True to his recent pronouncements that he was soon going to convene an all-encompassing economic summit in the state to consolidate his socio-economic programme, Governor Murtala Nyako has announced plans for the programme.
The summit which will afford the people of Adamawa State to take ownership of the socio-economic development blueprint which he has articulated will bring it in line with leading modern day best practices afforded by public private partnerships.
The governor had earlier pointed out that he was going to involve all Adamawa citizens in the summit, including those in diaspora irrespective of political affiliations, while also pointing out that since politics is really about provision of democracy dividends to the electorate, no true son or daughter of Adamawa State ought to decline participation on account of political diffirences.
Currently, the government of Murtala Nyako has embarked on an unprecedented number of myriad of development projects spanning trans-border power transfer, ultra-modern tertiary healthcare delivery, industrial development and massive rehabilitation and construction of infrastructure in both the primary and secondary education sector as well as the commencement of payment/reimbursement of WAEC fees of past and present final year students of Adamawa State origin in secondary schools which he had previously suspended on account of allegation of massive fraud.
Governor Nyako is also recently reputed to have declared he will implement the new minimum wage as soon as it is passed into law, while declaring that civil servants actually deserve even more than what had been proposed. The state Civil Service Commission was also on a recruitment drive recently after several years of embargo which preceded Nyako’s regime, while the governor has also embarked on massive retraining of the entire state civil service which is gulping hundreds of millions of naira to restore its lost glory.
His confidence in taking these giant strides has no doubt been influenced by the success of several of his socio-economic development projects which will deliver substantial additional revenue into the coffers of the state government; the Guyuk Cement company is one of such that is expected to deliver roughly as much revenue to the state as it gets from the federation account when it comes on stream shortly.
The Lagdo electricity transfer project and the Kiri dam hydro- electricity projectwill also garner substantial revenue into the state coffers in view of the fact that the electricity generated or transferred must be must be sold to the national grid, which will in turn redistribute it.
The amount of power to be introduced by these projects is far in excess of the state’s requirement for domestic consumption and its Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) development programme and will therefore be a source of huge revenue for the state.
It will be recalled that Governor Nyako was recently at pains to explain his previous tough stance on fund disbursement to various agencies in the state, hinging this on the need to re-channel funds into developing the state’s income generating base or capability which will enable it survive in the event of any unforeseen hiccups that could interfere with the flow of resources from the federation aacount.
There are also strong indications that some of the campaign promises of some of his political opponents in the recently postponed gubernatorial elections such as the provision of free education at all levels simply impossible to achieve based on the prevailing financial capability of the state.
From facts emerging therefore, it is obvious that Governor Nyako’s dogged pursuit of his policy in the face of massive opposition is beginning to pay off handsomely as even the agencies most affected by the fund squeeze such as the Adamawa State University are beginning to experience a new lease of life.
Allahira sent in this piece from Adamawa State University, Mubi