April: A month of renewal

The month of April is always a period of renewal in most of the places I had lived. Here in Abuja, where I live now, the renewal is reflected in a lot of frenetic activities. This is evident whether one lives in the inner city or out there in the outskirt towns. Government offices and businesses were getting ready to close for the inevitable long Easter break. Schools have closed and there were boisterous youngsters all over the place. Markets were bustling with activities and so were the motor parks with Abuja sojourners running here and there.

But it was quiet on Good Friday when I took off from Abuja to spend a few days in Kuru, Plateau State. I had taken my favourite route to Jos from Abuja, not the one that goes through Keffi, but the one that is from Dutsen Alhaji settlement, through Abaji to Jere junction, and turning right to run the 50 or so kilometres to touch the Kwoi junction on the Kachia-Kaduna road. At the junction one had to take the right turn and drive the few kilometres to Kwoi Gate from where the road again takes off to Kafanchan and Kagoro. Just out of Kagoro there is a turn to the right which would take one to Manchok, then to Vom and finally to Kuru.

It was a convivial day to travel as the rains that fell on Abuja a day earlier had brought along a cooler weather. Driving out one realized that the rains seem to have covered parts far beyond Abuja. Throughout the journey to Kuru the sky was overcast, the air was light and cooler. And getting deeper into southern parts of Kaduna one could see farmers, busy out in the fields, putting finishing touches to their planting schedules.

The road is fairly good though poorly maintained in the last few years just like many of the roads out of Abuja. There are some intermittent very bad portions but they could be tolerated. The population on this route is fairly sparse though could get denser after Kwoi. However motor vehicular traffic is always much less than what finds on the Keffi route. At least there is an absence of heavy-duty vehicles.

One of the main compensations of taking this route is the assurance of traversing over a land of great natural beauty particularly after Kwoi to the approach into Kafanchan and Kagoro axis. But the spectacular view of even more picturesque surroundings would have to wait till one reaches Manchok to start the 40 kilometres or so climb to Vom meandering through those cadaverous rocks. The road from Manchok to Vom, now still in excellent conditions, must have costed a fortune for the Federal Government to build, considering the large number of heavy rocks that had to be broken. But the stiff cost pales into insignificance when one considers the shorter distance one covers to Jos from Kagoro and Kafanchan and the fact that this richly-endowed area, which could be a source of revenue for tourism, is finally open.

Most travellers still shun travelling through this portion of Southern Kaduna due to the crisis that had engulfed the region over the years giving rise to ethnic militia who imposed jungle justice at will on hapless commuters. Desperate measures such as a twentyfour hour curfew had been imposed by the government in many parts of the area. Today, however, running through this place one could see that measures taken by the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufa’I, have succeeded to stabilize the situation. Nasir El-Rufa’i has a reputation of thinking and acting of the box in all the challenging public offices he held, which had helped to produce some spectacular results for the nation.

But he must be having a rough time dealing with this complex crisis that had been left to fester for close to 30 years. Many of us that have to travel through the southern part of Kaduna to reach our destinations must wish the governor well, to overcome this difficult situation. The warring groups would have to learn to tolerate and live with each other to reap the rewards that could accrue when this land of great scenic beauty is developed to its full potential. The peace that seemed to pervade over southern Kaduna extended up to Jos and beyond. It could probably be one of the most peaceful Easter holiday celebrated in recent years.

Abuja, which I returned to from my Kuru trip, had evidently also a peaceful Easter. We looked forward to a quiet week and as Wednesday arrived it was just another humdrum day. The only excitement in the media horizon was the drama that was expected to be enacted at noon in a faraway parliament in London where Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May would be asking for a vote on her wish to have a general election on 8th June. At noon I was already engrossed in following the debate unfolding in the UK House of Commons being carried live on Sky channel when someone alerted me that feelers from the Presidential Villa indicated that something akin to an earthquake was occurring there. When I checked, I found that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and the Director-General of Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) have been suspended from office.

The SGF had some four months ago been indicted by the Shehu Sani- led Senate Ad hoc committee investigating the humanitarian crisis in the North-East. He had been accused for using his position as Chairman of the Presidential Initiative on the North East, to hand out a hefty contract to companies in which he had interest. The case of the DG NIA, on the other hand, had played out openly in the media recently, when the EFCC seized N15 billion in a residential apartment at Osborne Towers in Ikoyi, Lagos. The DG had claimed that the humongous sums of money belonged to his agency. Following their suspension a three-man committee headed by the VicePresident was to investigate and hand in a report to the President in two weeks.

While we awaited the report, one could hazard some preliminary comments particularly as it affects the SGF, whom ab initio many had misgivings about his suitability for the post. Many opine that the office of the SGF is too central, too important in the scheme of things, to be left to amateurs. It is the engine room of the government, the clearing house, the sounding board of policies and the secretariat for all major meetings, whether it is for the cabinet or the security chiefs. It is also the most convenient link with all the ministries and parastatals as well as all states and local governments of the federation. In effect it is the one-stop-shop of the government. That is why it is officially referred to as “The Presidency”.

The office of the SGF is composed of some six or so departments each headed by a Permanent Secretary. The office is also home to eighteen parastatals and commissions and many other ad hoc committees created by the President. That is why anyone saddled with running this office must be a seasoned bureaucrat (gogaggen ma’aikaci), preferably someone already burnished in the federal bureaucracy. It is not the kind of job for the boys or for any enthusiastic card carrying member of the party. To appoint anyone less qualified and endowed would be a great disservice, not only to the government of the day itself, but to the nation at large. We shall return to this subject, when the high-powered committee finishes its assignment.