Sir: For sure, the incoming governor of Jigawa State, Mallam Umar Namadi, has a lot of work to do to address the challenges facing the state and ensure that it achieves its full potential.
The governor-elect has already prioritised some key areas, which he comprehensively outlined as a 12-point development plan (the blueprint) that will guide the administration as a roadmap to improving the quality of life of the people of Jigawa State. This includes initiatives to improve education, healthcare, infrastructure, agriculture, and information technology. Below are some of the items in the blueprint:
Agricultural Development: This agenda includes initiatives aimed at improving farming production through modernisation and mechanisation, investing in irrigation infrastructure, promoting all-year-round food production through the expansion of irrigation facilities, research and development, and strategic partnerships with local and international partners to attract needed investments to the sector. The goal of this track is to achieve poverty reduction, food security, job creation, and an increase in the state’s internally generated revenue.
Education Development: This agenda focuses on improving the quality education system of Islamic, primary, and tertiary education. This involves consolidating and upscaling gains made within the education sector by ensuring timely recruitment of additional qualified teachers, provision of instructional materials, and training programmes (seminars, symposiums, workshops), monitoring, reward, and punishment systems for performance and punctuality.
Healthcare Development: This agenda seeks to improve an innovative, accessible, and affordable healthcare system for all. This includes increasing budgetary funding to the health sector, well above the 15 percent benchmark of the Abuja Declaration, institutionalising other innovative financing instruments that will inject more funds into the health sector without prejudice to the existing budgetary allocation, the expansion and strengthening of contributory health schemes, and a free maternal and child healthcare system.
People Development: This agenda involves creating a conducive and inclusive environment for youth empowerment, employment, and productivity through investments in agriculture, ICT, business incubation, and vocational skills. This includes establishing ultra-modern skills acquisition centres, renovating, upgrading, and equipping the existing ones to undertake demand-driven empowerment training.
Next, it is for the incoming governor to develop the implementation plan for this blueprint and also assemble the right calibre of people to help him implement it.
•Hamisu Gumel,
Limawa Quarters, Gumel, Jigawa State.