By Abubakar Aliyu Bawa
James Thurber, an American author sums it up when he said, quite rightly so that, “nowadays men lead lives of noisy desperation”. And in the midst of rising tide of such desperation such men get blind to the obvious, and hence blind also to their blindness, apologies to Daniel Kahneman a world famous psychologist.
These are some of the thoughts that readily come to my mind as a proud citizen of Yobe state when l attempt to ponder on the rationale behind the viral video of decay in the over five decades old Fika Government Secondary School.
If the shadowed characters behind that smear campaign are tutored in the rudiments of faith, it would have sufficed to simply tell them no soul bears the sin of another soul. In their foolishness induced naivety they assume governor Mala Buni bears responsibility for all failures that predate his administration. This is justice stood on its head!
The school in question, and indeed many more that were inherited from the old Borno state were neglected and never attended to by successive regimes. This is not two years problem, more so, two years dotted by revolutionary deliveries of multi sectors development legacies never before seen in Yobe state.
He is responsible, of course to the extent he is not committed to addressing the rot bequeathed him by the failures of preceding regimes. Herein lies the crux of the matter. What has governor Buni done to reshape the precarious destiny of education in Your state?
Ironically, the education sector remains the topmost priority of the Mala Buni led Yobe state government. Few minutes after ascending the throne of governance, he declared a state of emergency on basic and secondary education in the state. Could there have been a more vicious proclamation than this to underscore the importance he attaches to sector?
To further demonstrate his commitment to advancing the state of education, a summit was organised to map out areas for immediate, intermediate and long term intervention. This entails collective ownership of both the problems and their solutions through middle of the road approach such that worthy workable ideas are aggregated to fix all identified rots that abound in the sector. And by segmenting the application of solutions to time frames to suit resource and execution conveniences it means the likes of GSS Fika would be seen in their deplorable condition for some time while much more achievements that far outweigh the decay awaiting attention are delivered in concrete terms. Are there such deliveries that are sure proof that the decays unattended to are just a matter of time?
A roll call of legacies bequeathed so far in the sector by the Buni led government betrays the mischievous motive of those conscienceless enemies of our beloved state that see no evil in judging the people centred government by a development decay that predates the government, and which has been pencilled down for action.
To the glory of God, over 200 schools have so far enjoyed major interventions and rehabilitation, six (6) new Model schools in Damaturu, Gashua, Potiskum, Geidam, Nguru and Buni Yadi were established and constructed. Seven (7) new Mega schools in Potiskum (2), Damaturu, Gashua, Nguru, Geidam and Buni Yadi were also established and constructed, all in effort to provide conducive atmosphere for teaching and learning.
The Buni administration procured and distributed over N1billion worth of text books, laboratory equipment and chemicals.
Similarly, classroom and office furniture worth over N1billion were procured and distributed to schools across the state , just as over 10,000 teachers have been trained and retrained to enhance manpower requirements of the schools.
How on earth would all these be obscure to the perception of these adversaries of the people who find pleasure in smear campaign against the government for mysterious reasons?
How come the stack realities of the state escape their selective perceptions in terms of lean financial resources and heavy devastation visited on it by protracted insurgency that prioritised destruction of education facilities?
How come it escaped them that this administration has rehabilitated many schools destroyed by the insurgency? The character behind the post refused to see these laudable achievements simply because by default they are bereft of good conscience. As the saying goes, every container leaks only its content.
For the avoidance of doubts, I learned on good authority that the school in question Fika Government Secondary School has already been captured for total rehabilitation. Government is currently sourcing funds to work on over 10 schools including Fika GSS.
Let it be noted that no Government has the capacity to rehabilitate every school structure in two years.
With his limitless and undiluted passion for educational development, Governor Mai Mala Buni will proudly make Yobe state an educationally advanced state, In sha Allah to the utter disappointment of these enemies of the state. It said that, we shouldn’t be great to begin, we should rather begin to be great.
The greatest consolation in the face of this desperate smear campaign is the unyielding fate of the people in the government. This is all that matters. And for the antic of the traducers, we will continue to see it as it is,
“…a tale
Told by an idiot,
Full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing”.
Bawa can be reached on aabawa24@gmail.com.
