By: Onukogu Kanayo Jubal on August 9, 2013
By: Onukogu Kanayo Jubal on August 9, 2013
Junaidu Abubakar is the assistant on press to the Gombe State governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo,OON. In this brief chat with ONUKOGU KANAYO JUBAL, he throws light on some of the programmes and policies of the current administration.
Do you think the current administration in the state has been able to justify its election by the people in the state?
Frankly, if I begin to talk about all that Governor Dankwambo has done, you may think I am a ranting. Suffice it to say, however, that when some editors of some of the major media houses in the country went on a tour of the state, they testified that his Excellency has done very well. Since he became governor, his priority has remained education and people empowerment.
When the governor assumed office in 2011, he appointed a sectorial committee of highly qualified individuals like a former MD of the defunct NITEL, Professor Buba Joga; Executive secretary, Primary Education Board, Professor Abdulsalam Sambo; CMD, University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Professor Idris Mohammed; former Coordinator, MDGs Office, Hajia Amina Az Zubair, and other like minds experienced in their fields of endeavour. They came up with a white paper which covered the ministries and departments in the state, in order to proffer solutions to every challenge encountered by the state in road construction, commerce and economy, health, education, youth empowerment, agriculture, power supply, water, and others.
I can say that given his current pace, he could be one of the best governors by the time he is done with the State.
Gombe State is considered an education backward state; what has the administration of Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo done to shed this toga?
When he took the mantle of leadership, the governor invited some experts from the University of Maiduguri, to tackle the monumental failure recorded by the students who had taken the WASSCE, a year before he came into office. Of the 18,000 students who sat for the examination, only 18 of them could meet the requirement for admission into tertiary institutions. His Excellency, shamed by the toga of ‘educationally backward state,’ decided to pay their WASSCE fees and invite seasoned professionals over to see to the issue, through coaching classes and intensive preparations. Today, the story has changed, and though we are yet to reach our desired goal, the situation has improved.
His Excellency approved the setting up of a school of remedial studies for these students to redeem their dismal performances. Today, about 90 per cent of them are responding positively to these mitigating measures.
Considering that education is his heartbeat, Dankwambo started from the grassroots. By this, I mean building primary and secondary schools. Beyond building schools, he has also equipped them with the necessary instructional materials like textbooks, libraries, laboratories, feeding schedules and teachers’ welfare.
The administration of Governor Dankwambo has built more than 45 model primary and secondary schools spread through the 11 local governments in the state. Recently, also, the commissioner of education travelled to India to facilitate the importation of some textbooks specially meant for students and pupils in the state; these textbooks correspond with the Nigerian curriculum and educational system. They were distributed free-of-charge.
Student enrolment in Gombe State is progressing by about 80 per cent.
The current administration has also laid the foundation for the Gombe State College of Education cited in Biliri local government. The institution will act as a training ground for teachers who will impart knowledge to the young ones. Based on the committee’s reports, one of the major problems in the state is the teacher to pupil/student ratio, and the number of half-baked or unqualified teachers recruited into the system within the last five years. As a result, His Excellency approved the recruitment of thoroughly qualified graduates into both secondary and primary schools, and the unqualified ones sent back to the college to acquire updated and proper knowledge impartation skills.
The Gombe State Polytechnic in Bajoga, Funakaye local government, is another landmark. It will also serve as a training ground for manpower for the state civil service.
This administration believes that if the issue is tackled at the foundation, leaders with potentials can be groomed and stand better chances of becoming what they ought to be.
Very little is heard of security challenges in the state; does this mean that the situation is controlled or non-existent?
Gombe, as you know, has been enjoying an enviable level of peace. One challenge the state had in the past was the Kalari Youths, who politicians wanted to use to run the state aground. But the governor decided to give them a better shot at life; he directed that they be absorbed into the skill acquisition programme. Most of them have graduated and are now earning a living through the work of their hands, and not as trouble makers.
How does the governor marry the needs of the state and the financial allocation which comes from the federal government?
The governor is a prudent man; you can give him credit for that any time of day. As one who has risen through the ranks of elite financial management, he has been able to nip the share-the-money policy which was promoted by pockets of the old brigade. Instead of squandering the money of the state, he has resolved to promote economic empowerment through skill acquisition, to make the people financially independent and able to generate their own income.
He has successfully collaborated with the Bank of Industry to disburse loans to the small and medium scale entrepreneurs in the state. We are the first state to do this. The first loan of N1bn (N500m from the state government and the other half from the bank) has been recovered and paid back in full within a year of his administration. Small business holding like the hair-dressing, welding, furniture-making, fertiliser-manufacturing, and others. More than 1000 businesses benefitted from this partnership. Having succeeded in the first instance, the state went into a second agreement with the BoI, for another N3bn to be disbursed to businesses in the state.
Also, the state government has established a cluster site for SMEs. Every provision has been made for them to move in. All the ministries in the state have ben tasked to ensure that everything facility needed within the cluster – electricity, water, roads, sanitary provisions, and other needs – be on-ground and functional.
As part of the government’s empowerment programme, 200 mini-cabs were recently inspected and certified ready for distribution to willing young people interested in commercial driving. These fuel-efficient taxis will be paid for within a time-limit. About 1200 tricycles (like the keke NAPEP) have been assembled to be given to willing young people on loan basis. The government has also purchased 80 ‘hummer’ buses, as part of the fleet of the Gombe State Transport Service, ‘Gombe Line’. It is a first. All these are moves to create indirect employment.
So far, about 20,000 men and women who have been engaged in some form of skill acquisition programme or the other.
In order to generate revenue, the government has come up with modalities for the construction of a Tankers’ Bay and the Gombe International Conference Centre (which is still undergoing construction). These infrastructural developments will employ labour and open up the state to more economic opportunities, both from within and outside the country.
How does the state hope to reform its increasing number of handicapped and beggars?
The government is doing this through collaboration with the MDGs office in the state, which His Excellency has termed Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme. More than 15,000 families are benefitting from this collaboration with the MDGs office in the state.
When Governor Dankwambo came into office in 2011, he started this right away, with 3,000 families. The number crept up to 5000. Today, it has gone beyond that. What prompted this was the governor’s concern for the children of the aged, handicapped and beggars who were not allowed to go to school, but to be guides for their parents, day and night. He decided that each of these affected families will have to bring in the deprived children to be enrolled in schools or skill acquisition training centres. A portion of the N15,000 which the government pays them monthly is saved. After some months of training, these young people who graduate from the skill acquisition centres will now use the saved amount as start-up capital. By this, two things have been done: the beggar is taken off the street and the children get a shot at education or skill acquisition. There are batches on stand-by and this programme has been highly successful.
Since the state is not known for her natural resources, what is being done to revive the agricultural sector?
A lot, I must say. Recently, the governor supervised the acquisition of 220 units of one of the best brands of tractors in the world, the Massey Ferguson brand. Each was purchased at the cost of N3.5m and will be sold to the farmers at highly subsidised rates. Those who cannot afford it will have to get it on a hire-basis. Attached to the tractors are harrowing ploughs (for mechanised farming) and healthy bulls (for those who want to do their harrowing manually). There are engineers who are employed to service these tractors.
On the other hand, over 35,000 tonnes of assorted fertilisers have been provided for the farmers in the state, to aid their output for the current farming season. More than 70 per cent of our people are farmers. The newly created Agricultural Mechanisation Agency has supervised the process all the way, so as to ensure fair distribution of these things.
For these and many other reasons, the state has been rated by economic watchers as one of Nigeria’s fastest growing economies.
The government’s impact also spread to road construction. More than roads have been constructed, with some completed and others are on-going. He also directed the construction of roads linking 40 villages, and Gombe State to Bornu and Adamawa. All these are projects which will become legacies for generations.
Source Leadership
Link: http://leadership.ng/news/090813/education-heart-beat-gombe
Junaidu Abubakar is the assistant on press to the Gombe State governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo,OON. In this brief chat with ONUKOGU KANAYO JUBAL, he throws light on some of the programmes and policies of the current administration.
Do you think the current administration in the state has been able to justify its election by the people in the state?
Frankly, if I begin to talk about all that Governor Dankwambo has done, you may think I am a ranting. Suffice it to say, however, that when some editors of some of the major media houses in the country went on a tour of the state, they testified that his Excellency has done very well. Since he became governor, his priority has remained education and people empowerment.
When the governor assumed office in 2011, he appointed a sectorial committee of highly qualified individuals like a former MD of the defunct NITEL, Professor Buba Joga; Executive secretary, Primary Education Board, Professor Abdulsalam Sambo; CMD, University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Professor Idris Mohammed; former Coordinator, MDGs Office, Hajia Amina Az Zubair, and other like minds experienced in their fields of endeavour. They came up with a white paper which covered the ministries and departments in the state, in order to proffer solutions to every challenge encountered by the state in road construction, commerce and economy, health, education, youth empowerment, agriculture, power supply, water, and others.
I can say that given his current pace, he could be one of the best governors by the time he is done with the State.
Gombe State is considered an education backward state; what has the administration of Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo done to shed this toga?
When he took the mantle of leadership, the governor invited some experts from the University of Maiduguri, to tackle the monumental failure recorded by the students who had taken the WASSCE, a year before he came into office. Of the 18,000 students who sat for the examination, only 18 of them could meet the requirement for admission into tertiary institutions. His Excellency, shamed by the toga of ‘educationally backward state,’ decided to pay their WASSCE fees and invite seasoned professionals over to see to the issue, through coaching classes and intensive preparations. Today, the story has changed, and though we are yet to reach our desired goal, the situation has improved.
His Excellency approved the setting up of a school of remedial studies for these students to redeem their dismal performances. Today, about 90 per cent of them are responding positively to these mitigating measures.
Considering that education is his heartbeat, Dankwambo started from the grassroots. By this, I mean building primary and secondary schools. Beyond building schools, he has also equipped them with the necessary instructional materials like textbooks, libraries, laboratories, feeding schedules and teachers’ welfare.
The administration of Governor Dankwambo has built more than 45 model primary and secondary schools spread through the 11 local governments in the state. Recently, also, the commissioner of education travelled to India to facilitate the importation of some textbooks specially meant for students and pupils in the state; these textbooks correspond with the Nigerian curriculum and educational system. They were distributed free-of-charge.
Student enrolment in Gombe State is progressing by about 80 per cent.
The current administration has also laid the foundation for the Gombe State College of Education cited in Biliri local government. The institution will act as a training ground for teachers who will impart knowledge to the young ones. Based on the committee’s reports, one of the major problems in the state is the teacher to pupil/student ratio, and the number of half-baked or unqualified teachers recruited into the system within the last five years. As a result, His Excellency approved the recruitment of thoroughly qualified graduates into both secondary and primary schools, and the unqualified ones sent back to the college to acquire updated and proper knowledge impartation skills.
The Gombe State Polytechnic in Bajoga, Funakaye local government, is another landmark. It will also serve as a training ground for manpower for the state civil service.
This administration believes that if the issue is tackled at the foundation, leaders with potentials can be groomed and stand better chances of becoming what they ought to be.
Very little is heard of security challenges in the state; does this mean that the situation is controlled or non-existent?
Gombe, as you know, has been enjoying an enviable level of peace. One challenge the state had in the past was the Kalari Youths, who politicians wanted to use to run the state aground. But the governor decided to give them a better shot at life; he directed that they be absorbed into the skill acquisition programme. Most of them have graduated and are now earning a living through the work of their hands, and not as trouble makers.
How does the governor marry the needs of the state and the financial allocation which comes from the federal government?
The governor is a prudent man; you can give him credit for that any time of day. As one who has risen through the ranks of elite financial management, he has been able to nip the share-the-money policy which was promoted by pockets of the old brigade. Instead of squandering the money of the state, he has resolved to promote economic empowerment through skill acquisition, to make the people financially independent and able to generate their own income.
He has successfully collaborated with the Bank of Industry to disburse loans to the small and medium scale entrepreneurs in the state. We are the first state to do this. The first loan of N1bn (N500m from the state government and the other half from the bank) has been recovered and paid back in full within a year of his administration. Small business holding like the hair-dressing, welding, furniture-making, fertiliser-manufacturing, and others. More than 1000 businesses benefitted from this partnership. Having succeeded in the first instance, the state went into a second agreement with the BoI, for another N3bn to be disbursed to businesses in the state.
Also, the state government has established a cluster site for SMEs. Every provision has been made for them to move in. All the ministries in the state have ben tasked to ensure that everything facility needed within the cluster – electricity, water, roads, sanitary provisions, and other needs – be on-ground and functional.
As part of the government’s empowerment programme, 200 mini-cabs were recently inspected and certified ready for distribution to willing young people interested in commercial driving. These fuel-efficient taxis will be paid for within a time-limit. About 1200 tricycles (like the keke NAPEP) have been assembled to be given to willing young people on loan basis. The government has also purchased 80 ‘hummer’ buses, as part of the fleet of the Gombe State Transport Service, ‘Gombe Line’. It is a first. All these are moves to create indirect employment.
So far, about 20,000 men and women who have been engaged in some form of skill acquisition programme or the other.
In order to generate revenue, the government has come up with modalities for the construction of a Tankers’ Bay and the Gombe International Conference Centre (which is still undergoing construction). These infrastructural developments will employ labour and open up the state to more economic opportunities, both from within and outside the country.
How does the state hope to reform its increasing number of handicapped and beggars?
The government is doing this through collaboration with the MDGs office in the state, which His Excellency has termed Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme. More than 15,000 families are benefitting from this collaboration with the MDGs office in the state.
When Governor Dankwambo came into office in 2011, he started this right away, with 3,000 families. The number crept up to 5000. Today, it has gone beyond that. What prompted this was the governor’s concern for the children of the aged, handicapped and beggars who were not allowed to go to school, but to be guides for their parents, day and night. He decided that each of these affected families will have to bring in the deprived children to be enrolled in schools or skill acquisition training centres. A portion of the N15,000 which the government pays them monthly is saved. After some months of training, these young people who graduate from the skill acquisition centres will now use the saved amount as start-up capital. By this, two things have been done: the beggar is taken off the street and the children get a shot at education or skill acquisition. There are batches on stand-by and this programme has been highly successful.
Since the state is not known for her natural resources, what is being done to revive the agricultural sector?
A lot, I must say. Recently, the governor supervised the acquisition of 220 units of one of the best brands of tractors in the world, the Massey Ferguson brand. Each was purchased at the cost of N3.5m and will be sold to the farmers at highly subsidised rates. Those who cannot afford it will have to get it on a hire-basis. Attached to the tractors are harrowing ploughs (for mechanised farming) and healthy bulls (for those who want to do their harrowing manually). There are engineers who are employed to service these tractors.
On the other hand, over 35,000 tonnes of assorted fertilisers have been provided for the farmers in the state, to aid their output for the current farming season. More than 70 per cent of our people are farmers. The newly created Agricultural Mechanisation Agency has supervised the process all the way, so as to ensure fair distribution of these things.
For these and many other reasons, the state has been rated by economic watchers as one of Nigeria’s fastest growing economies.
The government’s impact also spread to road construction. More than roads have been constructed, with some completed and others are on-going. He also directed the construction of roads linking 40 villages, and Gombe State to Bornu and Adamawa. All these are projects which will become legacies for generations.
Source Leadership
Link: http://leadership.ng/news/090813/education-heart-beat-gombe
Do you think the current administration in the state has been able to justify its election by the people in the state?
Frankly, if I begin to talk about all that Governor Dankwambo has done, you may think I am a ranting. Suffice it to say, however, that when some editors of some of the major media houses in the country went on a tour of the state, they testified that his Excellency has done very well. Since he became governor, his priority has remained education and people empowerment.
When the governor assumed office in 2011, he appointed a sectorial committee of highly qualified individuals like a former MD of the defunct NITEL, Professor Buba Joga; Executive secretary, Primary Education Board, Professor Abdulsalam Sambo; CMD, University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Professor Idris Mohammed; former Coordinator, MDGs Office, Hajia Amina Az Zubair, and other like minds experienced in their fields of endeavour. They came up with a white paper which covered the ministries and departments in the state, in order to proffer solutions to every challenge encountered by the state in road construction, commerce and economy, health, education, youth empowerment, agriculture, power supply, water, and others.
I can say that given his current pace, he could be one of the best governors by the time he is done with the State.
Gombe State is considered an education backward state; what has the administration of Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo done to shed this toga?
When he took the mantle of leadership, the governor invited some experts from the University of Maiduguri, to tackle the monumental failure recorded by the students who had taken the WASSCE, a year before he came into office. Of the 18,000 students who sat for the examination, only 18 of them could meet the requirement for admission into tertiary institutions. His Excellency, shamed by the toga of ‘educationally backward state,’ decided to pay their WASSCE fees and invite seasoned professionals over to see to the issue, through coaching classes and intensive preparations. Today, the story has changed, and though we are yet to reach our desired goal, the situation has improved.
His Excellency approved the setting up of a school of remedial studies for these students to redeem their dismal performances. Today, about 90 per cent of them are responding positively to these mitigating measures.
Considering that education is his heartbeat, Dankwambo started from the grassroots. By this, I mean building primary and secondary schools. Beyond building schools, he has also equipped them with the necessary instructional materials like textbooks, libraries, laboratories, feeding schedules and teachers’ welfare.
The administration of Governor Dankwambo has built more than 45 model primary and secondary schools spread through the 11 local governments in the state. Recently, also, the commissioner of education travelled to India to facilitate the importation of some textbooks specially meant for students and pupils in the state; these textbooks correspond with the Nigerian curriculum and educational system. They were distributed free-of-charge.
Student enrolment in Gombe State is progressing by about 80 per cent.
The current administration has also laid the foundation for the Gombe State College of Education cited in Biliri local government. The institution will act as a training ground for teachers who will impart knowledge to the young ones. Based on the committee’s reports, one of the major problems in the state is the teacher to pupil/student ratio, and the number of half-baked or unqualified teachers recruited into the system within the last five years. As a result, His Excellency approved the recruitment of thoroughly qualified graduates into both secondary and primary schools, and the unqualified ones sent back to the college to acquire updated and proper knowledge impartation skills.
The Gombe State Polytechnic in Bajoga, Funakaye local government, is another landmark. It will also serve as a training ground for manpower for the state civil service.
This administration believes that if the issue is tackled at the foundation, leaders with potentials can be groomed and stand better chances of becoming what they ought to be.
Very little is heard of security challenges in the state; does this mean that the situation is controlled or non-existent?
Gombe, as you know, has been enjoying an enviable level of peace. One challenge the state had in the past was the Kalari Youths, who politicians wanted to use to run the state aground. But the governor decided to give them a better shot at life; he directed that they be absorbed into the skill acquisition programme. Most of them have graduated and are now earning a living through the work of their hands, and not as trouble makers.
How does the governor marry the needs of the state and the financial allocation which comes from the federal government?
The governor is a prudent man; you can give him credit for that any time of day. As one who has risen through the ranks of elite financial management, he has been able to nip the share-the-money policy which was promoted by pockets of the old brigade. Instead of squandering the money of the state, he has resolved to promote economic empowerment through skill acquisition, to make the people financially independent and able to generate their own income.
He has successfully collaborated with the Bank of Industry to disburse loans to the small and medium scale entrepreneurs in the state. We are the first state to do this. The first loan of N1bn (N500m from the state government and the other half from the bank) has been recovered and paid back in full within a year of his administration. Small business holding like the hair-dressing, welding, furniture-making, fertiliser-manufacturing, and others. More than 1000 businesses benefitted from this partnership. Having succeeded in the first instance, the state went into a second agreement with the BoI, for another N3bn to be disbursed to businesses in the state.
Also, the state government has established a cluster site for SMEs. Every provision has been made for them to move in. All the ministries in the state have ben tasked to ensure that everything facility needed within the cluster – electricity, water, roads, sanitary provisions, and other needs – be on-ground and functional.
As part of the government’s empowerment programme, 200 mini-cabs were recently inspected and certified ready for distribution to willing young people interested in commercial driving. These fuel-efficient taxis will be paid for within a time-limit. About 1200 tricycles (like the keke NAPEP) have been assembled to be given to willing young people on loan basis. The government has also purchased 80 ‘hummer’ buses, as part of the fleet of the Gombe State Transport Service, ‘Gombe Line’. It is a first. All these are moves to create indirect employment.
So far, about 20,000 men and women who have been engaged in some form of skill acquisition programme or the other.
In order to generate revenue, the government has come up with modalities for the construction of a Tankers’ Bay and the Gombe International Conference Centre (which is still undergoing construction). These infrastructural developments will employ labour and open up the state to more economic opportunities, both from within and outside the country.
How does the state hope to reform its increasing number of handicapped and beggars?
The government is doing this through collaboration with the MDGs office in the state, which His Excellency has termed Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme. More than 15,000 families are benefitting from this collaboration with the MDGs office in the state.
When Governor Dankwambo came into office in 2011, he started this right away, with 3,000 families. The number crept up to 5000. Today, it has gone beyond that. What prompted this was the governor’s concern for the children of the aged, handicapped and beggars who were not allowed to go to school, but to be guides for their parents, day and night. He decided that each of these affected families will have to bring in the deprived children to be enrolled in schools or skill acquisition training centres. A portion of the N15,000 which the government pays them monthly is saved. After some months of training, these young people who graduate from the skill acquisition centres will now use the saved amount as start-up capital. By this, two things have been done: the beggar is taken off the street and the children get a shot at education or skill acquisition. There are batches on stand-by and this programme has been highly successful.
Since the state is not known for her natural resources, what is being done to revive the agricultural sector?
A lot, I must say. Recently, the governor supervised the acquisition of 220 units of one of the best brands of tractors in the world, the Massey Ferguson brand. Each was purchased at the cost of N3.5m and will be sold to the farmers at highly subsidised rates. Those who cannot afford it will have to get it on a hire-basis. Attached to the tractors are harrowing ploughs (for mechanised farming) and healthy bulls (for those who want to do their harrowing manually). There are engineers who are employed to service these tractors.
On the other hand, over 35,000 tonnes of assorted fertilisers have been provided for the farmers in the state, to aid their output for the current farming season. More than 70 per cent of our people are farmers. The newly created Agricultural Mechanisation Agency has supervised the process all the way, so as to ensure fair distribution of these things.
For these and many other reasons, the state has been rated by economic watchers as one of Nigeria’s fastest growing economies.
The government’s impact also spread to road construction. More than roads have been constructed, with some completed and others are on-going. He also directed the construction of roads linking 40 villages, and Gombe State to Bornu and Adamawa. All these are projects which will become legacies for generations.
Source Leadership
Link: http://leadership.ng/news/090813/education-heart-beat-gombe
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