Between Nasarawa’s debts and development
One of the most revealing recollections I have is the panic that gripped our senior civil servants as judgment debtors and court bailiffs swarmed around various government property and other assets brandishing attachment orders towards recovery of their outstanding and unsettled bills. Civil servants driving official vehicles had to replace the number plates with private […]
One of the most revealing recollections I have is the panic that gripped our senior civil servants as judgment debtors and court bailiffs swarmed around various government property and other assets brandishing attachment orders towards recovery of their outstanding and unsettled bills. Civil servants driving official vehicles had to replace the number plates with private ones to prevent debtors from seizing them on sight! Even properties in Jos and Abuja were not spared as demonstrated by the invasion of the Governor’s Lodge in Abuja by unpaid contractors who carted away virtually everything they could lay their hands on to the embarrassment of then deputy governor Labaran Maku who had to make an emergency exit. Meanwhile Government House Lafia was in such a dilapidated state that it could not be immediately occupied by Governor Doma.
These episodes were the result of the heavy financial liabilities of about N40 billion left behind by the previous administration which hampered the smooth takeoff of the Doma administration. In addition there were huge backlogs of unpaid salaries of civil servants, scholarship allowances of students and various intergovernmental counterpart funds such as for UBE. Inherited liabilities also included the numerous abandoned projects that littered the state despite the collection of up to 70 % payment by the contractors. Needless to say, the new Doma administration faced the dilemma of deciding between clearing such a forbidding amount of liabilities and delivering the dividends of democracy in accordance with its mandate. It had to negotiate a bank loan to embark on any project.
The serious implication of such a situation was that little or no development had taken place in Nasarawa State even though most of the funds had been disbursed. Lafia, the state capital was aptly described in the media as “a glorified local government headquarters” due to the sheer lack of befitting facilities. The Doma administration had to commence with basic facilities like street lights, drainages, expansion and tarring of township roads, almost as if it was working on a new state capital. If Lafia was in such a sorry state, the rest of the state could not be in a better position in terms of development and it also fell on the Doma administration to take up this responsibility by embarking on massive rural development projects.
Such an enormous development agenda was however further encumbered by the inadequacy of funds available to the state government which is at the bottom end of the federation account disbursements and internally generated revenue. Remarkably, none of these formidable challenges dissuaded Governor Aliyu Akwe Doma as he maintained that, in the spirit of continuity of governance, he would strive to settle outstanding liabilities, complete abandoned projects and forge ahead with his own development projects.
Apart from provision of 16 kilometres of solar-powered street lights, expansion and tarring of 5 major township roads and drainages in Lafia, the Doma administration has embarked on construction of roads and drainages in Keffi, Wamba and Nassarawa towns. Water supply projects are also being executed in major towns in the state. The rural areas of the state have also felt the impact of the development agenda of the Doma administration. About twelve roads, such as the Gitata-Panda-Karu, Kadarko-Giza-Keana and Obi-Assakio, have been constructed or rehabilitated while 6 rural feeder roads to open up the agricultural areas of the state, including Nasarawa Eggon-Bakyano-Arikya, Andaha-Ancho- Bayan Dutse and Karshi-Takalafiya have been constructed. Over 1,000 boreholes have been sunk and about 150 primary health centres opened in rural areas.
All said and campaign rhetoric aside, it must be admitted that Governor Aliyu Akwe Doma has indeed managed to move Nasarawa State far ahead of the development level he met it in 2007 despite having to also settle huge liabilities. It is certainly contrary to the realities of today’s Nasarawa State to allege non-performance of the Doma administration, particularly against the disappointing history of arrested development in the 1999-2007 period. And the funniest part of this all, is that I didn’t even vote for him then.
Damuna is a student of NOUN, Lafia