He was born into an illiterate family in the ancient Islamic city of Ilorin, at a time when parents hide their children under the roof of their houses to prevent them from being enrolled in Schools by the white men, but as destined by Allah, he rose through the ladder of his career as a civil servant in the old Northern Region to be become the Secretary to the Government of Kwara State.

At a time when the civil service was the pride of the nation with Kwara being referred to as a civil service state, Alhaji Sheu Abdulgafar started his career as a clerk and rose through the ranks to the apex position in the service as permanent Secretary before he was appointed as SSG by the government of the former Governor Muhammed Sha’aba Lafiagi.

Sheu Gafar as he is fondly called is currently serving as the chairman of Kwara state Fiscal Responsibility Commission.

In this interview with ABDULLAHI OLESIN of The Leadership, Gafar who was recently turbaned as the new Danmadami of Ilorin spoke on issues ranging from administration, politics his new title and Ilorin emirate.

Civil service yesterday and today

We cannot compare the past with the present, in  our time we took pride whenever we initiate a policy and you see your policy pursued to the point of  being implemented, you  feel  that you worth a billion naira, It is a different  thing today.

Secondly when I looked back at the service, what I expected employers of labours themselves to do are lacking and when I discovered that civil servants too compete with political appointees, they also want to be rich, and we try to do all we could to let them know their status. I remember it took me a time to convince my Permanent Secretaries when I was SSG to government that they are not contractors. So, they don’t need to look for contract because the benefit they have in that administration have been given to them and should leave the politicians for the contractors. It took some times for them to accept that this is a new era. So, some of this thing are challenges and Al-Amdullallahi we scaled through them.

Nigeria’s Democracy

We fought for democracy, we got it but we are not managing it. Those of us who have the little benefit of tasting the pre-colonial and first republic know that the founding fathers played the game according to the rule. If they set rules and regulations, they won’t infringe it just for personal reasons. For democracy to strive, the rule of law must be practiced as laid down. If we do so, then there will be no problem. You play politics without bitterness; your being there is to serve people rather than to serve yourself.

If we leave all these tendencies, then there is hope for us that we can build a strong democracy. What we have now does not give one reasonable hope on our democracy. if the leaders themselves, 35 of them were not able to conduct election among themselves and accept victory or defeat with good faith and these are the people we look up to, that is the type of democracy we are practicing. I believe that the generation coming could learn from some of these mistakes and improve upon them

If the nation can follow the laws they make for themselves, I think we have good hope. But if we try to circumvent them, then will continue to have our problems. All these violence here and there, terrorism or what have you, if one goes into the root cause, it’s probably base on injustice and if we can correct some of these lapses, then we have hope.

What to expect as the new Danmadami of Ilorin

In my community, we are basically Muslims, we are Muslims, we accept the teaching of our religion, Qu’ran, Sharia, if we can just follow the tenets of our religion, we will get things right. So, I see the title as a challenge to do more for the people; to encourage the younger ones; to give advice to our leaders in what one believes is correct thing for us to do; to maintain our values because we have values. And also to let people realize that we are distinct people. We are not Hausa, we are not Fulani, we are not Yoruba, we just Ilorin people. By our culture, we are Ilorin, by our language we are Ilorin. So we should promote that value because in that value raise the hope of our future generation.

Concern over rising crime rates in Ilorin

I believe most of these people just came from outside. I’m not saying that we don’t have miscreants among our youth but I think government should provide jobs. They just have to create jobs. You can’t turnout thousands of graduates and take only hundreds, what happen to others? Parents who brought them believe that after their graduation, they will be on their own. If they now found themselves jobless, that is a problem. I think the parents have responsibilities to monitor the movement of their children but the present generation of youth can no more be caged unless you get them busy somewhere. If we have jobs created for them either through further training in vocation and the like, they will be engaged. But without this, that problem lingers on.

Message to the youth

To our youth, they should always remember whose children they are. They must remember that whatever they do reflect on the image of the family from where they come. They should remember that is only God that provides and if they are patient, I believe they will soon get there. After all, we all came to this world with destiny caved out by our Creator and if we are patient, we will reach the place. So, to our youth they should not involve themselves in any violence activities or any social vices. They should accept the status they find themselves. They should always remember that the name of their families is more important than themselves. They should not engage themselves in any acts that could tarnish the image of their families.

Growing up as a child

Well, I was born by illiterate parents. So at our own time, you are left to your own and we don’t have proper ambition as to what you want to become. Wherever destiny put us, we find ourselves. I hadn’t then thought of any profession than I was sent to school and left school for another school, but when I found myself in the civil service of the old Northern Region, I knew that was my line and I try to do the best I could to equip myself for the challenges of the future.

Leisure time

I play golf until I had accident, a broken hand. Otherwise I play golf and badminton very well. I was a sport man when I was young. I played football for colleges, clubs and so on. But now I have only two things, on my table you find Qur’an, that is my greatest companion and in the evening I take time to watch game. The unfortunate thing is that I can tell you about clubs outside than Kwara United close by because the organizers are not given it what it deserves for people to be attracted to watch the game. So, that is my leisure time, I read Qur’an, get nearer to Mallams who can tell me more about life and life thereafter and try to work towards that.