Nasarawa State Governor, Alhaji Tanko? Al-Makura, whose election was confirmed by the Supreme Court last Tuesday, is now certain of his four-year mandate and has consequently mapped out strategies to take his state to a new level. In this interview with LEADERSHIP editors shortly after the court verdict, the governor said that his victory had opened a new vista for the development of the 15-year-old state. He spoke to Suleiman Uba Gaya, Tony Amokeodo and soni daniel.
With the confirmation of your election as the governor of Nasarawa State, what are you going to do take the state and its people to the next level?
Let me thank you for your question. What I consider the topmost priority is not physical development or transformation; it is to restore confidence. That is the battle I have been facing since my election: it is how to restore confidence in governance, in the leaders and the people of the state.
Once that is done, they would re-orientate their minds, ideals and values. This to me is the spring board for anything that would develop the people. Unless you get their minds prepared for whatever you intend to do, they may not really appreciate such actions.
But once they understand that the government is doing, they would key into it and give their maximum support and cooperation. We do not want to work at cross purposes but to ensure that we carry everyone along in our planning and implementation of our set programmes for the overall interest of the people of the state.
The second is what I call physical transformation. My state, which was created 15 years ago, is supposed to be in a certain stage of development, but as I am talking to you I am having a brand new state and virtually everything has to be started from the scratch.
This is so because if you look at the length and breadth of Nasarawa State, you won’t have much to show in terms of development. Regrettably, the state capital does not even have what it takes to be called the capital of a state that was created 15 years ago. Now, if the state capital which is the mirror of the state looks as hopeless as that, you can imagine what the rural areas look like.
That is the situation I inherited after 15 years of the state coming to be. So, who are the people that are most pauperized by the way and manner the previous governments?? had carried out their operations? Those people are the common people; those people are people in the grassroots and in the hinterland whose main preoccupation or aspiration is to have a link to where they could see development.
And, as a CPC administration, the centrepiece of our operation is the people. So, in spite of whatever my focus is, my attention is to be directed at what would enhance better living for the common man, and I have identified three things to bring about the realization of my set objective.
The first is a set of road network to link village to village and from there to the townships. That, to my mind, and from the philosophy of the CPC, would benefit the common man even without asking. Quite a number of them – over 70 percent of the population in such states are suffering and their main worry is how to even carry their farm products to where they can be bought.
They are not asking government to build edifices for them. All they may be looking for is the opportunity to be able to move about. I want to award contract for different network? of roads- the one within the city to make the people live like township people, to give the people in the hinterland the opportunity to reach and access township and economic activities and to? provide for mobility within the state.
The next step is power. I am starting them in the order of priority. Water is very important though; but then we need to put in place a stable power system that can drive all other investments in the state.
Before now people had several ways of accessing potable water even though with difficulty, but something that is very hard to access is power and energy, because of the capital intensive nature of putting the infrastructure. That is why it is only government that is better placed to provide that.
The second priority is to see how I can provide steady power for the state. We are taking three modules. The first is to see how we can utilize the grid that passes around the state and extend it as far as it can go.
Secondly, we have already commenced a Public Private Partnership project to produce hydro- electricity for the state. The programme was actually started by my predecessors and it is expected to cover a substantial part of the state. In addition to that, we also intend to aggressively pursue an aggressive electrification programme using a combination of solar and grid.
The third priority is to provide water. My plan is to have every ward in the state provided with five boreholes for water within the next one year. That is just the starting point. I discovered lately that many schools in the state do not have water. It is for this reasons, that my administration wants to provide water for all secondary schools in the state and other areas of that are in need.
I also want to focus on the provision of social services by repositioning our health sector. In that respect, I intend to reorganise the sector, refurbish and equip the hospitals and health centres to be able to serve the needs of the people at all times.?
That will remove the ugly situation in the hospitals, which now serve as mere prescription centres but with no drugs to give to the patients. Most of our schools that have been left to rot away will be given a boost to be able to prepare our students for competitive examinations.
I am not going to do any project that would attract big publicity without delivering real and tangible benefit to the people. I would like to do simple and ordinary things that would have direct benefits to the common man.
Also, projects that were initiated but abandoned by my predecessors would be completed and new ones established.? I want the people of the state to get value for whatever resources spent. This is my focus in the next one year; after that one can think about more modern projects.
Why would you want to give priority attention to restoring confidence instead of physical development?
You see, in the past, there were promises and they were never fulfilled, and people have become used to them to the extent that they begin to doubt the government.
Now, in restoring confidence I intend to embark upon to make sure all promises are translated into action for the people to see, touch and feel. That is the best way to prove to the people that the government is committed to them.
If you go to Lafia, the state capital, you will find out that I have done no fewer than 11 new tarred roads in the last five months. It is part of our aggressive road construction drive. We intend to connect all parts of the state with good roads to enhance communication and investments.
The Karu axis is a potential waiting to be tapped – a place where entrepreneurs are only waiting to be assured that the government is serious and could protect their investments.? I have therefore initiated proper and comprehensive land administration that would restore confidence, not only to the residents but also on the people who intend to bring wealth to the state.
We have identified a consulting firm to plan and give us a new layout for the area so that we would be able to change Karu into a new residential and business hub that investors would be ready to patronize.
Action will begin in this area in the next two months or so. Very soon, we are going to see a kind of modern and rational development in this area. This is our own part of the package in our bid to restore confidence.
You talked completing an electricity project that was abandoned by previous administrations. Given the allegations that it was marred by fraud, do you think you can handle the project without creating new allegations?
We have noticed that since the initiation of that project, the state government parted with over N6.6 billion, and if you go to that place now, the amount of work done is not up to N500 million. I have visited the place more than three times. I was able to appreciate the enormity and the amount of money that would be required to transform that place to our dream.
We would have to spend nothing less than N10 billion and, at this point in time, with the challenges facing us to provide basic necessities? for our people,? I think that it would be grandiose for me to embark upon that project.
We have however secured a concessionaire who has agreed to provide the amount of money required for the project, which would be a dual project – one for hydro-electricity which would generate close to 20 megawatts and also provide infrastructure and other necessary inputs for tourism. Already, a memorandum of understanding has been signed.
The state is not going to spend one kobo on that project. He has already secured his source of funding; he has already brought specialists from about three different countries and, in the next one month, work would have started on that project.
They have a period of about 20-25 years during which they would be able to recoup their money and hand over the project to the state.
There are allegations that you are planning to return to the PDP in order to have peace with the majority of the members of the state House of Assembly who belong to the party?
Well, the rumour is not a new one. It has been going on for some time now, but that is not true at all. I am staying in CPC and running a CPC agenda in my state.
It is true that when we started initially, some members of the House of Assembly wanted to flex their muscle with us, but I am happy to say that we now work as members of the same family, because we now understand ourselves better.
So, the issue of me going back to my former party or some persons crossing over to the CPC is not a priority to me. What matters now is that we can create a conducive atmosphere for development to permeate the state and bring the intended benefit to the majority of the people, particularly, the downtrodden.
How do you feel being the only CPC governor in Nigeria?
I feel highly challenged; I feel I am on a test. CPC is on trial. I would not want CPC to have a bad name from my administration. CPC has sacrificed enough.
CPC has evolved a philosophy and an ideal that are different from all the parties since the return of democratic rule in 1999. I would want people to see how I would adopt and implement the CPC manifesto in our bastardized democracy, especially in Nasarawa State.
So the challenge is enormous and I would want to assure all that I would adhere strictly to the ideals of my party, and if I get the support of the people of Nasarawa State to adapt and implement it, nearly all the states in the country would be jostling to join the party in 2015.????
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