Niger State, Governor Bello And His Entrepreneurship System Of Governance

In every political dispensation the government in power often formulates or operates on one form of idealization of the other. For example President Buhari is known for transparency, accountability and discipline, these are precepts of his political trust. Narrowing one’s mind to Niger State since 1999, we have had three governors beginning with Engineer A.A. Kure who adopted Islamic jurisprudence as guiding order and of course we witnessed the introduction of Sharia Law in the state.

After Kure, came Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu with his bureaucratic and socialist ideology via the adoption of the Servant Leadership System of governance and with it came the establishment Jama’a Forum where the masses participated in their own governance through quality interaction and contribution of ideas to their leaders. And of course, the Ward Development Project was another initiative towards entrenching the vision of the servant leadership objectives.

Governor Abubakar Sani Bello is an entrepreneur and is certainly bringing to the fore his capitalistic ideas of administration which in itself is a positive thing. If properly managed, capitalism could open doors for favourable competition amongst investors which could lead to the emergence of a robust public-private sector collaborations that would definitely boost the economy and generate employment for the teeming youths.

A keen observer may have noticed the element of capitalism being introduced into governance already. One of the fundamental principles of an entrepreneur is cutting down risks or liabilities thereby creating room for quality maximization of available resources for the sustainability of the assets.

The governor has done this through the cutting of liability by reducing the number of ministries and agencies in the state most who end up duplicating each other’s functions. The reduction of ministries also means the reduction of commissioners in the state which automatically implies reduction in government’s expenditure because it would no longer cater for non-performing agencies of government because they no longer exist. This action also implies that the budget would be tighter and available resources would be employed to more cogent developmental issues in the state such as Education, Agriculture, Employment generation etc.

Governor Bello’s slow decision in announcing or creating his Executive Council may not be unconnected with the need for caution and prudence in putting together a team that would be totally committed to the development of the state. Every business requires the best brains to succeed, so also is the case with governance, the best brains are needed to form the team that would transform the state. Planning and structuring is fundamental to the functionality of any organization and it is quite clear by the governor’s disposition that he is trying to create an organizational frame work for the state which requires quality interaction and consultation with the relevant stake holders.

The merging of ministries and agencies is a definite way of reducing government cost and enhancing metallic productivity in governance. The governor’s action is a manifestation of his entrepreneurship expertise gathered from his private business exploits in the past. His business acumen is a plus in governance because for once we have governor who appreciates the norm of value for money.

In other words, we have a governor who will effectively manage our resources and maximise it for the economic development of the state. Much as the governor’s restructuring portends good omen for the state, caution needs to emphasis especially as regards the people he is going to employ to help him manage the state, the commissioners. We hope and pray he does not bring on board people who will end up mortgaging our state like others have done in the past.

Like a Senior Colleague, Public diarist and fire spitting Essayist, Gimba Kakanda will say, May God Save Us From Us !.

Fodio, Wrote in from Minna, Niger State.
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