… COMMISSIONER FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT
In the Political landscape of Kaduna State, there are individuals who have through sheer hard work and dedication to making life better for their citizens deployed selflessness in serving others, one of them is Ja’afaru Ibrahim Sani, the States Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.
Jaafaru Ibrahim Sani, has today accomplished many things from being a Personnel Manager, Director, Perm Secretary, Commissioner for Education and now Local Government. He is one of the lucky few that have worked with El-Rufai since the Inception of this administration. It was a call to duty and Ja’afaru has diligently put his best.
CityPeople reliably gathered that because of his dedication to duty and reforms, Governor El-Rufai, reappointed him Commissioner for Local Government after serving as Commissioner for Education. This second tenure to Head the Local Government was in order to sanitize it, and turn the fortunes of the Local Government for the better.
Some months back, the Kaduna State government disbursed N152.4 million to all 23 Local Government Area’s as Fiscal Incentives, under the Local Government Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (LFTAS) Programme. Jaafaru said the programme is a Kaduna State Initiative, as it believes in good governance and transparency in the management of public funds, to rebuild broken down systems and generate effective public service delivery.
CityPeople learnt that parameters used in disbursing the money to the Local Government were such as openness of the Local Government’s Financial reporting, adherence to the implementation of reform programmes as well as the adoption of best practices in the management of resources. The 23 Local Government’s were evaluated and analyzed by officials of the Planning and Budget Commission, the Ministry for Local Government and that of Finance.
In order to be seen to be fair and transparent the Ministry under Ja’afaru hired the services of a private consultancy firm which did another assessment, to revalidate what had been done, and the implementation of the report approved by the State Executive Council.
This MBA, graduate from ABU, said, this development has already started rekindling the spirit of Competitiveness amongst the Local Government Chairman. “This is what we want to achieve, if you preach and sermonize without incentives these chairmen, maybe nonchalant to the implementation of the vital reforms”.
CityPeople also reliably learnt, that with Jaafaru Sani as head of the Local Government, the Financial Status of the Local Government areas has improved, as they can now settle staff salaries and have enough to embark on Capital projects for their people.
Jaafaru who was once a personnel manager with the Kaduna State Hotels Management Board (1994 – 2013) disclosed that despite the fact that these Local Governments are autonomous, there is a department in the ministry which essentially is the policeman of the ministry (Inspectorate Department”, which makes sure corruption was eliminated to the barest minimum. “The Financial transactions and other service delivery are constantly monitored to correct deviations and punish wrongdoing,” he said.
This former lecturer of Kaduna State Polytechnic said due to the reforms embarked upon by the Local Government, Kaduna State was the first state in the Federation to publish its report, and even received incentives from the World Bank.
Although sanitizing the Local Government Area’s and making them more effective, Ja’afaru has proved he is bent on expanding the coverage of the grassroots for sustainable development and making sure funds are not diverted. Right now in Kaduna State Ja’afaru Ibrahim Sani has proved his worth and remains a man to watch in the political terrain come 2023. Either he will be a catalyst to the process of emergence of a new Kaduna State administration, or he would throw himself into the ring as a direct participant seeking votes of his people to any political office of his choice.
Asabe Ndoma
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