I will make Bauchi state a paradigm shift……. Bauchi Governor-Elect

Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed was the immediate past Minister of the Federal Capital Territory ( FCT).

In this interview with DESERT HERALD’s Umar Duguri, the governor-elect of Bauchi state reeled out his plans for the state in the next four years. Excerpts:-

What are your plans for Bauchi State?

This question is very broad. Bauchi has suffered in the hands of previous administration.

We plan to unite the people, we will take care of salaries wages, pension and gratuities. We want to create a model state. We will provide intervention in all sectors of the economy to ensure that Bauchi is self-sustaining and has a strong agricultural sector that will not only feed the state but export to other states.

We will also ensure that the youths that are restive and roaming about the street are made useful citizens of the state and the country because since the inception of the last administration, no youth has been employed.

They have become disillusioned and despondency has set in. we want to look at Bauchi from a broader perspective and make Bauchi the next investment destination of Africa or of northern Nigeria because we have the vegetation, we have oil and gas, we have beautiful vegetation that can produce good agricultural product.

We have already set the machinery in motion before the elections. I have brought some professors from Tafawa Balewa University to do some baseline studies in terms of where we are and where we will go as a state. Our health services have collapsed, we don’t have a hospital and even the one the federal government provided is not working.

We will work with the Federal Government to ensure that the teaching hospital is working, not the graveyard we have today.

Our hospital must have drugs. We have only forty doctors in the whole state because we have been unable to employ more.

All our schools are in shambles, we have 1.3million out of school children According to UNESCO. It’s a huge challenge but we want to turn this challenge into opportunity. We want to create jobs in the area of environmental sanitation because Bauchi has become the dirtiest capital in Nigeria.

We will bring back environmental sanitation and also introduce sanitary officers. We want to raise the yield of farmers and make it attractive to the youths. Of course we will not forget the traditional institution.

The state IGR is very low and and so its dependent on federal allocation. I understand they borrow N 3billion every month to pay salaries, all the bailout we got from the Paris fund and the rest have been misdirected.

How do you hope to generate IGR (Internally Generated Revenue) to carry out your vision for Bauchi State?

We will raise the GDP. Some of our people are not taxable because of the poverty. Bauchi is a labour town, we don’t have factory or industries, so it is a labour town. This means, you cannot raise taxes.

Even our local market where they tax people, what they get does not come to the state, so there is a lot of pilferage.

But we have a lot of mineral deposit in Bauchi and a lot of activities which the state government is not benefitting from. Of course we have oil and gas that is coming up. We will also increase the value chain of Agriculture.

We will resuscitate our animal husbandry where we used to have demonstration farm. We will create lots of economic activities that will generate tax for the state.Starting with education, how are you going to revive the educational sector?

One of my motivation for going into politics is to make sure I rescue Bauchi from the abyss of bad governance and clueless administration.

We are going to work with NTI (National teachers institute to train our teachers. Our cut off mark is very low. Bauchi used to be number one educationally but now, we are the worst in the country.

Our state used to produce the best students that, some of us were so lucky that, we were picked to work with the federal government but lately the state has fallen behind.

We will revive the sector by equipping the public schools and also training teachers. If we have 1.3 million out of school children now and nothing is done, the situation will get worse in the next 4-5years.

Before the gubernatorial elections, the state was divided along party lines, how do you intend to unite the state?

Elections normally divide the elites but in my case, elites from both sides supported me. I cannot mention their names but God bless them.

Their hearts bleed for the state of Bauchi and that was why they supported me. The governor refused to work with the speaker whom he can use to access a lot of Federal Government programmes.

All the senators, federal and state assembly members were excluded from the affairs of the states. Yes I came on the platform of the PDP but I presented myself to Bauchi people as a simple candidate who has no personal agenda except to fix Bauchi state.

Even the transition committee I set up is not partisan. I brought people from APC, PDP, PRP, and other smaller parties to be a part of it.

I will be running an inclusive government. I came with humility and provided a level playing field for anyone coming to the fore.

As a former minister and senator, how do you intend to bring to bear your experience on the state?

Yes I want to say that I gathered a lot of experience when my Boss, former president Jonathan gave me the opportunity to work as minister for six years.

We were able to increase the IGR and also create institutional frame work, like emergency services, outdoor advertising and environmental promotions. I brought agriculture business to FCT.

What I did during my FCT days was to create a group headed by Sen. Dansadau that helped me look at land issues, economic issues and other things. I am going to do the same now in Bauchi.

I have brought one of our professors from the north who knows more than most of us in terms of problems and challenges of the north and have provided solutions, but there was nowhere to implement them.

But now he will be our consultant on developmental
economics.

He will guide us with his team with the young Nigerians we have brought along.

I am not in Bauchi to gain riches or power.

I am by the grace of God already popular at the centres. I am not going to Bauchi to get anything but to give.

As a former FCT minister, are you happy with the current state of the federal capital?

I am no longer a minister and FCT is a federal institution. I believe the minister is doing his best with the resources at his own disposal.

It is not right for me to start criticising a brother and a friend who has not done anything wrong.

Since the system is working and nobody has complained to me, I want to mind my own business. I think he is doing well.

Bauchi is one of the states bedeviled by insecurity. How do you plan to secure the state?Bauchi has been a sanctuary for the states affected by Boko Haram activities and these include Bornu, Adamawa, Gombe and Yobe.
Of course we have been devastated by the activities of insurgence and have suffered several loss.

But being a sanctuary means, we have to build on that. We intend to build a sanctuary of peace where people will come and invest. Of course you know our state and its tourism potentials.

We will work with security agencies. We will work with smaller groups that provide security and ensure that the state is secure.

We will make sure they are emancipated, delineated and repositioned to provide security for the people of Bauchi and neighbouring states.

Should the people of Bauchi expect in your first 100 days?

I want to start with the issue of pension because it is immoral for somebody to work for 35 years and yet not be paid his gratuity. People are dying and I want to change that in Bauchi.

The state is a labour town and it’s wicked not to pay them their dues. Another thing I hope to achieve in the first 100 days is a clean state. Coming from Abuja where I developed a template on how to turn waste into wealth, this will be introduced in Bauchi. We will create institutions that will ensure we reach our people.

It is not funny to see Gombe that was carved out of Bauchi, develop so fast that it has gone 50 years ahead of us. I will catch up with Gombe and Jigawa by the grace of God.

I will also bring transparency to bear on the state.

SOURCE: DesertHerald