Author: The Nation

As Governor Abdullahi Sule assumed office on May 29 for his second tenure, many residents are hopeful that his second term will usher in more socio-economic improvements in order to better the lives of the people. LINUS OOTA reports

On May 29 2019, Governor Abdullahi Sule assumed office as the 4th democratically elected Governor of Nasarawa State. After taking the oath of office, he was confronted by a huge task of improving the welfare of the people and securing their lives. Did he succeed in his avowed determination to improve the well-being of the people in his first four years? If he didn’t, what are the areas in which he would double his efforts to make life better for the people?

Those who are indigenous to Nasarawa State were in dear need of social welfare and security of lives and property; he was equally confronted by a litany of life-threatening issues that needed urgent attention. Lives were at risk as insecurity was a recurring decimal. The rate of unemployment was very high, and there were little or no empowerment schemes to alleviate people’s poverty. Within the first four years, the people said they witnessed massive infrastructural development, peace, security, social services, and employment generation which were among his administration’s top priorities.

 Many people believe Governor Sule recorded considerable achievements in his first tenure despite the fact that, on the assumption of office, his administration experienced myriads of daunting challenges that included a recessed economy, paucity of funds, backlog of unpaid workers’ salaries, arrears of pension, the infrastructural deficit in the rural areas and unemployment, among others. Not deterred by these enormous challenges, he hit the ground running by rejigging and repositioning the state Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for better performance and improved revenue generation. This action improved significantly the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from a paltry N800 million at the beginning of his first tenure in 2019 to over N21 billion by late last year; thereby placing the state in good financial stead. The administration, from October last year up to date, pays workers’ salaries and pensions monthly without waiting for the federal allocation.

To achieve this, officials said the administration introduced good governance, equity, fiscal discipline, accountability and transparency. Since then, governance in the state took a new direction geared towards peaceful co-existence, integration and even development across the state – all done through inclusive leadership style. Despite the enormity of the work, critics admitted that the administration has taken far-reaching measures to give the people a new lease of life, with virtually all the sectors of the state economy witnessing interventions. These include security, agriculture, health, education, infrastructure, rural development, workers’ welfare and youth empowerment.

Shortly after taking the oath of office for a second term on May 29, Governor Sule told the people that despite the limited resources, the adverse effect of COVID-19 pandemic, economic recession and the decline in government revenue, “giant strides were recorded.”

“We can raise our shoulders high and our voice loud to say that we have tremendously exceeded the many expectations of our people. This occasion avails us the opportunity to reflect on a few of our major achievements since our assumption of office in May 2019, which I will highlight shortly for the purpose of consolidating on our gains so far and focusing on policies and actions in the years ahead,” he said.

On security, the state government, in the past four years, said it has sustained collaborative efforts and synergy with security agencies to provide logistics support notably, vehicles and infrastructure towards equipping and motivating our security agencies in the task of ensuring the safety of lives and property. Through this, Nasarawa State has recorded the lowest crime rate compared to the previous administration, even in the face of the resurgence of criminal activities across the country as well as the farmers-herders’ crisis.

 “We facilitated the establishment and expansion of security outfits such as military super camps in troubled areas, military Special Forces Barracks, Police Mobile Training College and the Air Force Special Forces Base, among others, thereby ensuring relative peace and a drastic reduction in the rate of communal crises, kidnapping and banditry in the state,” he said.

 On economic development, he said: “We developed the Nasarawa Economic Development Strategy (NEDS) document, which defines our development blueprint and achievements, notably, the establishment of the Nasarawa Investments and Development Agency (NASIDA) whose activities have attracted investments of some major ventures, including Azman Rice Limited, Flour Mills of Nigeria plc, the Lee Group and Saro Africa International.

“We signed a joint venture Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the establishment of the Nasarawa Technology Village in Aso Pada in Karu Local Government Area. The Nasarawa State Investments Summit has also attracted world-class investors interested in investing in our solid mineral and agricultural endorsements. Our commitment to the investment drive has earned the state the rating by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) for being among the top three investment destinations in Nigeria,” he said.

He added that, due to his commitment to the development of the state, the state is experiencing the exploration and commencement of the drilling of the Ebenyi-A Oil Well in the Obi Local Government Area. “I assure you that this endeavour will not stop there. We envisage that exploration activities in Keana and Assakyo will also yield pleasant results sooner than later,” he noted.

On agriculture, the Governor said: “We ensured timely procurement and distribution of fertilisers, herbicides and implementation to our farmers at subsidised rates to boost production. We have also keyed into the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLP) of the Federal Government for sustainable food security, livestock production and value chain addition, as well as finding lasting solutions to incessant farmers-herders’ clashes. The pilot projects for Awe Grazing Reserve have reached an advanced stage, while those earmarked for Keana, Lafia, Doma, Wamba, Nasarawa and Karu will follow later.”

The administration said it has constructed and reconstructed several urban and rural roads such as the 25km Mararaba-Udege Road, 15.5km Asphalt Sisinbaki-Kwarra Road, Gudi-Moro Road, Asphalt overlay of Adudu-Ribi-Azara-Wuse Road, Garaku-Dari Road, Umaisha-Toto Road, Dual carriageway, single carriageway and Antau Bridge Keffi, Karikari-Ado Kasa Road, Masaka-Luvu Road and Nunku-Agyaga-Rinze Road. Others include Wamba Township Road, Akwanga Township Road, Alushi-Awayi Aloce-Apata, the access road to the new presidential lodge, Lafia, landscaping and perimeter fencing, West by-pass and Airport Road Lafia, among others.

 The administration equally completed the Lafia Airport so as to accommodate the envisaged influx of investors, goods and services to the state. “The Airport has been transferred to the Federal Government to ensure maximum utilisation and value addition. We have conducted the feasibility study of the Abuja-Keffi Rail line. We have engaged prospective partners on the Peninsula Housing project, and Gurku-Kabusu mega city.”

In the transport sector, the administration has also constructed the Modern Yahaya Sabo and General Sani Abacha Bus Terminals in Lafia and Karu, respectively to maximise the state’s growth potential and enhance revenue generation. Both terminals are already in full operation. “In the same manner, the neighbourhood markets in Keffi, Akwanga and Nasarawa Eggon have been completed and inaugurated to open vistas of economic activities,” he said.

In the education sector, through counterpart funds to UBEC, the state government has facilitated the construction of more classroom blocks, rehabilitation and equipping of primary and junior secondary schools in the state. “We just paid 2022 counterparts funds and currently awarding the contracts. We have formalised the appointment of 2,250 teachers while over 3,000 teaching and non-teaching members of staff were recruited for secondary and tertiary institutions. The screening exercise for the recruitment of another batch of 1,000 teachers is ongoing.”

During the period under review, 91 primary health care centres were either constructed or rehabilitated in addition to offering free medical services in all the 13 local government areas on the treatment of glaucoma and cataract diseases; including surgery of different ailments, issuance of glasses and other medications to affected people. “The Nasarawa State Infectious Diseases Diagnosis and Research Centre, rated as one of the best diagnostic centres in the country, was completed and inaugurated by the immediate past Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (GCON). My administration provided funding for the establishment of the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Nasarawa State University, Keffi to enhance the training of health manpower and specialised services to patients. Within the four years of our stewardship, we renovated the Nasarawa State House of Assembly Complex, constructed additional courts and completed the state high court complex finishing and furnishings.”

Unlike most political leaders, many see Governor Sule has used political power as a shield to protect and unite the people. These and many other feats of his administration in the last four years, people say, are what endeared him and his government to the people of Nasarawa State. In a chat with our correspondent, the state secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Aliyu Bello, said that there is no doubt that the state has continued to show a promise of unprecedented development for the people of the state and the future generation. He commended the governor for turning the state into an investment haven for businesses, adding that the numerous attractions of companies in the state clearly indicate his sagacity in private sector development.

“Governor Sule came with a lot of experience which he garnered from the private sector. He swung into action and fixed most of the roads and restored security. His administration has developed the agriculture sector and improved the ease of doing business in the state in order to encourage more manufacturing companies to establish their businesses in the state,” he said.

He described Governor Sule’s second term as a consolidation and a breath of fresh air for many investors currently investing and doing business in the state. “Appraising the first four years of the Sule administration’s commitment to the economic growth of the state, one can confidently say that the people of Nasarawa State were correct in their choice of Abdullahi Sule as governor first in 2019 and now in 2023.The state has continued to witness a rapid economic transformation and this can be viewed from several points, including the IGR drive which has been rated by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) as the fastest growing state in the North-central. Nasarawa State is, undoubtedly, on a speedy rise under Governor Sule. He has dedicated his focus at uplifting the standard of living of his people,” he said.

He noted that the most significant achievements in the past four years are the existing peace, which he said has brought security and rapid development, especially in the rural areas. “During the past four years, there is an existing cordial working relationship among the three arms of government; there is also a cordial government-labour relationship. As a people, we are happy and will remain eternally grateful to Abdullahi Sule for the transformation of Nasarawa State and its economic liberation,” he said.

Prince Adewole Adebayo is the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the just concluded general election. In this interview with reporters in Lagos, he speaks about how Nigerians have fared under former President Muhammadu Buhari, the challenges of fixing Nigeria under the current administration of President Bola Tinubu and the performance of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the last general election. Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI reports

President Ahmed Bola Tinubu has been inaugurated as the 16th president of Nigeria, following his recent victory at the polls. What is your advice for him, given the mountain of challenges facing the country?

President Tinubu has what it takes to fix Nigeria if he wants to do so; he has his ‘Renewed Hope’ manifesto after all. But, I still insist that it is not up to my blueprint for the Nigerian economy in the last general election, christened ‘Hope Again’. Nigerians voted for Tinubu to be president, and I wouldn’t assume that he spent all these years preparing to be president without having his priorities. I have studied his manifesto if he keeps to it — but I doubt whether he will — his government will be better than that of all the administrations before him put together. But if he decides to do what the All Progressives Congress (APC) did under former President Muhammadu, on the aegis of Change and Next Level mantra, it will be unfortunate.

It is up to Tinubu now because once you grab power you will become a different person. The Tinubu I know does not have the problem of capacity; his problem may be ambition. So, it is up to him to decide what he wants to do with the opportunity he has on his hands; whether he will say now that election is over and I have achieved my life ambition, let me relax or let me leave a legacy for future generations. I pray that Tinubu’s motivation is that he wants to be a great leader that Nigeria and Africa will remember because any Nigerian president that succeeds in fixing Nigeria would have fixed the whole of Africa and the black race.

Tinubu is the first president since 1999 to get elected with less than 10 million votes. What does it signify?

It signifies that democracy is maturing and penetrating in Nigeria; the figures may even be lower in the next presidential election in 2027. In the past, politicians could cook up any figures they wanted during an election, but with the Bimodal Voter’s Accreditation System (BVAS) it is impossible to cook up the figures. This signifies that the numbers at this election are realistic. Secondly in the past, whoever was contesting on the platform of the ruling party is almost certain that he would win the election. Today, the situation is different. The figure is not an indication that anything is wrong with President Tinubu; it just shows that the excitement of voting is tied to the state of mind of voters at each electioneering time.

The President Muhammadu Buhari era has come to an end and despite what Nigerians may feel, he has said that though the eight years were tough, his administration succeeded in putting Nigeria on the path of economic prosperity. What is your comment on that?

When you evaluate an administration, you do that from your angle of impact, attack, and frame of engagement. People inside the administration will look at it from the efforts he put in, but people outside will look at it from the result he achieved. Both are right but the efforts of the president or anybody in public office should be judged from their capacity. Buhari may be right to say he has put Nigeria on the path to economic prosperity, but that path is full of thorns.

If I am to evaluate former President Buhari, I will do it based on his innate abilities and capabilities; you cannot expect a man to turn into a lion just because people are hailing him ‘lion’. The second perspective from which we can evaluate Buhari is based on what he promised or what was promised on his behalf, and thirdly on what would have been the alternative if we didn’t have Buhari. I think Buhari tried to work honestly but was inhibited by his capacity. Secondly, he did not have input in many of the things that were promised on his behalf. If you look at the three major promises, the economy, security, and anti-corruption, the one area in which Buhari did not do anything at all is anti-corruption; it showed that Buhari could be anything but the one thing he is not is an anti-corruption crusader; the notion of Buhari as an anti-corruption person is fiction.

Are you saying that there were significant improvements in the economy and security?

The security situation is not what it used to be; you cannot accuse Buhari of not having the sincerity of purpose to fight insecurity. But he did not have the competence and dexterity to command the armed forces. Anything about insecurity now could be attributed to Buhari not having the competence. Nigeria’s constitution makes the president the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, it is not so in some countries. In Nigeria, the moment you take the oath of office as the president, you have become a soldier even if you are civilian and major decisions in the armed forces would be taken by you.

Buhari was an army General, a former General Officer Commanding (GOC) 3rd Armoured Brigade of the Nigerian Army…

The fact that he was in the army and was GOC at one time does not mean he has the competence. Buhari tried as much as possible to comfort the armed forces and give them almost everything. But they lacked direction because Buhari did not provide that direction. Boko Haram has been degraded; the potency of the Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) is not as effective as before. All these groups have given way to banditry and other criminal groups and for some reason, Buhari has failed to get the police to tackle these issues. All the gaps we have in the security system at the moment have to do with capacity; there were lots of failures in intelligence. Buhari did his best, but his best was not good enough. In the economy, Buhari had a real interest in providing the infrastructure; his administration could complete projects compared with the administrations before him; the costs of the projects could be a cause of worry but the administration finished projects even those it inherited.

However, Buhari failed in the anti-corruption war. Buhari was presented to Nigerians as a man that hated corruption just to make him sellable.  Another area that the Buhari administration did well is that of multi-party democracy; either by conscious decision or otherwise, the Buhari government was the first that did not exercise negative influences in the activities of opposition political parties. During the Olusegun Obasanjo era, the ruling party had the habit of sabotaging the internal workings of other political parties.

In one of your recent engagements, you said that the electoral commission in Nigeria is not designed for free and fair elections. Please, elaborate on that…

If you look at the way the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is configured, you will discover that it is not looking at the best way to conduct free and fair elections; the transition is always managed to conform to certain parameters that favour the status quo. Look at the 1999 transition, it was managed in a way that even before it started,  the military had narrowed it down to two contestants or three at most, and they had settled for Obasanjo before the election was conducted. Obasanjo later appointed Abel Guobadia as INEC chairman to help him realise his second-term ambition; then he appointed Maurice Iwu to manage his PDP-to-PDP transition. Even when you look at political party registration, you will discover that it is all part of the same narrow space. The state governors have a role in the appointment of the INEC chairman, the National Commissioners, and the Resident Electoral Commissioners, so INEC is part of the political process. From the process of registering a political party to the nomination of candidates, INEC is the one responsible for monitoring and certifying all the business of the political parties and is responsible for what a political party becomes.

What is the way out?

Given the way INEC is currently configured, those at the helm of affairs are in a position to determine the political outcome. If we want to do something about the political space, we must first do something about the overbearing influence of INEC in the internal affairs of political parties. Prof Mahmood Yakubu will finish his second term and leave and Tinubu will appoint the next INEC chairman; the implication is that the future of our election will reflect the philosophy Tinubu has about elections. If he thinks elections should be free, fair, and credible then he will look for people who will fit into that and hope that members of the National Assembly of which his party is in the majority will agree with him.

The 2023 elections did not go the way you anticipated but you learnt some lessons. Though 2027 is a long time away, would you take another shot at the presidency?

I had wanted 2023 to be a time for us to take a break from the past, unfortunately, we couldn’t do that. I have learnt a lot of lessons, and if we don’t make the mistakes we made this time, I believe something great will come, I believe if we all learn from the mistakes of 2023, we would reach a point where we will have a nation where everyone will be happy. For 2027, the first duty is to be alive, second is not to lose touch with the people because I don’t have any other objective for being in politics except the people. Thirdly, I hope and pray that in 2027 we would still not be talking about poverty and insecurity, it will be bad if we are. If the conditions that made me contest the 2023 presidency disappear, I may not run, but if they remain, I will look around and see if there is anyone thinking about unaccountability in governance like me or who has better prospects than me, we will work together.

The Justice Mohammed Uwais Commission made certain recommendations on electoral reforms some of which have been implemented in the Electoral Act 2022. In your view, are there any other areas that require attention, especially since in today’s Nigeria the judiciary decides the winners of elections?

The reforms we need are not cosmetic changes, if other institutions, including the judiciary, political parties, and the media, among others, work well, INEC mischief will be minimised. The responsibility of the commission should be limited to conducting elections, and all other supervisory roles over political parties should be removed.

Turnouts have been low in recent elections and many observers have proposed ways to encourage Nigerians to vote on the day of the election, such as coming up with a system to make it possible for people to vote anywhere in the state or the country, irrespective of where they registered, at least during governorship and presidential elections?

Americans vote during their election from anywhere in the world; many other countries also do so; technology is not the problem; it is a policy issue. Maybe the framers of the Constitution were perhaps suspicious of the idea of using technology in the electoral process or ignorant of the capacity of technology. We came from having as our benchmark June 12, 1993, the Option A4 of Prof Humphrey Nwosu; we could only believe what we saw with our eyes. How would we trust one server somewhere in the cloud to tell us how the votes went? In the United States, Fox News had to pay heavy fines to Dominion Technology over the accusation that the voting machines were rigged against Donald Trump in favour of Joe Biden. If some people in America, as enlightened as they are believed such a story, imagine what people in Nigeria would believe. Do you remember how Nigerians reacted to the inability or the unwillingness of INEC to upload results of the presidential election from the polling units into the IReV portal?

President Buhari was quoted as saying that the Niger Republic would come to his aid if Nigeria troubles him. What is your comment on that statement?

Many people don’t know that Buhari jokes a lot; I think it is one of those jokes. However, geographically, we must understand that Nigeria and Niger are one; traditionally there is no boundary, and both countries on that border speak the same Hausa language, they are the same people. It is just the British and French boundary partition after the Berlin Conference of 1884 that separated them. I think what Buhari was trying to say was that he would not be interested in Abuja politics after the handover.

An American-based businessman and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Sunday Okoro, has congratulated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his inauguration as the 16th President of Nigeria.

In a statement, Chief Okoro said Nigerians truly made the right choice in choosing the former Lagos State governor as the new president.

He acknowledged that Tinubu’s tenacity, commitment and hard work would see him change the face of Nigeria.

Okoro called on Nigerians to support the administration of President Tinubu, saying concerted efforts from all stakeholders would not only see to the success of the present administration but would make things easy for him.

He said: “I felicitate and congratulate our President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on this historic occasion. This is the culmination of the mandate Nigerians handed over to him, demonstrating his capacity to pilot the affairs of our great country.

“I call for support to the administration of President Tinubu because he cannot do it alone; he needs our help to pilot the affairs of this country and it is only through that, that all of us will be better for it. With his hard work, tenacity and commitment, Nigerians will breathe a new life under President Tinubu, which is why I am calling for support for him. Once again, I congratulate our president and pray for God’s guidance upon him.”

He urged the president to immediately hit the ground running and justify the confidence Nigerians have in him.