After about 25 years of existence, Gombe State, the Jewel of Savannah, is now clearly set on the path of new dawn under the transformational leadership of Governor Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya.

The current administration, which ushered in the new era, was only three years old when the impact of transformational leadership began to gain traction, whereas my findings indicate a solid foundation for sustained growth across the state's socio-economic landscape in the medium to long term.

Most governance analysts have often excused many governments’ failures on the premise of the impact of COVID-19 on the national and sub-national economies, but Gombe seems to have created a different narrative; that challenges berth creativity and ultimately superlative performance.

For Gombe, the environmental circumstances were even more daunting, judging from the difficult financial and socio-political liabilities inherited by the Mohammad Yahaya administration. My findings show that upon assumption of office, the administration was confronted with a treasury in distress, burdened with about N124 billion in loans and bonds, pension and gratuity arrears, and contractors’ liabilities.

The fiscal stress could be gleaned from the recurrent obligations amounting cumulatively to about N900.4 million monthly to service the liabilities. But the administration has gone ahead to demonstrate a determination to achieve positive results. It is the usual practice for new administrations in Nigeria’s governance space to abandon uncompleted projects inherited from the previous administration, especially if the new administration was not an extension of the previous. But Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya chose the road less travelled.

Determining to salvage and possibly turn around the taxpayers’ money into viable assets, the administration embarked on completing those projects.

Despite being in the midst of the theatre of insurgency, Gombe ranks as the best state in the ease of doing business, emerging top in Nigeria’s sub-national ease of doing business survey. The survey was conducted by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council. The states were assessed using homegrown indicators in four thematic areas: infrastructure and security, transparency and access to information, regulatory environment, and skills workforce readiness. The Infrastructure and Security theme involves four indices, namely transportation, primary healthcare, and security.

It is more than apparent that Governor Inuwa Yahaya is achieving all these, by predisposing his energy and resources, towards engaging the youth population in the state, with the various developmental projects he has embarked upon. The Muhammadu Buhari Industrial Park is scheduled to provide 50,000 jobs for youths in the state.

The governor has already established the Gombe State Security, Traffic, and Environmental Corps, GOSTEC. The corps is a homegrown innovation which is providing 2,000 young men and women with jobs in security, traffic control, as well as environmental cleaning and maintenance services across the state. It boasts of a women's empowerment programme where 5,000 women are being trained and funded to embark on different business ventures of their own.

When youths are taken off the streets, and the idle womenfolk are engaged with one business or the other, society becomes safer and more ideal for government policies and other socio-economic programmes to thrive. Overall, the youth empowerment programmes are targeting 20,000 youth and women.

Another arm of this youth empowerment drive is the unprecedented provision of 2,000 tricycles, popularly called Keke-NAPEP. This is geared towards the socio-economic advancement and self-reliance of the common man. This was done through the human capital development initiative of the state government. The distribution of the Keke-NAPEP was done through the umbrella association of the Keke Riders Association of Nigeria, Gombe State chapter. One thousand (1000) beneficiaries were drawn regardless of their party affiliations, their local governments or tribes to kick-start the initiative. This was in addition to the training and engagement of over 1,000 youths under the At-Risk Children Programme (ARC-P).

Another 3,000 youths have also been engaged as development facilitators, working for the progress of their various communities. With the aforementioned programmes, the state government has institutionalized a framework that has guaranteed a steady and geometric surge in internal revenue, which has never been seen within the last 25 years of the state’s existence. To further bolster the human capital development drive, a database capturing the 27,000 unemployed graduates in the state is being deployed to link them to appropriate jobs in both the public and private sectors based on their skills.

Persons with disabilities (PWDs) have not been disabled by the Inuwa Yahaya empowerment and youth development projects. A mega centre is being built for them in the state, while various empowerment items, funds and training are being extended to them as well, just like the other able-bodied youths in the state. This is being done in collaboration with the Qatar Charity Foundation, which has executed over 400 projects across the state.

It has provided medical services to more than 5,000 people, with over 1,000 eye surgeries and medical glasses. It has built more than 50 places of worship, in which youths were engaged, with marketers of various building materials in the state enjoying patronage. More than 140 boreholes were also built. PWDs were provided with tricycles for the disabled and hundreds of sewing machines, grinding machines, and learning packages for PWDs.

A whopping 1,000 fresh teachers are being recruited by the Gombe State Teacher’s Service Commission. A total of 288 teachers under the SUBEB programme have applied for a transfer of service to the State’s Ministry of Education’s Secondary Schools and Technical Colleges. All of them have been approved and will be absorbed into the recruitment exercise. This massive engagement of the youth populace into the state’s workforce, and other meaningful programmes, are going a long way in providing job and food security in the state. It is a key ingredient in maintaining law and order in the state. The jobless ones are mopped up from the streets by providing employment and businesses that make them independent or self-reliant. Governor Inuwa Yahaya’s purposeful leadership is providing food on the table for the common man, jobs for the youth, and security for the state.

For these and even some more landmark achievements, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State deserves a second term in office with at least 99% of the total vote cast in Gombe State.

•Adewole Kehinde is the Publisher of Swift Reporters and can be reached via 08166240846. E-mail: kennyadewole@gmail.com

Update news