Akwa Ibom state Governor, Udom Emmanuel has urged private investors to intervene in the crisis engulfing the nation’s education sector.

The governor of Nasarawa State, Engr. Abdullahi Sule had extensive and successful career in the private sector, an experience he brought to bear on quick-wins in his first 100 days office. In this interview, OLUSHOLA BELLO reports on the direction of his government

What are you doing in developing SMEs in Nasarawa State?

First and foremost we have gone round the State in carrying out a sensitisation programme on SMEs in the areas of agriculture, mining and trading. In addition to that, we have gone far to give forms to all prospective beneficiaries of our programmes. Forty eight hours after I was sworn in as a governor, we started by distributing sewing machines, grinding machines among other things. Most of the things we did were for them to go and create employment opportunity for themselves, so that they can earn a living. We have already started that and we are going far on this. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is going to offer to Nasarawa local farmers about N1.2 billion and the money will be used to empower the youths in growing small scale businesses.

Can you tell us the volume of debt that you inherited?

Nasarawa State is one of the least-indebted States in the whole nation. We are very lucky. The past administration took one major debt through a bond and before we came in they paid off. But they had inherited debts like contractors’ fees and some other debts from banks. But we didn’t have a major overdraft from any banks. Since we came in, servicing of debts have been the least of our concerns.

How is the executive arm of government treating the disbursement of FAAC allocation to local government?

Nasarawa State is one of the first few States that decided to embrace the autonomy of the local government wholeheartedly. In June, we allowed the local government to set up their committees and distribute their own funds and separate what was meant for salary and capital projects. We have encouraged them to be doing that. So far, they have been able to pay their salary for June, July and now they will pay for August. Not only salary, they are also paying their pensions too. We welcome the autonomy 100 per cent and we are working on the area of the autonomy without any problem.

Is the state looking at sourcing for funds through the bond market?

Yes, we are looking at that, since the last bond has been fully paid off. We are trying now to find the possibility of taking a new facility on infrastructural development, like market development, transportation, among others.

What is the State doing in the area of security?

When it comes to security, even from the federal level, government is taking very bold steps. At the governors’ meeting that we had with Mr. President, the discussion was on security. Security has been a big concern for not only Nasarawa State but all Nigerians. But for Nasarawa State, we have seen some level of stability in the area of security and peace. On the State Police matter, the issue is at the level of Governors’ Forum and at the Federal Executive Council. State Police is of interest to us, but we have started something at the lower lever for instance, most of us engage in one form of security unit or the other, vigilantes and the rest of them. In Nasarawa, we have the one called Nasarawa State Agency For Youth Empowerment Scheme (NAYES), it is actually the equivalent of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) in Lagos but the difference is that security is more of their concern than road or traffic management. What we did was also to engage the Civil Defence aggressively in Nasarawa State and luckily for us, majority of the officials in the Civil Defence are indigenes of the State, so they go to the local communities and engage the youths from the areas, and this has worked in the State. State Police, when it is completed and agreed upon, I think it will be adopted.

What are your major achievements in the first 100 days in office?

The issue of peace and stability that we have been able to find in the State and the level of unity and cohesion ongoing in the State is a major immediate achievement. I strongly believe that starting from our primary election; it was only in Nasarawa State that out of the 11 aspirants that stood for primary election, the 10 who lost stood as members of the campaign council for the candidate that won.  We have seen some level of unity and stability in the State.

In the area of education we have seen the completion of most of the projects, especially in skill acquisition centre, special education, technical education and most of the primary and secondary schools that were initiated by the former administration while some are near completion. On road network, most of the projects started by the former administration have been completed while some are still under construction. And we have new ones that we have started, this is another big achievement that we have, being able to complete existing and starting new projects within a short time.

We listed about 14 areas of interest when we are coming in that we will embark upon. One of it is to ensure we promote our agricultural sector, which is the major trade in Nasarawa State. With this, we are already working with the Federal Government to give a facility of N1.5 billion to empower the youths. Right now they are undergoing training and we have identified land areas where those farms will be situated.

Another of our achievements so far is the completion of special education for the disable started by the former administration and there is none like it in the entire nation.

On the area of power, we have already identified three major areas, starting with solar power. All the new street lights that were installed were with brand new technology of solar and most of the boreholes built in the various schools also have solar-powered system. The major problem of power supply has been identified and we have started working in ensuring that the coal deposit we have in Nasarawa State will be converted to be the source of power for coal-fired turbine.

On hydro power, we have successfully gotten the Federal Ministry of Water Resources to start the process of constructing a dam at the waterfall. On our own part we have awarded the contract to construct the road leading to the major highway to the site.

For the agriculture that I mentioned earlier, Nasarawa State is selling fertiliser lower than any other State in the country. We are giving fertiliser to our local farmers at subsidised price. We are supporting our farmers to have a bumper harvest, while attracting major commercial farmers in the industry.

We have set up a 15-man ‘Investment and Economic Advisory Council’, to chart the way forward for the economic development of the State headed by Prof. Konyinsola Ajayi, as Chairman and Ibrahim Magaji as Secretary. Indeed we have so many other prominent Nigerians in various fields of the economy on board. They all believe in the economic agenda of the State.