Gombe govt constructs 234 schools, renovates 190, upgrades 4 legacy secondary schools in one year

A total of 234 new additional classrooms across 80 schools have been built, 190 classrooms renovated in 47 schools and rehabilitated 4 of the legacy secondary schools namely, GSSS Gombe, GSS Dukku, GSSS Kaltungo and GGSS Kuri in the effort of Gombe state government to restore them to their lost glory.

These were contained in the statewide broadcast by Governor Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya to mark his one year in office stating that, “Similarly, we established a state-of-the-art Teacher Resource Center in Kwami in order to adequately train and re-train our teachers to enable them to meet the demands of the modern teaching profession”.

The Governor added that “In our effort to address the high prevalence of out-of-school children, we launched the Better Education and Service Delivery for All (BESDA) project which helped to mop up about 300,000 children and enrolled them back to school. We also attracted special federal government grants to our tertiary institutions as well as support from corporate organizations and other development partners”.

He added that deliberate strong steps were taken on the education sector in order to address the deplorable conditions of all public schools and tackle the twin problems of illiteracy and out-of-school children to bridge the infrastructural gap in the schools.

In the health sector, the government embarked on the aggressive revitalization of primary healthcare facilities with the aim of providing at least one fully functional Primary Healthcare Center in each of the 114 wards of the State just as at the same time, it thoroughly renovated and upgraded the State Specialist Hospital, thereby expanding its capacity to meet the increasing demand for specialized health care services by our growing population.

Inuwa Yahaya added that “Amidst the rising need for improved human resource for health care, we completed the internship quarters in the specialist hospital that has been abandoned for over 20 years thereby meeting one of the key requirements for the commencement of internship training for our young doctors in the hospital.”

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“Within the last one year of our administration, we worked in conjunction with the Gombe State House of Assembly to enact the enabling laws for the establishment of the Hospitals Management Board and the State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency which is aimed at reducing out-of-pocket expenditure for health services and providing financial risk protection to the people,” he added.

On rural development, the government actively sought for and is at the final stage of signing up for the states for participation in the World Bank assisted Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project in order to link up the rural communities and open up opportunities across all segments of the agri-business value chain.

“Moreover, our Network 11-100 project which is committed to constructing at least 100km of road networks in each of our 11 LGAs is well on course. This will have a tremendous impact on transportation, agriculture, trade and the livelihoods of our people,” the Governor added.

“I’m sure our people residing in the following routes:
Malala – Zaune – Dukkuyel; Mararrabar Gerkwami – Daniya; Mallam Inna – Kundulum – Wuro Kesa – Kurba-Titi; Gona- Garko – Kalshingi; Kalshingi – Kumo; Boltongo – Nono; Mararraba – Jabba – Sambo Daji – Garin Wada; I Ladongor – Sabon Layi – Ayaba; your Bambam – Tula Yiri; Kutare – Mwona; Tallasse – Reme – Bembelem -Degri and Billiri – Awak – Dogon Ruwa can give a testimony to this effect,” he stated.

The Governor reiterated that Agriculture remains the backbone of the state’s economy, with about 80% of the people engaged in agricultural activities stressing that, “In order to diversify the economy and empower the populace, this administration is working hard to ensure that farmers have easy and timely access to fertilizer, farm inputs and farm machinery. This will help in boosting productivity and revenue generation for both the people and the government.”

“In the same vein, Gombe State has keyed into the FG’s large-scale irrigation project along with our major dams and water bodies as well as the National Livestock Transformation Programme (NLTP). Our objective is to leverage our comparative advantage in agriculture in order to attract industries along the agri-business value chain”, the Governor said.

“Our unique position at the centre of the North-East sub-region exposed us to security threats of regional proportion. It is gratifying that Gombe State has remained relatively immune from the insurgency ravaging our neighbouring states. Our security management strategy is hinged on community vigilance, local participation and inter-agency cooperation”, the Governor said.

He further said that “Though the influx of IDPs has exerted tremendous pressure on basic services, we are making conscious efforts to integrate individuals and communities fleeing the insurgency instead of confining them to IDP camps. At the state level, we created the ministry of internal security and ethical orientation so as to help chart and implement a new security strategy for Gombe State that will ensure sustainable peace and long-term stability. At a regional level, we successfully convened the first-ever North East Governors Forum meeting in order to collectively confront the various security and developmental challenges facing us.”

He, however, said that Notwithstanding the economic situation of the state and the country at large, it considered the issue of reward and compensation for both serving and retired civil servants who toiled on a daily basis to ensure the success of the operations of government.

“In this regard, we looked into the issue of outstanding gratuities and pensions. So far, we settled outstanding gratuities to the tune of N1.6 billion to 2015 retirees. In the same vein, consideration is being given to serving civil servants based on a defined arrangement. It is our hope that other welfare packages for existing civil servants like housing and transportation will be considered when the economic situation improves”the Governor added.

The Governor also said that the COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented economic and public health challenges locally and globally but the state responded proactively by improving the level of preparedness of its health system by setting up and equipping 3 isolation and treatment centres across the state and ensured that measures taken to curtail the spread of the pandemic do not bring undue economic hardship to our people.

He said that “Our pragmatic approach ensured that high-risk individuals are identified and tested. In order to ensure prompt testing, we procured a PCR machine with a view to establishing our own testing laboratory. We are working with the NCDC to ensure proper installation and accreditation in line with international best practices”.

He, however, expressed happiness that, despite the various challenges faced, Gombe State has one of the highest recoveries and lowest death rates from Covid-19 in the country according to recent figures from the NCDC situation report stating that, “In order to cushion the effect of economic hardships caused by the imposed restrictions, we set up a palliative committee that delivered palliative support to about 400,000 poor and vulnerable individuals across the State.”

The Governor ended the broadcast saying, “My dear brothers and sisters, we could not have achieved all these without strong support from the overwhelming majority of our people, both the leadership and followership, young and old, male and female, rich and poor, across all tribes and religions. I remain grateful for your support and understanding and would like to use this opportunity to restate my commitments to the oath I took one year ago to serve our people to the best of my ability, with equity, fairness and justice.”

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