Jantabo: Where the government meets the people

There are politicians who become known for the office they hold. There are others who become famous for what they do with the office.

Mu’azu Hamidu Jantabo belongs to the second category.

Today, he is the Commissioner for Local Government and Capital Affairs in Niger State, a position he has held since Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago constituted his cabinet in 2023.

But Jantabo did not come to the ministry as an outsider to local government. He was a two-term Chairman of Lapai Local Government and also served in the Niger State chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria. His track record from that period includes interventions in healthcare, electricity and other basic infrastructure.

This background is important.

Local government is where people experience government most directly. It’s not the governor’s office. It is not the ministry of Minna. It is the road to the village, health center, water project, municipal office and traditional institution.

This is the space that Jantabo understands.

When he became commissioner, he inherited a local government system in dire financial straits. It revealed that 15 of the state’s 25 local governments were insolvent. It wasn’t just a government statistic. Behind it were municipal workers, communities and the ability of local governments to carry out their core functions.

His job, therefore, would never be easy.

But Jantabo’s importance to the Bago administration goes beyond the ministry he heads.

He is also a politician.

And his political relationship with Bago predates his appointment as commissioner.

Those who followed the politics of the governor’s rise know that Jantabo was part of the political structure that helped build support for Bago. His role became especially important during the APC primaries that produced Bago as the party’s candidate for governor.

The outcome of those primaries sent a message.

It wasn’t simply about winning a ticket. It showed the strength of the political structure behind Bago and the ability of his political team to mobilize support across the state. Jantabo, according to political observers, was one of the most important architects of that mobilization.

This is no small thing in politics.

Politics is about numbers, but numbers don’t move by themselves. Someone has to build relationships, bring people together and make the structure work. A former local government chairman has an advantage here. He understands the grassroots in a way that someone who has spent his entire political career in the capital could not.

And Jantabo appears to have brought that experience with him into the Bago administration. Perhaps nowhere is this more visible than in his relationship with young people.

Jantabo has made youth development one of the things he is increasingly known for. His speech on scholarship is a good example.

In 2025, its scholarship program supported 1,111 students of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, while another 172 students from other institutions also benefited. The intervention involved supporting students who might otherwise struggle with the costs of education.

Education is technically not the responsibility of the Commissioner for Local Government Affairs and the Chieftain.

But maybe that’s exactly the point.

There are things politicians do because their offices require it. There are other things they do because they choose to do it.

For a young person struggling to stay in school, it may not matter which ministry is officially in charge. What matters is that someone decided to help.

This could also explain why Jantabo has built a strong following among young people. It’s not just about young people. He also tried to create opportunities for them.

His public platform describes his approach to leadership in terms of identifying, mentoring and creating opportunities for young people. Whether or not you agree with every political position you take, there is no doubt that youth engagement has become part of your political identity.

This is one of the reasons why he became one of the faces of the Bago administration. In many ways it is the symbol of administration. Not because he is the most powerful commissioner. It’s not. But because his position places him where politics and government meet the people.

It deals with the 25 local government councils. Work with traditional institutions. Interacts with the presidents of the council. Take the governor’s message to the grassroots and report the grassroots’ concerns to the government. The importance of that role cannot be overstated.

The New Niger agenda cannot succeed in Minna alone. Its success will ultimately be determined by what happens in Lapai, Bida, Suleja, Chanchaga, Kontagora, Mokwa and other local government areas. It has to reach people. And this is where Jantabo comes in.

His ministry has been involved in efforts to strengthen local government administration, including engagements with council chairmen on leadership and grassroots development. He also personally inspected abandoned water systems across the state, evaluating how they could be restored to benefit communities.

This is the less glamorous side of politics.

There are no large campaign rallies around a broken water system. There is no enthusiasm in discussing municipal finances. But these are the issues that determine whether people feel the government’s presence. That’s why Jantabo’s experience as a former prime minister is important. He sat on both sides.

He has been the man waiting for state government to respond to the needs of local government. Today it is part of the state government that should be held accountable. This experience can be an advantage. It can also be a burden.

People expect more from a man who has been there before. They expect him to understand the difficulties of councils and the frustrations of people.

And it is here that Jantabo’s political future will ultimately be judged. Not by how many people attend his political meetings. Not by how many photographs of him appear on social media. But from the fact that the structures he supervises become more responsive to people. This is the true meaning of local government.

Government becomes real when a road is set. When the water flows. When a health center works. When a municipal employee receives his salary. When a young person stays in school because someone helped him. These are no small things. They are the elements by which ordinary people measure government.

This is also why Jantabo became important to Bago’s political project.

The governor may be the face of New Niger, but an administration needs people who can carry its message beyond the seat of government. Jantabo is one of those people.

He has the experience of local government chairman. He has the political instincts of an organizer. He has the access that comes with his position in government. And he has built a constituency among young people through education and other interventions.

There will always be questions about politicians and their motivations. There should be. Public officials must be scrutinized and political loyalty should never replace accountability.

But it is also important to recognize political actors who understand that government is ultimately about the people.

Jantabo’s political history is still being written. For now, though, one thing is clear. He went from being a man who ran a local government to becoming the man responsible for overseeing all 25 local governments in Niger State. It’s a nice trip.

And perhaps this explains why, among the many faces of the Bago administration, it has become difficult to miss the face of Jantabo. It operates where politics meets administration. Where the state meets local government.

And, ultimately, where the government meets the people.