Dankwambo addresses federal, states security administrators’ meeting in Gombe
The primary responsibility of any Government is the protection of lives and property of its citizens and this colossal responsibility bestowed on them requires synergy between security agencies, religious and community leaders, Non-government Organizations (NGOs) and indeed the general public. This meeting could not have come at a better time than now, especially with the daunting security challenges facing the nation ranging from cattle rustling, oil bunkering, youth restiveness, disputes between farmers and herdsmen, kidnapping and Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East.
Addressing the Chairman of FSSAM, Permanent Secretary Special Services, Office of the secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Aminu Nabegu, members of the forum and all other stakeholders in Gombe, the Governor lamented that some of these challenges may not be easily subdued through military action alone, rather, it requires a multi-faceted approach considering the nexus between security and development, Government at all levels must therefore rise up to the occasion by formulating and implementing good policies and programmes that would stimulate growth and development of the nation and efforts must be geared towards stimulating the economy, through job creation, poverty reduction and provision of critical infrastructure.
Represented by his Deputy Governor, Hon Charles Illiya, the Governor said his administration began its tenure when the insurgency had already taken roots in most parts of the Northeast including Gombe state, which is at the center of the zone and as they are aware, they are the only state with the common boundary with the five states in the Northeast.”There was the urgent need to proscribe Kalare activities to prevent them from being engaged by the Boko Haram against us, to contain the youths and cut the recruitment chain of the insurgents, we declared a ban on all kalare activities right from the inauguration ground, collaborating with security agencies, we followed up with the a youth reorientation, leadership and citizenship training (Mano”war0, Upon graduation, we engaged them as traffic Marshals, Environmental Marshals, Education Marshals and Ward Marshals to assist with trafiic control, environmental sanitation, discipline and information/intelligence gathering”.
Secondly, to reduce hunger and poverty, we supported agriculture with subsidized modern farm inputs and empowered women and families through skills acquisition and provision of take-off capital, we supported the elderly poor through conditional cash transfer and collaborated with the Bank of Industry where funds were secured and distributed to entrepreneurs as loans, which created 1, 900 jobs and they granted soft loans of N714, 000,000 to farmers and N250, 000,000 to traders across the state.
Considering the relative backwardness in educational development, we made education the first, second and third priority and recruited more than 2000 teachers, built new schools, reconstructed and expanded virtually all the existing primary and secondary schools and we also collaborated with traditional rulers and religious leaders to improve enrolment and retention in the schools, we established a College of Education, a Polytechnic, a College of Legal and Islamic Studies and a College of Nursing, Similarly, Government set up a Committee for the establishment of five Institutions of Higher learning including a State University of Science and Technology, we built hospitals, more than 650 kilometers of tarred roads network and seven bridges across the state and they have provided electricity to hundreds of towns and villages and, spent more than four billion naira (N4.0 billion) on the provision of potable water.
While all the above projects were going on, the heat of the insurgency brought about a large influx of people (including commercial motorcyclists banned elsewhere) from their neighboring states due to the relative peace we were enjoying in the state, prior to this, we were pumping water only once a day, but with the influx we had to pump three times daily. Thus, the cost of supplying water tripled, our cost for hospital consumable tripled, within two years, more than eight different new densely populated slums emerged at the suburbs of Gombe metropolis, this trend occasioned a rise in the cost of living and an increase in the cost of providing security, So we had to buy, fuel and maintain many multi-million naira civilian APCs and a GSM tracker; many patrol vehicles, statewide communication equipment, bulletproof kits, engage in persistent prayers and pay operational allowances to boost the morale of the security personnel.
Government had to create and manage many informal information gathering networks to enable them support the security agencies with timely information, even as the revenue from the Federal Allocation was dwindling and we accommodated all these people as service to the nation and God has seen their selfless efforts and answered their fervent prayers for the protection of Gombe State.
We thank God that insurgents have never occupied any part of the state and he commended the President Muhammadu Buhari and indeed the Nigerian armed forces for their efforts in combating the insurgency in the North-East and there is no gain saying that relative peace has returned to the zone and they shall continue to support security agencies in the state and called on all well-meaning individuals and groups to cooperate with them toward maintaining the peaceful co-existence of the people of the state.
