Dr Dikko Umar Radda, the Katsina State governor – elect is one the few politicians that generated anjoy massive support and followership in Nigeria.
This shows Dr Radda has a lot of goodwill from the people of Katsina State. The massive support, coupled with the elitist culture of Katsina present a very serious challenge to whoever is to govern the state.
To meet the yearnings and aspirations of the citizens, one has to be tactical by bringing new ideas and employing new strategies, engaging the services of intellectual technocrats and bureaucrats and the youth who have the energy to drive what ever policies and programs planned to move the state forward.
One of the first steps taken by the governor – elect was setting up a transition committee which sent letters to all stakeholder committees in all the local governments in the state to forward nominations of those who will be appointed in a positions in the incoming administration.
By so doing Dr Dikko has done away with the tradition of allowing office seekers to be running from pillar to post seeking his attention for inclusion into his government. He has return the powers to politicians at the local government level to make the nominations.
This is giving value to the politicians at the local government level. After all all politics is local. This approach is one of the best ways to strengthen participatory democracy in Nigeria.
It should be noted that any stakeholder committee that nominate incompetent persons should not expect a critical offer. And whoever is seeking to be appointed should fall back to his base. It is like gone are days when you get appointment without tacit approval from your immediate constituency. You must have worked hard for success of the party.
In this way, the governor will generate a pool from which selections are made for other appointments outside his government. It will serve as reservoir for nominations and appointment at the federal level.
It is also important that the state government establishes an agency and saddles it with the responsibility of monitoring appointments and employment of Katsina State indigenous in the Federal Ministries, Department and Agencies so that it’s quota does not escape it. The agency should have, and keep records of all Katsina State indigenes under employment of the Federal Government and other governments. It should also be mandated to have and keep records of Katsins State Indigenes in professional bodies like the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA; the media, the transport sector etc.
