Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari’s re-election bid gets boost as school Principals, teachers and other stakeholders in the state endorsed him for a second term in office based on his laudable achievements, ANDY ASEMOTA reports
Globally, education remains a pivot for the attainment meaningful growth and development in all ramifications, which cannot be over emphasised.
Nearly four years ago, Governor Masari administration inherited the daunting task of restoring the lost glory of the education and other key sectors of the state’s economy. From 2015 to date, the administration has recorded laudable achievements in its restoration efforts in the constituency of teachers.
Thus, for not abandoning the constituency in the face of dwindling resources and providing meaningful development through good Governance to the people of Katsina State with the support of the federal government, Governor Masari has won accolades and endorsement of Katsina teachers ahead of Saturday’s March 9 general elections.
On February 23,2019, Katsina electorate gave President Muhammadu Buhari, the flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) nearly 1.3 million vote to defeat opposition candidate with about 300,000 votes in the state. The victory has given further credence to the fact that as Katsina electorate go to the poll again on Saturday, to elect their governor and law makers, Governor Masari, who is seeking re-election on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC) stands in good stead to clinch a second term in office.
Teachers, to a large extent know more than anybody else who is best placed to pilot the affairs of the nation and the state. For the first time, in this clime, they made public their choice: President Muhammed Buhari and Governor Aminu Masari, they insist, are the best for 2019 presidency and Katsina governorship.
Governor Masari, in a bid to restore the state’s education sector back to normalcy and past glory, has been implementing the recommendations of the Restoration Agenda committees he created to critically examine the sector and recommend strategies solutions and programmes of action by the APC government before the party emerged victorious in the 2015 polls.
The governor has proved his worth in the current political dispensation in the country. He has gone an extra mile to engage outstanding scholars, first Prof Sadiyya Abdullahi Faskari, now of blessed memory, and her successor, Dr. Badamasi Lawal Charanchi, an associate professor, as team leader to translate his lofty dream into reality in the education sector.
The mode of approach he adopted to salvage the sector has ushered in a new dawn in the construction of new facilities, rehabilitation and upgrading of dilapidated structures cum provision of learning and teaching materials as well as boosting the morale of teachers.
Enumerating some of the achievements of the governor in the past three and a half years. Prof. Badamasi Lawal Charanchi, said the government through the Ministry of Education and the State Basic Education Board (SUBEB) spent billions of naira on transformation of the sector.
The Masari administration, Charanchi said, knows that success in the education sector to a great extent depends on teachers. This explained the recruitment of over 2600 qualified persons into the main stream of the teaching profession in the state and the attention accorded to development of the teachers’ intellectual standard through in-service training and seminars while their welfare got the desired attention as salaries, pensions and gratuities are paid as promptly as possible.
Also, the state government, in the past 3 ½ years, introduced loans for teachers in form of motor cycles among others and offered public buildings to some of them on rent-free basis. Charanchi made this known during a rally organized not too long ago by the Katsina State Concerned Teachers for Buhari / Masari in 2019 at Muhammadu Dikko stadium, Katsina .
Speaking on the successes of Masari’s administration, the Chairperson of All Nigeria confederations of principals of secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), Katsina State branch, Rakiya Inuwa, told the governor: “We converged here today whole heartedly to appreciate, commend, applauds, re-affirm, solicit and endorse you, your Excellency, for second term in office as governor because of your unique and vibrant visionary leadership by developing the whole of Katsina State from the doldrums of its past to modern outlook, most especially your number one priority; the education sector, supported by a team of worthy commissioners, members of Katsina State House of Assembly, Permanent secretaries, executive directors, Special advisers and many more”.
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Inuwa, who spoke through the first Vice president of the association, Shehu Garba Funtua, assured that “all our principals, vice principals, head teachers of primary schools and senior masters are all out to solicit, endorse, support and approve re-election for the second term of Buhari /Masari as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Governor, Rt. Hon. Aminu Bello Masari, as the Governor of Katsina in 2019 elections.”
For the ANCOPSS boss, the laudable achievements of Masari included prompt payment of salaries to teachers and other workers in Katsina, as well as either construction or renovation of new or old primary and secondary schools across the state besides the provision of teaching and learning materials, prompt promotion of teachers as and when due, recruitment of teachers, prompt payment of NECO, WAEC and NABTEB for all qualified secondary school students across and financing seminars / workshops for training and re-training of teachers across the state and among others.
“At this juncture, there is no better way to appreciate the good deeds done to us but to stand firmly and whole heartedly in support of PMB and Aminu Bello for second term in 2019 elections”, Inuwa said.
Similarly, Alhaji Suwidi Hassan, the state Chairman of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), a trade Union and a professional organization, who spoke at the rally, outlined several achievements of Gov. Masari with regards to his members and indeed, the education sector in the state. He said the union owes it a duty to protect the interest and welfare of its members and at the same time contribute its quota to the growth and advancement of the education industry.
Hassan, represented by the Vice Chairman, Ibrahim Musa, reiterated that barely four years on the saddle, Governor Masari had advertised a departure from the ways of the previous leadership in the state.
He pledged the commitment and solidarity of the union for the victory of Masari administration to consolidate the various development projects and policies it had started.
“The union is profoundly and eternally grateful for the prompt and regular payment of salary to the entire primary and post primary school teachers by this administration. The administration has cleared the backlog of teachers’ promotion and teachers’ gratuities and pensions inherited from the previous administration.
“The recruitment of permanent primary and post primary school teachers and the appointment of teacher’s through S–power programme initiated by this administration are highly commendable. The union will reciprocate the gesture by ensuring industrial harmony in the state and effective service delivery by our members,” he said.
On his part, Abdulrashid Garba Gafai, the Chairman of head teachers in the state under the aegis of Association of Primary School Head Teachers of Nigeria (AOPSHON), said Masari is the first governor to initiate S–Power scheme in the federation, which has recruited thousands of qualified teachers and deploy them to primary and secondary schools in the state.
In order to reciprocate the efforts of the current administration that is deeply committed to regular payment of teachers’ salaries, pension and gratuities including recruitment of additional teachers, the association pledged to thrown its weight behind the re-election of Masari in forthcoming polls.
“AOPSHON, Katsina state is strongly behind your administration. We will continue to support you and ensure that we maintain father and son / daughter relationship that only a second term will guarantee. AOPSHON is solidly behind continuity,” Gafai posited.
The Special Adviser to the State Governor on Higher Education, Bishir Usman Ruwan Godiya, in a tribute to the governor, said as builders of the character of future leaders, teachers have a pivotal role in any society which no politician worth the salt could afford to neglect.
In the same vein, Governor Aminu Bello Masari emphasized that the APC administration had laid a foundation for a smooth take off all key sectors of the economy as part of its commitment to change agenda.
“If I say vote for credible a leader, they say I am campaigning for Buhari. If I say vote for a transparent leader, they say I am campaigning for President Buhari. If Buhari stands for his credible, purposeful and transparent leadership, vote for him to take Nigeria to the next level,” he said to a resounding applause of the teeming crowd.
Masari, who lamented that poor leadership in the past led to the near collapse of basic education sub-sector in the country with huge in pact on secondary and tertiary levels, expressed confidence that the APC led-administration would continue to improve the quality of education and governance.
He said the present administration is poised to propel and provide an atmosphere to restore the lost glory of the nation and indeed the state, insisting that this prompted his administration not only to prioritise education but also to commit the much-needed resources in revamping the dwindling in the sector.
Masari asserted that prompt payment of salaries and pensions under the present administration ought not to be outlined as an achievement but for the failure of some states to discharge the responsibility despite the support of President Buhari, thereby further impoverishing their workforce.
To buttress the fact that teachers are catalysts for the educational development at all levels, Masari vowed that his administration would not relent in putting in place efforts to enhance their capacities.
