No One is Left Behind and Nothing is Left Untouched (Urban Renewal Campaign VII)

By Rt. Hon. Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, Executive Governor Adamawa State.

 

A Speech Delivered at the Commissioning of 1^st Overhead Bridge and Approach road expansion in Jimeta-Yola, Adamawa State – Nigeria, Saturday, 29th May, 2021

 

 Protocol

Your Excellency, distinguished Guests Ladies and Gentlemen, I welcome you wholeheartedly to the commissioning of one of our signature projects in the Urban Renewal Campaign of this government. Today’s event which is the commissioning of the first overhead bridge in Yola and perhaps the entire Northeast is the climax of the first phase of our series of commissioning and part of the activities earmarked to celebrate our 2 years anniversary which from inception has been guided by the philosophy of “No one is left behind and nothing is left untouched.”

 

We have spent the past two weeks in this mood. From the commissioning of Urban roads in Numan, Michika, Hong, Yola-South, Yola-North; to the connection of Toungo to the National Grid, it has been celebration all through. The people of Adamawa State have every reason to celebrate not only the presence of physical structures, they can see and touch as partly evidenced by what we are commissioning today, but more importantly, by the reinvention of trust and confidence in politicians and the fact that beyond rhetoric, campaign promises can be translated into realities.

 

The overhead bridge and approach road expansion is comprised of the bridge and expansion of the approach roads to 8 lane dual carriage from the popular Maidoki Roundabout to the Bishop street junction. This is one project with a short history but interesting story. Like most of our projects, when we did the groundbreaking ceremony with the overhead bridge and a grade interchange with under pass project at the old Police Roundabout, skeptics went wild with their usual doubts – “It cannot be done”. Today, it is not only done, but done excellently and on record time. The project was awarded with a timeline of 12 months. With gratitude to Almighty Allah and to the credit of our Contractors – Messrs Triacta Nigeria Limited, it is completed in 9 Months. This is perhaps, the fastest delivered project of its kind in this part of the world. To those skeptics who believe in its 2 impossibility, I make bold to say, the fact that you had the chance to do it; and wasted the ingenuity and the courage to do it does not make it an impossibility. And to those who think we are raising the bar; and scuttling their hallucinating ambitions, I want to counsel that some jobs are best reserved for MEN.

The significance of a project of this nature in the heart of a city like Yola, cannot be overemphasized. When it became evident that the project was coming into fruition, pessimists changed their message of campaign of calumny to “it is not a priority now, because the traffic situation in Yola is not yet as overbearing as to warrant the necessity for an overhead bridge”. And I ask; what is a priority? If not now then, when? If not done by us, then who? We may choose to shy away, as it was done in the past, from the fact that we are not far from the kind of chaotic traffic situations that is obtained in other cities in a few years from now; But we cannot deny the significance of being proactive to the fact that it is a reality waiting to happen. We must not wait until the population bursts to the level of disorder and our roads are taken over by gridlocks. It is equally cheaper to do this now since it is inevitable in the nearest future, than wait for that time when we may not have the required resources to do so. For me and my team, this is perhaps, the only time, we have to get it done. The people of Adamawa State have entrusted me with a 4-year mandate. As the time ticks, every second must be committed to judicious use. Leadership is about vision, mission and purpose. Anything otherwise, is a needless distraction that adds no value to the mandate. This is our stand as a government.

This is one of our packages for the Adamawa Urban Renewal campaign. We hope to sustain this campaign at this pace or even at a more speedy stride, until all our urban centers and semi-urban centers wear a befitting look not only for aesthetics but for the comfort and convenience of our teaming populace and visiting investors. The plan is a carefully crafted policy which aims to raise the standard of our State capital to attract investors to the State and equally to improve the infrastructural status of our semi-urban centers.

Away from the State capital, we have sensibly selected a number of semiurban centers for infrastructural facelift. This is partly, our mitigative measures against a retarding rural-urban drift. It is hoped that these semiurban centers, once elevated to cosmopolitan hubs will serve as holdingdown points for the clusters of communities around them and our hardworking population who would ordinarily be attracted to the cities by municipal trappings.

While consciously prosecuting the urban renewal campaign, we have not lost sight on the need to open up our rural areas for access. We have constructed and commissioned the 347-km Rural Roads across the State. The plan is to link the rural areas to the semi-urban centers for easy access and crosspollination of economic and social activities. We are opening up the State to investment. We have realized that this won’t happen at no cost. We have to make the necessary sacrifices and package the State for investors. Part of the ingredients for such packaging is sustainable infrastructure that not only confers on our urban centres, the comfort and class to attract investors but open up our rural areas for access and business. This indeed is the philosophy behind our urban renewal and rural infrastructural campaign; to ensure that “No one is left behind and nothing is left untouched.”

 

Your Excellency, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, in our drive to build a new Adamawa, we have adopted a multi-sectoral approach to development. Personally, I have always maintained that the people of Adamawa State have done so much for me and whatever I do can only be a token but never enough as a pay-back.

 

We are not in denial of the current economic realities and its attendant challenges as imposed on us by natural placement in the region that is bedeviled by insecurity as the result of the activities of the insurgents. While we are grappling with the task of rebuilding confidence and resilience of our ravaged communities the economic crunch has been made worse with the impact of COVID-19. These gloomy realities, have pushed us to set up a faculty that is working assiduously to craft ingenious vistas for diversifying the economy and inventing internal revenue streams for the State. We are launching a robust agribusiness programme tagged: ADAMAWA STATE AGRIBUSINESS SUPPORT PROGRAMME.

This Programme is primed to unlock the right opportunities for our people and the State in the agricultural value chain. We have done the economics and the financials right with the revelation that Adamawa’s greatest future and safest escape route to shared prosperity lies in our ability to harness and maximize our agricultural potentials. This revelation is the tonic that powered our courage with a plan to approach the Capital Market and float a 100 Billion Naira Bond series programme strictly to invest in Agribusiness. This would be the first of its kind in Nigeria’s Capital Market and the largest, cumulatively in quantum, ever to be issued by a State in Northern Nigeria. It is a bold initiative that will change the narrative of Adamawa State for good. Welcome to the newest 4 bride of the Capital Market; The Agric Bond. I call on all our citizens to support and prepare to exploit the opportunities in the programme. This is the economic programme that ensure No one is left behind and nothing is left untouched.’

At this point, I want appreciate the residents of the Jimeta-Yola metropolis, for enduring the inconveniences of diversions and traffic gridlocks experienced for the past 9 Months, when we mobilized to site. I acknowledge that it has been tough for all of us but it is for our collective good.

 

To His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar, Wazirin Adamawa and former Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I lack words to appreciate you Sir, for honouring our invitation to specifically come to Nigeria after a long time, and straight to this event. This indeed is an everlasting honour and I thank you for all the support and fatherly counsel. We are where we are today because you are always there for us. Honestly, I now know why even your age grades are calling you Daddy. You remain Adamawa’s prized gift not only to Nigeria but to the World at large.

 

Projects of this nature, are landmark signatures for every city. For urban planning purpose and municipal identification, they are conventionally named after revered individuals or cherished entities. In line with this convention, I hereby name the first Overhead Bridge in Jimeta-Yola, our collective pride, as Lamido Aliyu Musdafa Bridge. Named after our father and one of the great leaders from this State, the late Lamido Aliyu Musdafa, the 11th Lamido Fombina who was not just a pillar but an embodiment of peace and development in the State and the Nation at large. May Allah grant him Aljannah-fir-daws. Amiin.

 

It is therefore with great pleasure and honour that I invite the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, Wazirin Adamawa to come and commission the Lamido Aliyu Musdafa Bridge to the glory of God and the benefit of humanity.

 Thank you for honouring our invitation and God bless.