BY MAITAMA DAN MAMMAN

Bureaucrat is technically a job description; an official who works in a government department. The moment such an official metamorphose into holding a high-level political office, they are technically a politician. In this series of articles profiling Aminu Muazu Maifata, Honourable Commissioner Nasarawa State Ministry for Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs, I have used that license that is granted to writers and columnists; I am calling him POLITICAL BUREAUCRAT. I could have used the oft inundated words or phrases like Technopol or Mandarin or even Apparatchik. To me these, sound more like cheap buzzwords or cliches.

Calling Honourable Maifata a “political bureaucrat” implies he is still concerned with procedural correctness in spite of the fact that he is holding a political office. The Honourable Maifata is someone who uses official rules very strictly, in steering the affairs of local government administration in Nasarawa State. I have opted to use Political Bureaucrat because I want to emphasize his dual nature in a straightforward way; a politician guided by bureaucratic procedure and process, for the common good.

A veteran with immense proven administrative steadfastness, he has successfully transitioned from the easy-going halls of classroom lectures, to the status of Chairman, Lafia Local Council, to the heat of the political arena. As a technopol, he is bringing a rare combination of policy depth and electoral savvy, navigating the complexities of governance with the precision of a career insider.

And today as the Honourable Commissioner Ministry for Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs, he is coordinating and managing 13 local council administrators. In this role he is essentially the bridge between high-level policy and grassroots execution. As a veteran he has put in place necessary structures which are helping him to balance oversight with empowerment.

As a first step he standardized Key Performance Indicators, KPIs, that way everyone knows how they are being measured. Here Honourable Maifata advised all the local governments on budget adherence, service delivery timelines, and especially community engagement. He created a simple, unified reporting template that highlight wins, risks, and resource needs. This is in addition to periodic group meetings for alignment.

One of the key indices of his prowess, dexterity and competence as a pollical bureaucrat is in building rapport and bond. In spite of the huge role that local governments play in rural development, officials working in local councils often feel forgotten by the central office. Honourable Maifata has now turned the tide by opening up channels of communication between the state and the 13 local councils in the state. By so doing, he doesn’t see all the local councils with one lens. Instead, he has studied and understood each council and their specific and unique challenges; urban vs. rural, wealthy vs. underfunded.

To the officials working in the 13 local government areas of Nasarawa State, accountability is the in-thing, with each council working to ensure they meet statutory deadlines. The ultimate target under Honourable Maifata is consistency; working to ensure a citizen in District A receives the same quality of service as in District B. What is more, the only game in town today is not that football league match happening in Europe, the biggest game under Honourable Aminu Muazu Maifata, Nasarawa State Commissioner for Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs is, council chairmen see how their daily work fits into the larger national goals.