Nasarawa’s Quiet Development Strides

Governor Tanko Al-Makura

George Okoh writes about the various development efforts in Nasarawa State, which have considerably impacted on the lives of the inhabitants

As the only Congress of Democratic Change (CPC) governor in the country, the billionaire Governor of Nasarawa State, Alhaji Tanko Al-Makura, has an enormous task.

He has to prove to Nigerians and particularly Nasarawa state inhabitants that the state under his political group will be better than the several years of the PDP, described by many as the years of the locust.

Focus on Roads
Al-Makura left no one in doubt of his intent as he commenced the construction work linking Shendam road to Jos road through Kurikyo road, to ensure that traffic would easily be diverted to other routes without necessarily having to skirt around Shendam and Jos roads, which has been the case.

Other roads were the linking of Hospital road through GRA to burst out on another link off Shendam road with the aim of decongesting traffic flow that is usually heavy along Hospital/Shendam roads.

Another road from Super Cinema, which had been inaccessible, was also put under construction, just as another one is being constructed off the Super Cinema road to burst out near third world electronics on Makurdi road.

There are still other roads, from Lafia East Primary School leading to Government house junction on Shendam road and project quarters, which may be extended to connect with Makurdi road.

While work on some of the roads has been completed; construction work on some others are at various stages of completion.

To give the construction of roads a boost, the governor recently launched some earth-moving equipment procured for the construction and rehabilitation of feeder roads to be distributed to the three senatorial districts of the states.

Transport Strides
After ensuring that he has commenced plans to have a good road network in the state, the governor turned to the transport sector by making vehicles available at affordable costs to the people of the state.

He improved the ailing transport company by acquiring about 40 buses, with a pledge that more are on the way, and christened it ‘Nasarawa Express’.

The state government also plans to construct an Aerodrome in the state. Recently, while speaking with journalists, Al-Makura stressed that the benefits that would be derived from the construction of the airport would be reaped many times over in a short time.
In addition to the aerodrome, the administration in Nasarawa also intends to construct a cargo airstrip that would bring investors into the state and the economic benefits that would be derived from it.

Vital Keys
The state government also placed a premium on the quality of education by dedicating a larger chunk of its resources to the development of the education sector.
Other efforts by the state government to ensure that education takes the pride of place in the state was its recent approval of the payment of the ten months housing and other sundry allowances owed lecturers in the state, under the aegis of Joint Tertiary Institutions in the state by the previous administration.

But immediately governor Al-Makura assumed office on May 29, 2011, the first assignment he performed was to ensure that doctors in the state who were protesting the non-implementation of the full Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), and its arrears suspended their four-month old strike, with a promise to look into their case.
Shortly after, government commenced the payment of the minimum wage of N18,900 to workers in the state beginning from August 1, 2011 and also the payment of the arrears owed workers.

Health is Wealth
Al-Makura has said government has plans “to develop an enhanced, effective and comprehensive health structure that would not only improve the health status of the people of the state but also address the health needs” of its people.
The state government followed this up with the flagging off of a N58 million hospital drug revolving loan scheme.

The scheme, which is expected to eradicate or reduce the ‘out of stock’ syndrome, popularly known as ‘OS’ in government-owned hospitals in the state, will also guarantee that the people of the state have access to genuine products and at lower costs.
The administration is also giving a new lease of life to 18 General Hospitals and 54 Primary Health Care (PHC) centres in the state by ensuring that they are well equipped with facilities which would in turn lead to enhanced health services in the state.

Boost in Power
The ‘Power in 100 days initiative’ intervention of the governor in the power sector is another project that has endeared the people of Nasarawa to Al-Makura.

Before now, it was unheard of to say that anywhere around Lafia and other communities had access to uninterrupted power supply for a period of ten hours but this is the story of many communities in the state, particularly, Lafia, the state capital, something that has been unheard of since the creation of the state over sixteen years ago.

And this was made possible with the flagging off of the installation of thirty-two new 500 KVA transformers to boost the epileptic power supply in the state.

The state government, which has also embarked on the initiative to connect all the local government areas to the national grid, is also using the Nasarawa Energy Company (NASENCO), which is part of the committee set up by the state government to fine-tune the structures of ensuring that every nook and cranny of the state was connected.
Through NASENCO it also plans to set up 10 Megawatts Solar Power Plants in each of the three senatorial districts of the state.

New Focal Points
The state government has also awarded a contract for the Nasarawa State Geographic Information Services (NAGIS) that would include other components, which are the Digital Area Mapping and District mapping of three cities in the state, among them, Lafia, Keffi and Karu towns.

Even as the Al-Makura administration has concluded arrangements for the take-off of the multi-million naira Karu International market that is situated in the suburb of the Federal Capital (FCT), it has also commissioned the Lafia modern market.
The Karu market, which had been lying waste for over eight years, has about 1,005 shops and stalls, cold rooms, fire service station, banks, and toilets, and it may soon take off due to the efforts of the state government.

Agric and Gender
In the area of agriculture, the Al-Makura administration has said the state would adopt the approach used by Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) in its efforts to ensure the development of agriculture in Nasarawa.

In order to ensure that fertiliser gets to the real farmers, the state government has also registered about 120,000 farmers in the state. It also awarded the contract for the construction of the Lafia abattoir located at Shinge in order to check the unhealthy environment in which animals were slaughtered in Lafia.

Equally, the governor, who noted that the issues of women would always be in the front burner of his administration, has also commenced the construction of female hostels in some tertiary institutions in Nasarawa.

Binding all Wounds
Since his coming to power, the issue of promoting peaceful co-existence has been a major preoccupation of the governor, who single-handedly has averted situations that may have turned ugly, stressing his administration would not identify with issues that tend to divide the people of the state.

On the political front, Al-Makura has said that he would carry everyone along in the business of governance in the state, irrespective of political party differences, so long as those that come on board were prepared to exhibit traits of patriotism.
His words: “In fact I am duty bound; it is an obligation. The essence of my victory is to see how I can expand the frontiers of friendship, admissibility and association so that together we can have peace, stability and progress in the state.”

According to him, “I am ready and willing to work with all so long as whoever is coming on board must exhibit the traits of patriotism that will move the state to the next level.”

ThisDay.