After a successful career in the civil service that culminated as the Accountant General of the Federation, Ibrahim Dankwabo made a foray into politics and got elected as governor of Gombe State in 2011 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Two years in the saddle, the governor in this interview with journalists relieves his experience, governance in Gombe and other issues. Excerpts:
How would you describe your experience in the past two years?
Well, you have gone round and seen that we are coming from a state that was nowhere in the last 16 years and the state that receives one of the least funds from the Federation Account, without even facilities that can generate revenue. What is different in some other states is that facilities are there that can be used to tighten the control and generate revenue. I don't need to build Victoria Island again. I don't need to build Ikoyi again.
The houses are there because the government built them. So, anytime I wake up and impose all sorts of taxes, they don't have choices, they have to pay and that is just it, tell them to pay and they pay. I don't have such leverage of facilities in this place. I cannot charge for even water unlike in some other places where water is already provided, dams have been built, water has been piped, all I need to do is take control around revenue collections.
But here in Gombe, I don't even have the water. So, how can I charge water rate? Also there are some things that work for other people that do not work for this kind of settlement, but we are not lamenting because we are coming up too and one day we will get to where they are.
The most important thing is that we are optimally using the little resources we have to maximize benefit for our people like you have seen. Our objective is to generally uplift the people and take care of their welfare irrespective of whatever anybody says, irrespective of the politics that is being played. We are doing our best to get the best for our people. We will not be distracted and we will not assume that things are okay.
But we know that, with little effort and with the support we have around, we will all muster these little resources and optimise the needs and requirements of our people. I must say it is not easy and, the last time, I agitated that there are some facilities which basically should have been provided as a threshold to all entities.
I am not saying that they should give anybody bonus or they should give anybody support that is not required. But for government to function, such a government requires certain things and these things are basic. The Federal Government is bringing an office here; they don't have a secretariat, and then there will be too much pressure on the houses that are around and that will inflate the cost. So, we are saying basic things like water, ordinarily, as a threshold should be provided and must be provided.
The Federal Government secretariat that is there in all states should be made available in our state; spread in development should also be encouraged so that everybody will feel the impact of one nation one destiny.
Given Gombe State's allocation in comparison with the number of projects that your administration has embarked on, where is the found coming from?
I think what is very important to know is that we have a very pragmatic financial management system and we tie our projects to cash flows. We are not that indebted. We inherited a lot of debt and what we did was to restructure the debt, so that we can create space for development. We have a robust financial management system and I want to assure you that, as at today, there is no single certificate of valuation that is submitted to Gombe State that is not paid. I am not saying that we have all the funds to pay but we do little financial management to ensure that our obligations are paid as an when due.
Having done so much in the education sector and some other areas, what will be your next focus?
There are still a lot of things to be done in the education sector because, in some places in Gombe, students are still seen studying under trees. So, we still have a lot to do. We still have a very poor teacherstudent ratio, poor science and arts ratio in terms of personnel in the school, we still have a lot of gaps because all these will manifest in the future into additional little bit of cost of also running the institutions. In the next one or two years, the schools may be due for painting, so it is a continuous investment in education.
But the most important investment, going forward, is in teacher-training and retraining; in books investment and supply. Also, we are looking forward to a situation where we will partner, be it PPP or some other forms of financing, for the supply of steady books to the children in Gombe State. What is very different about Gombe is that in certain parts of Gombe, we still have to attract the children to school and keep them. There are some places in Gombe where we have good schools but the children still decline but we still try to attract more.
Recently, we have attracted some of them back to the schools including girls. All these are things we will put together in going forward. When we came, we set up an agenda that will run for a long period of time and this agenda was endorsed by Gombe people and the agenda will be carried by anybody that comes to lead Gombe whether I or anybody else and we all agreed that, from time to time, we will sit down and review the agenda for development.
It is not only for education, it is the same thing for health, infrastructure, trade and tourism. It is virtually the same thing for all the sectors of the economy. Some of the projects you have seen are the quick and short term deliverables.
It is obvious that the problem of water is endemic in Gombe State, what is your administration doing to address this?
Fortunately or unfortunately for us, there are some places where you cannot get borehole water and you will go as far as 500 meters in some places in Gombe. So, the only solution is to get a dam or treated water which is piped. Fortunately, we have a dam in Gombe but it is about 45 to 50 kilometres, so we are drawing the water little by little and it is a huge investment. The first one we did was; when the water came into Gombe, we had to distribute it in and around Gombe and that cost us about N4.2 billion.
The next thing was to extend it to certain areas. In these areas, if you drive, it is like you are getting to almost the border of Gombe and in Gombe there is no ground water at all. So, we have succeeded in extending up to 78 kilometres of pipeline towards that side and that cost additional N1.8 billion.
So, Gombe is situated in a kind of place that is so difficult and what we are doing is to take them as we are able to get the required cash flow. But the most important thing is not to take all of them at the same time but take them as the available resources are there to take care of them and so far, so good, the Gombe reticulation is almost 90 per cent to 95 per cent completed. Also when you take dam water, you are also adding to the cost of treatment and cost of maintenance. When I came, we ran the dam at about N90 million a month.
As at today, we pump the water four times and monthly or quarterly, the cost of maintenance is about N242 million and we used to pump the water only once but because of influx of people into Gombe from the neighbouring states who are in one kind of situation or the other, we pump the water four times now on a daily basis. So, this is the kind of pressure that is on us and that also reduces our effort to ensure that other areas that do not have water, have. I could have easily dug boreholes but you cannot even get borehole water here and it is a challenge.
As the Auditor-General of the Federation, sitting over billions of naira; could you tell us what was the attraction for the governorship position?
I was not the President. It was the President that was sitting over billions. I was only helping him to manage the funds as a custodian. So, I wouldn't know how to spend it because I did not have that kind of responsibility. On debt, when we came, we attempted to know and reconcile the exact liabilities and I want to tell you that this kind of reconciliation is continuous because the financial management was not as robust as it is now and we do not want to take it as a task to say 'let us reconcile first, know the exact date and move forward.'
What we have attempted to do is to continue to reconcile as we progress and I am sure as soon as we finish establishing the number because I will soon inaugurate a committee to reconcile pension liabilities. Recently, committees were set up for states and local government on pension liabilities.
In Gombe alone, pension liabilities are up to N2 billion plus and the local government is almost the same. So, if I say it is this and it is later reconciled and you find out it is lower, it will not be nice. But I assure you that it is not a problem because we have restructured our debt and we are within a very comfortable limit of debt revenue ratio. So we are very comfortable with that.
How far has your administration gone to support the gas power plant reserves in the state?
I am not very familiar with the project because this is some of the problems sometimes that we have. If it is a project and programme of the Federal Government, I may not be in the best position to shed light on it. I know also that the Federal Government has deliberately made effort to develop our coal reserves through the same channel. I am not sure of the arrangement but I know it is in one of the plans that about 1000 megawatts of coal power is in the pipeline.
I am also aware that the Minister of State for Power came to inspect the dam water project and she has made some comments especially on the way the concessionaire handled the project before and they are determined to complete the project, which will fetch us up to 40 megawatts of power within six months. If we can get 40 megawatts of power in Gombe, I will assure you that Gombe will not need PHCN and we can come out and guarantee power supply.
I also know that there are initiatives with the Germans too on solar firm and the pattern of financing is still being worked out. But this huge gas reserves within the borders of Gombe and Bauchi is there and I am sure that they are making plans and as soon as they finish, maybe we will know because they will require at least our support and contribution. One thing I have to say is that, whichever way they come in, with this kind of programme and project, we are ready to support them to ensure that we don't have a blackout in Nigeria. We want a bright Nigeria.
What are you doing to get refund on the Gombe-Kanawa road, which is a federal road almost completed by the state?
They said I should submit the bill and I will submit it. Getting refund from the Federal Government is multi-tasking and I want us to reach a comfortable level and then we will put in the papers.
But from day one, we have carried them reconalong. When we started the road, we did the ground breaking together and till today, we are still working with their engineers. What I assume they will do is that when they have a commitment with us; because we told them that we will do the work and just like we are executing the work, they should also plan on how they will pay us.
Even if I submit the whole bill today, with the system of Federal Government and if they don't have budget for that, they will just add up to the whole stock of so many other debt and work that are being done not by only me but by others.
What is, however, important in the area is that that it is the most fertile part of Gombe. It is the area where we have about three dams at a stretch; it is an area where we have about 50,000 acres of irrigated land.
The channels and canals are already there and, if properly managed, it can maintain Gombe in terms of food supply 24 hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year. You can farm on that area and that is why it was very important for us to take over that road and from the few numbers that we have seen with the road clearance that has already been done, we have seen improvement in that area. Last year, we had a lot of cotton that was spoilt.
After harvesting the cotton, because of the dusty road and they carried the cotton, it was infiltrated by dust and instead of the cotton to be in grade A, it turned to grade D and instead of getting maybe N10 per tonne, you get maybe N2 per tonne and it discourages one from farming next time. But all those things are gone now. It is also an area that is rich in tomatoes.
You will find out that when they farm, a lot of harvest is done on tomatoes and before you bring the tomatoes to the road because of the nature of the road, the tomatoes get spoilt and apart from discouraging you to doing more, it also deters you from even doing the small one because you cannot recoup the investment that you have done and that is why sometimes during the season, tomatoes can be sold as low as N10 per basket and all these are the type of things that we have done. Also, because this is an agrarian state, we have a robust plan to recreate or to establish a commodity market.
The market will be made in such a way that we can trade in and farmers get the maximum benefits from the investment they have done in such a way that in the market we can guarantee prices. Prices are not guaranteed today because we don't have a centralised market.
Today, you guarantee prices of crude because the market is centralised, you guarantee prices of coffee because the market is centralised but we cannot guarantee basic crops here because it is a distorted market.
You can buy in location A or B and also you may decide to buy or not. If you decide not to buy your perishable crops because of its nature, farmers will be at your mercy to sell at whatever rate.
So, we are making an effort to establish a market that will stabilise the price of commodities and we are already done with the plan and we are looking for partners and in the next few months, we will start building and then we will start marketing and I assure you that if that is done in Nigeria, then we can guarantee prices and we will not say this year, we don't know how much the prices of yam or other goods will be because of the nature of the market.
Presently, the market is distorted and that is why we don't know what the price will be and that will result in artificial scarcity and once you create scarcity, you raise the price.
National Mirror