Transcript/highlights of NGGT citizen’s forum Q & A session Kebbi State

[FMINigeria]

                        

TRANSCRIPT/HIGHLIGHTS OF Q & A SESSION OF KEBBI STATE NATIONAL GOOD GOVERNANCE TOUR CITIZENS' FORUM,

HELD AT THE BANQUET HALL, PRESIDENTIAL LODGE

BIRNIN KEBBI ON MONDAY, 22ND APRIL, 2013

Executive Governor Kebbi State, Alh. Sa'idu Dakingari

Thank you for Touring round the state in the last 4 days. We were only able to touch 7 local government councils out of 21.

Before the starting point of the Tour I said there is no likelihood of seeing potholes on Kebbi roads and I still stand by my assertion. For the 4 days that we have gone round no pothole was found on Kebbi Roads, maybe Federal Government roads.

For the person who said he was to disembark from his vehicle and go to the rice field in Suru but the road that led him to Suru Town was tarred up to the end of the Town. He should not expect that where you have rice fields will be motorable.

Kebbi State SURE-P Funds:

To the person who asked the question, as I'm talking to you, Kebbi State's allocation of SURE-P, both for the State and Local Government, a kobo has not been touch. We set a machinery that I don't think Federal Government has set in. We made a law, carried it to the State Assembly outlining all what we want to do with the money.

We outlined four programmes- Agriculture; Sanitation, Afforestation; and Education and the committee on SURE-P has already taken off with a membership from all the local governments, interest groups, NGOs, Civil Society Organisations...and the traditional institutions. The organization is headed by a trustee of four emirate emirs representing each emirate in Kebbi State. Then the day to day running of the organization is headed by a chairman who is a well seasoned civil servant. He has served NNPC, served the Federal Government...so Kebbi State SURE-P money is in good hands.

Kebbi Airport:

Kebbi State is a tourist state with its famous Argungu Fishing Festival. Somebody in Jega asked what are we doing with their onions are we exporting. If we are going to export our primary products we are going to need an airport because most of these produce are perishable and that is what we are going to do with that airport.

Teachers of the 200 Secondary Schools:

We have taken census of all the unemployed university graduates, polytechnic graduates and NCE graduates. They are about 6,500. We are going to employ all of them and they will all be in the secondary schools and primary schools.

When we went to the university yesterday the Vice Chancellor said we are opening a department of education. I was the one who approached to open the department just for teachers of these 200 or more secondary schools. So I think before we start the schools we have a plan and the plan will work and we will see to it that we get enough teachers to employ for our children. We will never leave our students without care.

Utilization of Public Funds:

Public funds are not meant to be misused, they are meant for the development of Kebbi State for maintaining services in Kebbi State and that is what is going to be done with the funds.

We have paid all our entitlements. We pay our salaries 25th of every month. We have paid all our pensioners; we don't owe them one kobo. All the contractors, as of today that they are standing here, no contractor is being owed. So the job is just starting.

Employment:

We have all said we want employment. The biggest sector that has employed people is agriculture. We are trying to expand our agriculture. I was just telling the Minister of Information that if you are cultivating one third of our FADAMA land by next year we should be able to cultivate the whole FADAMA area. That we should not see any space on the FADAMA areas from Augie to Wara. We will put our money to cultivate these areas.

I also informed the Minister and other members of the Tour that when we had flood in 2010 the Federal Government gave us over 750 million (naira) to resettle those affected by the flood. When they gave us that money, we also put our own money totaling almost above 3 billion. So in short what was given to the farmers along the river bank was almost 4 billion and that's the money that you see in this cultivation of rice along the river banks up to Wara. And between last year or two years to this time we have distributed over 50,000 units of irrigation pumps. The Federal Government has given fertilizer.

This year alone everyone was given three bags any farmer that was farming rice was given three bags. The investment in agriculture has been very huge so that we employ all the idle hands that we have in Kebbi State and that is why I don't think Kebbi will have the problem of unemployment, not at all. After mopping these 6,500 graduates taking the remaining youths to farms, there will be no problem of employment, except someone wants to stay idle.

Source of Revenue:

We are not magicians. The money given to us through the Federal Allocation from the Federation Account accounts for almost 80 percent of what we are getting. The remaining, we internally source about 400 million every month as revenue. This is the money we have utilized for all these infrastructure, schools and health institutions you have seen. We have never gotten money from any other source besides these places.

Green World Project:

About two months back the President wanted to come to Kebbi State to kick-start the Green World in Nigeria. We prepared but he had some urgent matters to attend to that is why it was postponed. I am sure the President will come back and inaugurate or kick-start the Green World. So we are sure that it will take place. The Federal Ministry on Environment is on it and that is why the State Government put it in our SURE-P chart.

Women in Government

We have been asked that we have only one (female) commissioner but no one has asked how many Permanent Secretaries we have or how many directors we have. We have so many of them. And in every local government in Kebbi State...we have one thousand. I don't think in Lagos you will get that number. So the women are coming up. You can't be in a position of a politician without participating in politics. So we want them to participate in politics and they will be there.

Clarification on the establishment of Kebbi State University of Science and Tech, Aliero

Yes, the former Governor started the University, we said so yesterday. But he started the university towards the end of 2006, six months before the present government came in. We paid almost 70 percent of all the cost of the infrastructure in the University. I enrolled the first students of the University, that is 500 students and as the Vice Chancellor said they started graduating last year.

Scholarship for Kebbi State students

What Kebbi State did was for you to earn scholarship there must be a list from the university where you are enrolled. We will use the list to pay the students the scholarship. Any name outside that list we don't concern ourselves. So if you happen to be from Abuja if you enroll as a Kebbi State student we will pay you. We want education for everybody and that is why we put the programme down.

Development of Zuru.

The man who asked the question, I'm sure has not been to Zuru for the past 5, 6 years. If you had gone back to Zuru, you would have seen massive development there. I see the members (NGGT) we all went to Zuru together and they have seen what is in Zuru. Out of the four local governments in Zuru, we have visited.

Conclusion:

Let me once again thank members of the Good Governance Tour for opening Kebbi State to the international community, to the national community and everybody who is watching this programme. As a Governor if I am left alone I will never do this. I can assure you of that. I have gone at length to stop myself from enjoying my life to do this job and that is why whatever you see on ground is our good work. The civil servants, the people of Kebbi state and the government. Some of the projects on ground, there was a demand from the community for such projects, others were planned deliberately by the government and this is why everybody, whereever you go to there is some satisfaction with what is on ground.

I deliberately throughout this Tour, left projects on water and electricity because they are so numerous to show anybody. The first year, I invested about N5 billion in water and electricity projects alone and I have never stopped. So there is no village in Kebbi state which has about 2000 inhabitants which is not connected to the national grid and if there is any, they are here, let them stand and say it. And water is available in most communities in Kebbi state. Nobody will say he will do everything, even in my house I did not finish the job that i have between me and my family, but I try to do my best.

And let me use this medium to thank my CO, director of intelligence and commissioners of police from the first one to the last, because we operated as friends and brothers. Sometimes we stay till 2 O'clock in the same house, there is no day these people will not visit Government House, unless they are not in town. So the relationship contributed immensely to the security of Kebbi State, where as the communities have also done very well in policing their communities. As the Minister said, this is systematic it is an organized thing. It is not by accident these things are there and thrown to different places.

Thank you very much.

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen let me now invite the Honorable Minister of information to react to questions that affect him.

Honourable Minister of Information

Your Excellency distinguished ladies and gentlemen. In the cause of the participation by the audience which was very active today, and let me congratulate the people of Kebbi, because you have really participated in the citizens forum and expressed your feelings. The purpose of this tour is to give citizens the voice to participate, to make observations, to ask questions and to make contributions to the governance process; I am very happy with the active participation of the people of Kebbi today, and it means that people of Kebbi are politically active, which is very, very good.

Now, a number of questions were asked. They said I said local governments are working, what do I mean?

What we observed in Kebbi is that we have seen local government projects, roads, local clinics built by the local governments and each one of them said they had built those things because nobody takes away their money.  So in Kebbi what we have seen in different parts of the state is that local governments have shown us projects, and we have seen them so it is not telling you theory and that is why I have congratulated them and the state government for making sure that local government money went into local government projects, for the services of people at the grassroots.

Green World Project:

Now the green world project is a programme initiated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo when he was in power. This programme was accepted by all West African countries under ECOWAS. After that the green world programme was also accepted by the West African Union. The green world project is aimed at fighting back Sahara desert and it stretches from Ethiopia all round to Senegal in West Africa. Various countries have started working on the green world. In the case of Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan only recently constituted a committee for the implementation of the green world programme, a lot of money has also been set aside; and at the moment, all the states are connected, particularly in the northern part of the country for the implementation. Like the governor told you, the president was supposed to come here earlier to flag off the programme,  but as we leave, in a short while the programme will be flagged off.

What does it seek to achieve? It seeks to ensure that all the areas in the north, particularly where the desert has chopped in, we will recover every land area belonging to Nigeria to fight back the Sahara desert.

If you notice some of the wars that are going on in North Central Nigeria between grazers and farmers are environment wars. Each time you are flying from Abuja to Sokoto or to Maiduguri or to Gombe, you can see clearly that in many parts of these areas now there is no longer any sufficient grass to graze for animals and so the animal rearers are moving gradually down south to find grass for their animals. In the cause of this movement, they also encounter problems with farmers and this is spread across the north but it is more intensive now in North Central but it is even moving to some places in the south; every day you are hearing of crisis between grazers and farmers, it is environment wars.

If the north does not restore its environment, it is going to threaten our lives, it is going to create difficulty for our survivors. It is a pity that in the 60′s we did not take tree planting seriously. Now he federal government is out to do it, we are also being supported by international organizations, my appeal to every state government in the north is to ensure that as this green world programme starts, let every state mobilize its citizens, all the youths that are roaming the streets, if each one of them can plant trees and we pay them, we will not have unemployment in the north. We have to motivate our boys from the street to plant trees across the north, we can devote NYSC to it but we must make a planned programme, which is what the federal government is doing in partnership with the states. In the next couple of years, the most important programme in northern Nigeria will be the restoration of our environment through the green world programme.

I was telling the governor in Ethiopia, already because of tree planting all the rivers that have dried up for centuries are returning back to live. So as we plant trees, we will save our environment, we will save agricultural land and we will have a very good place to live in. So the north leads the challenge in tree planting and the federal government is now ready and we want to partner with the states to restore the environment in northern Nigeria.

In addition to that, we are also diverting water from Central Africa to Lake Chad. Already the federal government has paid the consultancy fee of $5m, all the countries in the Lake Chad region are part of this programme but Nigeria has taken the lead.  What we want is to divert water from Central Africa to make sure that Lake Chad returns to live, to restore the eco system and save agriculture and human trans habitation in the area. That is another programme that the federal government is going in this part of the country.

Railways:

Now somebody asked me a question about railways. Baba you spoke in Hausa, I don't know whether I should speak in Hausa, it is a national programme. If you notice for the past twenty years, the railways collapsed in Nigeria because of corruption and mismanagement; the train was no longer moving from Lagos to Kano, the entire  railway line between Port Harcourt  and Maiduguri broke down. So what President Jonathan has been doing is to continue with that programme by late President Yar'Adua to make sure that we return our alleys to what it was in the 70′s and 80′s and then build new rail lines. Now the federal government, in December completed the rehabilitation of the railways between Lagos and Kano and I want to tell everybody here that since December till now the trains are now moving again between Lagos and Kano regularly and weekly; that has brought down the cost of transportation between the North West and the South West. In addition to that, the movement of cement, fuel, petroleum products is also being done by the rail. Many private companies are now buying their coaches to use to transport goods between the Lagos port and the northern part of the country. We are doing so up to Kaura Namoda the railway is being restored.

In addition to these the Federal government by December this year will finish the rehabilitation of the railway line between Porthacourt and Maidugri, so that therefore the train will move again from Porthacourt to Maidugri, this is the first time in decades that the government of Nigeria is installing railway services to bring down goods and allow mass transit to take place in our country.

Between Abuja and Kano the Federal Government is building a standard big rail that will move a past train, modern train we are already 50% half way we have done the work 50% already it is expected that between now and next year we finish the first modern train line in north between Abuja and Kaduna and it will be extended to Kano.

We have completed the first modern rail line between a certain race in Kogi state and Warri in Delta state. When I went on Good Governance Tour of Delta state we rod on the rail line, that is the first standard rail line in the west Africa we have finished, what we are doing now is to ensure that we return it to service.

In addition to these, we have just recently awarded  a contract for the first standard railway line between Lagos and Ibadan, contractors are now mobilized to site and they will soon start work. That rail line will be extended right down to Kogi and Abuja which is the strategic standard rail line that will connect Abuja to Kano to Kaduna, all this one is going on.

We have also undertaken the design of a standard rail line between Lagos-Benin, South-South up to Calabar and also between Lagos-Benin to south- east. All these are going own right now, when we finish the Federal Government will announce their take off. We are working with the private sector to develop a standard rail line that will reduce the movement by road between Lagos to Abuja for example to about  3 – 4 -5 hours, they will be faster than going by road. So this are going on and we will continue to talk about them, that is why this tour is necessary good for us to connect with you and let you know what the Federal government is doing.

Baba also talked- one other thing we are doing since the Tafawa Balewa government we promised to dredge River Niger up to to the North so that we can carry our goods  from Warri Port up to to the north here  through River Niger. Between  the Yar' Adua government and Goodluck Jonathan government we have finish grading the Niger from Warri to Baro in Niger state, we have also completed the Bene river board we are now to complete the one from  Baro; the river board in Baro in Niger State, we are working with the one in Kogi, so in the next two year most of the things coming to the north will go by river Niger; that will reduce the cost of transportation and also increase commerce in northern Nigeria. We have finished- we are about to finish the design of the grading of the Niger from Lokoja up to Yola, so what the government is trying doing is to return railways, return river transportations so that we can reduce the pressure on our roads. The road why because only Nigeria is the big population country where everything goes on road because we destroyed our railways, but Goodluck Jonathan is working hard to restore this services to people of Nigeria.

Baba asked me about the Katangora Sokoto, Kotangora Jega-  Kebbi Sokoto road, let me announce to you in Kebbi that road has already been awarded, contractors are now moving to site, the Federal Government, that road has been abandoned for almost a decade the Federal  Government has awarded the road in two sections all the two contractors has  been mobilized and in the next couple of weeks work will start on Kotagora- Jega -Kebbi – Sokoto road which is the special  axis road in the country.

Now thank you for acknowledging that the President have already fulfilled the promise on the University, so you have it now, by next year your children can be sure of enrolment in addition to all the Almajiri programme he also fulfilled.

What is the Federal Government doing about street begin in Abuja:

The Abuja administration is working on that to make sure that, you know  the people begging are our citizens it is not something that we can take serious action, what we need is rehabilitation, we also need the cooperation of all the states, we don't want any Nigeria to beg and that is why the Federal government is working on employment.

SURE-P:

Your Excellency I don't know well you have announced your SURE-P programme,  I thank you, for this in most states we have gone to separate programme for SURE P but let me tell you that at Federal level our SURE P is working the railway construction most of the major road in the country Maiduguri, Kano, Abuja Lokoja Benin, the railway programme it is now been funded by SURE P.

In addition to these the Federal Government have decided to employ ten thousand people per state on SURE P, ten thousand, state by state for the next three years. We are right now undertaken the committee for the first phase in all the states, so in addition to six thousand five hundred the government have promised this year, the Federal Government will employ ten thousand every year. So in the next three years Kebbi will have thirty thousand youths taken off the street of Kebbi by the Federal Government under our SURE P. So if we connect that with what the state is doing you can be sure and our YOU WIN Programme for both youths and women is also on board and if you take that if you take that with the right record here am sure that many people will be coming to Kebbi to look for employment.

TV RADIO STATIONS

Now NTA Zuru we have so many networks of television and radio stations that were announced by the government years back and we noticed they are so many and we are taken them phase by phase. Yesterday, we both test run the FM station there in Birnin Kebbi we have completed it, so the people of Kebbi you can be sure that in the next couple of months your FM station will be available for your public enlightenment and to promote peace and development. We are also going to work on all the outstanding TV stations including Zuru, so as I go back I will tell you where we are on it and am sure we will complete it.

Cassava Produce

I want to assure you, that the way we are now investing you know in the past it was government, if government set up a bakery now in the next two months it will not work, but if it is driven by the private sector it will work. So what we are doing now is to establish cassava processing plant, because what happened with the last cassava programme was that we asked the farmers to go and farm and we were not ready to process the cassava so that was the problem.

We are now filling the gap by initiating cassava processing plant which is now what the Federal Government is now doing with the private sector some of it is already being converted to break making, cassava bread and a lot being exported to China and other countries. So let me assure our cassava farmers and other farmers that our new agricultural programme is correcting the mistake of the past.

In the past we do cropping we don't care about processing, we don't care about storage, we don't care about the marketing. Now the agricultural transformation programme is filling the gap so that when you farm you are sure that your rice, your cassava will be utilized. So that is why we are doing it in the private sector because agriculture must be business, if it is not business, if it is government driven it will be the same problem of the past.

So the President and all of us are now working on it and the new Minister of Agriculture indeed is making a lot of progress and many people want to come and invest in Nigeria because of this new quality on agriculture.

Conclusion:

I think, finally let me thank the Governor, Your Excellency, I saw two portholes only on Sunday on some of your roads, when we were driving yesterday from Aliero, through Gwandu, no there are some of them on your own road you said you just marked them and that you will soon do them. Yes you have done a great work great job, but there are still one or two potholes which I saw and I think you should work on them, they are not only on the Federal roads. I can assure you that the federal government, honestly 2/3 of the road in Nigeria belongs to federal government and you know, when you have a country that has ran down the railway and ran down every other area of transportation, it is a  miracle. Now you will find out that every area of this country was crying for help when this government came to power. No railway, no river transportation you know everything was crying for help and so we have to prioritize and we have to move from, power. You can see all over the federal government is building ten new power plants and we will assure you by the end of this year, by the grace of God you are going to see stability in power supply when these ten power plant begin to fill the national grid. We are also changing the transmission infrastructure in this country this is in addition to work in railways, work in education, work in road transportation, so the programmes are many, and I think people must begin to appreciate, what this president have done is systematic planning and I think this nation is going to see enough of result from this administration and that is why we are out here to share with you some of the thing we are doing. Government is very challenging.

Finally I thank you, Your Excellency people keep saying unless you have paid for peace you can't have security. Now look at what you have done, connecting with the security agencies in Kebbi, now you have peace and you have security. The Federal Government does not own Police, the Police are for the service of Nigerians. Those states that are ready to cooperate and integrate with security agencies and plan with them, definitely they have capacity to give you peace just like we have in Kebbi now.

I thank you. God Bless Kebbi and God bless Nigeria.

Via: Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria