By: Comrade Ibrahim Muhammad Sani
Everyone shouts “Good Governance” — governors, senators, even bandits’ negotiators. But what does it actually mean? And why, despite collecting *N5.28 trillion in 2 years*, the North still does not have it?
Let me break it down in 7 simple pillars that even a primary school child in Batsari can understand.
- GOOD GOVERNANCE IS NOT BIG FAAC, IT IS BIG ACCOUNTABILITY
*Bad Governance:* Collects N580bn (Zamfara), N1.05trn (Kano) and says “we have done our best” without showing one school.
*Good Governance:* Collects N1 and shows you what that N1 did. Publishes budget school-by-school, road-by-road, hospital-by-hospital.
*Arewa today:* No Northwest governor publishes FAAC spending monthly. Lagos publishes. Edo publishes. Why can’t Kano, Katsina, Kaduna publish? Because secrecy is profitable.
*Question for your governor:* If you collected N1.14 trillion in 8 months of 2025, where is the website where I can see what you did with it?
- GOOD GOVERNANCE IS SECURITY OF LIFE, NOT SECURITY VOTES
*Bad Governance:* Governor takes N500m security vote every month that is not audited, travels with 50 soldiers, while villagers pay N5m monthly levy to bandits.
*Good Governance:* Ends insecurity so people don’t need to pay levies. Uses joint intelligence, forest guards, community policing, joint database across Sokoto-Zamfara-Katsina-Kaduna-Niger as ACF recommended.
*Arewa today:* We have 8 years of “military operation” — Operation Sharan Daji, Hadarin Daji, Safe Haven — but banditry increased. Why? Because insecurity has become an economy. As long as there is insecurity, there is security vote, there is federal intervention fund, there is contract for armoured vehicles.
Good governance ends insecurity. Bad governance manages insecurity for profit.
- GOOD GOVERNANCE IS JOBS, NOT HANDOUTS
*Bad Governance:* Shares N10,000 palliative that cannot buy one mudu of rice, shares 100 motorcycles to youths, and calls it empowerment.
*Good Governance:* Builds factories where 10,000 youths work daily and feed their families.
Our fathers built:
– *Ajaokuta Steel (1979)* – can employ 500,000 people directly
– *Mambilla Hydro (1972)* – can give 3,050 megawatts for whole North
– *Baro Port (1908)* – can serve 60 million people in Northcentral, N5.8bn built, 94% completed, rotting because 53km road not done
– *Kolmani Oil* – stopped July 2025
All rotting. Good governance would have fixed one per administration. In 8 years, we could have fixed all 4. But fixing requires transparency. Abandoning allows yearly budget padding.
*Study of 20,000 adults in Kano/Kaduna/Katsina says:* 31.3% blame unemployment for their poverty. 1 in 5 is on drugs. They don’t want handout. They want factory.
- GOOD GOVERNANCE IS SCHOOLS, NOT SPEECHES ABOUT SCHOOLS
*Bad Governance:* Kano has 1,486,000 beggars, says “we are trying” in speeches, but no boarding school for Almajiri built with N1.05trn.
*Good Governance:* Takes 5.1 million Almajiri beggars (2013 figure, now maybe 8 million) and turns them into students with skills. Like UAE did with desert children, like China did.
Northwest has 8 million out-of-school children. Those children of 2015 are now 22 years old in 2026. They are voters. They are angry. They are the ones you see on drugs in Tudun Wada, in Rigasa, in Sabon Gari.
Good governance educates them. Bad governance keeps them as vote bank — because educated child will not thumbprint for N1,000.
- GOOD GOVERNANCE IS PRODUCTION, NOT ALLOCATION SHARING
*Bad Governance:* Every month waits for FAAC in Abuja. Northwest generated only N68bn VAT in Q1 2025 vs Lagos N819bn, but collected N1.14trn FAAC in 8 months. So why work?
*Good Governance:* Like Lagos, generates VAT internally through markets, industries, taxes. Invests FAAC into production that creates more VAT.
We are running what I call *FAAC Economy:* Oil is removed in Niger Delta, sold in dollars, converted to Naira, shared in Abuja. Governors who did not drill, did not market, just collect. This is begging economy, not producing economy.
Good governance is: *From Allocation to Production.*
- GOOD GOVERNANCE IS RULE OF LAW, NOT RULE OF ONE MAN
Bad governance is when President wants law, sends to National Assembly, and 359 members sign without reading, only Hon. Dasuki reads.
Good governance is when National Assembly says NO to President when law is against people, like NASS said NO to Obasanjo in 2000 and overrode his veto to create NDDC.
Today, we have no representation. We have rubber stamp. Good governance needs independent legislature and independent judiciary.
- GOOD GOVERNANCE IS LISTENING TO CORRECTION
As Wazirin Dutse said: *Gyara kayanka bai zamo sauke mu raba ba* — Correcting you is not breaking with you.
A governor who cannot be corrected will crash with his people. Good governance listens to ACF, listens to journalists, listens to Comrade like me criticizing N63bn irrigation scandal that split 3 projects into 64 to allegedly give to friends.
Bad governance calls critic enemy. Good governance calls critic mirror.
CONCLUSION: WHERE ARE WE?
Arewa is not poor. Arewa is poorly governed.
– We have land: 70% of Nigeria’s land
– We have people: 60% of population
– We have money: N5.28 trillion in 2 years — more than any region in history
– We have projects: Ajaokuta, Mambilla, Baro, Kolmani, Tiga, Challawa
What we don’t have is good governance.
Good governance is not rocket science. It is 7 things: *Accountability, Security, Jobs, Schools, Production, Rule of Law, and Listening.*
If our 19 Northern Governors do these 7 things from today to 2027, Arewa will change.
If they continue status quo — sharing FAAC without building, collecting without accounting, keeping Almajiri as beggars, managing insecurity as business — then in 2027, the people will do what people do when drivers drive opposite direction: *They will take the steering.*
And that steering will not be taken with violence. It will be taken with voter card. With 8 million out-of-school children who are now voters. With 5.1 million Almajiri who are now voters. With 20,000 distressed youths who are now voters.
Power is temporary. Good governance is eternal in history books.
*Comrade Ibrahim Muhammad Sani*
Arewa Advocate
