Kano state Ministry of Information and Internal Affairs is one of the vital ministries considering its role in managing the image of the State government and mobilising the people on programmes and policies of government.
By nature, the Commissioner of the Ministry serves as the Chief Spokesperson and Image-maker of the Government.
Part of the Ministry’s traditional responsibility is to facilitate free flow of accurate, factual, and balanced information between the Government and the citizenry.
At the inception of the Ganduje’s administration in 2015, the Governor appointed Malam Muhammad Garba to captain the affairs of the Ministry of Information, Youth, Sport and Culture. The appointment was widely applauded being a round peg in the round hole, having been a Senior Media Practitioner and also Former President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ.
On assumption of office, Garba pledged to make the ministry staff career progression, his top priority in the state civil service, a promise he delivered.
The progression has really changed the fortunes of staff from ending their career, either as deputy directors or on grade level 14 because the ministry have only two available directorship, that is Information and Public Enlightenment.
Under his stewardship, a number of staff in the ministry progressed to Directorship, while others to Permanent Secretaries in other ministries, the first in history .
Another unforgettable feat, is his resilient toward revitalising the State Owned Newspaper Company, Triumph by the present Administration . The paper rebounded back to news stand after the company was unceremoniously closed down by Kwankwaso Administration.
While Triumph Newspaper has produced a number of prominent journalists, Presidents of Nigerian Guild of Editors, (NGE), others have made their marks in the profession and thus creating waves in all aspects of human endeavours.
including the academia, state and federal civil service among others.
Since his appointment, Garba has provided the much needed leadership in steering the affairs of the ministry and able to redefine the work ethics to meet the yearnings and aspirations of the work force of his ministry.
Imaging the Ganduje Administration’s policies professionally and silencing other social critics with tendencies of political view or alliance of other opposition camps, is unequal.
Other feats recorded by Garba from 2015 to 2019 included State Government Standing Committee Chairman on Empowerment which he worked assiduously in addressing unemployment among youths and women empowerment in the state.
Through his active participations in screening of youths and women, the State Government empowered no fewer than 50,000 on various skills acquisition programmes across the 44 local government areas of the state.
These programmes exposed beneficiaries to various skills such as carpentry, plumbing as well as automobile engineering at the Peugeot Automobile Nigeria Learning Centre in Kaduna where they were taught in panel beating, car repairs and vulcanising, among others.
What a great achievement worth of celebrating.
The Administration also demonstrated to be most liberal and media friendly in the country because it accommodates divergent views irrespective of political affiliation to be aired on the state own radio and private stations.
In spite some medium in the state have compromised ethics of the profession by allowing certain peoples to abuse the privilege which allows Freedom Of expressions guaranteed Under the country’s Constitution.
Despite the abuse of privacy committed by some media organisations in the state, neither Kano state government nor state Ministry of information lodged complaints to NBC as we witnessed in other state governments not allowing opposition politicians to criticize or air their viewpoints
The story in Kano is different because Governor Ganduje believes that you can’t have a democratic system without engaging citizens to expresse their views because government in power is not working for itself, its working for peoples, their inputs and views are all very critical for the purpose of attaining good governance.
In fact, within the years undereview of Information Ministry, Kano State Government set up a 14-member technical committee to sanitise operations of broadcast media in the state. It is a committee of professionals to monitor radio stations in the state in order to ensure that they adhere to broadcast code and also to sensitize them. The committee would among other things, look into the issue of professional misconduct and abuse of privilege by some media organisations in the state. Muhammad Garba, and Professor, Umar Pate, serve as co-chairman
“As a government; we are not doing this to stop people from airing their views or stop the Freedom of Information (FOI), we are doing it to sanitize the sector for the overall good of the state”. He lamented
The ministry under his stewardship provided electronic appliances and other required working tools in the various Ministry’s parastatal, creation of 44 Censorship Board liaison offices in each local government areas of the state. Minimizing use of vulgar language in the street by the traditional medicine sellers.
As Commissioner for Information, the 2021 Biennial Conference of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) was hosted by Kano state government attended by who is who in the Journalism Profession.
The Conference turned out to be one of the most peaceful conventions ever staged by the Guild. The editors were taken round some selected major infrastructural projects executed by Ganduje’s administration.
At the Biennial Conference Malam Muhammad Garba acknowledged the support and cooperation accorded to him at all time by the state governor which helped his ministry in no small measure towards realising the set goals.
Even Governor himself acknowledged the Comrade’s loyalty saying that more than thirty years of their relationship and also worked closely with him as his Press Secretary and state Commissioner of Information, in all these capacities, he had proved himself as a core journalist and never found him wanting in any responsibility assigned to him .
One thing even his critics can not take away from him is the fact that he, harbours no ill feeling or animosity against anybody. Taking into consideration his antecedents and his contemporary activities, one will, without fear of contradiction, argue that the honourable commissioner, in most instances, sees no one as enemy. In fact, he treats all nicely, a disposition that has made him the toast of every Media Practitioner across the country,
Imbibed with humility, Comrade Muhammad Garba commands a lot of respect within and outside the state largely due to the way he articulates his ideas and thoughts each time he speaks as people listen with rapt attention.
Dukawa writes in from Kano and can be reach at abbahydukawa@gmail.com
