Governor Muhammadu Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa State spoke with reporters in Dutse, the state capital, on his one year in office, his achievements and constraints. Ahmed Rufa’i was there.
You are one year in office. what is your feeling?
I feel relatively fulfilled, coming after the shock and bewilderment that we were in after the swearing in. you know we made some discoveries during the transition period. It was only after we took over that we realised the extent of the financial mess that we inherited, and we had to quickly revert to survive. Even, the previous administration was counting the days till we crash-landed from the enormity of the financial burden, because they knew what they left behind. but, we thank Allah for his mercies. we’ve put the state on a reasonable solid and sustainable expenditure framework relative to our present earnings and we are hoping for better days ahead.
How have you been managing?
Like I said earlier, we switched to survival mode. In May 2015, we had less than N17 million in the treasury and I’m talking about the total amount of cash that was available to the state in toto. We had salaries to pay, scholarship arrears and exam fees owed to WAEC and NECO, the Hajj operations had started in earnest and the former government after trying unsuccessfully to “borrow” from the contributory pension fund, simply achieved this through the back door by refusing to pay the state’s own contribution for almost 11 months.
To compound issues, contractors started demanding for payment of their liabilities, which amounted to over N14 Billion in vouchers awaiting cash backing in the treasury and close to N100billion in ongoing projects. I had to call major stakeholders and lay bare the financial situation to them and said gentlemen, this is our situation, I believe I have the capacity to deal with this but it will not be easy or painless. I got the mandate I needed and immediately started a massive cost cutting exercise starting from the government house.
You see, if I say I’m cutting my salary and that of the deputy governor to half, it would translate to about N12 million annually and our deficit is in nine figures, so that won’t help our case. We had to look at it holistically reducing the cost of governance businesses and it was not difficult to find areas because the previous regime was living in a fools paradise, just increasing recurrent spending exponentially in direct proportion to the windfall coming in from the federation account.
Sir, how did you do that?
Fine, in one year Protocol expenditure in our Government House was slashed by 88.6per cent from N325,395,536 in the last 11 months of the previous administration to N37,035,187 of the same time frame in our tenure, while security and related expenditure dropped by 87.9 per cent from N1,825,866,274 to N220,251,850. Government house expenses dropped by 60.7per cent from N1,524,115,320 to 598,194,408 while that of the Deputy Governor’s office was reduced by 56.6per cent from N456,400,00 to N198,000,000. Overhead expenses for the civil service was also reduced by 47.55per cent from N1,661,202,000 to N871,253,000 in consultation with heads of MDAs. Im giving you figures so any one doubting can verify, these are public funds and we are not running a secret society.
Additionally, all government service agreements were also renegotiated with facility management contracts for the federal secretariat and other assets reduced by 50per cent, with the same contractors agreeing to provide the same level of service at half the cost. We also undertook the 2015 Hajj exercise, adjudged to be one of the most successful and incident free at the cost of N280 million, compared to N780 million spent in 2014 exercise.
The list goes on. Anywhere we can find a cheaper way of doing things without losing quality or value, we go for it, they call me “Baba calculator” and I don’t mind, because I’m applying the same principles of prudence and accountability for the state that I apply in my own business. go and investigate the lifestyles of some of these people out of government, are they spending their own money with the same profligacy and recklessness that they applied to public funds? I hope you’re also aware that we did all this without the benefit of a salary bailout, even though I wish we had collected it because when the federal government. suspended deduction of debts for two months now, including the salary bailout, most states got over N2 billion in deductions suspended, my deductions are just about N100 Million, so that alleviation didn’t have any impact on our bottom line.
You only met about N17m in the treasury and over N14b contractual vouchers waiting for payment. What happened with regard to the recurrent expenditure and the on-going capital projects?
We thank God Almighty. we saw the positive results of our cost realignment strategy working. we decided that since we were able to meet our recurrent expenditure we should prioritise the ongoing projects accordingly and this was very difficult politically because the penchant is for supporters to say lets abandon so and so’s work and do our own projects, so I had to be very firm.
Some politicians personalise public works to the extent of chastising citizens for failure to show appreciation for projects sited in their vicinity, can you imagine? As if you used your own inheritance to provide these projects? It hurts me when I see people hiring buses at great expense to go and thank a governor they elected because he has built a road, or school or provided water. Its their money and their mandate and its the least governor can do otherwise you have no business in government house but can go and set up a foundation like Dangote and spend your own money and expect gratitude.
I had to explain to supporters that the previous government’s projects were started with Jigawa funds and it would be irresponsible for me to abandon them and waste public money in starting new ones. so, a committee verified the projects and we prioritised them in order of public impact and the stage reached. Some that were hurriedly and improperly awarded to friends and family we threw out. I then called the contractors personally and explained our situation to them. The country is broke. There may not be jobs for any of you for some time. but, I am wiling to assure you continuity and prompt payment, if you will give Jigawa a discount. It was very tough, and I had to assure them that they have my protection and I am not expecting a percentage from anyone and neither is any of my children, commissioner or government official, and if that happens, they have my direct line. This was how we got an average of 17per cent discount amounting to almost N5billion for projects awarded as far back as 2013 in some cases.
Can you tell us specific instances?
We inherited a total of 332.04 kilometers of regional roads with a total contract sum of N36,400,692,340.10, out of which the previous government had paid N16,775,054,509.40 leaving an unpaid balance of N19,625,637,830.70. We have negotiated a discount of N2,902,962,126.36 and paid out N8,619,010,396.57 leaving a balance of N8,506,373,044.09 to complete. We also inherited a total of 98.75 kilometers of township roads with a contract sum of N14,675,848,759.24 out of which only N3,273,193,923.91 was settled by the previous government leaving an unpaid balance of N11.402billion. The sum of N1.996billion. was discounted and we have so far paid out N897.268million leaving a balance of 8.509billion.
Apart from these, all feeder roads with a total length of 97.4 kilometers at a contract cost of N1,652,180,784.12 were also taken over, out of which N1,060,903,210.80 was settled by the past government leaving a balance of N571,277,573.32. A discount of N91,613,696.64 was obtained and N94,658,984.00 paid by us, leaving a balance of N385,004,892.68 for completion. The sum of N81,742,616.59 has also been paid on existing road rehabilitation and emergency repairs, using the state road repair agency, JIRMA. In summary, we are presently working on 528 kilometers of various road types, and have spent a total of N9.7 Billion to get contractors back to site and working. You can get a list of specific roads from the Ministry of works section of the state’s web portal.
How far about other sectors?
We didn’t abandon any sector. we continue with all and focus more on human development in all ramifications, with the ultimate aim of reducing the poverty level and that is why I told you that, even the roads we are continuing were selected based on public impact, opening up communities, providing access to markets for their farm produce and linking major towns and communities. The other critical sectors in this chain are health and education. we must educate our people and as the saying goes, health is wealth.
In the health sector, we have reverted to a focus on primary health care delivery to devolve smaller facilities spread out at the grassroots level as opposed to mega hospitals that are costly and very inefficient since all cases irrespective of severity are handled at that level. Typically close to 80% of patients can be handled at the primary level for malaria, antenatal etc with only serious cases referred to the hospitals. Most importantly, we can now achieve eligibility in accessing funds from the National Health Fund to augment our efforts at the state level. To strengthen this basic level we have commenced construction of 27 basic health clinics in each local government at the cost of N424,980,000.00 and 27 units of midwives’ quarters in hard- to-reach Primary and Basic healthcare centers at the cost of N203,257,692.00. We have also embarked on renovation and improvement of hospitals in Gwaram and Birniwa with the provision of an operating theatre at the total cost of N194,918,946 as well as several smaller facility interventions in Sarawa, Majeri, Kununu and Katsinawa and renovation of 25 health facilities worth N25 Million in Birnin Kudu, Garki, Gwaram, Jahun and maigatari local Government areas.
Within this period, drugs worth N612,738,288 were procured by JIMSO under the drug revolving scheme. The construction of the Birnin Kudu General
Hospital is also being continued as well as the construction of the main gate and perimeter fence for the new Hadejia General Hospital and the conversion works on the proposed 2nd school of Nursing Hadejia which has reached completion stage.
You mentioned health and education as priorities…
Yes, I’m coming to education. this was a sector that I believe was also neglected, perhaps, because of the adage ‘you can’t value what you don’t have’. Immediately after we were sworn in, I was amazed to find out that the counterpart funding for SUBEB and UBE were unpaid for 2 years, which meant the last time primary school structures received any decent attention was in early 2013. This government had to retroactively pay up counterpart funding for the 3rd and 4th quarter of 2013, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters of 2014 resulting in the injection of N3.1 Billion into the basic education sector within a period of 11 months. This translated into the provision of 16,599 sets of classroom furniture and the construction and renovation of 1,793 classrooms. We had to also clear a backlog of scholarship payments from the 2014/2015 academic year totaling N500,478,356. We spent money on data acquisition relating to the quality and number of students , teachers and facilities in conjunction with the DFID ESSPIN programme to enable us address problems in the sector in a targeted and specific approach instead of ploughing money in an uncoordinated and erratic manner with no results. To ensure students welfare and provide much needed support, we paid out the sum of N882,425,839 within the last 11 months in scholarship funds, and introduced an e-platform to eliminate delays in future payments. We are also testing and deploying various e-learning initiatives to address the issue of the very serious deficit in quality teaching at the basic level.
Jigawa, like most other states, is in serious need of qualified teachers that are simply not available due to the systemic collapse of teacher education and training nationwide and the simultaneous demand by private schools that continue to grow at an exponential level to fill the educational void.
I believe technology holds the key to maximising teaching resource availability through distance leaning, visual and electronic teaching aids as well as networking of schools to avail them the concurrent use of electronic educational material to augment conventional methods. To support these and other tech dependent initiatives, we have reinvested in resurrecting Galaxy ITT, the state owned internet provision and IT services firm. The company is currently testing a city wide wireless network covering the whole of Dutse, and with the renewal of their national ISP license, will begin to provide quality internet service provision to all our major towns and indeed beyond the state’s boundaries on a commercial basis.
So, as you can see we haven’t abandoned education for roads!
You promised to uses agriculture to build a sustainable local economy. is that process on course?
Very much so, we have no option because it is the only sector where we have a comparative advantage at the moment, I said I will focus on attracting large scale agricultural investment because we must leapfrog and catch up with global best practices. If you have a look at our statistics we are at the bottom of almost every yield table for our major crops despite years of government and development partner intervention, the only game changer I can see is private sector involvement if we don’t begin to look at agriculture from a business perspective we cannot be competitive and no amount of government control or protection can help a farmer producing 2.5 tons a hectre against his counterpart in Thailand or brazil producing 10 tons per hectare twice a year. There is simply no contest.
In pursuit of this we have adopted the International principles of large scale agricultural investment (RAI) and developed a State Land Acquisition
and Resettlement Framework (LARF) to achieve a balance between the investors need for large scale land and the citizens right to minimal disruption of lifestyle and livelihood.
This has resulted in the adoption of out-grower scheme models involving small holder farmers in all our major large scale agricultural partnerships which include the Dangote Rice Project that will eventually cover about 30,000 hectares and The Lee Group sugar project covering about 12,000 hectares.
The out-grower scheme has commenced in earnest even before the development of the commercial farms, and farmers have already started benefitting from the advantage of an organized cluster approach with pooled resources and input provision. Recently during the recent fuel shortage which saw many individual farmers abandoning their cultivation due to lack of fuel for irrigation, the members of the out-grower cooperatives had the protection of group logistic dynamics that guaranteed all inputs including fuel as part of the agreement and as we speak a large percentage of rice cultivation in the affected areas is only evident on farms that are part of the scheme because individual farmers couldn’t afford fuel for irrigation at the black market price
