X-raying Fintiri’s 100 days in Adamawa

Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri was sworn in as governor of Adamawa state on May 29 and clocked 100 days on Friday 6th September. Muazu Abari writes on efforts to change the political landscape of the state.

The agenda

Following his electoral victory on March 9, Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri returned to the saddle he exited in 2014 as acting governor following a court ordered to that effect. He had swept aside the incumbent governor, Bindow Jibrilla of the All Progressives Congress (APC), thereby beginning the journey for a fresh hope for the people of Adamawa state.

Aware of the enormous challenges and high expectations of the people from his administration, he vowed at his inauguration to restore hope saying: “We will gradually and systematically implement and sustain our 11 points agenda until Adamawa state shade it’s toga of a pariah state in which anything goes.

“On my watch security of lives and properties will be the primary responsibility of government while, the rights of the citizens, justice, equity, merit, competence and diligence shall prevail”

“We shall improve the lots of Adamawa state workers and pensioners and free them from the fear of victimization, the pangs of injustice and abuses all the direct result of bad governance and wrong decisions. What happened in 2014 was a child play and nothing compared to what will happen now. Payment of salaries, pensions and gratuities on time shall be routine as will be yearly increment and promotions.

“We will work urgently on resuscitating the health sector and break the jinxs of educational excellence by investing in teachers’ welfare, trainings and infrastructures. We will revive primary health care for children, empower our women and grant them easy access to medical services”.

Fresh hands on board

On assumption to office Fintiri decided to bring on board a crop of seasoned administrators and professionals to help him drive his administration’s policies and programmes.

He brought on board among others Engr Bashir Ahmed a former Commissioner for Works as the new SSG, Prof Maxwell Gidado, the Dean Faculty of Law Nasarawa State University Keffi (NSUk) as Chief of Staff, and Mr Solomon kumangar, an experienced journalist as DG media and communications, among others.

Following this, he moved to the next level by firing all political appointees who served in the administration of Gov Bindow Jibrilla including heads of some government agencies, board members of parastatals and many others.

Clearing salary arrears

To address all forms of injustices, abuse of due process as well as restore fairness and transparency in the conduct of government business in the state, the governor suspended all last minutes appointments made into the state civil service, judicial service commission, planning commission etc.

Just like it happened in 2014 while serving as acting governor when he inherited  two months unpaid salaries of civil servants, Fintiri kick started his administration with the payment of the backlog of arrears of salaries owed civil servants in the state.

The new administration also approved the payment of leave grant to civil servants in the state with assurances that salaries of civil servants will be paid on 25th of every month. He also promised of better welfare packages all of which he has fulfilled. Sometimes salaries are paid on 23th or 24th of without waiting for federal allocations.

Meeting security challenges

The new administration in a quest to safeguard the life and property of Adamawa people initiated an interface meeting with security chiefs in the state and held many security meetings which led to renewed efforts against all forms of criminal activities in the state.

Within the last three months of his administration so many kidnappers, armed robbers and Shilla Boys have been arrested, some voluntarily repented and surrendered their weapons to the law enforcement agencies, while the stubborn ones are being chased about to ensure compliance with the ultimatum given to them by the administration to either shape up or ship out. The repentant ones benefit from the empowerment programmes promised by the administration.

He also initiated peace talk and reconciliation between farmers and herders especially in the southern senatorial district of the state where clashes had become a daily routine in the last 4 years with the view to building consensus and finding lasting solution to the crisis. The government also forwarded a bill that prescribed stiffer penalty against the activities of Shilla Boys, kidnappers and other criminals to the state House of Assembly.

Still in the area of security the administration purchased and distributed Toyota Hulux buses, motorcycles to boost security agencies’ capacity and enhance their surveillance troubled spots and generally facilitate secure in the state. 

New approach to education

In the area of education, he declared free education in all public schools across the state to take off on 1st September 2019 and have since commenced free school feeding programme in 9 junior and senior secondary schools within the state capital which will be expanded to 58 secondary schools across the state later this month.

Fintiri directed the payment of N2.1bn matching grant to the universal basic education commission (UBEC) to enable the state access N8.2bn which will be used to revamp the basic education. Additionally, he approved payments of scholarships to Adamawa state students in various tertiary institutions across the country.

In addition to this, he has set up a target to rehabilitates 5000 schools across the state in the next 6 months in the first instance and has since constituted visitation panels to all state owned tertiary institutions to access their needs, problems, staffing, finances and strength. They are recommend to government how to improve services and also directed the permanent secretary ministry of education to compile and submit full details of report of the furniture requirements of all schools in the state.

Housing gets fresh breath

In the areas of infrastructures, housing and agriculture, Fintiri has embarked on massive resuscitation of streetlight especially within the state capital and urban renewal projects.

He has also lunched Adamawa state green project aimed at planting 4 million trees within the next 4 years to prevent deforestation. The purchase and distribution of tractors to small and large scale farmers in the state in partnership with North East Commodity Association (NECAS) to boast agricultural activities in the state, is another area that he focused on. 

Further, the administration signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with family homes for the construction of 2000 housing units in the state with 1200 of the units will be built in the state capital and the remaining 80 units in all the 21 local governments in the state, each local government will have 40 houses. 

Autonomy for local government

To further restore democracy, good governance and accountability at the grassroots the governor have granted full autonomy to local governments in the state where their allocations come directly into their accounts and initiate a process that will lead to the conduct of local government election in the state.

Ahead of local government council election slated for Nov 9th, 2019, he has sent a bill for the amendment of local government law in the state to pave way for appointment of transition committees to run the affairs of the 21 councils for 3 months and the duly elected council executives come on board.

Already the bill has been passed into law by the state assembly and the transition committees for the 21 local governments were inaugurated given 3 months to run the affairs of the council.

Fintiri has moved to ensure that local government funds are properly utilised free from any kind of embezzlement. Little wonder he initiated operational guidelines to regulate the activities of the local government transition committees.

The guidelines barred the chairmen from travelling outside the state and obtaining over draft and where necessary an approval and clearance must be sought from the ministry for local government affairs.

The chairmen were only allowed to approved N250,000 and that any amount above that must be referred to the entire committee for consideration, while the council itself has spending limit of N1 million.

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