*_Mai-Mala Buni:_ Celebrating The Peoples' Governor at 53*
"No wise man ever wished to be younger."
The above quote by Jonathan Swift resonates within my mind as I joined millions of Yobeans and Nigerians, generally, to celebrate with an illustrious son of Yobe - His Excellency Governor Mai Mala Buni, the 4th Democratically elected Governor of Yobe state, who clocked 53 a few days ago.
It is said that life is not all about your age. Life is about living.
So, when your birthday comes, you ought to be thankful for the years that have just passed and anticipate with a happy heart what the coming year will bring.
When God in His infinite Mercy created man, the first gift He gave him was Life. And God has enjoined every Muslim, as clearly stated in the Islamic holy book, to show appreciation for every blessing given to them.
In the Holy Quran Chapter 14 Verse 7 Allah says: "If you are grateful, I will surely increase you in favour.."
So it is not out of place to join our leader and Governor in celebrating and thanking God for sparing his life to see yet another year of his glorious life. Attaining a Golden age and even adding more years to them calls for more than a celebration with our kindhearted and leader of the masses. It is not very common in Nigeria to have a leader that is down to earth in his approach to governance.
I join in celebrating His Excellency Governor Buni because he has in the spate of the shortest time he has been in office proven his worth as a good leader. This he practically exemplified through his style of leadership.
To my mind and understanding, Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work. And His Excellency has, without any iota of doubts, proven so even in the calibre and quality of people he brought from all walks of life, to work with him.
Yobe is kept on the path of being a working state today because Governor Mai Mala Buni has proven that the greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things, but the one that gets the people to do the greatest things as directed
As an academician, I believe in the philosophy of His Excellency who has always insisted that to add value to others, one must first value others. Our Governor values people and every day bringing the best out of Yobeans.
Though Governor Mai Mala appreciates associating with people who add value to his works, he remains a true leader who has the confidence to stand alone; the one who has unimpeachable courage to make tough decisions, and the one who has the unparalleled compassion to listen to the needs of others.
Governor Buni does not only set out to be a leader for its sake, but he becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.
I do not intend to write a scholarly piece here because I am a professor. My message here is simple. To celebrate a worthy leader who understands the secrets of Allah’s blessing and his responsibility to lead a people whom Allah has entrusted in his care.
For lack of space and to avoid keeping my readers for too long, I will rather focus this writeup on the strides that Gov. Buni is making in the sector of education which is my constituency.
When Governor Mai Mala assumed the governance of Yobe in 2019, his first major outing was the convocation of a first of its kind Yobe State Education Summit. And at the end of the highly rewarding submit he assured Yobeans and Nigerians in general that all recommendations made by the Summit would be implemented to the letter.
One of the first steps taken in that direction was his approval of mass recruitment of qualified teachers following national and international best practices.
The Governor had clearly warned that equal opportunities should be given to all qualified Yobeans and Nigerians to apply and employed. He said the recruitment should be done without recourse to profiling any applicant base on who he or she is; or where he or she comes from. He warned that no favouritism or God-fatherism consideration would be tolerated.
We do not want to favour anybody, we just want to have the best for Yobe and that is the instruction of His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Yobe State.
He said what defines his "next level", The Mai Mala Next Level should be "doing things in line with the national and international standard".
The Governor of Yobe has reiterated, time without number that if we want to maintain our standard have to adopt some strict measures.
The Governor has deployed his legendary act of convincing people even in the most difficult times of decision making, in explaining to politicians that though this is a political era, Yobe cannot afford to mortgage the future of its children by keeping the standard low. And to everyone's surprise, all the political big wigs did not only agree with him, they even assume ambassador of such ideology.
The only way forward for Yobe's educational sector is to change the narratives while thinking outside the box. What we are doing now is bringing lofty ideas from outside the box. It is no longer business as usual.
The declaration of a state of emergency on education was the best thing that has happened to Yobe state. When a state or a sector of it is in the state of emergency, the norms are set aside for uncommon application of elixirs that will salvage it.
Today Education in Yobe has not only been brought out of comatose. It is now fastly bouncing back and regaining its rightful place amongst the comity of its contemporaries.
It is the vision of Governor Mai Mala; and it is our shared vision too, that when you educate people, you take down barriers. You help them see what it’s like in other situations, cultures and countries. You create a world that is more tolerant of differences and accepting of all.
Of course, the Governor is fully aware that education is a long term investment; the time and money you put in, the courage you have to move through challenges and persevere. But investment in education will keep paying off for the rest of your life.
It is for this reasons and many more happening in virtually all sectors of Yobe state that I stand to join the Governor of the People as he marks his 53rd Birthday.
*Professor Musa Alabe is the current Chairman of Yobe State Universal Basic Education Board and former Vice Chancellor, Yobe State University and Pioneer Dean Faculty of Engineering Bayero University, Kano.
