Ahmed Abdulhamid

President Olusegun Obasanjo surely, is a determined, courageous and visionary leader: It would have been cheaper in terms of political cost to continue in the old way. That is, pander to vested interests, and trickles of such patronage could flow down to the masses. However, he made the harder choice of reforming and transforming the system, with all the pains, that could spread across at the initial stage of the process.

In a determined manner that showed that the President is sure footed on the huge task of the reform measures, the latest Ministers reshuffle and appointments was a clear pointer.

The appointment of Hon. Ahmed Abdulhamid and subsequent deployment to the strategic Ministry of Power and Steel in the capacity of Minister of State is a bold reaffirmation of the President Obasanjo administration that all Nigerians with requisite credentials of patriotism, hard work, honesty and credibility can be summoned for national service, irrespective of age, social or political connection, ethnic or religious background.

The appointment of Hon. Ahmed Abdulhamid is significant in several ways, but more importantly in the obvious message that the Obsanjo administration is not really in the business of recycling old hands. Hon Abdulhamid by sheer dint of hard work and dedication has been rising steadily, when he started as a public servant from Hadeja-Jama' are River Basin development from 1985 - 1988. Leaving Kano State Polytechnic School of Management Studies, he went to old Kano State Ministry of Finance from 1989 - 1990 and transferred to Jigawa State Government in 1991 after the new State was created from the old Kano State . He remained in the Jigawa State Government till 1992, when his community pressed him to leave a growing public service career to contest election to the Federal House of Representatives. He duly obliged his people and joined the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) on whose platform he contested and won election into the Federal House of Representatives. At the National Assembly, his enormous resourcefulness and bountiful energy for hard work was recognized by appointment as the Chairman of House Committee on Agriculture and rural development. While he was in a crucial schedule to ensure farm inputs to farmers across the Country, the Life of the National Assembly was forcefully, terminated by the direct re-entry of the military into the Country's Political Life. However, prior to the proscription of the Social Democratic Party SDP, he has served on its Screening committee, in the old Kano State Chapter.

With the return of civil democratic politics, Hon. Abdulhamid joined the Peoples Democratic Party, where he became the Organizing secretary, Jigawa State and later a zonal auditor to the North West Zone of the Party as well as a member of the zonal working committee.

He earned Presidential reckoning in the eventful first term of the Obasanjo Presidency, when he was appointed to the Board of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) where Hon. Abdulhamid served as a member of the Establishment Committee, which drew up the condition of service in the Agency for the first time. This was later enhanced by a greater trust in his ability, when the President graciously approved his appointment as the Jigawa State Co-ordinator for the National Poverty Alleviation Programme.

As a result of commitment to work, the party in his home State nominated him the deputy gubernatorial candidate for the 2003 general election. Though the party lost the election to the rival All Nigeria peoples party ANNP, Honourable Ahmed Abdulhamid is generally reckoned to have left enormous imprint in the sand of time and portrayed the energy of a restless and agitative Youth determined to affect the lives of his people and the Country.

The opportunity came when he was appointed Federal Commissioner in the all important Federal Character Commission to represent Jigawa State . As a member of the Commission he along with his colleagues ensured the fair and equitable representation of all sections of the Country in the Federal Civil Service and other sensitive Federal bodies that require the careful balancing of State representation. Within the Commission he chaired the committee on the most successful retreat, ever organized by the body.

It was while he was in the Commission that President Obasanjo nominated him for the Ministerial appointment, which was confirmed by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Undoubtedly, Hon. Ahmed Abdulhamin has by dint of hard work reached a significant point in public service and his current challenge in the Ministry of Power and Steel, where he would complement the energy and resourcefulness of his dynamic Minister, Senator Liyel Imoke is a testimony of a brilliant career that has spanned nearly two decades and is still unfolding. The fact of his appointment and deployment to the Ministry of Power and Steel showed that the reform programme of the administration has been infused with greater energy and dynamism that the momentum can only accelerate and deepen.

Hon. Ahmed Abdulhamid, a recipient of the General Managers award form Hadeja-Jama' are River Basin Development where he started his public service career in 1985 is also a distinguished patron of the National Peace Movement, an organization that worked hard to calm frayed nerves in those heady days of annulled elections controversy in 1993. The indomitable Youths of Nigeria, whose energy, resourcefulness, bountiful dynamism, patriotism and optimism, whom the Minister of State for Power and Steel is an articulate representation, salutes the President for his wisdom and courage.