Dangiwa: A Round Peg in Round Hole

By Adamu S Ladan

The Nigeria’s red Chamber will this Monday begins the screening of the 28 ministerial nominees proposed to it by President Bola Tinubu.

Spokesperson of the Senate, Sen. Adeyemi Adaramodu (APC-Ekiti), disclosed this while addressing newsmen after the list of the nominees was read in the upper chamber last Thursday.

Adaramodu said that although the Senate was not supposed to sit Mondays, but because of the importance attached to this national assignment.

He assured that the screening would be thorough because the lawmakers were very much aware of the high expectations of those who would assist President Bola Tinubu in fulfillment of his mandate and the constitution.

“The Senate is going to examine the character, personality, the experiences, the background of every nominee and we believe at the end of it, Nigerians will not be disappointed.

Who is Dangiwa

One of the nominees however is, Arc. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, the current Secretary to the Government of Katsina state (SGS). Until his appointment as the SGS about two months ago, Arc. Dangiwa held the position of Director General of the APC campaign council in Katsina state. A position he discharged responsibly which led the party to victory.

He took the party to victory despite the prevailing security and socio- economic challenges in the state. He puts greater efforts for the electorates to shamed the naysayers who predicted doom for the party and the nation.

He did ensured that, APC became a better party with people like him around despite his lost at the primary election.

He was among the aspirants who ran in the APC governorship primary election in Katsina State, May 2022.
Hence, his decision not only to stay in the party but join hands with the winner, Dr. Dikko Umar Radda for the success of the party in the 2023 general elections.

It’s instructive to note that Arc Dangiwa’s contributions to the development of politics knows no bound as he had previously midwived CPC and APC as caretaker chairman at the various times of their formations in Katsina state. He had also contested for House of Representatives and Senatorial seats between 2003 and 2011.

DG as APC Katsina state campaign council

However, Arc Dangiwa accepted to lead the APC campaign in Katsina state as Director General on 31st October, 2022 based on his principle which according to him was, “to stand with the poor, the unemployed, the elderly, the displaced population and those who cannot go to their farms, the helpless and the vulnerable, that needed us more than ever this time.”

He did not only took that position with every sense of responsibility but discharged it to the best of his ability for the party, the candidates, Katsina state and above all the country.

Through his campaign council he brought to the party a sense of discipline and professionalism.

Thus, as promised, he led a modern, compassionate and democratic campaign approach that was accountable, where every resource earmarked was deployed for the intended purpose.
He mobilsed the campaign team to work with sense of unity, humility and modesty which culminated into realising the objective of winning the 2023 elections.

The team spirit he built ensured every member viewed the APC candidature as not for the candidates alone but every member of the party and even those non APC voters who genuinely love Katsina state and Nigeria.

Dangiwa did not limited his task to internal affairs of the campaign but also liaised with external parsons, groups and parties where he built positive relationships with potential partners who at the long run contributed in many ways to the party’s successes.

Owing to the circumstance of limited financial resources the APC campaign found itself in Katsina state, Arc. Dangiwa subscribed to the idea of fundraising dinner which was held at the prestigious Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, On Wednesday, December1, 2022.

This epoch making occasion became a huge success and thus gave the financial muscles needed for the campaign to prosper.

However, that was not to say that the journey was smooth and devoid of hiccups. But even when such situations occurred Arc. Dangiwa worked hard and surmounted them.

For instance, the fiscal policy somersault introduced by the Federal government particularly the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on the eve of the general elections, presented a herculean task for the campaign team. To restore the confidence of the people on the party as well as its candidates, he skillfully deployed his decades mastery in the art of voter mobilisation to bring those values that got the APC candidates elected.

Through education, sensitisation and engagements, he Presented Dikko Umar Radda as well as Bola Ahmed Tinubu on what they stood for, correctly and appropriately.

He equally deployed tactical mobilization that had helped transmits the principles and values of conciliation which in the long run promoted post-election peace building in Katsina state where the APC undertook one of the most peaceful campaign in history.

If not for the Danmarke incident where APC team was attacked without any provocation by a section of the opposition, the campaign did not record a single incident of unpleasant circumstance throughout its state wide tour.

The campaign train was able to crisscrossed all the 361 wards of the 34 local government areas of the state including the front line locations where banditry have become order of the day.

Arc. Dangiwa campaign plan ensured that the state gubernotorial candidate and his entourage spent nights in most of the local government areas where consultations were held with the locals, a move which the residents saw as spectacular.

The tour had achieved its effectiveness as it became a reference point of a modern mass movement akin to the period of late Malam Aminu Kano or the Buhari Organization.

To realise the objective of smooth sailing at the polls, Arc. Dangiwa made tremendous efforts at extending the hand of fellowship to aggrieved members of the party who were still agitated to taking adverse decisions following the outcome of the party primaries and other concerns.

He personally led a team that resulted to not only the return of “defectors” but received decampees as well as persuaded those sitting on the fence to fully participate in the campaign.

The fruits of all these painstaking efforts became visible at the end of the 2023 general elections in Katsina state.

After the 25th February, 2023 national elections Katsina state was able to give president Tinubu 482,283 votes which also gave him the needed support that immensely contributed to the victory of the party at the long run.

According to result declared by INEC for gubernatorial election held on March 18th, 2023, APC candidate, Dr. Dikko Umar Radda polled 859,892 to emerge as the winner of the election.

The Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Yakubu Danmarke, polled 486,260, while Nura Khalid of the New Nigeria Peoples Party got 8,263 to become distant second and third runners respectively.

The party also secured all the three Senatorial seats and nine out of sixteen House of Representatives seats.

Following his remarkable performance during the campaign and elections Dangiwa later led Katsina state transition council as co-chairman. He anchored the seamless transition ever witnessed in the state.

Even after that, Arc. Dangiwa demonstrated uncommon patriotism when he accepted to serve as the SGS. Mallam Dikko Radda revealed this when he said “we pleaded with him to accept to serve the state in this capacity, and he did so inspite of his pedigree being a former Managing Director of the nation’s premier mortgage institution, the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN).”

His stints as the SGS in less than two months saw tremendous turn around of public institutions and the arts of governance in Katsina state. He engineered and drived public service reforms where justice, equity and professionalism and financial discipline are now brought to the fore.

Stint at FMBN

As he stepped into FMBN as Managing Director in 2017, Arc. Dangiwa observed that regulatory weakness and uncertainties have stifled potential local and foreign investments in the sector leading to inflated housing price, speculative activities and unscrupulous behaviours of real estate developers.

He noted that there were about 17 million housing units’ deficits in the country resulting to the problems of homelessness, overcrowding and growth of slumps and urban squalor in most cities.

The problem according to him was compounded when government assistance progrmmes to housing sector was largely uncoordinated, fragmented, inefficient, lopsided and unfair.

To this end, he set his vision for the sector focusing on a completely deregulated housing capable of attracting large and long term local and foreign investments needed to promote a vibrant, competitive, innovative and sustainable housing market.

Therefore, working with the National Assembly he developed a legislative instrument that provided solid foundation for housing financing and land use reform which set the market to be primarily driven by private sector and private- partnership (PPP) with government acting as a facilitator, regulator and enabler.

The legislation also ensured the protection of the interests of existing and prospective homeowners, communities and all Nigerians with respect home ownership.

Partnering with private investors, NGOs, CSOs and development partners among others, Arc. Dangiwa developed and executed a ‘Housing Sector Change Agenda’ which served as guiding compass in the housing reform programme.

Every enrollee knew that refund was a nightmare for those who retire but within his five year tenure he made sure that has become history.

He increased National Housing Fund (NHF) Refund to N50 billion from mere N10.8 billion, that is about five times more than what the bank was able to pay since its establishment 25 years before then.

On disbursement the bank under his leadership released N163billion in just five years against N152 billion disbursed in 25 years.

He rose the Housing units to over 33, 000 from 20,435 during that period.

To make housing available and affordable to Nigerians, Arc. Dangiwa reduced the equity requirements from 10 to 0%, and 40 to 10% on loans of N5 million and bellew as well as N5 million and above respectively.

“When we resumed in April 2017, We met only N42billion. That’s an increase of about N78billion in just 5 years.” Dangiwa tweets at his handle recently.

Apart from that, he led the creation of micro finance loan which is now being given to individuals, especially to renovate their houses.”

The result was, the creation of million jobs through numerous housing projects throughout Nigeria.

On human capital, Arc Dangiwa absorved 276 casual workers some of whom were graduates, but denied permanent employment by the previous leadership.

These are just a few from the revolutionary policies and programmes he initiated while at FBMN.

Education/professional career

Professionally, the 60 year old Dangiwa from Kankia, Katsina state was well equipped with education and career development needed to take him to wherever he needs to be.

He hold Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in architecture as well as MBA all from Ahmadu Bello university Zaria. He is also an Alumnus of the prestigious Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, United state.

Dangiwa started his career with TRIAD Associates before moving on to become the manager partner of AM Design Consults, a company that provides consulting services for architectural and real estate development.

An expert in the field of mortgage financing, Dangiwa gained experience at Sahel Mortgage Finance Limited where he ascended from property manager to head of credit control, and to manager of the mortgage banking division.

Conclusion

As the Senate embark on the screening exercise, it is expected that, the Red Chamber will receive a simple and amiable but hard nut to cracked personality with passion for democracy and development that has for more than three decades contributed to the progress and growth of Nigeria not only in the field of politics.

He had put so much in the real estate, banking, development of infrastructure, and management fields in both the private and governmental sectors.

He also has to his credit numerous philanthropic activities spanning across various sectors of human endeavours.

Arc. Ahmed Musa Dangiwa is happily married with children and loves traveling, intellectual engagements, and photography.

Adamu S Ladan writes from Sardauna Estate, Katsina City, Katsina State.