The
Governor of Jigawa State,Alhaji Sule Lamido recently spoke on various issues
concerning his style of administration, especially his love for the downtrodden
in the State, the introduction of social welfare package for the disable, plans
to open up the State to would-be investors, education and civil responsibilities
of citizens to the Nigerian State. It is acidic as well as humorous!
 |
| Governor Sule Lamido |
OPENING
UP JIGAWA STATE TO INVESTORS
By the ratings of the so called market
agencies, the in thing today is commerce and business and in commerce you have
to move very fast.
Since Jigawa is the most peaceful in the
federation, it has all the potentials to make business thrive with availability
of land and cheap labour and enabling environment and secure. It is investment
destination. It is an emerging market with good climate.
What we desire most now is an airport in
the State to ease movement of people and investors into and out of Jigawa State
to transact business.
We are very close to Cameroun, in the east,
very close to Chad in the north, Kano in the east .It has beautiful scenery,
good climate and an investors haven.
People there are anxious to reach the world and the only means
today is to have an airport. For example, if you are coming from Abuja you by
air, you have to drop in Kano and come to Jigawa State capital, Dutse by road
and the roads linking us with Kano are very very bad.
It is horrendous. The Federal Government
has made a commitment to build an airport for the State. We are therefore
looking forward for the fulfillment of that commitment.
If people like Bill Gates want to come to
Jigawa as he has planned to come to assist us I the polio eradication campaign,
he can not come now because there is no airport through which his plane can
land.
By
whatever criteria Jigawa need an airport to open up our State to industrial
development aside from the massive road network construction currently going on.
Opening up Jigawa is part of adding to the economic potentials and the
prosperity of Nigeria. We are building road network.
We are very low on Internal Generated
Revenue (IGR). We depend largely on money from federation account. We depend on
self help to develop the State.
We feel challenged and save ourselves. Lack
of money should not be impediment. We are agric based. We have Onions, Sorghum
,Millet, Melon, Gum Arabic and…..nobody will come to Jigawa and help us. We
have to resort to self help. Not even our sister State, Kano can.
Land is our own oil. we are willing to give
land to interested investor. Within three months of applying for land you are
through with your certificate of occupancy..in emerging economy, agro based
industry is important. We have half a million
hectares of irrigable land.
Federal Government is investing heavily
in Hadejia/Jamare river valley .
Recently, during the visit of the vice president, N10billion commitment was made to improve on
the Hadejia/Jamare agro-based industry.
When you put a thing like this in place,
you trigger economic activities, you think of how to preserve them and get them
to the market.
Loans are being given to small scale
farmers. Government is ever willing to support any investor in this regard .
Above all, the most important thing is that
Jigawa is a peaceful State for investors because no matter the attractions you
have on ground to woo investors, if the State is always engulf in crisis, no
investor will want to come. We need to invest heavily in farming apart from
other competing needs like health education.
By our culture, violence is not part of our
culture. commitment from home is important, How do parent bring up their
siblings. Parents must take charge of their ward. It is a collective thing.
A parent must be honest to his children. A
child trust, but if he discovers that somebody he so much trust was lying, he
feels dejected..this also goes into our larger society.
Our leaders…….if you look at the north was
one single family Tafawa Balewa,Sardauna, Aminu Kano-----the north is of both Christian,
Muslim north…………to them every northerners to them was one. For people who are
lazy they import various things to divide us.
Our leaders then had commitment they are
not greedy compare to what we have today. Today’s generation are selfish, we
believe in using people as tools to attain selfish advantage. Nobody trust
anybody anymore. That is why we have all this crisis.
On N7,000
per person monthly social welfare to disable persons in Jigawa
If you say because somebody is disabled and
you neglect him, you are not being fair, even you who is healthy need support
not to talk of somebody who is disable.
The money we make is for all. How then do
you abandoned them, abandoned a part of you and turned them to unwanted specie.
They are our own people. The package is
their right, they no longer beg, they look need and no longer looking neglected. They must feed and feel part of
the society. Its more evil to make them feel unwanted.
We have to care for them. The allocated to
Jigawa State from the Federation Account is for all the sons and daughters of
Jigawa, so because they are getting that money you can see that they are very
clean, they can take care of themselves.
They no longer go hungry or go about
begging for food.
So our efforts to develop, our efforts to
become more civilized people and the miracle you are talking about is because
with this programme, they have been switched on as human being and not as
before when they were switched off and un-catered for.
In the next 10years, Jigawa is going to be
the best state in Nigeria with the best doctors,
engineers including Islamic sciences.
We’ve just sent 58 students to various schools
abroad. In the past3yrs we've sent over 300 abroad on scholarship. As a matter
of right, I want Jigawa to be a reference point to other states in Nigeria in
all human endeavours.
Even Mallams, the council of elders(ulamas)
and all sects who want to further their education in Islamic or western education
are given scholarships so that they can debate intelligently and nobody can
bamboozle them into preaching hatred among
the folks.So when you talk there will be knowledge and sense in what you say.
G9-QUARTERS in Dutse
No nation grows without knowing where you
are coming from. We must know our history to be able to chart a way forward. History
anchores you. G-9 is an appreciation to leaders who played a key role in restoring
democracy in Nigeria.
In 1992 under Abacha, when he tried to
transform into military president, the
oppositions were engaging him from the
tribal angle, it was difficult to really get a national appeal.
Abacha came up with his own parties, we met the requirements,
yet things were not falling into proper shape.
So, myself, Chief Bola Ige, Adamu Chiroma, Francis
Ella, Abubakar Rimi, Iyorcha Ayu and Solomon Lar met in Lagos, somewhere in
Raymond Njoku Street in1996, to rub minds on how to chart a way forward for the
country aftermath of the crisis that engulf the country due to the annulment of
June 12 presidential election.
We look at Nigeria and we looked at the roles
being played by NADECO and we noted that the body was engaging Abacha from
tribal point of view and because it was tribal, other Nigerians refused to go
along. The more you hammer him(Abacha) from the tribal angle the more you strengthened
him as people look at NADECO as mainly a Yoruba organization.
We now agreed to form a body that would
have a nationalistic outlook so as effectively engage Abacha and stop him from
transforming to become military president.
We now named the body G-9 later it became
G-18 then G-34 and finally metamorphosed into PDP(Peoples Democratic Party).
To give Nigerians a sense of history, that
is why the G-9 Quarters was built and named after leaders who played key roles
in giving Nigerians democracy we are enjoying today, so that they can
appreciate the sacrifices made by their leaders.
On 51
Anniversary the poor performance of government at the federal level
It is the typical past time of Nigerians to
keep passing on their guilt to someone else. Ask those critics, what has been
their own contributions to the development of Nigeria?
It is only in Nigeria that you see people
relish in vilifying their country and ignoring what God has destined for them. We
must be a responsible Nigeria first.
It is here you see a taxi driver
complaining of lack of fuel and he will take you round and round in order to
make money out of you, yet he will not pay his tax.
Those who are saying there is no
electricity, ask them to show you their NEPA bill, they won’t show you and yet
they want constant electricity. You want all the good things of life, yet you
the most dis-honourable.
They look for escape routes for their own
failures. We must be responsible citizens first. Media men are involved. You
know what to do.
Whatever you say about your country, is
your own image you are seeing. It is deceit all the way. Go to parties and see
the number of buffet you will see while their own people are suffering.
They have no concern for people behind
them. An average Nigerian is selfish. Yet we keep on lamenting.
On
President Goodluck Jonathan
You see in my religion, God says- I will
give you leaders of your own reflection. Leaders who are like you. So what do
you expect.
If you say Jonathan is a ‘go-slow’
president, you too you are also ‘Mr Go Slow’. Didn’t Nigerians called President
Sheu Shagari ‘go-slow’? Didn’t they call President Olusegun Obasanjo various unpalatable
names? Didn’t they call Babangida a ‘wayo man’.
But you see Jonathan is a very very honest
man. You Nigeria want rule of law, democracy and yet you want him to behave
like a pharaoh, like army general.
Jonathan is a very honest man. We should give him a chance to perform and make good use
of his talent.
On
Sovereign Account
All monies accruing to the federation must
be shared among all the three tiers of government, so says the Constitution of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria and anything to the contrary is null and void.
Which money do you save when there are so
much developmental work that are lacking and needed to be funded.
Which money do you want to save in the so
called sovereign account they are talking about when there is no enough money to
execute several developmental progammes and projects.
POSTED BY LATEEF LAWAL
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