AS a progressive, the more I follow the activities of Dr. Dikko Radda, the more my hopes are renewed, that there is indeed a generation of emerging leadership in Northern Nigeria; rigorous in its pursuits, robust in its approach to onerous challenges, sincere in its endeavors, and competent enough with the dynamism to multi-tasking, providing able leadership, and technical know-how, to reaching solutions to the very demanding problems that our populace are faced with on a daily basis.
Combating Insecurity is always number one in the North West, with Katsina at the heart of it. No doubt Dr. Dikko came thoroughly prepared to face the menace, having lost the life of a brother to banditry, and shortly afterwards, escued an uncle from Kidnappers. That nightmare definitely ignited the fire in him to haunt the ‘monster’, and nurtured in him, the desire to build a new Katsina, where knowledge, commerce and agriculture would grow and blossom, just like in the olden days where Katsina was the citadel of learning in the North.
Dr. Dikko had since arrived at the fact that a non kinetic approach to insecurity, is the necessary whip, that would complement the successes being achieved by the security forces. The populace is redundant and restive, and therein lies a fertile ground of jobless youths who are ready and willing to take arms, and join the bandwagon of kidnapping for ransom, to eke out a living for themselves.
Even if peace is restored by kinetic approaches, there looms large, the heavy storm of poverty that would not hesitate to drench the communities back into the pool of the darkness of banditry once more. To this situation, Dr. Dikko has designed a massive youth empowerment programme, leveraging on his years as DG at SMEDAN. He has since secured a billion naira matching fund, to support Micro and Small Enterprises in specific sectors of the economy.
This would definitely promote prosperity within the state, creating businesses in communities round the state. SMEDAN is partnering with Katsina Enterprises Development agency, KASEDA, headed by Mrs. Aisha Aminu. To start off this programme that would massively reduce the population of jobless youths in the State, 500 million naira is already being raised by the two parties, with 250 million to be released in the first quarter of this year.
Another card for youth empowerment in Katsina, is the initiative of sponsoring atleast 41 Katsina State students to study Medicine and Surgery abroad. This is just for the first batch, as more students are being prepared for another batch in the 2nd quarter of this year.
Also, all Katsina State Students studying in higher institutions are having the backlog of payments cleared by the State Government. This is going a long way in keeping the students from vile extra curricular activities, as bandits and kidnappers are now recruiting students who are not in school, or facing challenges in funding their education, turning to nefarious activities.
Dr. Dikko has also not relented in providing a conducive learning environment for students in secondary schools, by increasing the funds made available for their feeding. This will keep them in school, and not out there to fend for themselves, in search of food. Dr. Dikko goes round these schools himself, checking on the punctuality of the Teachers, and the quality of their tutorship.
He came across a case where a particular student was molested and justice was denied the girl by some officials who were in cahoots with the leadership of the school. All of them were dragged to the Commissioner of Police, and the matter was registered in court appropriately for proper disciplinary action. When you are following Dikko Radda, either in the news or literally, you would gasp for breath I assure you.
The dividends of democracy in Nigeria can be likened to ‘having rainfall, dropping on mattress roofs’. No need to tell you that most of the rain will be soaked by the mattress and only a few droplets will land on the roofs. Governance creates funds, skills, loans and so many palliatives or initiatives that do not reach the common man.
They are all soaked up by the bureaucracy handling them, which trips and falls, throwing away the benefits without reaching the desired beneficiaries. Dr. Dikko Radda is bending over backwards, to see that the ordinary voter, the kid with no foster father, and the farmer with no Godfather, get what he is supposed to get, like any other bona-fide Nigerian.
He is matching the sincerity in his voice, with fairness in his actions, and relentlessness in his efforts. The things he does are downright the things one would wish to do, should he find himself in any leadership position. With the likes of Dr. Dikko Radda, Northern Nigeria is not bereft of leadership. Not just yet.
Tahir is Talban Bauchi.