The chairman of the Kano Civil Society Forum (KCSF) Board of Trustees, Prof. Muhammad Tabiu SAN, has said that the aim of forming civil society was not to pose as an antagonist against the government at all levels but to serve as a check and balance.
He made this known during the election of new members of the KCSF, which was held at the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) Kano State secretariat.
According to him, “the erroneous belief of many people is that civil society must always confront the government, but this is not true.”
He, however, stated that civil societies were created to serve as a check and balance; they have to criticize when the government, an association, or a group is going wrong to put them on the right path.
He also hinted that civil society should equally commend and praise the government when it is doing the right thing.
He then charged the newly elected members to carry all members along, especially those who lost the election, adding that they were one family fighting for the same purpose.
In his acceptance speech, the newly elected chairman, Muhammad Bello, Chief Executive of the African Centre for Innovative Research, thanked the forum for giving him the mandate.
He appealed for synergy among members to move the forum forward for the betterment of society in general.
He won the election with 56 votes out of a total of 60 votes cast by members of the forum, defeating Ibrahim Wayya, a former caretaker president of the forum, who got two votes.
Earlier, the chairman of the Electoral Committee of the forum, Hamisu Sharifai, explained that a total of seven positions were unopposed, seven were contested for, and one, Assistant Financial Secretary, was adopted by the Congress, making a total of 15 members of the Exco.
Fatima Musa, the Chief Operations Officer of the Bridge Connect Africa Initiative, is the elected Vice President-1, with Kabiru Ibrahim as Vice President-2.
Salisu Yusuf, the chairman of the Kano Social Protection Platform, is elected the Secretary General of the forum, with Aminu Sani Muhammad as the Assistant Secretary General.
Other elected officials include Maryam Garba as Treasurer and Umar Musa as the Forum’s Legal Adviser.
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