The people of Zamfara State have over the years been groomed to relax and rely totally on the state government for their livelihood or sustainance. Most people were misled into abandoning their actual means of earning a living for a deceitful dole.
The dole giving which was used as avenue to squander public funds. It also helped in muzzling right thinking opinions and blackmailing those who frivolously benefited from the squander mania.
Only four years of former Governor Mahmud Aliyu Shinkafi out of the number of years of Zamfara Statehood (minus of course retired Col. JB Yakubu’s tenure) were tailored towards honest indoctrination of the people towards reality of self reliance.
Then Governor Mahmud Aliyu Shinkafi like the current Governor Dr. Dauda Lawal Dare was branded anti Shari’a, a miser, enemy of Zamfara people and all sorts of invectives were showered on him which culminated in the conspiracy to deny him a second term.
Governor Dr. Dauda now faces similar conspiracies, which sadly enough include the Ulama who ought to understand the fallacy of embezzling public funds in the name of stupid “welfare” which only helps in killing people’s initiative and morale.
Where else other than in Zamfara State, do people rest their source of living and that of their dependents on the government? In another added twist to their grouse against Governor Dauda Lawal Dare is that they tried to pressurize him to negotiate with bandits which went against his standing principles of not negotiating with criminals.
He stressed this stand during his campaign days, because his predecessor APC Governors have negotiated many times with the bandits, but it all ended in futility, wasted funds, wasted time and hopelessness.
Furthermore, even the Ulama could not show reason why and where Islam commanded negotiations with outlaws. Governor Dr. Dauda Lawal should therefore, stick to his guns no matter the attempt to blackmail him, for he is on the right track knowing that all power belongs to Allah SWTA Who gives it to whom He Alone chooses.
Let Zamfara State Ulama borrow a leaf from their counterparts in the nearby Sokoto State – the state from which Zamfara State was curved out in 1996. Sheikhs Bello Aliyu Yabo, Murtala Bello Assada and Professor Mansur Ibrahim Sokoto mni, readily come to mind as shining examples of preaching and teaching Pristine Islamic doctrines well away from the government just like what Sheikh Uthman Bn Foduye taught.
