| Excitement as Borno
awaits OBJ on state visit
By USMAN ADAMU
Sunday, July 23, 2006
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•President
Olusegun Obasanjo
Photo: Sun News Publishing
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| |
Borno State is in a state of frenzied activities and excitement
as the people await the arrival of President Olusegun Obasanjo
for a three day official visit.
And the excitement is borne out of the anxiety of the people
not only to see the President in flesh but also because they
can no longer wait to put to use, the various projects undertaken
by the Governor Ali Sherrif administration that he is to commission.
Without recourse to partisan rhetorics, the administration
has touched virtually every sector in the state in a manner
considered unrivaled. From health to water supply, education,
agriculture, works and housing and to local government affairs,
SAS’ large, indelible footprints have been left as a
mark of a man who is not in the saddle in Borno to answer
to the title of Executive Governor alone, but to work the
work of that office for the benefit of the people.
In the words of Usman Chiroma, "His Excellency has performed
to the satisfaction of the people of the state in a manner
unrivalled in the anals of Borno State's history".
There is enough on ground to justify this assertion and some
of these projects will be officially commissioned by the President
when he visits.
In the area of Health, Sheriff has completed 10 primary health
centres abandoned since 1992 at Fikhayel, Gunda, Kubo IV,
Gulde, Jabullam, Bida, Kekeno, Wulgo, Ashigashya and Kwajaffa
and provided N60 million for equipping six of the centres.
Besides these, two new General Hospitals were constructed
in Maiduguri; a 300-bed hospital at a cost of N300 million
and another in Askira town at a cost of N153 million.
The General Hospitals in Rann, Briyel and Chibok towns and
the hospital complex in Gudumbali are some of the projects
the President is expected to commission next week.
In the area of provision of potable water, before Senator
(Dr) Ali Modu Sheriff became the Governor of Borno State,
the swan-song was that the state water problem had defied
all solutions.
However, just a few months into his administration, portable
drinking water is everywhere through the sinking of boreholes
in the arid desert land all in a bid to end the sufferings
of the people in that area.
Agriculture is a sector which no government in Nigeria toys
with and it is a sector which President Olusegun Obasanjo,
like Governor Ali Modu Sheriff attaches importance to.
Over 70% of the people of Borno State are engaged in farming
and the government of Ali Modu Sheriff embarked on sustained
efforts to boost the sector in the state.
Recognising that farmers need fertilizers to boost their output,
the government, in addition to the supply of fertilizers from
the state-owned fertilizer blending plant, procured 400 metric
tonnes of assorted fertilizers from the Federal Government
and distributed same to farmers.
The government purchased 30 brand new tractors and rehabilitated
50 others and distributed them to the 27 Local Government
Councils for use by farmers in the grassroots.
Besides, the government repaired 12 treshers, cranes and heavy
duty machines.
In recognition of the fact that not all farmers in the state
could afford to hire tractors for their farming needs, the
government procured ox-ploughs and distributed them to small-scale
farmers across the state.
To ensure that the efforts of government and the farmers were
not in vain, the government spent N41 million to procure agro-chemicals
for the control of pests and other diseases.
Borno State, unlike the spurious claims by some others, is
actually the leader in the agriculture sector. Besides being
the largest supplier of freshwater fish, it also is the largest
producer and exporter of livestock in the country.
To maintain its leading position in the livestock sector,
the SAS administration renovated the poultry production unit
in Maiduguri and repaired hatching machines/incubators. The
government also invested heavily by constructing an ultra-modern
veterinary hospital in Maiduguri at the cost of N40.6 million
while brand new vehicles were purchased for the hospital at
a cost of N25 million, another N800,000 was also used to procure
vaccines for the control of rabbies.
On rice production, the government maintained its partnership
with international agencies and released N10 million to FADAMA
II project and N3 million for IFAD project.
Roads construction is, unfortunately, an area which many state
governments, even the Federal Government shy away from due
to the fact that they are capital intensive.
The flood-prone and densely populated Goni-Adamti road and
drainage has been constructed by SAS at a cost of N276 million
bringing relief to people of the area.
Othe roads constructed with drainagees are the Ngomari-Bullumkuttu
Road; the Umarari - Jajeri Road; London Ciki - Costain Bolori
Road; the Gwange Township Road; the Abbaganaram Low-Cost drainage
and Damboa Township Road.
There is also the general rehabilitation of select roads in
the state including the Maiduguri-Gamboru road/Bama Town Bridge.
These and other road projects completed in the state, some
of them with street lights will be commissioned during the
President’s visit to Borno next week.
The government of Senator (Dr) Ali Modu Sheriff initiated
and completed the Mega 777 housing project, so-called because
that is the number of units in the estate. The Mairamri Housing
Estate is a beauty to behold as the airplane descends in the
Maiduguri Airport.
The estate can be a standard bearer for what a responsive
administration should be capable of doing especially in a
country where fraudulent and sharp practices are presented
to members of the public as real achievements.
The estate is there for people to see and some state governments
in the country would love to point to such an achievement,
just to have an estate like that as a main achievement in
a four-year tenure.
The 500-unit Housing Estate along Dikwa Road, Maiduguri and
another ambitious 20 Housing project in each of the 27 Local
Government Areas of the state are some of the projects slated
for the President’s attention in Borno. |
