From the National Assembly to the Sokoto state Government House, it’s been a journey to beat the challenges and meet the expectations of the people for Aminu Waziri Tambuwal. In this report, ABDULRAHMAN ZAKARIYAU, who was part of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors Forum’s recent project inspection in Sokoto, writes on the challenges of good governance and the peculiarities of the state.
As the 2023 general elections draw nearer the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors Forum has embarked on projects to make the party a viable option. This informed the visit by the forum, led by the Director-General, Hon. CID Maduabum, to Sokoto state, recently, to inspect legacy projects and their multiplier effect on the people.
Explaining what the legacy projects comparative review was all about, Maduabum said it was a massive showcase of impact-oriented projects executed by each PDP controlled state.
He stressed the need for the PDP to collate materials and narratives that would usher it boldly and convincingly into the debates and campaigns for the 2023 general elections based on performance indicators of its governors.
According to Maduabum, “The PDP ruled Nigeria for 16 years and it is now essentially an opposition party. But it controls 13 of the 36 states in the federation.
“It cannot in any way be a pushover in a contest for the hearts and minds of Nigerians for power at the federal level in 2023.”
The director general stressed that, “The PDP governors, as the governments in opposition, needed to interrogate and present its policy choices, projects, programmes and achievements in concert and close consultation with the leadership of the PDP for 2023.”
The genesis
The former Speaker, House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, was first elected Governor of the Seat of the Caliphate, Sokoto state in 2015 on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC).
According to Tambuwal, for the ineffectiveness of President Muhammadu Buhari APC-led administration in addressing the nation problems he dumped the ruling party and returned to his first love, the PDP in 2018, less than a year to the 2019 general elections.
Many feared that Tambuwal would not be re-elected and a few predicted that his return to PDP, an opposition party, would be an end to his political career. However, like a cat with nine lives, Tambuwal survived many plots to unseat him and narrowly defeated his closest rival, the APC Candidate, Ahmad Aliyu, with 342 votes.
Explaining what he did upon assumption in office in 2015 to engender good governance in Sokoto state, the state governor said, “When we came in, I commissioned some of our experts, both local and a very few that are outside Sokoto to understudy our health sector, our education sector, agric sector and the economy.
“This is to enable them to come up with suggestions and solutions to some of the challenges we face here in Sokoto and to advise the government because I had identified these areas as my priority. So, we deliberately set out to change the narratives and bring about good governance.”
Governor Tambuwal has spent about seven years in charge of governance in the state and under his watch the state has gone through many changes, but not without challenges.
Education as tool for development
Education is one of the best legacies any government can bequeath its citizens, this is more so in northern Nigeria where the number of out of school children is at its peak. It becomes extremely important for the government to do more in the area of education.
In Sokoto state, the Tambuwal-led administration constructed and rehabilitated many classrooms across the 23 local governments in the state. They were also equipped with modern teaching facilities.
Confirming the governor’s giant strides in the education sector, the Commissioner for Basic and Secondary School Education, Mohammed Bello Abubakar, said: “I can tell you Governor Tambuwal has made a lot of achievements in the area of basic and secondary education.”
He said upon assumption of office the governor came up with programmes that would ensure that basic, secondary, and tertiary institutions were improved.
“In addition, he also established a committee, under the chairmanship of His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alh Sa’ad Abubakar, to particularly concentrate on basic education that is, Emergency Committee on Education, which has made tremendous achievements,” the commissioner added.
Abubakar noted that, “Quite a number of schools were constructed. Many classrooms were renovated, and quite a lot of pieces of furniture and other teaching materials were provided in quite a number of our schools, most basic and secondary schools.”
On enrolment, he said: “One major achievement that I must mention is the enrolment of students back to school, trying to take care of the out of school children in Sokoto state, in particular, this issue of almajiri, which the governor has been doing a lot to ensure that all amajiris return to school.
“Last year alone, we were able to return to school over 100,000 out of school children. And this year we shall bring over 205,000 back to school, which is quite a tremendous development.”
Continuing, the commissioner said, “His Excellency has decided to deliberately come up with a program to ensure in addition to returning these children to school. We also teach them to learn a skill and encourage them on entrepreneurship to empower them to stand on their own.
Aside from over 2,000 job opportunities created through the employment of teachers, over 75 per cent of the students who sat for the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO) examinations got the required five credits including in English and Mathematics.
“So, if you look at it, we can boldly say that we have achieved about 65 per cent increase in Sokoto state basic and secondary schools education.”
Healthcare
Aside from other social amenities, affordable and assessable healthcare delivery remained perhaps one of the most critical services Nigerians look up to the government for.
The tour revealed that the Sokoto state had witnessed positive change in the area of healthcare with the government investing heavily to provide proper medical services to the people. Governor Tambuwal’s commitment to providing quality healthcare services has seen the administration construct new hospitals in places where there was none and rehabilitated the dilapidated ones.
Notable among the projects is the N3.2bn advanced medical diagnostics centre, the almost completed N15 billion worth 1,200-bed Sokoto State University Teaching Hospital.
Speaking on Tambuwal’s efforts in providing quality and affordable healthcare services to the people in the seat of the Caliphate, Sokoto State Commissioner for Health, Dr Mohammad Ali Inname, said with medical facilities in most parts of the state many people don’t have to travel out of the state, region and country for medical services.
On the affordability of the healthcare facilities, he said: “In terms of pricing, it is affordable. Our prices are less than that of most private hospitals. This is to enable people, especially the less privileged to afford any of the services they required.”
He assured that the medical centres would continue to provide high-quality medical diagnostics services for the people of Sokoto, Nigerians and other nationals of neighbouring countries.
Explaining steps taken by his administration on quality healthcare delivery, Tambuwal disclosed that some local governments had no hospital when he came in as governor in 2015.
He said, “We ensured that all our local governments now have functional general hospitals. We provide drugs free to mothers and children, we provide free malaria drugs in the state and we set up a malaria agency, the first of its kind that has been mandated to look, to take care of issues about malaria campaigns and all of that, and even supplying and giving drugs free to our students.”
Tambuwal added that, “We have now identified about four bigger settlements outside the local government headquarters and we are providing them with general hospitals, upgrading their primary health centre facilities to general hospitals.
“And when we looked at the general tertiary medical situation of the state, we decided to come up with an idea of a premier hospital that is slightly higher than the general hospitals, but not up to a teaching hospital.
“So we identified the need for that and said, okay, let’s have three of them, one in each of the senatorial districts, 150-bed capacity and the apex should be the State University Teaching Hospital.
“So, the whole idea is that we can attract medical tourism. Nigeria is losing billions and billions and billions of dollars to the outside world because of medical tourism, people are going out for medical attention if we can have these facilities here, the potentiality of us not only having the neighbouring states using it, but even the general public coming to use our facilities and then we will generate more income for the state and the country, and save Forex.”
Youth empowerment
Sokoto state through the creation of Sokoto State Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SOSMEDA) has empowered many youths.
In a state where most of its population are youths is expected of a responsible state government to provide enabling environment and job opportunities for them.
To achieve this, the Tambuwal-led administration created the SOSMEDA, according to the Director-General, Aishatu Turai Hassan, through the agency over 6,000 youths have been taken out of the street.
She said, “Bearing in mind, the critical role of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises subsector as a major driver for economic growth of Sokoto State through job and wealth creation and enhanced income generation.
“The governor pioneered the establishment of the Sokoto State Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SOSMEDA).”
According to her, “The noble idea for the establishment of the Agency as a catalyst in the promotion and sustainable growth and development of micro, small and medium enterprises is in line with the cardinal objectives of the present administration in Sokoto State to use Small and Medium Enterprises to strengthen and galvanize the economy of the state with the ultimate goal of reducing poverty.
“The agency since its establishment has created more job opportunities for our youths. Through these small businesses that we have supported, they have also employed more people. Over 6,000 youths have been taken out of the street.”
SOSMEDA has empowered thousands of Sokoto youths through advocacy, business training, linkages, access to finance and access to market among others.
Investment in Agriculture
Understanding that the future is in agriculture and that Sokoto is purely are agrarian state, Tambuwal also invested in agriculture.
To boost agriculture Sokoto state government in partnership with World Bank is rehabilitating the Kware Irrigation Scheme.
Also, the state has rated itself as the highest in beef and milk production in the country through modern methods of cattle breeding and milk production.
Explaining the comprehensive livestock management package, Commissioner for Animal Health and Fishery Development, Prof Abdulkadir Junaidu, said the project was executed in collaboration with partners in South Africa.
Junaidu said the project was initiated considering the limited beef and milk production of the local cattle breed.
“We observed that the local breed can only give you between 100 to 150 kg of beef and the milk production is between three to four litres of milk on the average.
“On the other hand, Brangus breed from South Africa can give you a minimum of 500kg of beef and between 10 to 20 litres of milk per cow.
“To bridge this gap, we import semen and embryo of the Brangus from South Africa with which we fertilise our local breed through artificial insemination, thereby resulting in high production beef and milk,” he added.
