Your Stake, Our Stewardship: Adamawa Midterm Score Card

By Rt. Jon Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri

Executive Governor

Adamawa State

14th- April, 2021

Fellow Stakeholders in the Adamawa project, this meeting has been called at my instance so I can present to you the report card of my stewardship in the State for your evaluation and further inputs as we move ahead. 

In less than two months from today, our administration will be 2 years old. 2 years is half the lifespan of a single tenure in our constitutional democracy. 

It is equally an age ripe enough to give an account of a mandate and support freely and willingly given. 

It is my modest thought that before going out there to engage the larger citizenry on our performance as an administration, it is pertinent that I call a family meeting to present a score card and address basic housekeeping matters. 

Two years ago, you entrusted us with your collective support and made our great party – the PDP, to grant us its flag; a flag we proudly carried to a hotly contested election which saw us riding triumphantly to victory in spite of all the huddles placed on our ways by the opponents. From the polling booths to the courts, we collectively, survived all the machinations of the opponents, subdued them and claimed our victory with fanfare. 

On May 29, 2019, we constitutionally took the oath of office to serve the State for the next 4 years. Since then, we went boots-on to the business of governance and service to the people as dictated by the sacred lines of our oaths. 

We met a State that was virtually devastated in all ramification, requiring more than ordinary ingenuity to patch and revamp. 

Conscious of the task at hand, we went all out, dared distractions and subdued impossibilities. Today, the ugly narrative is fast reversing, Adamawa State is changing and our people are happier. This fact is admitted even by our fanatic antagonists. 

It is against this background, that I thought you should be the first to know where we are coming from, where we are now, how we got here and where we are headed. 

This is very much in keeping faith with democratic brotherhood and a fraternity that binds. It is my fervent hope that at the end of this session, I should have been able to present to you a scorecard upon which you would benchmark the administration, demonstrate your appreciation or others and as a family, provide your candid counsel as we move ahead into the second half of this administration. 

Where we are coming from: The Scenario as at May 29, 2019 

1. Insecurity 

We inherited a socially destabilized society with a disenchanted citizenry who live in constant fear of losing their lives, livelihood and properties. 

While general loss of trust, attendant upon by ethnic and religious suspicions and intolerance was brewing among our plural nationalities. 

Absence of justice and fairness has instituted a culture of identity politics which was negatively taking its toll on our people. 

Perennial farmer-herder conflicts, was claiming lives, herds, farm produce and even settlements of our people.

 The situation was so bad that no community in Adamawa State can claim freedom from it.

 Kidnapping and unrestrained urban crime such as the activities of ‘Shila-Boys cult went on brazenly as if there were no constituted authority to contain them. 

The northern zone which was just recuperating from the attacks of the dreaded Bokoharam insurgents were practically abandoned to their faith with most of them converting the emergency IDP camps into a permanent abode with no hope of return to their ancestral homes. 

The State was sliding into anarchy with no demonstrated authoritative commitment to sanity and control. 

2. Infrastructural Deficit 

We inherited poor infrastructure. Despite the relative commitment of our predecessors in constructing urban roads within the State capital and a few other places, such effort was only good enough to place Adamawa State at its lowest ranking of 33 out of 36 States in the federation. Rural infrastructure has remained a rarity, as our access to our rural communities remain a herculean task, if not impossible. This is not to talk of other basic infrastructures such as electricity which was seen as prized impossibilities. 

3. Bloated and Ill-motivated Civil Service 

We inherited a civil service which was deliberately bloated by our predecessors out of brazen mischief. While the service was stuffed by a lot of workers who were hurriedly recruited without due process, the machinery of service was not oiled to provide the right results with the level of indolence we met in the service. 

There were Backlog of salary arrears and general uncertainty on wage dates and accumulated pension areas of retired workers and senior citizens. 

4. Financial Crunch and Fiscal Indiscipline 

In 2018, the annual IGR of Adamawa State was about 6 Billion. This was considered paltry in this age where every State is deploying all its arsenal to transit to self-reliance and sustainability. 

We inherited a Suffocating 140-Billion-Naira debt burden which we had to service every month from the Federal Allocation. 

As if this was not bad enough, there was standing monthly overdraft line to pay salaries provided by commercial banks that chocks. This has led to budget indiscipline and non-compliance with extant appropriation laws. 

5. Deplorable Education System 

Our Education system was in a deplorable state. With Dilapidated schools’ infrastructure; Ill-motivated teachers; insufficient instructional materials in our schools; abdication of feeding in our Boarding Schools; inability to pay counterpart funding for UBEC projects in the State (since 2015); refusal to lift the burden of sponsorship for school fees and registration of national examinations such as WAEC and NECO, off the shoulders of our already impoverished parents, etc., our education system was reduced to a dreadful ebb. 

6. Poor Health System 

With tiresome access to secondary health facilities; crumbling and inadequate infrastructure in existing secondary health facilities across the State; poor state of hospital equipment and general lack of sufficient medical consumables in our hospitals; insufficient staff in both Primary Health Care Centers and Secondary Health facilities; lack of State health and social insurance to support the poor and the vulnerable Our health system was among the worst in terms of access, service and delivery; 

Distinguished Stakeholders, I have taken the pain the take us through some of these gloomy indicators so that you can have a mental picture of the situation at hand when took over. I am not lamenting. Far from it. 

I do know, these are pitiably extraordinary problems created by the wrong people in leadership. And your collective anger that you require a true leader to turn the fortunes of the State for the better was the result that brought me on board. 

The sure way to thank you for this decision is to periodically give you a detailed breakdown of what we are doing to reverse the ugly narrative. 

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐰 

Upon assumption of office in 2019, we were aware of the daunting task ahead. So, we were clear on the energy and intellect required to surmount it. We reeled out our 11 Point Agenda which is now the compass of the administration. 

The first task was to unbundle the financial crunch and restore fiscal discipline. This is the most important, though intangible, part of our reform. unfortunately, it is the most unappreciated by outsiders because it is not a physical project that can be touched and commissioned. Sometimes, I sit down and wonder, where the State would have been by now, if we had not done what we did in this sector? We deployed all our ingenuity and re-engineered the financial mesh of the State. 

This financial re-engineering was able to lessen the weight of the debt burden on our shoulders and provided us with the required oxygen to breath and unleash our energy on other sectors. We went on to key reform drivers such as: 

• Reduction in the cost of running government 

• Prudent management of the scarce government resources 

• Enhanced Revenue Optimization System 

• Meticulous insurance of Value for Money and 

• Improved Payroll Management systems 

While instituting a culture of discipline around these key drivers, to engender transparency and accountability, we submitted completely to the Treasury Single Account System (TSA) to manage Revenue Collection and Accounting Processes, Capital and Recurrent Expenditure Payments. This helped us to record all government inflows of revenues from IGR, FAAC and other sources. 

We removed the chocking standing overdraft line provided by commercial Banks. This removal returned sanity to the compliance with budgetary provisions, expenditure pattern and government ability to pay salaries as at when due. 

We achieved discipline in our budgetary process and implementation. This led to the budget size of N244Billion earlier approved by our predecessors to be reduced to N143 Billion for 2020 which was considered more realistic for 2019. Subsequently, in 2021 the budget size was N140 Billion. In view of the global COVID-19 Pandemic,this is necessitated by the amount of revenue generation internally, Federation accounts, Capital receipts, grants and other sources. The desire of this administration is to have a realistic Budget where expenditures are matched against revenue. 

We equally achieved prompt payment of Salaries and Pension of workers and retirees. We have been faithful to our commitment to pay the wages and pensions of our workers on the 23rd or 24th of the month; we are among the first state to implement the upward review of minimum wages which was passed at N30,0000.00. We not only implemented the minimum wage as approved by the Federal Government, but implemented a Minimum wage of N32,000.00 to Civil Servants on GL 1 – 6 and also agreed on the consequential adjustments to those on GL 7 and above to civil servants of the State. 

With the relative success in unbundling the financial crunch, we took on a multisectoral approach to development. 

We invested heavily in the peace and security of our people. We launched an aggressive campaign for peaceful coexistence and made justice and fair play the watch word of our administration. We reclaimed the trust and good will in government, which our predecessors wasted. This reduced the heated tension among and between our ethnic nationalities and identity groupings. We hosted a security summit and redesigned the Security architecture of the State to accommodate local intelligence and incorporated vigilantes and local hunters in the frontlines; we procured and donated 60 Toyota Hilux Trucks and 50 Motocycles to Operation Farauta; Acquired 10 Toyota Land cruiser Trucks for Operation Lafiya Dole; Procured 30 operational Trucks from local Manufacture IVM to support Vigilantes and Local hunters in 21 LGAs of the State; paid monthly stipends to Vigilantes and Local hunters in the State; organized a joint Taskforce raid on mini Sambisa which is the den of the dreaded urban miscreants known as Shila boys in the State Capital. These proactive measures and many others which will remain covert, were enough to send the message to the underworld that there is a serious government in place. The result is the relative peace we now enjoy. Interestingly most of our IDPs camps are being closed and our people from the northern zone are gradually returning to their ancestral abode. The perennial farmer-herders conflict has been reduced to the bearest minimum. 

In the Education and Human Capital development sector, we lessened the economic burden of impoverished parents by introducing a tuition-free education in our public schools and paid for WAEC and NECO fees our final students in the public schools; we reintroduced the school feeding system with balanced diet in our boarding schools. We awarded Foreign scholarship to over 120 Students currently studying medicine, engineering and sciences in India; we equally reintroduce annual bursaries to indigent students studying in the various tertiary institutions within the country. With support from UNICEF and KFW- German Partners, we are constructing and rehabilitating over 80 Schools in Fufore and Guyuk. We are equipping the schools and distributing instructional material, sporting facilities to the public school. We have Paid outstanding UBE counterpart funds from 2015 – 2020. This has enabled us access the required funding for the construction of over 5000 class rooms in basic education schools across the State. We have completed selected internal roads with storm water drainage totaling 5.3km in Adamawa State University (ADSU) and convocated graduands of the School, an event last conducted in 2013. 

In the health sector, in order to ensure equitable ccess to secondary health care services across the State, we are constructing 5 new 60 cottage hospitals in Gombi, Girei, Lamurde, Shelleng and Demsa and upgrading the ones in Fufore and Jada. we are also renovating and upgrading facilities in the General hospitals located in Ganye, Numan and Mubi. We have provided a modern Infectious Diseases Center (IDC) to manage and contain epidemics generally. This has been put to use in the containment of COVID -19 Pandemic. To improve the quality of service delivery in our Primary Health Centers, we have recruited over 1,200 personnel into the Primary Health care system. 

Working hard to bridge the infrastructure gap, we have embarked on aggressive urban renewal programme. Our signature projects in the State capital under this Programme are the Flyovers and grade interchange with underpass at Total junction and Police roundabout respectively. To compliment these monuments and ensure a coordinated traffic management and guarantee free vehicular movement within the metropolis, about 20 km road network have either been provided or rehabilitated. The details are as follows: Yola Town : 0.75 km zumo street, 1 km Mbamba street, 1.2 km Mafia quarters road, 1 km Doctor’s quarters road, 3.2 km Yolde pate – Nyibango road with 2 span bridges, 2.5 km Philip Maken road with links, Masakare, 1.5 km Lagos street, Hometel road , 2.31 km Falu road and links, karewa, 2.7 km Mambila and Jambutu street, Nasarawo, 1.35 km old Government House road and links, 3.185 km Bachure road, 2.2 km Nepa road, 2.2 km WeeklyScope road and 3.2 km Benue Street; the urban renewal project is also extended to the various Local Government areas: 2.5km Izala-gwaida Mallam-Rafa Wayam in Numan, 3.5 km European quarters road in Hong, 6.6 km Gulak road in Madagali, 3.8 km Jada Township road in Jada, 5.1 km Michika Township road in Michika. We are also completing works started by our predecessors: Resumption of work on 37.5 km Kiri – Sheleng road, Completion of 7 km Buwangal – Sangasumi road in Ganye, resumption of work on 33 km Pella – Maiha road and Completion of 5.3 km internal roads in ADSU among others. 

To open up our rural areas for access, we have leveraged on our partnership with the Rural Access and Mobility Programme (RAMP II) supported by world Bank to construct 341 km of Rural roads across the State. Key among them are: Yolde Pate- Prison to Yadim (27.91 km), Parda Muninga – Fufore (18.09 km), Kwanan yaji – Amdur (15.58 km), Longa Ewa – W/Yombe (19.71 km),Hong – Mujili – Kuva Gaya (25.58 km), Mayo guli – Manjaken – Salma (10.90 km), Numan – Bare (7.42 km), Shelleng – Bakta(16.93 km), Toungo – Kiri (11.47 km), Polwewire – Ndikon (13.14 km), Ngurore – Mayobelwa – Gongoshi (9.3 km). 

The rural electrification project has equally reconnected communities of Michika and Madagali LGAs to the National grid after five years of destruction by Boko Haram Insurgents. We have also connected Tahau in Demsa LGA, and are connecting Toungo LGA to the grid. 

Youths development and empowerment have been elevated to an institutional level by creating the Ministry of Entrepreneurship Development and an Agency of Poverty Alleviation and Wealth Creation to provide the right skills for our teaming youths and prepare them for self-reliance. This will also stimulate the development of Micro-small and Medium Enterprises in the State. 

Our agriculture and livestock masterplan development is on course. With the establishment of the State Livestock Transformation Office (SLTO). We have commenced the Cocoa Rehabilitation and Regeneration Programme in Toungo and Ganye LGAs, consistently procured and supplied fertilizers and other farm inputs to our local farmers at subsidized price, completed the ultra-modern Jimeta Abattoir as well as well ongoing rehabilitation of selected Abattoirs in the State. We have also engaged a consultant on the an end-to-end Agribusiness Development which would empower our farmers to unlock the relegated economic base of the State. A preliminary analysis, reveals that the State IGR will grow by over 90% in a Span of 10 years from the agribusiness alone. 

Where we are Headed 

Fellow Stakeholders, above are our modest achievements even in the face of glaring impossibilities by the time we took over. This is further worsened by the hard effect of the COVID – 19 Pandemic on the economy. Going forward, we intend to: 

• Build institutions for sustainability and unleash the required sectoral reforms that can drive development and entrench a culture of patriotism and progress. 

• Set a tall standard of good governance where accountability and people centered policies and programmes are key. 

• Shrink the infrastructural gap by completing all projects initiated and even the ones abandoned by our predecessors. 

• Empower the youths and women through carefully crafted entrepreneurial programmes 

• Make Adamawa State a preferred destination of choice for investment 

• In the next two years, introduce a sustainable social intervention program that can cushion the effect of the current economic reality, fight poverty and create a minimum safety net for the poor and the vulnerable. 

Distinguished stakeholders, this is our scorecard. Today we submit ourselves to the temple of popular mandate which is the hallmark of democracy. You are free to ask questions, make comments and also offer suggestions. I am here to provide answers but primarily to learn from your inputs and be guided by your wishes and desires. Let me hasten to remind us ones again, this is a family meeting and you are called into it because you are an integral part of the family. 

Thank you and God bless.