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![[OPINION] Gov Uba Sani: The Real Scale of An Anniversary - Francis Damina](/media/k2/items/cache/5c94547f41ab627d51387e3db5954f66_XL.jpg)
Thursday 29th May, Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State marked two years in office. Commentators, mostly from the opposition, seized the moment to measure his progress on egregious and apocryphal scales. They ended up analyzing data of antipathy all aimed at increasing their eligibility in their paymasters' sights. Some even arrogantly went as far as awarding him marks as if they are the custodians of the marking scheme at the Kennedy School. They gauged him based on the hospitals, roads and bridges he has built. And not on the scale that political scientist are agreed on.
While the master storyteller - Chinua Achebe, said: " Proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten", in philosophy, we are agreed that disagreement is the major tool with which we carry out our trade. This involves a whole lot of critical thinking that permits methodic doubt and denial of conclusions reached by scholars and commentators. This is why we hardly ply popular roads especially if tarred by insular scholars or contractors. For us, questions are more important than answers. Again, we disagree and disagree so we can get to the facts. And facts for us, are for the sacristy.
While I am not unaware of governor Sani's achievements on infrastructure development (rural transformation and urban renewal: with attention to areas inhabited by the urban poor), human capital development (construction, rehabilitation and equipping of schools and hospitals, thereby enhancing access to schools and hospitals for the poor, vulnerable and underserved, tackling the perennial problem of out-of-school children), as well as the revitalization of the agricultural sector and social interventions (soft loans to SMEs, farmers, and provision of agricultural inputs), my argument is that, His Excellency's achievement should be principally seen in the intangibles.
Self-preservation has been, even from earliest scholars, the most important value in society. Little wonder, the security of lives and properties is seen by our constitution as the primary responsibility of government. And this is where I believe governor Uba Sani made his highest score through his Kaduna Peace Model that has brought considerable peace and security of lives and properties across the state. This model involves the kinetic and otherwise. It is a participatory approach that everyone is brought onboard: the National Security Adviser, the Defence Headquarters, paramilitary agencies, traditional institutions, youth groups and faith -based traditions. And this is the beauty of democracy.
But for the sake of those little minds who believe that the dividend of democracy lies in infrastructures, there is need to take them on a tour through the baptistery of the great ancestors of political science. And it is important to ask if they have not come across the magnus opus of the great Thomas Hobbes - Leviathan, published in 1651? In it, he articulated a political philosophy that view government primarily as a device"for ensuring collective security." According to Hobbes, "Political authority is justified by a hypothetical social contract among the many that vests in a sovereign the responsibility for the safety and well-being of all."
While John Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Immanuel Kant, among many others, were to emphasize on the significance of submitting to a sovereign in return for physical safety and a modicum of well-being, here on our home soil, the great Dr. Matthew Hassan Kukah, not departing from that path and tradition, argues that "true democracy must be in defence of human life, freedom and dignity." Interestingly, none of these scholars from antiquity mentioned any infrastructure in relation to democracy. For them, freedom is at the heart of it.
Infact, few years ago, the great Bishop said: "The best structures in Germany were built by Hitler. The best structures in South Africa were built under apartheid. The best structures in Nigeria were built by the military. Yet, people were not happy because they weren't free. Freedom is at the heart of democracy."
Though, as I have said, governor Uba Sani has done a lot on infrastructure and human capital development, agriculture, etcetera, his highest score is in the intangible- that is, in restoring our social contract where we replace our uncritical liberty with submission as insurance against war. Through his style of governance, he has doused the tension and distrust that has once divided Kaduna State along ethnic and religious lines. This is indeed a prayer answered because, what the citizenry expect from government, is a free and conducive environment where they can pursue their dreams and aspirations. Freedom from kidnappers; freedom from all forms of discrimination, tensions and dictatorship by illiberal democrats.
Only recently, my mother said to me: "We are not asking government to give us skyscrapers; we just want to live in peace so we can go to our farms and engage in what brings food to our tables." Yes, what shall it profit you to have all the infrastructures and yet, continue to live in insecurity and in danger of losing your life without any provocation? This is why I am convinced that those who measure governance in Zango Kataf, Kachia, Chikun, Kajuru, Birnin Gwari and Kajuru local governments that were once security -prone, have the chance of editing their outdated marking schemes. Otherwise, their diagnosis of good governance would only amount to the search for a black cat in a dark room.
Yet, in all these, Historians will never forget: that it was during President Bola Tinubu and Governor Uba Sani that a Federal Medical Center, and a Federal University, were 'abnormally' approved in Southern Kaduna even without legislative bills.
This is because, for governor Uba Sani, like his predecessor, the late Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa of blessed memory, "Our State is at the heartland of the northern parts of this country, in every sense of history and culture, economically and politically. But we do not belong to the retrograde north of feudalists, slave-holders, crooks, parasites and foreign agents. We are of the cultured north of democracy, liberation and social progress for all the people of Nigeria."
Damina, who is SSA, Research and Documentation, to Gov. Uba Sani of Kaduna State, can be reached via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.