Some Nigerian Governors post impressive achievements, setting exemplary examples for their peers
Amaechi’s Magic
Pinning down a particular project as governor Rotimi Amaechi’s main project since he assumed office on 26 October 2007 is like looking for a pin in a haystack. This is because of his remarkable stride in all sectors. The Governor himself had difficulty in pointing out a particular one when he spoke exclusively to TheNEWS on what he regards as his major project. He touched on various sectors in which he had recorded significant achievements. “We are building 160 health centres. We have been able to deliver 60, and about 100 will be ready at the end of June this year”. In the area of power supply he revealed. “We are delivering about 100 megawatts of power from the gas turbine station this June.”
In the next two weeks, Eleme Bridge would be completed for use. In the area of education, he told this magazine that his government was building 250 primary schools. It is also building 23 secondary schools at N3.1billion for each. The Rivers University of Science and Technology, RSUST, would relocate to another permanent site. A Senior Special Adviser to the Governor, Mrs. Vivan Braide, was recently appointed specifically for the project. Gauging the low morale of primary school teachers in the state, the state Governor announced the complete take-over of payment of their salaries from the local government councils. It costs the state government over N800m monthly. Since the take- over, there has been stability in primary schools.
The Clean and Green initiative has been introduced in public schools to ensure cleanliness and the planting of flowers and trees in public schools. Old school buildings are also being renovated. In the area of road construction, there is no local government area without road projects going on. Even in the coastal areas, Amaechi is giving them a sense of belonging. “They said they need roads but I am of the concept that what would serve them better is land reclamation, due to the threats of ocean surge and the loss of their lands to tidal waves and erosion.” True. The Amaechi government is reclaiming land in Buguma. It just awarded the contract for the reclamation of land in Abalama. The administration is also reclaiming land in Ogbo or Egbomo in Andoni. The reclamation of land in Opobo alone will cost about N3 billion. Some people even observed that the land the government is reclaiming is bigger than the main city itself.According Mr. Dakuku Peterside, the Commissioner for Works, there is no part of the state that does not have a road project either executed or currently going on. He recalls that because the road network in the state was horrible, on assumption of office, the Amaechi administration set up a Task Force on Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation and approved a working sum of N2b to the Committee. He also commenced plans to construct an ultra modern drainage system to tackle the flooding menace experienced within Port Harcourt and its environs. With regard to this, a South African firm, Henderson Geotechnical Engineering, was commissioned to handle the project. Chief Eze Emeka Eze, the State Publicity Secretary of Action Congress, AC, commended the Amaechi administration for confronting the challenges posed by the toga of Rivers being a one city state. Eze recognised that the state government had embarked on an extensive programme of road construction, rehabilitation and repairs. About 185 roads are currently under construction in the rural and urban areas of the state. About 105 have been completed, while others are still on. The roads, when completed, would improve links among communities and the state capital with a view to making rural areas attractive for investors.
The road projects include the dualisation of Rumuokwuta- Choba East West road; Slaughter/TransAmadi-Rumuobiakani; Omerelu road and construction of Omofo-Agba Ndele road in Emuohua Local Council of the state. Peterside told TheNews that the landmark project in the state government’s infrastructural development plan is the anticipated 125 kilometre, six-lane Ring Road around the city which, Pearl Consultants, an indigenous, but world class Engineering consulting firm designed. The project, which would gulp over $1 billion, will have two cable-staged bridges. The Commissioner acknowledged that the emphasis of the administration to patronise local contractors and encourage human capacity building in the state has its own challenges. “We need to assert more pressure on them to bring out the best quality and standards set by the Amaechi administration.”
Amaechi has, on several occasions, expressed displeasure that contracts awarded to Rivers people find their ways into the hands of Lebanese. In his words, “We have made several efforts to ensure that our people are empowered through the award of contracts, but when we go to sites, we see Lebanese doing the job.You do it yourself and learn from your mistakes to improve.” On electrification about 376 communities have been earmarked for electrification. Amaechi has said he would consolidate on the power programmes of his predecessor and has ordered for additional equipment and contracted expert vendors for the completion of the moribund turbines for effective power supply in the state. Additional feeder stations are being completed in places hitherto without power supply. An area that has marked him out among South South governors is security. He insisted that his administration would never negotiate with militants and must enforce the law. And this has paid off.
He recalled that “Nigerians forget easily. They have forgotten so soon that when we came in, people used to walk on the streets of Port Harcourt with hands raised above their heads. Nigerians also forgot that there were soldiers on the streets of Port Harcourt but we withdrew all of them”. The day I took the decision to lift the curfew, the security agencies opposed it. The former General Officer Commanding 82 Division, Enugu, came to Port Harcourt to protest that the curfew should not have been lifted, saying if anything happened, the curfew issue would be revisited. Then I assured him that nothing would happen and there was no need for the curfew and soldiers in the streets of Port Harcourt because the city was not under siege. We took serious security measures to ensure that the law is enforced.” To unearth the reason behind militancy, brigandage and violence in the state, and ensure reconciliation, Amaechi also scored, first as the only Governor in Nigeria who set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, modelled after South Africa after the collapse of apatheid. It was headed by an eminent Jurist, the retired Supreme Court Justice Kayode Eso.
As expected in an unplanned city and state capital, master plans were not strictly adhered to, owners of many illegal structures (affected by the urban renewal project which were pulled down), petitioned the United Nations Human Settlement Programme, complaining that they were displaced and their rights to shelter violated. A delegation from the world organisation, led by its Habitat Programme Manager for Nigeria, Professor Johnson Bade Falade, visited the state capital on a fact-finding mission on 13 March this year. The team paid a courtesy visit on Government House, Port Harcourt. Representing Governor Amaechi, Engr. Tele Ikuru, his deputy, said that Rivers people deserve decent environment with standard infrastructure, particularly in Port Harcourt to restore its Garden City status. Falade told the Deputy Governor that they were in the state on a fact-finding mission in response to petitions received from the National Union of Tenants, arising from ongoing demolition of illegal structures in Port Harcourt.
However, the petitions of civil societies in the state may not be enough to deter the Governor who is bent on enforcing the law. He declared: “We are not going back on that. But we will pay the commercial value of the properties as a way of sympathising with them. But don’t forget that they are all illegal occupants of government land. We are valuing the properties. Immediately we pay the commercial value of the properties, we will demolish. If we don’t demolish, the aim of banning Okada will be defeated. The reason is that the greater number of criminals living in Port Harcourt reside at the waterfronts. We took out Okadas because they were using them to commit crime. Nobody can wish away the respite we have had since Okada was banned,” Amaechi said. For those who understand Amaechi’s raw courage and determination, there are certain virtues that make him unique. He does not accept failure and to him, anyone who fails must rise again and move forward.
– Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt.
It is not difficult to see the great transformation that Governor Sule Lamido’s administration has wrought engendered in Jigawa State. Before he took office, Dutse, the state capital, was like a village, lacking in the trappings of a state capital. No water, good road network, power. Indeed, visible governmental structures typical of a state capital were hardly there. For this reason, Dutse was not just unattractive to investors, even civil servants stayed away, preferring to operate from Kano. They could hardly be blamed because accommodation was non-existent. Governor Lamido, who on assumption of office noted that Dutse was untypical of any state capital in Nigeria, set out to redress things. He has since turned the state capital around with the provision of some basic infrastructure like good roads, housing scheme and water supply. Of particular note is the building of 900 housing units in Danmasara and Shuariah areas of the city, as well as the rehabilitation of many roads, especially the Government House road. Apart from the 900 housing units, Dutse now proudly hosts more hotels, a modern mechanic village, an ultra-modern market, and for the first time, a transport authority with numerous brand new buses. This has resulted in many investors, who had earlier regarded the state as a no-go-area, flocking in to invest, especially in the state capital.
Governor Lamido has turned Dutse into a huge construction site and it is deliberate. The Jigawa helmsman thinks construction sites offer the unemployed a huge opportunity to earn a living. However, if the rapid transformation of the state capital has served to restore the confidence of the people in governance, Lamido’s social security scheme which is intended to cater for the weak segment of the society and the poor is unprecedented in Nigeria. Driven by a great sense compassion for those he calls the weakest of the weak, Lamido, a few weeks after his inauguration, instituted the payment of N7000 monthly allowance to the physically challenged in the state. Although some critics criticised the scheme as being unsustainable and unrealistic, going by the lean purse of the state, not a few observers believe the scheme has positively touched the lives of many. According to Lamido, the programme is in line with his belief that no nation can survive without the leadership caring for the people. He noted that no nation would ever survive where the leadership does not appreciate the value of human beings. The scheme has evidently ridden the state of the ugly sight of beggars. “If you see a beggar in Jigawa now, ask him, he is not from the state. I can assure you. And when we see a beggar of Jigawa origin, we promptly arrest and ask him why he is begging,” one of Governor Lamido’s aides stated.
TheNEWS’ findings show that the government spends N28 million every month to pay the physically challenged whose number was said to have risen to 4,050 in 2008. What the state does is that able-bodied men and women who hitherto saw begging as a means to make a living are taken off the streets and taught different skills at the vocational centres spread all over the state. Beyond learning a trade, they also get paid monthly. However, aged beggars and the weak get paid the stipend and are not required to learn any trade. One area in which the Lamido administration has excelled is in education. Before he took office most schools in the state had no classrooms, furniture, instructional materials among others. In most cases, apart from having to cope with inadequate qualified teachers, the pupils sat on the bare floor in congested classrooms. Over 250 students were often put in a class meant for about 70 students. Even female hostels had non-functional toilets and the students resorted to the use of dilapidated school classrooms and school backyards as toilets! Lamido saw the resuscitation of the sector as very crucial. The state government therefore earmarked about N2.6 billion for massive rehabilitation and renovation of all the state’s 100 secondary schools. The rehabilitation exercise involved the provision of laboratories, furniture, instructional materials, and other facilities like toilet, power and water.
To address the problem of insufficient teaching staff for Jigawa’s secondary schools, the state government recruited about 788 additional teachers, while setting aside about N500 million for the training and re-training of existing ones. This, however, was in addition to about N4 billion set aside for the massive rehabilitation of the state’s 334 junior secondary schools and 1700 primary schools. To encourage parents to allow their children to go to school, Governor Lamido instituted boarding school at primary school level, with the children guaranteed free feeding, which certainly takes some burden off their parents. One area that remains a sort of testimonial to the resolve of Governor Lamido’s regime to succeed where others have failed is the state’s health sector where certain far reaching measures have been taken to improve it. In fact before now, the sector was not spared the fate that befell other sectors, as it was so rotten that the World Bank categorised Jigawa as one of the states in Nigeria with the highest mortality rate. So bad was the situation that Governor Lamido included it on the list of his regime’s priority areas. Findings have however revealed that despite inheriting a system with empty hospitals, without drugs, facilities and medical personnel, the Jigawa State government has transformed the state’s health sector into one that attracts the envy of other states in the North.
The uniqueness of the Jigawa health programme appears to lie in its pro-poor nature. The system makes adequate provision for the poor, children and women. Apart from the already existing programme of free medical attention for all pregnant women and accident victims, children under five years of age get free medicare. According to Governor Lamido, it is not a matter of the amount one gets, but rather how well or not the money is used. “Our money here in Jigawa is well blessed by God. This is because from the very beginning, we purified ourselves by addressing the problems of the weakest of the weak in the society. And God loves those who understand what is called human compassion. Somebody in Lagos and or Bayelsa may make ten or more billions in a month, my N2 or N3 billion in terms of the quality of the money would address the same issues as could N10 billion address for the man in Bayelsa.”
– Babajide Kolade-Otitoju.
Governor Danjuma Goje of Gombe State has a guiding political philosophy that governance is for the people, and one goes into government to serve the people. “Anything short of that is a failure on the part of the public officer,” he told The NEWS late last year, adding that it is this philosophy “that has been guiding my activities throughout my public service experience.” True. Goje, in the past six years or so, has overwhelmingly impacted on the lives of the citizens of Gombe in three major areas: water supply, education and the new International Airport, starting almost all from scratch. When this magazine visited Gombe and interviewed the Governor late last year, he admitted that in Gombe, there had never been adequacy of water and that tankers were all over the place. In fact, Gombe had, since the 1920s, been facing water shortage until Goje arrived in 2003. He, therefore began an ambitious N8b water project, (the Gombe Regional Water Scheme) which many cynics thought would not go beyond the drawing board, not to talk of its real execution. With nose-thumping determination, however, Goje persisted.
First, as a short term water supply solution strategy, Goje began by procuring 27 water tankers (1418 LR Mercedes Benz) which he gave to all the councils and the 11 wards in Gombe, the capital city. Then he shifted to second gear by piping water from the Federal Government’s Dam built across River Gongola, one of the tributaries of the Benue river at Dadinkowa, about 40km away from Gombe. It was built at the base of Bima Hill as part of the Upper Benue Development Authority, to make available water, hydro electric power and irrigation for neighbouring states. Although irrigation and hydro electric power are still in the realm of dream for the states, Goje took advantage of it for his people. “The water treatment site has state-of-the-art facilities.” Goje told TheNEWS , adding that the former Minister of Water Resources, Mukhtari Shehu Shagari, “told me in the presence of former President Olusegun Obasanjo that it is the most modern water works in the country. That was in 2006. I wouldn’t know if anything better has happened anywhere outside the state since then. But I know that we took the lead when we did it. Since then, water problem has become a thing of the past.”
The Dadinkowa facility is one of the best in Nigeria, constructed by CGC, a Chinese engineering firm. Daniel Ajala, an engineer with the company said the scheme currently supplies water to the state capital, Gombe, and 15 other towns and villages. As part of his administration’s water reticulation effort, Gov Goje laid 100mm, 200mm and 300mm diameter pipelines in areas covering about 16.5km that had never enjoyed water in Gombe . Last year, the Gombe State Government/Millennium Development Goals, MDGs Office embarked upon five water and sanitation projects worth N1. 7 billion. Two other water schemes in Dukku and Kumo were also awarded by the Goje government. “Before the government provided this water, we were suffering,” Adamu Mahdi, a farmer, told TheNEWS in Deba, one of the villages that now enjoy good water supply, adding, “now water is available, our trouble is over.” Ahmed Sule, a civil servant, also aknowledged: “When we were experiencing water scarcity, our people were victims of such diseases as cholera and diarrhoea. We thank the Governor for the water.”
When Governor Goje was sworn in as Governor, Gombe had no tertiary institution. As the Governor himself told this magazine: “The state had no single institution of higher learning. Both the primary and secondary schools were comatose”. As we once reported, he set for his administration the mission to overhaul special science secondary schools, improve welfare package for teachers, establish tertiary institutions in the state, set up scholarship awards to deserving students as well as training and retraining programmes for teachers. In order not to appear like a builder who has no architectural plan, Goje started off by settion up two Technical Committees to examine and report on the conditions of teaching and learning environments in both primary and secondary schools in the state. After the panel concluded its work, government came out with a White Paper in July 2007 after which the government got cracking.
The Goje government set a new Ministry of Special Duties, Higher Education and Student Affairs which now supervises the establishment of tertiary schools, paves way for admission of secondary school leavers to gain admission into higher institutions and makes sure that Gombe is not cheated in the number of students it ought to have in federal higher institutions in Nigeria. The Teaching Service Commission, TSC, was also established by the Goje government and it was able to employ more than 600 qualified teachers and promote over 2,000. Not only that, the government constructed and rehabilitated over 700 secondary school classrooms; upgraded the Adult and Non-formal Education and Social Development Institute, Kumo to a College of Administration and Business Studies, CABS. Apart from reviewing students’ scholarship allowances upward by 100 per cent, Goje set up and equipped 13 Vocational Training Centres across the state, an ultra-modern Teachers’ Resource Centre and a Special Education Centre in Gombe city.
Goje’s signature project in the education sector is the Gombe State University, established in 2004. It will be graduating its first set of students in the next one month. According to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sani Abba Aliyu, “the university started with the election of Governor Goje who deemed it important to have a tertiary institution.” Before Gombe came into being, students had to struggle for admission at higher institutions that existed in Bauchi axis. A big feather in the Governor Goje cap is the construction and upgrading of the Gombe State Airport to international status. The project was handled by GTMC Construction Company. Late last year when TheNEWS visited the site, Engineers Richard Giglar, a German and Taiwo Adekunle, a Nigerian, working with the company revealed that the airport would soon be completed and handed over to the state government. That happened last November when the airport was commissioned. At the ceremony, Goje said the airport “was built to open the state’s tourist potentials to the international community, which he believes will lead to socio-economic development”.
The first phase of the project, was completed in 2006 at the cost of N1.3 billion. That was before the Federal Government’s intervention in partnering to, as the Governor explained, “jointly fund its final phase which was later completed last November.” Another level of partnership was the one the government had with Arik Airline whereby , as the Governor revealed, “the government is currently paying for over 40 per cent of the seats on every flight between Abuja and Gombe”. It was a way of encouraging the company. How did the governor achieve much with limited resources? Musa Kumo, Senior Special Adviser, Media, to the Gombe State Governor, told TheNEWS that his principal “is determined, committed, simple and prudent”. He told the magazine further that since the Governor was elected into office since 2003, he has been living in his own house which he built in1993, before he became Minister of State under the late Chief Bola Ige. What makes Governor Goje tick, according to observers, is his background and education which shape his philosophy of governance.
” My father was well to do, he had some businesses and some trucks, and he was a successful businessman. But I was taken away from all that to live in the village, where I grew up in a typical farmhouse, went to the farm, tilling the land and bringing foods for animal. In fact, I was involved in animal grazing.” Goje told ThisDay. He revealed that one factor that facilitated his victory in 2003 was that “Hashidu thought I was a joker because I was going from one ward to another. I visited all the 114 wards in Gombe State, campaigning seriously. ANPP would say that I was campaigning as a local government chairmanship candidate. Hashidu was only visiting the local government headquarters in Gombe State. But I went to the nooks and crannies of the state. Sometimes I would not return to Gombe town until the following day. I worked hard and God rewarded me. As a governor, I think I’m doing my best. This is my philosophy about life: do your best in any given situation one finds himself/herself in life and leave the rest to God.”
– Ademola Adegbamigbe.
If nobody particularly took note of Dr. Bukola Saraki in his first term in office, it wasn’t for lack of, at least, a landmark achievement from him. After all, the Kwara State governor commenced initiating practical statements in agriculture immediately after he came into office in May 2003. But freeing himself from the shadows of his biological and political father, Dr. Sola Saraki, took quite some time. Also, unsavoury controversies regarding the Saraki family bank, Societe Generale, which ran into serious difficulties while Bukola headed it and from where he headed to the Kwara Government House remained for the most part of that first term a feature in the media and a tool in the hands of his political opponents. To those opponents, every programme that Saraki embarked upon was a target of attack: the commercial agricultural initiative, the greening of Ilorin, joint project execution with local government councils, etc.
Six years of Saraki as Governor, however, even virtually all his political opponents have been compelled to have a change of heart. From being a foe, he has become a friend, at least in terms of programmes that have been, and are being implemented to give Kwara State a new meaning. In Nigeria today, the state will probably be the only one that can boast of electricity supply for most hours of the day in the capital city. Two months ago, residents of Ilorin, the capital, celebrated 30 days of “uninterrupted power supply”, as they called it. Senator Smart Adeyemi, although representing Kogi State but with residence and ownership of a big hotel in Ilorin, told TheNEWS in Ilorin that the feat was “magical”. Indeed, power supply in Ilorin is impressive, as witnessed by this magazine. And it has been made possible by the Ganmo Electrification project. The project is a 330/132/33kv sub-station located in Ganmo on Ilorin-Omu-Aran Road, on the outskirts of the capital. The project was initiated 26 years ago but was neglected by successive governments in the state over the years. As Saraki’s aides said, it was the governor who lobbied the Olusegun Obasanjo administration to include it in the National Integrated Power Projects, NIPPs.
The project was awarded in February 2006 and the contractor, Matelec S.A.L., moved to site in July the same year. The state government, it was learnt, paid the land owners the necessary compensation to avoid delay. But the project was still threatened by delay as the Umar Yar’Adua administration which succeeded Obasanjo’s stopped all the NIPPs to enable it conduct a thorough investigation on them. But rather than wait for the federal government’s bureaucratic drag, the Saraki administration wrote to the Federal Ministry of Power stating its intention to complete the project and await refund later. Kwara State officials said even at this, there was no response from the ministry. Determined to execute the project, the Kwara State government signed an agreement with the contractors to complete it. The 90-120mw project was completed early this year and energised on 23 January. The Saraki administration prides itself as the only one that has so far undertaken to complete on its own the NIPP in its state. Industrialists and artisans in Ilorin that this magazine spoke with commended the governor in glowing terms. Kamaldeen Isa, a vulcaniser on Ibrahim Taiwo Road said he had, until now, decided to be apolitical because he had always regarded all politicians as selfish and greedy, not worthy of supporting. But constant supply of electricity in Ilorin has changed that thinking and Isa believed a gradual shift in the manner of governance may have started with, as he referred, what governors Babatunde Fashola of Lagos and Saraki are doing in their respective states. Isa mentioned that he was overwhelmed with emotion when he visited Lagos and saw the changes that have taken place in terms of cleanliness, order and road construction. He also said that at home, in Ilorin, he was elated to see that for the first time, Ilorin is benefitting from having an overhead bridge not only to ease traffic but to add to the modernisation and beautification of the state. “I must admit that things are changing for good. How I hope all governors will stop stealing and use the people’s money for the people’s benefits,” he stated.
Yet, power supply, which has now endeared Saraki to people in Kwara State, was not, ab initio, the governor’s principal initiative. He was more known for his unflagging commitment to agricultural development. Shortly after he assumed office, the governor started with the Back-to-Farm programme for farmers in the state. The programme sought to encourage farmers to produce crops by providing for them their needs free of charge. These needs include land clearing, seeds, chemicals and fertilisers. As he explained: “When I became governor of Kwara State in 2003, my first major concern was how to fight widespread poverty that I saw around me. The first thing for me was to explore existing opportunities and how these opportunities could be employed to achieve quick results. I did not hesitate to conclude that the best entry-point we have for tackling poverty is through agriculture.” The governor’s exploration revealed that Kwara State has a substantial cultivable area representing 75.3 per cent of the entire land area suitable for rich agriculture. Only 11 per cent of this was being cultivated by small farm holders using non-mechanised equipment. Before 2003 ended, a total of 868.35 hectares of land had been cultivated in 80 sites in the 16 local government areas across the state under the Back-to-Farm programme. Through the state’s Farmers’ Council, government, Saraki recalled, gave out money to farmers to prepare designated farms and provided seedlings, chemicals and fertilizers. The state’s Ministry of Agriculture was the supervising body.
But the project was a failure. “In retrospect, we realised a fundamental mistake was made; we have tried to build a carriage on an old horse that was also ill. For one, the farmers that participated in the programme largely saw the money and the inputs given to them as their own dividends of democracy. So there was no commitment or intention by majority of them to pay back or even get results that would justify the investments. Secondly, we found that most of the farmers are in their 60s and 70s and they lack any form of education. We found that they used very little or no fertiliser and it came as no surprise that the yield recorded was between one to two tonnes per hectare. We also found that the Ministry of Agriculture that we left in charge of the programme had been moribund for many years and had not been called upon to do anything in a long time and cannot cope with the kind of challenge that a project of this magnitude presented. Many actually saw it as a golden opportunity to make quick money for themselves. One of the most important lessons we learnt from that experience was that spoon-feeding farmers would not work. What all these taught us was that we needed a radical approach and policy for agriculture to drive our poverty reduction efforts and create wealth. The core issue here is that we must rise above the subsistence level and move into large commercial farming that would guarantee increased productivity while gradually integrating small farm holders into the core farming centres,” the governor explained.
Saraki, therefore, turned towards Zimbabwe where the government there had taken the farms off the white farmers. The Kwara State government invited the white farmers, who possess vast experience in modern farming, for talks and so began the actualisation of the commercial agriculture initiative in the state. Initially, the project met with virulent criticisms from Saraki’s political opponents who described it as a white elephant and an avenue for corruption, and indigenes who were apprehensive that foreigners were being invited to usurp their heritage. In Shonga, the area marked out for the white farmers to cultivate, the host communities were also expectedly agitated about the quantum of compensation. But all areas of disagreement were soon resolved and the farmers settled down to work. The New Nigerian Farmers, as the Zimbabweans are called, have since fully integrated into the communities. The 13 farmers were allocated 1000 hectares of land each to cultivate various kinds of cash and food crops and also do animal husbandry. When TheNEWS toured the farms and the communities where the villagers resided, it observed mutual affection, with the villagers lauding the prominence that the commercial agricultural project has brought the areas. On one farm, this magazine saw cassava covering about 400 hectares and soya beans on about 300. Maize was also seen green on many hectares of farms on farms 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 and 11. On farm 10, jointly managed by Allan Jack (head of the farmers), Paul Restlaff and Dan Swart, who all also have their respective farms, hybrid cows numbering about 350 and barely two years old were seen producing milk. Each cow was understood to be producing 30 litres of fresh milk every day. The cows, also said to have been artificially inseminated before they were brought into Nigeria, have already started producing calves, some of which were about four to 12 weeks but have grown fast.
Last year, the governor commissioned a multi-million naira automated dairy factory at the farm. Milk extracted from the cows is sucked by engine pumps and conveyed into the processing machine to give out safe, pure natural milk and yoghurt products. Moreover, they said, it has been providing jobs for their youths many of whom have been employed by the white farmers. An additional gain is that the farmers in the communities have themselves been learning modern, mechanised farming by understudying the expatriates. Saraki is more upbeat about the Integrated Youth Farm Centre, which is directly linked to the commercial agriculture initiative. Located at Malete, some kilometres out of Ilorin, the centre was conceived to create a new generation of educated farmers. These young men and women are taught the rudiments and dynamics of modern agriculture to farm management, agriculture mechanisation and intensive farming in broad agriculture areas, including animal production. Training activities at the centre are co-ordinated by the Zimbabwean farmers. Youth are also engaged in Clean-and-Green beautification programme of the Saraki administration. The administration has placed waste disposal bins in strategic areas to facilitate disposal by residents and ensure the roads are not littered. About 2000 youth were said to have been engaged in the beautification project that places great emphasis on environmental cleanliness in the state. And truly, as witnessed by this magazine, cities visited are clean. Ilorin, the capital, is well-maintained.
Another idea that has been developed to engage the youth in Kwara State, and even beyond, is the Football College. The governor is well-known to be a football enthusiast and, as he said, understands the mileage that football provides in making responsible and even wealthy citizens out of youth who otherwise could have been deviants and hardened criminals. To underline the importance he attaches to the school, he has picked former Technical Adviser to the Super Eagles, Clemens Westerhof to head it. The expectation is high that in the next few years, the school will be providing products for not only the national teams, they will also be generating huge sums in foreign currencies for the state as they bag offers from foreign clubs. As in Lagos, the Saraki administration is also lighting up the roads, in most cases with solar power, as was seen on Asa Dam/New Yidi Road. The flyover that Isa the vulcaniser spoke about was also in progress on the Challenge to Pos Office roads. The project costs N2.3 billion. Security in Ilorin is enhanced by coverage by security cameras installed in strategic areas all over. The camera arrangement is complemented by constant patrols by the police. In Kwara generally, the crime rate is low. The roads are also good. The governor, his aides said, have been spending huge sums rehabilitating bad roads and constructing new ones.
There projects also include housing estates, with mortgage payments that span 20-25 years industrial developments and the new Kwara State University. Unlike the salvo of criticisms that the political opposition in the state hurled at Saraki for most part of his first term, the governor can smile from the commendation being accorded him by the Congress of Political Parties in Kwara State. Last November, after a tour of some projects in the state, the Congress, comprising 18 registered political parties in the state, reported: “The Government in Kwara State has fully demonstrated her commitment to the total development of the state through all the people-oriented projects and programmes that are being undertaken by this Administration.” To Senator Adeyemi, who felt relieved he was no longer spending as much as before on diesel for power supply both in his house and for his hospitality business, if it is possible to give Saraki a third term as governor in Kwara state, he would gladly have championed it. “He is doing very well, changing the face of Kwara State generally,” he enthused.
– Tayo Odunlami.
Before Babatunde Fashola was elected governor in 2007, many critics, even within his own party, the Action Congress, AC, did not believe that he could deliver the goods. In their view, he was not a dye-in-the-wool politician, trained in the gutter tactics of power play. Worse still, these people were so sure that Lagos was so complex or unwieldy for a greenhorn to handle. Two years after, however, there is a rebirth of Lagos, with Fashola distinguishing himself in the areas of environmental renewal and infrastructure. Fashola has taken bold steps that confounded people to make sure his mega city dream where people would move freely is a reality. He began to get rid of miscreants and illegal traders from such areas of bedlam like Oshodi, Ojuelegba, Falomo, Tinubu Square, Apongbon. He redesigned roundabouts, expanded narrow roads and intersections and installed street lights and others. Ikorodu road, Bank Anthony and most parts of the Island have been beautified in a way many familiar with the chaos associated with most parts of Lagos could not have imagined. It looked impossible to restore order to Oshodi but that is what Fashola has done. So much has been said of the government’s beautification efforts, but Fashola has done tremendously well in the area of infrastructure development, especially roads construction.Fashola, as at today, has awarded, over 400 road construction contracts. Some of these are the dualisation of Mobil Road and Wilmer Crescent in Apapa; construction of a network of roads in Epe; Ijede-Egbin road and Rotimi Odusanya street in Ikorodu; Alasia-Aiyetoro road in Ijanikin; Ikosi road, Iba and Ogunoiki, Sule Abore, Odogunyan – Odonla and Unity roads in Eti-osa. Other roads are being transformed, expanded and beautified by the government. Examples are the reconstruction of the Murtala – Muhammed Way (Yaba-Iddo), Herbert Macaulay Way, Aje street, Commercial Avenue, Commercial Road, and old Yaba road. The first two kilometers of the Lekki-Epe Expressway expansion and modernisation project has been completed, so also are the second phase of the Adetokunbo Ademola road on Victoria Island, Ajah-Badore road; the LASU-Iba road in Ojoo and the Bourdillion-Alexandra-Gerrard-Osborne roads in Ikoyi. Besides awarding the design contract for the construction of the Admiralty –Alexander (Lekki-Ikoyi) link bridge, the Fashola government plans to transform the Lagos-Badagry road into a ten-lane international highway, complete with Bus Rapid Transit and Light rail mass transit routes.
Engineer Ganiyu Abiodun Johnson, Special Adviser, Lagos State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, recently gave a local government by local government appraisal of Fashola’s works. Johnson explained that in Ajeromi Ifelodun local government government had constructed nine roads and two bridges in the area. “We have also embarked on the construction of Mobil Road expansion (which is 47 percent completed), construction of Wilmer Crescent with a bridge to link Cardoso at 65 percent completion stage, construction of Olumokun/Olayinka/Sanusi/Oduduwa with a bridge to link Amukoko at 57 percent completion stage, among others…” Projects in Alimosho, as Johnson put it would be carried out in four phases. Phase 1: the completion of the Abule-Egba–Ekoro – Agbelekale-Meiran Road and the de-flooding of Karimu Laka area through the construction of collector drain, all of which are are at 80 percent completion stage. Others where construction has started are Agodo Community Road, Shasha-Orisunmbare-Ejigbo Roads, Association Avenue - Ikotun Road, and Old Otta Road, among others. These roads are designed to decongest traffic in Ejigbo, Idimu and Ikotun axis as well as the Abeokuta Expressway, while Karimu – Laka Bamisile collector drains will definitely ameliorate the perennial flooding of Egbeda.
Others are the rehabilitation of Irefun/Kufisile Street, Modupe Ayoade Street and the upgrading of Olugbade/Wusamotu Oreagba and Transformer Streets. Ago Palaceway Extension in Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Area of the state, once a single lane, is now dual -carriage, complemented with a walkway and street lights. Work is on going at Odofin Bypass and other roads within Kirikiri town. In Apapa, government is upgrading and rehabilitatiing Aerodrome Road, Calcutta Crescent and Duala Road, others. Johnson added that Fashola planned to build a fly-over from Allen Avenue to Aromire across the Obafemi Awolowo Way and a link bridge from Adeniyi Jones Street to Acme Road. The government, according to Johnson, is working on 36 roads spread across the various wards of the local governmen of Mushin. Among them, 19 are proposed for execution in 2009, 12 in 2010 and five in 2011. At Ojo Local Government, there is the dualisation of the Isheri-Iba-Ojo Road, construction of Shibiri Etegbin Road, Ajangbadi /Ilogbo/Elegba Road, Alasia-Aiyetoro Road, and many more. In Oshodi-Isolo Local Government, there is the construction of the Okota-Itire overhead link bridge. The project will link various communities in the western part of the axis such as Alimosho, Egbe, Ikotun, Ejigbo, Isolo, and Okota with those on the eastern side such as Ijesha Tedo, Itire, Mushin, Aguda, Lawson and Yaba. Upon completion, it will reduce travel time, running cost on vehicles and facilitate smooth transportation of commuters along the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway. Furthermore, the project will open up communities to increase economic activities. In the past two years, 70.352 kilometres of roads had been rehabilitated across the state just as 111.80 kilometres of roads have been constructed.
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