As current executives of the 27 Local Government Council In Jigawa State celebrated 100 days in office, the Chairman Association of Local Government Council of Nigeria (ALGON) and also chairman Gwaram Local Government Council Proffessor Salim Abdurrahman has given an account of their stewardship within the period, the moral support and mentorship they receive from Governor Malam Umar Namad which save as guidance to them in upholding transparency and accountability in public service.
Hon. You and other executives of the 27 local government areas of the state celebrated 100 days in office, is there any good story to tell people.
Bismillahi Rahmanenraheem
Yes, as you know, I and other 26 local government chairmen and councilors were voted into office under the platform of All Progressive Congress (APC) a party that has Governor Malam Umar Namadi as its leader in the state.
If you can remember during our campaign tour Governor Malam Umar Namad urged Jigawa state electorate to vote for APC candidates because he has seen in us a reliability, confidence and listening leadership qualities.
Jigawa people agreed to give us their mandate because they have confidence in Governor Namadi Leadership and they believed he would not allowed unpatriotic people to go closer to him
During our swearing-in ceremony he charged us to fear Allah, to be accountable, transparent and committed in discharging our statutory responsibility.
Governor Namadi charged us to always stay in a midst of our people, we shall avoid unnecessary traveling outside our local government, he also warned us against relocating to Dutse capital, Kano state or any other place outside our local government area.
The governor promised to give us all necessary support and guidance to fulfill our campaign promises to the people.
As I am speaking to you now, because of the guidance and exemplary leadership we got from governor Malam Namadi we were able to make difference, improved the life of our people and also take a right direction toward supporting the implementation of governor Namadi’s 12 point agenda designed to make Jigawa state great.
Hon. there was a court verdict that grant local government financial autonomy, what is happening in Jigawa with regards to that?
While in Jigawa state, local government councils have been enjoying financial autonomy before the court ruling.
Governor Malam Umar Namadi has never tamper with local government funds interfere directly or indirectly on its expenditure. We are receiving our allocation directly and spending it in according to the law.
The financial autonomy we enjoyed enabled local government councils to execute projects and programs that have direct bearing to the common man”s social and economic needs
In the last 100 days we spent in office we achieved a lot. If you go round the state, in every local government area you will see solid projects executed some completed and some are ongoing, while for social services people around will testified to you what they have been enjoying.
Today life is getting better across all the 27 local government area of the state.
Hon. can you give us example of such projects that transform the life of your people?
The 27 local government councils had in January purchased drugs and other medical consumables worth over N218 million and distributed to the primary healthcare facilities across the state.
Under the initiative the local government council through ALGON will be contributing the money in every quarter of the year aimed at supporting the state government policy on promoting access to quality basic healthcare services for all people of the state irrespect of their economic and geographical location.
In Agricultural sector we are committed to the implementation of state governor Namadi’s policy under which all the 27 local government were directed to Identified ,prepare and allocated 100 Hecters to selected youth interested in farming, the state government will give them full package of inputs and cash as empowerment package.
The local government councils had purchased 300 motorcycles for the mobile Animal health workers and also contributed money monthly for the purchase of veterinary drugs to support the state government policy on free veterinary service to herdsmen and other livestock farmers in the state for enhance livestock production and empowering people through their own business.
In every single aspect of Governor Namadi 12 point agenda the 27 local government councils are extracting our area of responsibilities and implement it for achieving the desire goals, this included education sector, water supply, Empowerment, environmental development, economic and other social aspects.
Hon. What happened in Gwaram local Government area within this 100 days ?
Let me give you the breakdown of some projects and programs executed in Gwaram local Government under my stewardship in the last 100 days. And I am assured you that, the good story of Gwaram is the same story in other local government councils of our state, though the approaches and projects may differ due to peculiarities in needs.
Within the period under review, we rehabilitated and renovated over 200 hands pumps including some that had been broken for over 3 years ago, we fixed them, we also constructed about 20 new ones to improve access to clean drinking water to our people. More so we sustained uninterrupted supply of diesel to our motorized water supply facilities.
We believed with access to clean drinking water, the personal and environmental hygiene of our people will improve, and many diseases particularly waterborne disease can be tackle.
In the area of public healthcare service delivery, every month we are purchasing drugs and other medical consumables for free distribution to children, pregnant women and other less privileges person at our health facilities,
In this aspect we also sponsored free eye treatment including minor surgery, drugs and glasses to over 5,000 people. However to strengthen the system we are currently scouting students that are qualified to get admissions in health related college from remote area who will be posted back to their communities after graduation.
In the area of Empowerment we distributed Barbing clippers to 110 Barbers, N50,000 cash to 220 male piety traders and N20,000 to 440 females, 50 swing machine to 50 youth trained on tailoring all were aims at supporting each and every beneficiary to improve his business of choice.
Within these 100 days in office Gwaram local government council had distributed palliative including food items to over 1,000 less privileges, and also provided clothes to over 1,000 orphans.
In the area of power supply we rehabilitated and restore power supply to over 10 communities including Gwaram local government headquarters, and we are currently working in collaboration with KEDCO for the projects in other communities that we estimated to coast over N500 million, we will do the work in phases as we started.
Besides that, in the last couple of month we distributed over 1,449 bags of Fertilizer to rural farmers to boost their capacity to produce more for food security and economic growth.
In the Education sector, we established 25 Islamiyya school and employed 45 teachers to teach our children, we distributed over 11,000 exercise to primary school pupils and 2025 JAMB card to over 650 students, we provides additional scholarship to some of our children studying in higher institutions in addition to the one they are receiving from the state government.
In short I narrated all this achievement we made in Gwaram local government just to give you an insight of the transformation going on in all the 27 local government area of Jigawa state,
We are making this progress because of the moral support and guidance we are having from our leader Governor Malam U.ar Namadi.
I am assuring the Jigawa state people that, more projects and Programs are coming to their communities from the local government councils for making their life better and actualizing the dream of our governor in making Jigawa prosperous and Great.
By: Muhammad Zangina Kura
At’tajdid News
