EVERY BORNO PERSON HAS A STAKE IN OUR GOVT -INFO COMMISSIONER
Borno State Commissioner for Information, Inuwa Bwala, has declared that the Boko Haram crisis has caused a set-back to the state even as he expressed the willingness of the state government to embrace meaningful ideas that could move the state forward.
Inuwa had an interaction with some journalists including Daily Sun… Excerpts:
Why constitution of cabinet was delayed
What is worth doing at all is worth doing well. It does not matter how long it takes for you to do it. Governor Kashim Shettima took his time to under-study the human resources available in the state in all fields to select his commissioners. People outside may think that it took the governor too long to do it, but for those of us who understands what he wanted to do and for people who know the terrain, for those who appreciate the content of the current executive council, they will agree with me that the governor has done a very thorough job.
For the first time we have a cabinet chosen based more on merit. We have a cabinet carefully selected with tested hands that cut across all fields of human endeavours. Given the caliber of personality in this cabinet, one can say that it is the best cabinet we ever had in this state since its creation.
Although, expectations are very high, it is left for us to meet up the expectations of our people by putting our heads together. We should start building bridges of friendship with those who are passive and uncooperative with the government before, those who have been hostile to the government. It is a serious business, politics is over, we are looking ahead to draw all available human resources around us to build a Borno State of our dream. That is the primary assignment we are going to face now.
Kashim's 100 days promise
It is very realistic! What the governor said is that, in the first 100 days of his office, people may have begin to notice the trend that is going to be the hallmark of his government. The trend is such that, we would start having taps running in areas that hitherto were not enjoying it. We would start noticing certain structural and curriculum changes in our education system.
You would begin to notice that you find drugs in clinics and hospitals where there were none. I am happy that even without a cabinet, using committees and inputs of technocrats and professionals around him, the situation is gradually changing. If anything hampered the achievement of what he promised to deliver in 100 days, it is the security situation we are experiencing in the state. Thank God the situation is gradually returning to normal.
The governor's marching order
The mood of the governor when he had inaugural meeting with us was that of somebody who has the sole target of achieving and his sole agenda is the development of Borno State. He did not hold back his feeling about what he intends to achieve as far as the development of this state is concerned.
His mood is that he wants to lead a team in which he is only a premiere centre not as a leader. He has promised to be a leader servant, he has promised to give us a free hand to operate as members of his executive. He has promised to give us listening ears to whatever problems we may have. One thing he said he would not be comfortable with is sycophancy and corruption.
Government for everybody
It does not matter what one's political inclination is, for as long as you are indigene of Borno State or a citizen of Nigeria with the requisite intellectual and physical capacity to bring in development, we are ready to work with you. All we are targeted at is the human resources available to this state irrespective of which political party one belongs. We are reaching out not only to the opposition, we are reaching out to those who have been passive, uncooperative or hostile to the government. We have talents that are waiting to be tapped, but nobody ever cared to reach out to them. We are ready to do that.
I am the principal spokesperson to the government of Borno State, as the Commissioner of Information, I am automatically the arrow-head of the campaigns to reach out to people who hitherto are not cooperating, who hitherto were passive, who hitherto were hostile to the government. If the approach has been combative before, given the circumstances we found ourselves then, today, it would be persuasive. We feel everybody has something to contribute to the development of this state.
We have made up our minds that we are going to work for the development of Borno State. So, we have to put away certain position that we have adopted before. One of which is the combative approach to image-making where you return fire-for-fire. It may not be necessary given the circumstance we found ourselves.
If we hope to reach out and if we hope to convince people and persuade them to come and join us, we cannot continue to remain combative except where it becomes absolutely necessary. Any response is dictated by the circumstance you found yourself. But for now, we are persuading, we are asking everybody to come and join hands with us so that together we can build Borno State of our dreams, of the dreams of our children and our children's children.