. While we remain grateful to Allah, the most High, for our success in the elections, we must never be deceived into thinking that this popularity in unconditional. Rather, we should realize that it is inevitably tied to what we are able to deliver to our people.

Let us be under no illusion about the challenges that lie ahead. We are living in a country where greed, corruption, indiscipline, injustice and selfishness have become the order of the day.

The callings of leadership are in the immense majority daunting. Decisions that you take today could endure and continue to affect the lives of our people far beyond our tenure and perhaps even in more profound ways than could possibly be imagined today. Also, in proportion as leaders delight in tyranny, deception and abuse of public funds will their people be uncooperative, undisciplined and contemptuous of law and order. You therefore owe a duty to our people to conduct yourselves and the affairs of the assembly in a manner that shall please Allah, our creator, in whose name you all swore to dedicate and apply yourselves to the service of our dear State.

Working together with you as a team, my vision is to turn things around so that Kano State can become a model State leading other States of the Federation in leadership, good governance, peaceful co-existence amongst all citizens, rapidly expanding commercial and industrial activities, equitable distribution of resources and sustainable socio-economic development.

We must work hard to bring out the best from our people by offering honest and transparent leadership at all levels, endeavouring to provide our citizens with the basic necessities of life, developing their moral and intellectual capabilities and creating a conducive environment where prosperity, happiness and justice can reign.

In order to achieve this, I urge all of you to align with me to ensure that we realize the following: -

Offer exemplary leadership in line with the dictates of the Shari’ah that will move the entire populace in the right direction.
Create an enabling environment in which our citizens can secure the basic necessities of life such as food, water, security and health without which they will be indisposed to develop themselves and contribute meaningfully to their societies.
Re-orient our citizens to make them disciplined, hard working and committed to the progress of their communities, and impart in them qualitative education and training that will help them to become responsible and productive members of their societies.
Nurture a conducive environment with the necessary infrastructural facilities that would promote commerce, industry and other economic activities thereby making it possible for our citizens to enhance their prosperity, bringing about sustainable socio-economic development for the entire society.

It is this vision that has led me, in my speeches before and after resumption of office, to commit the Government to good leadership, agriculture, water supply, security, health, societal re-orientation, education, women and youth development, commerce and industry, and infrastructural development. We believe that these priorities are very much in line with the cardinal responsibility of an Islamic government to take care of the affairs of its citizens by protecting their lives, religion, wealth, honour, integrity, sense and intellect.

In our efforts to ensure that our vision is realized, we have realized the need to place a heavy premium on human development. Over the years, the human aspect of development was grossly neglected and infrastructural development was given due prominence. The result is a society that is gradually drifting into illiteracy, aimlessness, immorality, and corruption amidst white elephant projects that do little to improve the lives of the people.

Such is currently the true picture of the State that is my and your destiny to lead. As leaders we must never falter. We must stand up to the challenges of destiny and wok hard to rejuvenate and re-orient our people and instill in them a sense of mission and moral purpose.

The calls of leadership are virtually endless and they will of course be the subjects of a lot of our discussions during this retreat and in particular today when we will be concentrating on the philosophical dimension. However, I find it necessary to mention a few:

Vision and Initiative: We must all have a very clear and sharp vision of what we would want to do for our State during our tenure. We must at the same time develop and implement the necessary initiatives and strategies that will get us there.

Commitment and Energy: Our dedication and commitment towards the actualization of our vision must be viewed as sacrifices of compatriots. No matter the machinations of detractors, we must remain resolute and determined to succeed insha-Allah. We must also be prepared to put all our energies towards the accomplishment of our set objectives.

Honesty and Trustworthiness: The entire resources of our State are placed under our trust. We must be conscious of this in all our dealings. We must never betray this trust. We must judiciously use the resources of our dear State for the betterment of our people. We must never squander these resources or divert them for personal enrichment.

Diplomacy, Justice and Exemplary Leadership: We are today the leaders all the people including those who did not vote for us or did not vote at all. We must never allow ourselves to think or act otherwise. We must therefore provide leadership and do good to all manner of people regardless of political preference or affiliation. We must deal with justice. We must serve every citizen of our State.

Teamwork: My dear legislators I urge you to endorse the spirit of teamwork so that together we can move our State forward. We must remember that the lack of cooperation of one member could hamper the steady progress of our State.

Fear of Allah and Accountability: We must be constantly conscious of Allah, the All Knowing, and we must be fearful of the grave consequences of betraying the trust Allah placed upon our shoulders.

As I stand before you I recognize that just as you the honourable legislators must possess the requisite leadership qualities, the administration too must have the requisite qualities in order to succeed. Although I am confident that we would have time to discuss these requirements extensively during this retreat, I find it necessary to single out a few of the salient characteristics that the administration is determined to possess:-

It must keep closely in touch with the people.
It must run an open, accessible and responsive government.
It must listen and accommodate a wide range of views.
It must be at the forefront of upholding the Islamic beliefs and values of our society.
It must be transparent and accountable.
It must be efficient.
It must be consultative and consensus oriented.
It must be seen to be just in all that it does.

I urge you all to join with me to make a collective resolve to adopt a style of leadership through which the aforementioned objectives can be actualized. I request you to do this because I firmly believe that the two arms of government, right from the beginning, must be seen to imbibe good leadership practices.

It is common knowledge that Kano State is the most populous State in the Federation. Yet the financial resources currently available to us are grossly inadequate to carter for our development needs. We must therefore choose our projects in a way that we can make an impact and leave a mark, which successive governments can continue to build upon.

On closing, permit to say that inspiration for this retreat came from the prospects of the benefits that we can derive by coming together to discuss the weighty responsibility that Allah, the Most High, has shouldered upon us, analyze the daunting challenges confronting us, brainstorm on the strategies and programmes that we need to pursue in order to realize our vision, and agree on a collective resolve to lead Kano State by doing what is and necessary and not what is deemed politically expedient or popular. When I held a similar retreat earlier with my team, we resolved that this Government will adopt fiscal discipline and be realistic with our budget. I appeal to each of you to agree that we should never demand for, or make project pronouncements we have not provided for in the budget. I also hope that the retreat will provide us with an uninterrupted opportunity to interact yet more closely with each other.

We are lucky to have as facilitators for this retreat a group of experts with wide ranging expertise on the various areas we would be discussing. These include resource persons from the National Islamic Centre, Zaria, a few members of the defunct Transition Committee and other experts from both within and outside Government that we have invited to assist us. I would like to express our sincere gratitude to all of them. I also want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the Hon. Speaker of the House for the keen interest he continued to show in this retreat.

I pray that Allah, the Most High, will bless this gathering, guide us in our deliberations, cement our hearts together for the formidable tasks ahead of us, steer the entire government of our dear State in the right direction and bless our efforts with success.