Governor Abdullahi Sule, of Nasarawa state, has said that his administration has the financial buoyancy to pay workers salary if the state would be able to raise 3bn naira as Revenue generation of the state.
The Governor, stated this while delivering a closing remark at the end of a two-day retreat organized for government functionaries held at the kini Country Guest Inn, Akwanga, Nasarawa charged political appointees in the state on the need to key into the policy direction of his administration especially in the area of revenue generation.
According to him, “ Nasarawa state has the will to pay salary without FG allocation, if we can generate N3 billion as revenue in the state we would survive it.”
He stressed further that IGR is one area his administration is focusing with a view of sponsoring some capital projects in the state, and not to depend on paying salary monthly.
The Governor, while appreciating the organizers of the retreat for doing a good job, added that the essence of the session was for the political appointees to be on the same page with government programs and policies.
“It’s an idea some of us had, with our background from the private sector, whenever you are engaging people to do something new, you have to be on the same page with them.
“That’s the essence of the retreat. Those who came together to organize it have done a very good job,” Engineer Sule said.
Nasarawa governor, however, tasked the participants not to leave what they learnt at the retreat but to take it along with them as they assume their new responsibilities.
“Once we finish this kind of event, we want to see, what is the take-home? Because in most cases, people gather and sit down and discuss and finish then what? That’s the issue.
“A lot of us, maybe going back from here, even if you can give them 10 copies of the communique, they will abandon everything they learned, and that’s would be the end of it. I don’t think that is the right direction”, he said.
Governor Sule, therefore, challenged the Nasarawa appointees to consider the items listed in the communique issued at the end of the retreat for them to pick one or two items to work with when discharging their responsibilities.
“They have listed about 40 items, please pick one and say I’m going to work on this particular one,” he urged them.
Earlier, Chairman of the Communique drafting Committee, Dr Ibrahim Othman, said the retreat was organized in order to expose participants to the rudiments of government business in the formulation of policies, implementation of programmes and projects.
As part of the decisions arrived by participants at the retreat, he called on public and political office holders to remain steadfast, transparent in the conduct of Nasarawa government business, as well as be in touch with grassroots to address the crisis.
“The image and actions of government appointees should reflect the vision and mission of government and citizens should be given ownership of mandates matching their peculiar needs to stabilize communities.
“Appointees should be prudent in the utilization of public funds and public and political office holders should be opened to constructive criticism,” part of the 40-point communique reads.
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