Mary Noel-Berje/
Continuity in governance has a significant effect on the rapid development of any society, therefore, the need for a government to have a long term master plan on a sequence of projects not just projects but those that have beneficial impact on the lives of the citizens needs to be put in place and strictly implemented by successive governments.
However, Nigeria as a developing country has suffered setbacks in this direction based on parochial sentiments exhibited by some of the mediocre politicians, technocrats as well as even civil servants who are expected to implement such policies because they are being beclouded by such emotions.
A leader who assumes power especially from an opposition political party and has the tenacity to complete ongoing projects of his predecessor should be regarded as a true developmental leader who has the love and plight of his people dear to him.
In 2015, May 2019, Governor Abubakar Sani Bello assumed the position of the Executive Governor of Niger State within the 100 days in office he was able to complete some of the projects that were left unfinished by his predecessor.
The first projects executed by Governor Sani Bello were the completion of the Kure-Ultra-Modern Market Road passing through the Airport Road to Kuta Road. He swiftly reconstructed the Sabon Gari-UK Arts Theatre Road all in the heart of Minna, the state capital completion of GRA Road in Bida amongst others.
Assessing some of the developmental strides achieved by Governor Sani Bello under his five-year reign in power has significantly shown some of his achievements and challenges in service delivery to the people that overwhelming voted for him.
The Governor was able to construct some roads as well as renovate others, such of the roads constructed for instance are; Gbeganu-Fadikpe Road, Brighter School-Himma Road, reconstruction of a portion of Tegina-Mashegu Road, reconstruction of Kagara Road which has gone a long way to end the incessant accidents on that area involving mostly petrol tankers leading to inferno claiming lives and destroying properties worth millions of naira. Kontagora too has seen significant progress through massive road constructions, so too is Kagara Township roads.
Several roads contract were awarded in his first tenure, not satisfied with the performance of some contractors, he has wielded his iron rod on them revoking the contacts because of incompetence and rewarding the contracts to other companies who can do the job as specified in terms of the contract signed by both parties.
Basically what Mr. Governor has done is to assess all ongoing infrastructure projects ongoing during his tenure as well as those of his predecessors, hence, before the inauguration of his second term in office, he set up a project monitoring committee under the leadership of Hanafi Sudan, this they submitted with advised and forthwith he constituted a project implementation monitoring committee that has been on toes of contractors to deliver the job with quality and meet up to time duration specified.
The numerous roads construction ongoing now such as the Minna-Bida, Erena, Maitumbi Neighbourhood, Bosso Estate, Tagwai Dam roads, as well as roads in Mokwa, Kagara, Kontagora, Kuta and other places are the continuation of projects awarded in his first term and during his second term inaugural speech he made a promise to do all within his powers and capability to complete projects he initiated as leaving such projects abandoned will be a burden to his successor.
As historic as Zungeru town is, it suffered long time neglect from the successive government; Governor Sani Bello has to break the yoke as he constructed a 6km road that pierces the heart of the town leading it to Wushishi, Lemu and Bida. At the moment, the town which has suffered epileptic power supply will within the possible shortest time electrified the ancient town.
Occupying about 10 per cent of landmass making Nigeria invariably making it to have the highest numbers of Federal Roads in the country, the state government has not deterred in fixing some of the damaged portions of the roads. In some instances, it has to reconstruct some these roads such as the Minna-Suleja Road. Fixing the Minna Chanchaga Road a Federal Road is now the priority of Governor Sani Bello especially with the raining season as he wants to make it motorable so that life will not be difficult for the people despite the budget downward review made due to the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Another area that the governor has made much progress is the ability of his administration to access counterpart funds. The partnership of the state government with Rural Access and Mobility Project (RAMP) has yield positive impact with a colossal success in rural areas where 435km of roads have been established. The government has gone further by surface dressing about 300km of the roads to make it more durable and an exercise the governor has opined that it will continue. All these projects of RAMP and Niger State Government (NGSG) collaboration are spread across the three senatorial districts of the state.
This NGSG/RAMP feeder roads construction has economic value especially in the great potential of agriculture in various rural communities of the state as it will avail them the opportunity to the markets and their activities will surely increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the state and the better the lives of citizens.
Elementary education forms the basis of child’s educational excellence, therefore, Governor Sani Bello entrenched the symbiotic relationship the previous government had with Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) by accessing backlog of counterpart for 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. To date, the government has accessed counterpart of UBEC to 20118.
The counterparts fund accessed are evident in the constructions and renovations of primary schools as seen all over the state.
A discussion with UBEC and the state government has been triggered so that the 2019 funds when accessed would be used to provide furniture’s for these schools as there was a deficit in terms of furniture and resources for them are hard to come by as quite some schools lack furniture.
In the education sector, the government too is grappling with the problem of WAEC and NECO final year examination fees for secondary school students, and there are no corresponding results from these students. Therefore, a review of this policy has become evident due to the lackadaisical attitudes of parents by not monitoring the performance of their wards since they don’t bore the burden of the examination fees payment.
The government have reached an agreement payment formula with the examination bodies hoping that the payment will be fully made this year.
On its part, they government haven observed mass failure of students sitting for final exams in secondary schools, Governor Sani Bello’s drive for quality education gingered him to establish the Niger State Teachers Professional Development Institute which main aim is to inculcate teaching methodology to students at their young age so that they become good teachers and when they take up to teaching profession they will impart knowledge to pupils and students very well and the mass failure trend will be a thing of the past.
The healthcare sector is one aspect that has been so dear to Mr. Governor his commitment to the health sector has brought about massive improvement both in equipment and personnel.
The Neo-natal Wing of Minna General Hospital has been equipped with equipment of world standard and based on the governor promise of constructing one Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) per ward, the project is ongoing and they believe it is achievable.
The PHC is meant to reduce pressure on secondary health facilities so that a person with minor ailment will on end up at the PHC.
Presently, the state is enjoying the partnership with both domestic and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) through the outreach made to them by Governor Sani Bello chief among the NGO are Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Dangote Foundations as well as others.
The fortune of IBB Specialist Hospital is now better as they carryout major surgeries, this effort came to reality because of the governor proactiveness by providing them with the modern equipment and to manage such sophisticated machines government has engaged the services of facility manager for not just IBB Hospital as history has shown that government workers don’t have good maintenance culture.
The governor has been speaking with consideration for the less privileged has also through a facility purchased 60 buses for Niger State Transport Authority (NSTA) to assist those that can afford the commercial transport fare to patronize the state-owned public transport.
In addition to the 60 buses 26 more are being expected, and the government will want to see proper maintenance of these buses so that they achieve the reason these buses are meant for as well as make a turnaround of the investment since it is jointly financed. But since the outbreak of pandemic forcing a lockdown of the country, the state government has been responsible for remitting the part of the monthly return to their partners.
Some challenges have stood before the governor since he came on board, his administration started on a low key when the global economy was in a great depression as things were assuming getting better; the economy further crumbled again following the inconsistencies in the rise and fall of crude oil price in the world market and Nigeria is mono-economy largely depending oil crude oil sector and most states relying on Federal Allocation to survive.
What has stood as the biggest challenge to Governor Sani Bello is the continued security breach as bandits’ onslaught on quiet harmless agrarian communities, killing, maiming, kidnapping, rustling their cattle and destroying their farmland, houses and belongings thus culminating in government spending a lot of resources to manage the internally displaced persons and providing the resources and logistics to security agencies to secure the people which has remained unabated in few local government areas.
Then the unforeseen happened, it was never envisaged, the COVID-19 pandemic. The money used to curtail it should have been made available for other tangible projects. The virus is deadly, its outbreak forced the state to revisit and review its budget forgoing some of his cardinal priority thus fighting the respiratory killer disease to keep Nigerlites safe and necessitating the lockdown of the state and bring the economic activities to a standstill.
Governor Sani Bello has devised a way to move out of this quagmire and the possible way is to encourage the teeming unemployed youth to embrace agriculture since government white-collar as it is over-bloated and political appointment is hard to get.
Therefore, clinging to agriculture especially when they do it co-operatives will surely be of great success and the governor has been in the front burner towards securing facilities to Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
There are a lot of advantages in Niger State in area of agriculture as large parts of its land size is arable and with the availability of water bodies that paves way for all year farming season through the natural precipitation and irrigation farming, and this administration has a mechanism of mopping up surplus farm produce of farmers for their economic gains and the government store them up for rainy days.
As the pandemic lockdown is being eased and life returning to normalcy, Governor Sani Bello has already prioritized his key projects to be carried out, hence his concentration is to complete ongoing projects as he has rightly said on several occasion only when a project is critical that he will start it but if not he is focused to complete ongoing ones.
Mary Noel-Berje
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Niger state.
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