From Ahmad SAKA,Bauchi
Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Muhammedhas declared that security is going to be the major preoccupation of his administration in the second tenure.
The governor was speaking on Wednesday at the opening of the inaugural State Executive Council meeting held at the Government House.
He stressed that community engagement will be the key to the fight against insecurity in the state saying that, “we must be able to partner with our stakeholders, we must get feedback so that they can bring back information that are useful to us.
“Certainly, what is happening in other states is negatively impacting on us. We are a gateway to about 7 states, to all the 3 subregions in the North. And so everything in the country is passing through Bauchi, so definitely, we will be at the receiving end.
“So, it is going to be security, security, and security. With that population and migration, demographic are not in our favour, so our services and infrastructure have been overstretched. Most of our towns and cities are not connected either with electricity or roads and so on.
“We have to really do something because we have a population relatively less educated but we have a responsibility to get them engaged. The minimum requirements for engagement are the agricultural sector and other sources of employment.
“Over the years, they have raised the GDP by bringing a lot of projects and programmes to Bauchi which made people to be working, to be employed. We have been paying salaries and wages and we have been paying pension at least to put food on the table.
“And that is why we have minimal among the states, minimal restfulness because at least, labour has integrity but it is coming with a cost whatever we are getting from the Federation Account is going into paying people their dues which is less than 2 percent of the population, the rest are looking up to us to look inwards, use the little resources to develop our school, health facilities.
“Most of our people live in the rural areas, we have to make sure we encourage them, we have to make sure they are safe and secured, they must be able to eat, so it is not easy, some of us think that the position of commissioner, advisers is for enjoying, it is not so, it is a responsibility, it is for you to make sure you made a difference.”
“As I said during your inauguration, every Commissioner is very important, you can make a difference where you are assigned, there is no ministry that is second class, and there are a lot of responsibilities in all the MDAs. All of you should respect each other.”
Governor Bala advised them to carry all along in their activities, ” the era of Politicking is over , we are now in governance we most run all inclusive government including non members of our party, we are to work for all Bauchi citizens without discrimination , we most be fair and just to all, you are expected to work with all stake holders, you are to show respect to traditional rulers, elders and elected officials to.move the state forward:
