By Ben Ngwakwe, Gombe
Determined to improve the living standards of people of Gombe State, the Governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, has promised to work with the Development Partners in order to meet their aspirations in the state.
The Governor who stated this during a meeting with the Country Representative of PROPCOM Plus, a UK- funded project, Dr. Adiya Ode in his office said,” we will work with the Development Partners to align Governance with the local needs” in order to improve living standard of the people and meet their aspirations.
Explaining further on the state’s 10- year development plan, tagged DEVAGOM with the background from pre-office needs assessments in 2019, the Governor stressed the urgency of forging strategic collaboration to ensure a sustainable development and lasting legacy.
“In Gombe State we have a clear vision. We are working with our Development Agenda which encapsulates our mission and vision borne out of the Needs Assessment that we carried out even before coming into office in 2019.
“We have no option than to partner with organisations like yours in line with the needs of our people. We must do it fast and do it well in order to leave a lasting legacy,” he said.
The Governor noted that some of the focus areas of PROPCOM Plus are in line with his administration’s agenda, especially the climate-related ones and the livestock development aspect.
He said with its strategic location in the North East and it’s environmental restoration project, the Gombe Goes Green (3G) and the Wawa-Zange grazing reserve, there is no better place for PROPCOM Plus to forge partnership than Gombe.
He said, “In Gombe we have a project called, Gombe Goes Green ( 3G) under which we are planting at least one million trees annually in our efforts towards environmental restoration.
“We’re also working with the World Bank on some similar projects such as the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Project (L-PRES) towards developing and transforming our livestock subsector and the Agro-Climate Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) Project to step up our implementation of sustainable landscape management. So with yours coming on board, there must be a synergy in order to reap the benefits.”
Governor Yahaya stressed the imperative for Nigeria to harness its natural resources for self-sustenance, citing successful models like China, Singapore, and Rwanda.
He advocated for a shift from a consumer-oriented nation to a productive force leveraging Nigeria’s vast resources, population, and talent pool.
“I am an advocate of Nigeria utilizing its God’s given endowment to develop itself rather than depending on handouts from the so called developed countries or donor agencies. We are blessed with resources, the numbers and the talents. For instance China, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and even Rwanda utilized these endowments and they have now achieved tremendous progress; Nigeria must follow suit,” he said.
Earlier, Dr. Adiya Ode, informed Yahaya that Propcom+ is UKAid’s new flagship rural and agricultural market development programme aimed at supporting economic growth in conflict and climate affected regions in Nigeria by addressing environmental, social, and economic challenges in the country’s food and land-use system.
She sought for partnership with Gombe State Government in the areas of sustainable agriculture and forestry that will benefit people, climate, and nature.
Ode added, “The programme aims to support the people, to adopt and scale sustainable agricultural practices that increase productivity and climate resilience while reducing emissions and protecting natural ecosystems.
“We’ll be working in Kaduna Gombe, Adamawa, focusing on Animal health, supporting both the public and private sectors to facilitate investment in Agricultural value chains, smallholder farmers on rice production and irrigation infrastructure to facilitate core investment in these sectors.”
She noted that the partnership between PROPCOM Plus and Gombe State will seek to stimulate investments in agricultural value chains, bridging the public and private sectors for impactful growth with a promising trajectory for sustainable growth and advancement in Gombe State.
