Recession: Sani Bello has blocked financial leakages – Vatsa

The Niger state Commissioner of Information ,  Tourism and Culture, Mr Jonathan Vatsa recently marked one year in office with a chat with reporters on issues bothering the Governor Abubakar Sani Bello’s administration. Aideloje Ojo was there for Blueprint. Excerpts:

What steps has the administration taken to woo investors and are such steps yielding results
The Government of His Excellency, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello has put in place mechanism to attract investor to the state through the Agro comparative advantage of the state, and he commissioned a multi-million dollar Integrated Rice Processing and Milling Complex constructed by Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in Bida . The  Rice Mill  is an  investment that  leveraged on the government set programme and  objective to boost Agro investment in the state based on  the Rice Value chain initiative. We have always said that with the kind of government encouragement that we are giving, the state has the potentials of feeding the nation and export rice. The Rice Mill commissioned by the Governor in Bida will leverage on the massive rice cultivation going on in that parts of the state, as you know Baddeggi is famous for rice production hence the National Cereal Research Institute NCRI is located there. In summation, the investment showed that our effort is paying off.

What specific effort is government making to boost Agriculture in the state?
Our responsibility is to provide the necessary  and requisite input for our subsistence and large scale farmers as well as expose them to credit facilities, that is what government is doing , you were at the budget presentation that Mr Governor stated that in 2016 fiscal year alone N2 billion credit facilities advanced to corporative  societies and groups through the  a CBN programme, we buy fertilizers and other input and most important avail the farmers with the desire extension services  and open up rural feeder roads.

The roads in Niger state especially the Federal roads are in Deplorable condition, what is the government doing about this?
Let me make one thing clear , the roads have been like that before the APC government came , notwithstanding , we are here to make change which is why the people have a renewed hope that we will make a difference. The difference we are making,  as you know this government has over 56 projects going on. Among these projects are roads opening up major cities and linking cities, you will recall that because of the deplorable state of the  federal roads you states, the government  did a light rehabilitation of Minna-Suleja road to the tune of about N500 million , but because the other federal road along Mokwa-Bokani road is bad heavy duty vehicles diverted their way to the area and spoilt it again. The same way the government also did an intervention rehabilitation of Tegina-Kalgara – Birni Gwari road, it will interest you to know that  government, through another agency in a comprehensive arrangement  will rehabilitate Minna-Bida road. The good news, however, is that even the federal government is gradually coming to our help, the contractor handling Minna-Suleja  has been asked to go back to site and the Mokwa Bokani-Tegina road project has been awarded.

Is the government expecting refund from federal government on money spent on federal roads in the state
Even if we are going to get a refund it can not be immediate , but that you know is a technical issue that should not be duel into without the necessary technical know how , the experts in Technical and Financial evaluation will have to look into it.

The state media directly under your ministry have being under performing  for long ,what efforts  are you  making to improve on you relatiinship with media?
It is an open fact that the present government accords priority attention to the media houses , the government in line with the  digitalization deadline awarded contract for the total overhaul of the AM Radio station that has been down for over 16 years , the FM station and the state Television,  the test transmission of the digitalized state television is currently on ,  we intend to see how we can  focus on the state Newsline Newspapers 2017 fiscal year, who says we can not attempt to go daily, we have the capacity and the needed manpower to go daily.

There has been this concern that government activities are not well publicized and the government lacked engagement mechanism, what is your take on this as commissioner of Information?
Yes I have heard people saying that no this is not Jonathan we knew as spokesman of APC in the state and that people are not hearing much of me as commissioner of Information, for avoidance of doubt there is different between systematically creating an Image for a government and just being a publicists , you see because [people are used to the propaganda of the immediate past government they expect me as commissioner of Information to embark on such a Jamboree of PDP government, from every perspective my Governor is a modest, just and a fair man who will not want to be a publicists but will appreciate creating and making image that last longer than being just a publicists . What we are doing is that without any Jamboree we systematically create the desire image for this government, the image of people oriented government that mean well for the people not just being a publicists just for Ego trip, at least, I issue a release every week on topical government policy, I am visible on social media, on Television and Radio. As we gradually move on we will continue to increase the tempo, we will not go to media to cause any unnecessary hype, as I said earlier we have 56 projects on going and some at completion stage as the projects are being completed we will give them media highlights to make people know that they voted for change and change is being delivered in form of  restoration in key sectors of the state.

Your government seems to have frosty relationship with journalists in the state, what’s your take on this
That is very untrue, we appreciate the role of the media as the fourth estate of the realm , in fact my door is always open to any Journalists, because we believe that we can not do it without engaging the media, we engage the people through the media, we collaborate with the media , and that we hate the media is just an imagination of some people, as I said we  create an image not just publicity. I can only advise the members of the fourth estate of the real to be objective and précised in their reportage in order not to go against the ethics and code of conduct of the profession, reporting falsehood  will do the profession no good  so as professionals you  must sustain  credibility.

Tourism Potentials have  remained untapped in Niger, what measure are you putting in place to revamp the sector
I must be frank with you that  another area the state is blessed with apart from agrarian land , is Tourism, the state tourism potential ranges from natural to historical shibboleths, in term of natural Tourism Potentials we have the Zuma Rock, the Gurara water fall, Baro Empire Hills among others, in terms of historical shibboleths we have the remains of the colonial relics in Zungeru as the first capital of Nigeria and the place Nigeria was amalgamated in 1914, what we are doing is to expose them to the world , we make deliberate attempt in attracting genuine investors in the areas of collaborations and Public Private Partnership. Niger state is also reach in culture that  is being used to attract investor , just recently you heard about Gani festival in Kutigi , there are many festivals like that in the state that we want to package to attract investors.

How has the recession affected implementation of projects
That is where you will give the Governor Abubakar Sani Bello credit; he is a good manager of resources, he is well equipped by his private sector experience to ensure meticulous management of the available resources, he put an end to era of financial profligacy. He made sure that all areas of leakages are blocked, the state is the first to introduce Treasury Single Account TSA after the federal government, he has the lowest expenditure on government house activities unlike what was obtainable in some states and in the past in Niger state. You can attest to the fact that the Governor is not cut out for Jamborees that is why we could save  to embark on whole school reconstruction approach, we can revamp the health sector and provide critical infrastructures.

You said the administration met on ground a decaying education, what is it doing to save the situation
We have begun to revive edecation in the state. We have introdeced a programme where by there is complete renovation of selected schools, what I mean is not the approach where you just renovate a block of classrooms in a school and move to another school . The approach entails complete work , it is an approach whereby the whole needed in a school are provided. The government started with two schools in each of the three senatorial district in the state then extend it, to other schools gradually our schools will be given a facelift, we inherited  very bad states of schools and we are gradually making differences.

Do you have qualified teachers
Government has entered into a collaboration with a foreign university to transform education Sector  in Niger state. This was  borne out of  the need to build the capacity of the teachers , so our government  engage foreign experts to train 100 teachers and other education managers as train  the trainers., The training   team is  from the Cambridge university,  and the first training among the numerous training outlined in the programme  took place in July  2016which involved training  the  one hundred teachers and education managers as change agents in the schools in terms of service delivery.

Generally what are the development roadmap of this government?
As we had earlier outlined we focused on Education, Health, Agriculture, investment , infrastructures and Women as well as youth empowerment,  we want to leverage on our Agricultural potentials to create Jobs and engage the youths meaningfully, like the rice mill commissioned in Bida, it has the capacity to employ 10,000 in full utilization just as you heard the experts say during the commissioning and recently you saw the youths trained in interlocking in order to take them from the street. Similarly on health, the governor has given the approval that doctors and other medical workers  be paid their full benefits as it entails at the federal level instead of the percentage payment they were paid in the past and made them to leave the state’s  service. Our government is also renovating hospitals, while taking health care delivery to the rural areas buy building a standard Primary health care centre in each of the wards in the state for access to health care delivery.