Ishaya K. Joshua
Certainly, any seasoned administrator understands the importance of industrialization and the provision of an enabling environment for the growth of private and public sector driven investment for the overall economic growth of a society. Therefore, it has always been the primary aim of any responsible government be it state or federal to ensure that investors are given sufficient support in form of tax breaks, soft loans, and critical infrastructure like roads, potable water and regular power supply in order for the medium and large scale enterprises to achieve optimal production and sufficient maximization of profits.
For instance, in the case of the Asian Tiger economies of Japan, China, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Singapore, it was the availability of critical infrastructure like motorable roads, adequate water supply, regular power supply and the provision of government subsidies and logistical supports that were crucial and critical for the exponential and rapid growth in manufacturing industries that have transformed that region into the economic powerhouse that it is today.
Coming nearer home, it is clear that Bauchi State is on the cusp of an industrial and manufacturing revolution given the determination of the incumbent Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar of Bauchi State to turn around previously moribund state enterprises while signaling his commitment to the growth of private and public sector driven industrial concerns that would both generate revenue for the state as well as provide employment for the teeming unemployed youths in the state. As the adage goes, an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.
Therefore, the revival of the hitherto moribund and non-functional Bauchi Fertilizer Company (BSFC) with the strategic injection of funds and other sound fiscal and operational policies adopted by the Bauchi State Governor, M. A Abubakar, has signposted a new lease of life for both the fertilizer company, tens of thousands of farmers in the state, the numerous employees of the company and thousands of unemployed youths who are directly or indirectly involved in enterprises allied to the agricultural sector and beyond.
Governor Abubakar had immediately on assumption of office gave marching orders to members of his cabinet to prepare a blueprint for the revival of all distressed state enterprises as well as putting in place the enabling environment for private sector investment in the industrial and manufacturing sector of the state.
Bauchi Fertilizer Company was one of the very first state enterprises to benefit from the dynamic economic initiatives of the action-oriented governor.
As the chairman of the company, Alhaji Bappah Aliyu Misau, revealed while receiving the visiting governor, the Bauchi Fertilizer Company had been abandoned by previous state governments, the facilities were non-functional, the machinery was idle and unused and hundreds of the company’s workers were demoralized and despondent as a result of non-payment of salaries for many years before Governor Abubakar astutely intervened.
The visibly pleased Aliyu Misau hailed the governor’s willingness to summon the necessary political will to back words with action by the strategic injection of much needed funds as well as the repair and replacement of obsolete equipment and tools that put the company back on its feet to the extent that it was now performing optimally and production was well above average capacity, ready to surpass the previous year’s 30,000 metric tonnes production and distribution target for the teeming farmers in the state.
Therefore, what this means is that the Bauchi State Fertilizer Company is poised to produce and distribute more than the 30,000 tonnes capacity of last year, a feat unprecedented in the annals of the Northeast geopolitical zone.
Misau further explained that the governor’s intervention has also led to the clearing of the backlog of unpaid staff salaries for many years, a situation that has raised staff morale and productivity to record highs. According to the company’s chairman, the BSFC can now produce its own spare parts that are crucial to the production process thus boosting the transfer of technology potentials of the state. Misau assured that the company will meet its target of optimum production as well as maximum profit in order to boost the coffers of the state government.
On his own part, Governor Mohammed Abubakar restated the state government’s resolve towards boosting agricultural and food production, providing jobs for the thousands of unemployed youths in the state as well as ensuring an enabling environment for private sector investment in the industrial and manufacturing sectors of the state. In this regard the state government has embarked on massive construction of urban and rural roads as well as the provision of potable water and regular power supply which are a sine qua non for efficient industrial production. Also, generous tax breaks as well as favorable economic policies would be adopted that would favor private sector investment as the astate cannot on its own create jobs for all its citizens.
Governor Abubakar also commended the management of the company for remaining focused and for judiciously utilizing the funds entrusted to it by the state government while vowing that his administration would do all within its power to ensure that all moribund enterprises are revived and revitalized in order to transform Bauchi state into the economic and industrial nerve centre of the entire Northeastern region.
Joshua writes from Abuja
