“There’s no greater challenge and there is no greater honor than to be in public service.” -Condoleezza Rice
If medicine, like politics, is about service to humanity, Dr. Hadiza Balarabe, the Kaduna state Deputy Governor, can’t by any stretch of imagination be accused of having “abandoned” medical practice. Rather, by throwing her hat into the murky water of politics, she has enriched politics with the very high ethical standards of medicine. For instance, while it’s compulsory that every medical practitioner must swear to either the Hippocratic or Osteopathic oath, which captures the obligations and expected professional behaviour of the doctor with any patient, of which failure to adhere to attracts stiff disciplinary actions, including but not limited to the loss of practicing license, politics lacks such a binding oath.
All over the world, politicians are increasingly being held in contempt by vast majority of their people largely due to betrayal and failure to keep their electoral promises. Unfortunately, the poor perception of politicians, rather than improving has continued on a decline with grave consequences for the polity, because it has continued to adversely affect the capacity of elected representatives to resolve fundamental issues, to get the buy-in of its citizens, like the failure of the British political class to resolve the Brexit. The other evidence of the lack of trust is the abysmal low turn-out of voters.
Trust is a gift from the people, who expect it to be used for their general wellbeing and security. While a politician can “afford” to squander the trust of the people, a doctor will be committing suicide if that trust is not cultivated, is not polite, honest considerate and with proven integrity. These and many more qualities are what Governor Nasir El-Rufai saw in Hadiza Balarabe, the first elected female deputy governor of Kaduna state, that made her choice as his running mate in the 2019 elections compelling.
El-Rufai from the very outset was determined to retire the entrenched “political merchants” that had held Kaduna state hostage in the last 20 years, equivalent to the South Africa “State Capture”, in which resources of state were farmed out to so called “stakeholders” to the detriment of the vast majority of the people. The implication was that Kaduna state stagnated in virtually every sectors, especially in education, health and infrastructure. This explains why as a deliberate policy, El-Rufai consciously attracted a new generation of the very best and brightest to public service, including women who hitherto were subjected to second class treatment, to help him deliver on his vision of the new Kaduna state.
The governor has fundamentally affected governance, with his measured reforms that have freed resources and refocused the mandate of ministries for efficient service delivery, but the uncharted area where he has undoubtedly made the most profound statements, is his wholehearted commitment to the empowerment of women. And it must be stated, that it’s without prejudice to the 2005 National Gender Policy, which stipulates 35 per cent appointive positions for women, but which El-Rufai surpassed several times over – both in his first and second terms. For El-Rufai, the appointments were not tokenism, so he didn’t patronise them with the “traditional” portfolio of Ministry of Women Affairs. Rather he saddled them with the ministries of works, environment, justice – actions which demonstrate his trust in their capacity to contribute to national development.
Beyond promoting inclusion is the fact that Hadiza in her tour of duty as the Executive Secretary of the Kaduna State Primary Health Care Development Agency had overseen the Kaduna State Government’s Primary Health Care revitalisation programme, which is at the core of the health delivery policy of the state. Under her watch, the ambitious renovation and equipping of 255 primary health centres in the 23 local government areas was delivered. Today, the PHCs are equipped with the tools to assist in better antenatal services and safer delivery, thus reducing infant and maternal mortality. What further endeared Hadiza to El-Rufai was the role the agency played in expanding vaccine coverage to children across the state, a project dear to El-Rufai. Her intelligence, wit, and good memory are other attributes that she brought to the table. Like her boss, she has sufficient mastery of issues to carry on conversations on any topic, and she hardly reads from prepared speeches, an indication of the depth of her knowledge.
By day, Hadiza Balarabe who came into government simply to help ensure that the PHCs function as the first port of call for those in need of attention, answerable to many “ogas”, is today the effective Number Two, as powerful as El-Rufai himself who willingly shares his powers with his deputy and whose unflinching support for her to succeed is not in doubt. El-Rufai has equally been gracious to her like he was to Bantex, the only difference being that while the governor could dance “old skool” with Bantex, he can’t for obvious reasons dance with her. Elsewhere deputy governors might be treated as spare tyres, certainly not in Kaduna state. She deputises for her partner even when he is around, which is a mark of confidence. Penultimate week, she hosted the 19 northern governors and led the Kaduna team to felicitate with President Muhammadu Buhari on his victory at the election tribunal. There is no doubt that in Hadiza, El-Rufai has found a worthy partner in his people first agenda, anchored on making lives better.
El -Rufai deserves commendation for giving life to the much talked women empowerment by “allowing people (women) who were outside of the decision-making process into it.” In his first term, Hadiza Bala, managing director of Ports Authority, was his chief of staff, of the 14 commissioners five were women, which the previous Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administrations that had much larger cabinets didn’t come anywhere near. State agencies like KADIPA, the State Primary Health Care Development Agency; the Drugs Supply Agency, KASUPDA and KADSTRA, were headed by women. He also made education free for girls through secondary school. It is also a fact that El-Rufai had unsuccessfully pushed for a woman chairman for the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) Kaduna state chapter as part of the process of deepening the participation of women in political structures.
Postscript: The romance between El-Rufai and Kaduna state women doesn’t look like a fling, it’s a marriage. What next would he be doing for them?
Ado writes from Kaduna.
