As the proverbial saying goes, a gold fish has no hiding place and so Governor lnuwa Yahaya’s outstanding achievements and exemplary performance in Gombe State has auspiciously come into focus as an agglomeration of public policy apparatchiks, blue chip think tanks, civil society groups, social affairs commentariats and the media punditocracy under the aegis of The National Interest Forum have unanimously coronated him as the undisputed Founding Father of the New Gombe State. Indeed Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya’s giant strides in the infrastructural, socio-economic and developmental spheres of Gombe State has swept through all the nooks and crannies of the Jewel in the Savannah transforming its rural and urban landscape for the better while raising the living standards of the people to record highs. For instance in the educational arena, Governor lnuwa Yahaya has initiated the construction of over 234 new classroom blocks across 80 schools in the state to enhance enrolment, renovated 190 classroom blocks across 47 schools to have a good learning environment, complete renovation of various infrastructure across 150 schools including hostels, dining halls, staff quarters, laboratories, examination halls and provided classroom furniture to over 120 schools across the state. In the health sector, Governor Yahaya has reduced the maternal-infant mortality rate in Gombe state by his timely policy of training over 500 midwives to take charge of child deliveries. Key achievements also include: Upgrading of the Specialist Hospital Gombe to a modern tertiary health facility with state-of-the-art equipment, built and equipped a 12-bed capacity Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in the State Specialist Hospital, revitalized one (1) PHC facility in all the 114 wards to provide 24-hour service to the people, completion of internship quarters at the specialist hospitalC which was abandoned for over 20 years and completion/ renovation of Cottage hospitals at Mallam Sidi and Bojude and General Hospital, Nafada.
The state’s road network has been vastly improved and modernized with the construction and rehabilitation of hundreds of thousands of kilometers of roads under his trailblazing Eleven Hundred Road Network guaranteeing that least a hundred kilometers of roads are constructed in each of the eleven local governments of the state, a feat unprecedented in the nation’s history.
Gombe State’s agricultural production has been significantly boosted with Governor Inuwa Yahaya’sF prioritization of the agrarian sector with the subsidization of fertilizer pegged at 5, 000 naira, the relatively low price of farm seedlings, the provision of pesticides, tractors, harvesters, planters and other critical agric tools and equipment.
Transportation throughout the state has received fresh impetus with the purchase of over 100 Toyota buses for the state owned GOMBE LINE and the rehabilitation of other broken down buses inherited from the past administration.
The power sector has been urgently revived with the resuscitation of the long moribund Dadin-Kowa Hydro-Electric Dam neglected and abandoned by past state and federal administration and in its present functional state has the capacity of generating 4,000 megawatts of electricity that can meet the energy needs of the state with reserves for distribution to neighbouring states. Crucially, Governor Inuwa Yahaya has jumpstarted job creation for over 100, 000 youths, adults and women by establishing a 100 hectare lndustrial Park at Dadin Kowa that would be connected to the power grid of the Hydro-electric station thus ensuring constant and adequate power supply for the industrial park. The provision of clean drinkable pipe-borne water in Gombe City and other urban andF rural areas of Gombe State was made possible by the holistic restructuring of Gombe State Water Board by Governor lnuwa Yahaya which resulted in the provision of clean tap water to the whole of Gombe metropolis and adjoining areas, a development that had been non-existent in the past 8 years before he took office. His proactive establishment of the Bureau Service Reforms charged with transforming the Gombe civil service has fostered efficiency and enhanced qualitative and result oriented services to the government and people of the state.
In the security frontier, Governor Inuwa Yahaya has has put the security agencies on high alert to curb any menace associated with armed robbery, kidnapping, banditry, terrorism, cultism and related crimes, established a Community Policing Advisory Committee tasked with recruiting able bodied persons of good character as special constables to monitor, report and prevent the commission of crimes as well as providing security within their given locality, mobilising vigilantes and local hunters to work with the Nigerian Police,the Civil Defence Corps and other regular security formations to nip security threats in the bud, bolstering the regular security agencies with patrol vehicles, equipment, logistics and funding to enhance their crime fighting activities while disputes on land,ethnic or tribal issues are settled through the engagement of traditional and community leaders who are also involved in the formulation and implementation of security related policies. The reconstituted Farmers/Herdsmen Prevention and Settlement of Disputes Commitee at the state and local levels has assisted in no small measure towards bringing lasting peace amongst farmers and pastoralists in the state.
In the physical arena, the Gombe Goes Green (3G) Project of Governor Inuwa Yahaya has deployed over 27,000 youths under the YESSO programme to nurture the over 5 million trees being planted under the 3G program to curb desertification, deforestation and land degradation while paying counterpart funding of N500million to a World Bank assisted project, the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) for the control of major gully erosion sites in the state.
On the women and youth empowerment fronts, Governor lnuwa Yahaya has initiated countless youth employment, empowerment and engagementf programs and projects aimed at making the youths viably employed and self-reliant thus discouraging their involvement in crime, political violence and other anti-social vices. For instance he launched the Gombe State Safety,Traffic and Environmental Safety Corps (G-STEC) that has engaged over 2,000 youths in various security related activities thus assisting in improving the security dynamics of the state. Another 3,000 youths have also been employed as development facilitators for the state government and they are presently engaged in working for the progress of their various communities while an extra 1,000 youths have similarly been employed through the At Risk Children Program (ARC-P). In order to boost the income generation capacities of the teeming Gombe youth populace,the Gombe State government has initiated a series of skills acquisition schemes targeting over 20,000 youths and women to be trained in various vocational occupations including carpentry, vulcanizing, welding fashion designing barbing,animal husbandry,poultry and fish farming amongst others. In furtherance of its famed integrated approach, 1,000 fresh teachers have been employed by the Gombe State Teachers Service Commission while another 288 teachers have applied to be transferred under the SUBEB Program to secondary and technical colleges under the Gombe State Ministry of Education. Over 2,000 Keke tricycles were distributed by the state government to Keke riders from the eleven local governments of the state through the Keke Riders Association of Nigeria, Gombe Branch. Also over 100,000 youths are targeted for employment with the completion of the Muhammadu Buhari Industrial Park which will incubate numerous industries linked to agro-allied, agro-processing and agro-entrepreneurship activities. Not to be forgotten is the pacesetting Gombe lnvestment Summit ‘GO-INVEST’ 2022 themed ‘lndustrialisation,the Pathway to lnnovation, Transformation and Development of Gombe State’ which was successfully organised by the Gombe State government attracting hundreds of foreign and local investors to partner in the exploration and utilisation of the rich mineral, natural and human resources of the state. Also as a fruitful adjunct to the unique mentoring relationship between President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor to lnuwa Yahaya, the Kolmani Oil Exploration Project known as the Kolmani lntegrated Development Project involving the exploration and exploitation of petroleum,gas and other hydrocarbon based resources in the Kolmani Oil Fields of Gombe State has taken off promising increased revenue and oil windfall profits for the Jewel in the Savannah. With this vast array of concrete achievements, trailblazing programs and mammoth developmental projects cutting to accross all the eleven local governments of Gombe State, there is little doubt that Governor lnuwa Yahaya doubly deserves his epochal garlanding as the Founding Father of the New Gombe State for contributing more than any leader, politician, statesman, technocrat or administrator to the development, peace, stability, progress and prosperity of Gombe State. To him who the cap fits let him wear it.
Mallam Ibrahim Bature, a public broadcster wrote in from Gombe
