By Adewole Kehinde
After about 25 years of existence, Gombe State, the
Jewel of Savannah, is now clearly set on the path of new dawn under the
transformational leadership of Governor Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya.
The current administration, which ushered in the new
era, was only three years old when the impact of transformational leadership
began to gain traction, whereas my findings indicate a solid foundation for
sustained growth across the state's socio-economic landscape in the medium to
long term.
Most governance analysts have often excused many
governments’ failures on the premise of the impact of COVID-19 on the national
and sub-national economies, but Gombe seems to have created a different
narrative; that challenges berth creativity and ultimately superlative
performance.
For Gombe, the environmental circumstances were even
more daunting, judging from the difficult financial and socio-political
liabilities inherited by the Mohammad Yahaya administration. My findings show
that upon assumption of office, the administration was confronted with a
treasury in distress, burdened with about N124 billion in loans and bonds,
pension and gratuity arrears, and contractors’ liabilities.
The fiscal stress could be gleaned from the
recurrent obligations amounting cumulatively to about N900.4 million monthly to
service the liabilities. But the administration has gone ahead to demonstrate a
determination to achieve positive results. It is the usual practice for new
administrations in Nigeria’s governance space to abandon uncompleted projects
inherited from the previous administration, especially if the new
administration was not an extension of the previous. But Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya
chose the road less travelled.
Determining to salvage and possibly turn around the
taxpayers’ money into viable assets, the administration embarked on completing
those projects.
Despite being in the midst of the theatre of
insurgency, Gombe ranks as the best state in the ease of doing business,
emerging top in Nigeria’s sub-national ease of doing business survey. The
survey was conducted by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council.
The states were assessed using homegrown indicators in four thematic areas:
infrastructure and security, transparency and access to information, regulatory
environment, and skills workforce readiness.The Infrastructure and Security
theme involves four indices, namely transportation, primary healthcare, and
security.
It is more than apparent that Governor Inuwa Yahaya
is achieving all these, by predisposing his energy and resources, towards
engaging the youth population in the state, with the various developmental
projects he has embarked upon. The Muhammadu Buhari Industrial Park is
scheduled to provide 50,000 jobs for youths in the state.
The governor has already established the Gombe State
Security, Traffic, and Environmental Corps, GOSTEC. The corps is a homegrown
innovation which is providing 2,000 young men and women with jobs in security,
traffic control, as well as environmental cleaning and maintenance services
across the state. It boasts of a women's empowerment programme where 5,000
women are being trained and funded to embark on different business ventures of
their own.
When youths are taken off the streets, and the idle
womenfolk are engaged with one business or the other, society becomes safer and
more ideal for government policies and other socio-economic programmes to
thrive. Overall, the youth empowerment programmes are targeting 20,000 youth
and women.
Another arm of this youth empowerment drive is the
unprecedented provision of 2,000 tricycles, popularly called Keke-NAPEP. This
is geared towards the socio-economic advancement and self-reliance of the
common man. This was done through the human capital development initiative of
the state government. The distribution of the Keke-NAPEP was done through the
umbrella association of the Keke Riders Association of Nigeria, Gombe State
chapter. One thousand (1000) beneficiaries were drawn regardless of their party
affiliations, their local governments or tribes to kick-start the initiative.
This was in addition to the training and engagement of over 1,000 youths under
the At-Risk Children Programme (ARC-P).
Another 3,000 youths have also been engaged as
development facilitators, working for the progress of their various
communities. With the aforementioned programmes, the state government has
institutionalised a framework that has guaranteed a steady and geometric surge
in internal revenue, which has never been seen within the last 25 years of the
state’s existence. To further bolster the human capital development drive, a
database capturing the 27,000 unemployed graduates in the state is being
deployed to link them to appropriate jobs in both the public and private
sectors based on their skills.
Persons with disabilities (PWDs) have not been
disabled by the Inuwa Yahaya empowerment and youth development projects. A mega
centre is being built for them in the state, while various empowerment items,
funds and training are being extended to them as well, just like the other
able-bodied youths in the state. This is being done in collaboration with the
Qatar Charity Foundation, which has executed over 400 projects across the state.
It has provided medical services to more than 5,000
people, with over 1,000 eye surgeries and medical glasses. It has built more
than 50 places of worship, in which youths were engaged, with marketers of
various building materials in the state enjoying patronage. More than 140
boreholes were also built. PWDs were provided with tricycles for the disabled
and hundreds of sewing machines, grinding machines, and learning packages for
PWDs.
A whopping 1,000 fresh teachers are being recruited
by the Gombe State Teacher’s Service Commission. A total of 288 teachers under
the SUBEB programme have applied for a transfer of service to the State’s
Ministry of Education’s Secondary Schools and Technical Colleges. All of them
have been approved and will be absorbed into the recruitment exercise. This
massive engagement of the youth populace into the state’s workforce, and other
meaningful programmes, are going a long way in providing job and food security
in the state. It is a key ingredient in maintaining law and order in the state.
The jobless ones are mopped up from the streets by providing employment and
businesses that make them independent or self-reliant. Governor Inuwa Yahaya’s
purposeful leadership is providing food on the table for the common man, jobs
for the youth, and security for the state.
For these and even some more landmark achievements,
Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State deserves a second term in office with at
least 99% of the total vote cast in Gombe State.
Adewole Kehinde is the Publisher of Swift Reporters
and can be reached via 08166240846. kennyadewole@gmail.com
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