“Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.”
—Peter Drucker
By Daniel Kanu
No doubt, Governor of Katsina State, Aminu Bello Masari, has put his name on the national canvass as one governor in the North that has shown strong intolerance to the state of insecurity in the country.
He has not only spoken out to condemn the mayhem and killings in his state, home of President Muhammadu Buhari, as well as other states in the North, but he has also offered tough solutions on how best to confront and eradicate the entire mess if indeed the Federal Government is serious and sincere at tackling the security challenge head-on.
Recall that in recent times; many states in the Northern part of the country have witnessed series of attacks by suspected bandits, leading to abductions, murder, and cattle rustling, a development that has stirred public outcry.
Although the governor belongs to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) with a political connection that is as natural as nature, Masari has unequivocally stood out, swimming against the storm, as a strong voice, condemning banditry and killings occasioned by herders/farmers clashes not only in the North, but also in all parts of the country.
Masari was so piqued with the waste of lives that he asked indigenes of his state to defend themselves with whatever they can lay their hands on.
Marching his words with action in a bid to arrest insecurity in his state, he has signed the state Security Challenge Containment Order, in which the government adopted 12 measures to contain banditry in the state.
In fact, Masari won the hearts of the majority of Nigerians when he declared recently that his state, Katsina, will have a law banning cattle-roaming better known as open grazing.
Already, the 17 Southern governors had set last September 1, as deadline for member states to sign the Anti-Open Grazing Bill into law and a number of them have since carried out this resolution.
Even when President Buhari who equally comes from Adamawa State is being accused of still foot-dragging on his position of being soft and sympathetic to herders/bandits activities, Masari has made his position known that he would not massage their ego, nor allow them a breathing space without confronting them with deadly efficiency.
Hear his instructive advice: “Herdsmen should stay in one place. Roaming about should not be encouraged. In fact, for us, it is un-Islamic. Why do you have animals that you cannot feed and you have to go to other people’s land and farm and you say that is right? I don’t think it is right.
“We intend to have a law banning (cattle) roaming, but before we do that, we would make provisions for where the animals would stay.”
Some commentators who spoke with Sunday Sun on condition of anonymity said that Masari’s position is one that should be embraced by all state governors in the country bearing in mind that encouraging the roaming of livestock or hiding the identity of bandits/killing herders would present a subtle call to the destruction of Nigeria.
Fiery critic and former chairman, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof Chidi Odinkalu said that the Federal Government has not been sincere in tackling the threatening state of insecurity, just as the United Nations has warned that Nigeria’s future because of banditry is in danger.
As if his bold position in support of a ban on open grazing is not enough, Masari again, as a guest on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme, made revelations that some of his counterparts would be afraid to disclose.
The governor revealed that many of the bandits are Fulani indigenes (his kinsmen) whose main occupation is rearing cattle.
According to him, “they are the same people like me, who speak the same language like me, who profess the same religious beliefs like me. So, what we have here on ground are bandits; they are not aliens, they are people we know, they are people that have been living with us for 100 of years.
“The infiltration we have from some West African countries and North African countries are also people of the Fulani extraction.
“Majority of those involved in this banditry are Fulanis whether it is palatable or it is not palatable, but that is the truth. I am not saying 100 per cent of them are Fulani, but the majority of them are, and these are people who live in the forest and their main occupation is rearing of cattle.”
Expectedly, the Fulani socio-cultural association, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, has lambasted and maligned Masari time and time again for his position, but he has remained undaunted, focused and soldiering on.
Aminu Bello Masari was born on May 29, 1950 in Kafur town, Katsina State.
He attended Kafur/Malumfashi Primary School, Government Secondary School, Funtua, AWS Training School, Middlex Polytechnic, London, and the Administrative Staff College, Badagary.
He attended various courses within and outside the country and obtained a postgraduate Diploma in Water Quality Control and Management from Middlesex Polytechnic, United Kingdom in 1982.
Masari was Commissioner for Works, Housing and Transport, Katsina State, from 1991 to 1993, and elected member of the Constitutional Conference from1994 to1995.
Under the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), he became the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Nigeria from 2003 to 2007.
On May 29, 2015, he was sworn in as the governor of Katsina State after running for office under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He is on his second tenure.