On assumption of office, one of the critical areas Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, promised to tackle with all his might was the infrastructure deficit of the state. He has been impressive in this regard, deploying resources accordingly to several sectors simultaneously. Fintiri came prepared for the people with a programme, themed 11-point agenda. The Adamawa State Governor talks to Stanley Nkwazema about his challenges and strides in the last 24 months and plans for his beloved Adamawa
Adamawa continues to experience humanitarian needs, occasioned by Boko Haram attacks. How has it impacted governance and infrastructure development?
I was elected to the state’s House of Assembly twice to represent the good people of Madagali Local Government. During the second term, I became the Speaker, six months into our tenure, which took me to the last days. But in-between, I was opportune by the Almighty Allah to serve in acting capacity as the governor of the state. Once, when the governor was removed by the Supreme Court and the second one was when he was impeached. That has given me a great deal of opportunity to handle the state’s affairs and it exposed me to governance, which we did well and I performed very well, particularly in the areas of infrastructure and workers’ welfare. I think that has given us a great deal. Within that period, in 2014, was when Boko Haram occupied some parts of Adamawa: about seven local governments – Mubi North, Mubi South, Madagali, Gombi, Maiha, Michika, and Hong, in the northern flank of the state.
The occupation did not come without leaving devastating effects on infrastructural development. Here I am again, four years after that, another regime with the responsibility of rebuilding those communities. We have done very well; we have partnered with international donor agencies, including the Lake Chad basin to rebuild those areas, and the Federal Government, through the World Bank, borrowed money and gave us a grant which was tagged as FCRP. And we also got a loan for the state through the African Development Bank (AfDB) to rebuild the areas affected by the insurgency. We have deployed those resources to rebuilding those areas and bringing out development; the infrastructure in schools, hospitals, roads and redesigning the security architecture of these areas, while assisting the security agencies in the affected areas. Moreso, the state on its part has done a great deal in seeing that we deploy a lot of resources to these seven local governments, in our urban renewal, to also complement the effort of all those agencies. If you go there today, since our assumption of office, the areas are doing very well in terms of the turnaround in their infrastructure. You hardly know that they have gone through occupation by Boko Haram that damaged their lives and infrastructure.
How have you been tackling the development challenges of Adamawa State?
When we came in, we had in mind that the state is suffering from underdevelopment, particularly infrastructure. But we came prepared, having in mind all the challenges. We had the constraint of financing the planned projects. About 6-7 months into our tenure, we were caught by the COVID-19 pandemic, which further dealt with the world, and Adamawa was not exempted. All the same, we had to squeeze ourselves to eliminate a lot of wastes to see that we achieve meaningful infrastructure development, which I feel is of immense benefit to our people, who have been denied of these good things in the past. We felt that each government that came tried to address those areas cosmetically. There was no holistic approach, without giving too many details, attention, and seriousness to all the infrastructural deficit of the state.
In our electioneering plan, we had detailed all the concerns in the state and we felt it had to be approached holistically and giving it the most deserved central attention. We came and looked at what we had and started planning, deploying resources accordingly to each of the sectors. We give glory to the Almighty God that we have been able to come this far in terms of giving attention to the deplorable infrastructural deficit of the state; roads, bridges, hostels in schools, hospitals, and other areas. Our attention went more to the hospitals when COVID-19 exposed our hospital infrastructure deficit. We saw that about six local governments in the state, in this 21st century, didn’t have even a cottage hospital. We had to quickly go into planning to design brand new hospitals in those areas.
Today, we have done about 70 per cent of the works and in the next four to five months they will be commissioned. The equipment for those hospitals should be arriving in the state soon. We did not stop there. We also had to look at the existing general hospitals in the state and observed that they were behind with the challenges of modern medical practice and the COVID-19 pandemic. We moved into upgrading these hospitals with all the available modern facilities. Today, you also can see that the hospitals are changing, they are becoming more prepared to meet up with the challenges of the present reality. We have also approved for over a thousand staff to be employed to take care of our primary health care at the grassroots. Again, we have approved the employment of 20 consultants, 10 pharmacists, 20 laboratory technologists, and 200 nurses to further strengthen the manpower need of the hospitals in the state. This is what we have been doing to ensure that our people don’t have to travel far. The only Federal Medical Centre in the state is overstretched.
What was the outcome of your recent meeting with the Global Director for Health, Nutrition, and Population at the World Bank, Mohamed Ali Pate?
We had a very fruitful meeting with him and discussed a lot of issues of common interest. The gentleman is from the North East, Misau, Bauchi State precisely. Seeing our seriousness that we have been changing the narratives in the health sector, I had to go and meet him to assist in strengthening some of our efforts. The benefit of it all is that we are giving thanks to the gentlemen for connecting us with other international agencies of repute that will help us with equipment to further strengthen our health care delivery. The equipment is arriving in the country very soon because of our discussions with him. We are going to benefit more.
What have you been doing in terms of urban renewal?
Part of the urban renewal is for us to take away some of the ugly narratives of the state capital and give it a new look so that we can attract investors. Our people trusted us to be elected and not for us to come and work on what is already existing. But to plan and give them something new, better, and something that they can use in the future. That is the essence of our election. We are trying to do justice to the trust and confidence they had in us. Part of it was to take away the roundabouts in Yola, which became very ugly, chaotic, obsolete, and not taking enough of man and vehicular traffic. The recommendation is for us to have, 4-5 flyovers in the state capital to give it a better look, ease traffic and attract investments. We decided to carry it out in phases.
In the first instance, we have the two ongoing flyovers; one at the Total junction, which is almost completed, the second one with an under-change and under-pass by the Police headquarters which is also at an advanced stage. In less than six or seven months we will complete it. The attraction of the job is not on the flyover. Just within the state capital, we have about eight Lots of roads in different locations at different levels of completion. One of the Lots will be commissioned next week or in two weeks. The remaining seven are ongoing, including the ones in about seven local government areas. We have already started design and we’re going through the procurement process of urban renewal and infrastructure of about eight local governments.
Can one safely say that you came prepared for this job?
I am one privileged politician; I don’t think there is second to me. I’m somebody who God has ordained to get a shot into the office of the state governor twice on acting capacity and came out to contest for the first time and got elected, defeating an incumbent in a ruling party. I think if I did not come prepared for my people with a programme which was themed 11-point agenda, I think I would have been doing a disservice to my people. That is why you see us with our programmes and policies and we have been executing them religiously for the benefit of our people. Even though we all agree that at the time we came, things didn’t work out for us the way we expected in terms of funds, because of the dwindling world economy as a result of the pandemic, but all the same, we understand governance, having being exposed to this office in an acting capacity. We knew where and how to eliminate waste, squeeze whatever we can squeeze, and deploy them into the right channels so that the electorate can see the benefits and get the best out of it.
Within two years, I think it has given the state a lot more benefit than it has ever experienced in the whole lifespan of democracy. For the first time, the people seem to be seeing a very serious and purposeful government in place in the state. I can also state that because of my grassroots background, for the first time a ‘local man’ has been elected as a Governor in the state who understands the dynamics of world politics. Yes, I am local but I am exposed and I understand politics and how best governance and transparency could be applied for the benefit of all. That has given the state an edge, benefiting from our experience.
How have you managed the Christian, Muslim dichotomy in the state?
Interestingly, I am always an original man, I don’t copy people and I don’t plagiarise. I am always myself. I have a very good background on religion that Islam teaches me to be fair to all and sundry. I also come from a mixed background of mixed family and a mixed community of Muslims and Christians living together in harmony. That has helped me to be balanced. If you look at the configuration of Adamawa State, it also carries those characteristics. In almost every community, you find Christians, Muslims, and to some extent in most homes, you find Christians and Muslims in the same place which also trickles down to almost all our communities. If you come and you think that you can survive without anyone because you are privileged to be in power, you will be abusing the teaching of your religion.
Secondly, you will be abusing the trust which you have sworn to defend- the interest of everyone in the state. These two qualities that I was exposed to from childhood have helped me to keep the state in one bond. This has closed the gaps existing in the state which some of the leaders may pretend not to know and have not been able to stitch the differences of the state. Today, we have the confidence of our people, both the Muslims, the Christians, they have been together preaching for peace, unity, and coexistence. This is adding to the relative peace and security we have been enjoying in the state. They now have a leader who tolerates everyone, who gives everyone his due respect and dividends of democracy.
Some people are obviously against your policy of borrowing through bonds?
The opposition will always talk. They were given opportunities and they failed, particularly in Adamawa. Now we are on board and we are doing wonders, doing what they could not imagine doing. Without even taking the bond, we have changed the narratives in this state. We did not only stop in terms of our infrastructural developments, roads, and hospitals. At the moment, we are building 1000-unit housing estate in the state capital. This cannot go without funding, without the alternative way of pushing or looking for resources. We did not do it to squeeze and push the state to the wall in terms of borrowing. I know for once or twice we have borrowed; we have borrowed for the right reasons and meaningfully. We have done that with a credit facility to pay back. For the first time, we mortgaged our IGR to borrow in order to finance some of our capital projects. The world over, not only a state, not a country, no state can deploy meaningful infrastructure without backing it with borrowing. But it must be meaningful; it must have a window of how you payback. In this instance, we mortgaged our IGR, raised our IGR, and used it to finance the capital projects. Going forward, we now partner with Arewa Research and Development who came and saw the huge potentials of us raising our IGR and making funds available to the state.
Not just for us to fund the capital projects in the state, but also to open up the economy. In the agricultural sector, you will employ about 750,000 youths, offering direct jobs to them; providing about 1.5 million indirect jobs, which is in agro-business. The processing sector is also going to come and we are working on that. The Adamawa agro-business is something that should be celebrated by all, especially in Nigeria that for the first time the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will give an approval for a state to borrow from the capital market for our agricultural business. It has never been done. Most of the bond borrowing from the capital market has always been coming from attaching your FAAC that comes from Abuja. If you don’t mortgage the accounts, you can never access any fund from the capital market. This money that we are borrowing, we are taking the bond for, is being created by this government.
What have you been doing in terms of boosting education in line with the Yousafzai Malala declaration?
Education backwardness is a concern in the North, but for us in Adamawa over the years, I think we have been doing very well. Adamawa is one of the most literate states in the North. We have surpassed Kaduna State. The only thing we may say here is that most of our young educated men and women are not skilled. That is our concern and that is the area we want to work on. When we came, we discovered that education has been put at the back beds of the state’s priorities by the last administration. I will always call the last administration because that was the government that I inherited. It was so bad that even with the declaration of a state of emergency in the state education sector, only two schools were attended to. In the two schools, I think only about N120 million was shared to some cosmetic renovations – the Science School Hong and the one in Sakatu Numan. That was the best they could do. The education sector had so much degenerated to a level that parents were responsible for the purchase of chalks and teaching materials for the teachers. When we came, we saw this huge deficit in the education sector while the state was adjudged as one of the worst states in terms of economy.
A state that salaries are not paid for more than seven months, what do you expect to get as results? The businessmen in this state rely mostly on state workers for them to stimulate their market and survive economically. We had to take the bull by the horn. Firstly, by not declaring a state of emergency unnecessarily in education, because for you to deploy meaningful policies actions and policies, it is for you to move into action. This we did by declaring that education is free so that we can pay proper attention to the schools. In Primary or Universal basic education, we have been able to turn around infrastructural deficits. We have so far constructed over 5,000 classrooms at the primary school level and we are providing over N15 billion to access the counterpart funding at the UBEC headquarters.
This has gone down well. At the post-primary level, we have tried to ameliorate the suffering of the poor parents by first raising the feeding allowances of these students by over 300 per cent and also making it free. They don’t contribute a dime. We have purchased more than enough teaching materials for these students. We have gone further since we came to pay for their WAEC, NECO, and other examinations that are conducted in the state. We repeated it this year and will continue. We sent three different consultants into three different zones of the state to do an assessment and evaluation of the state of infrastructure in our schools. It has been submitted to my office, we are going to use the proceeds of this bond to comprehensively renovate and address the infrastructure in the schools. The teachers are not left out. We have been giving a lot of incentives and welfare to enhance their confidence and boost their morale, strengthening the sector by recruiting quality teachers, employing about 2,000 of them.
We have been taking the biodata of existing teachers. As a matter of fact, after the exercise, we discovered that close to 4,000 of these teachers are not existing. This opens the employment opportunities and will go further to 4,000. By implication, it will not shoot up our salaries bill. You can see how terrible and unfocused the opposition in the state is. Instead of them commending our efforts so that we can continue to further squeeze money to develop education, they go out to defend the existence of ghost workers. It’s unfortunate. When we opened the opportunities for these workers, if they do exist, but they were nowhere to be seen when the biodata was being captured. The places were open for three months. Not up to 100 teachers came forward to complain that they were deliberately excluded from the exercise. For female education in Adamawa, it has not been too bad.
It is almost balanced. If you go to some areas of the state, some of the schools are for girls. In some areas, some are female science schools. The education gap between the male and female child in this state, I think, is at par. Not that the girls were not allowed to go to school in Adamawa. For us here, it has been a privilege to allow our daughters to get western education. The major thing is for government to be serious in terms of quality and programmes in education. The citizenry is ready to go to school and compete. If you go anywhere in Nigeria you will find Adamawa sons are daughters competing and contributing their quota to the development of this country. The same goes for when you travel abroad. You find them schooling and working. We are doing well and my government is very serious to turn around education and make it our mainstay. Any state that doesn’t give topmost seriousness to education will be planting a time bomb.
What have you done differently in terms of rural development?
One thing I have not told you is that I am not just a grassroots man, I am also from a rural community and I think that has given me the exposure that these rural communities need to be developed because that is where you have the population. That is where the business of agriculture takes palace. When we came, we felt that we needed to open up all these rural areas so that they can be at par particularly with our urban renewal drive for us to push the economy and open up. We saw the opportunity with the World Bank through the Rural Access and Mobility Project (RAMP) of accessing a loan. That is also our blueprint and seriousness.
The fund was granted and we are judiciously using it for what it is meant for. In the first instance, we have constructed and completed almost 350 kilometers of rural roads across the 21 local government areas of the state. Some communities were hitherto inaccessible, and it took you 3- 4 hours to get there, you now drive smoothly and in less than 15 minutes. Agricultural produce and other economic activities take place in those communities and people come back to the urban areas without too many hassles and time consumption. It is not just the roads that we are taking to the rural areas, we are also developing the schools and the primary healthcare facilities. As I speak, we have built over 100 new primary healthcare centers in these rural areas.
This is something I am mentioning for the first time because our achievements are so many that it is only the people that can mention them. If we bring a book and sit down for an interview of about 3-5 hours, I don’t think it will be enough time to devote and mention all our achievements. Most of these communities for the first time are being connected to the national grid. I will be in Tongo, which is the only local government out of the 774 local government area in Nigeria that before now has not been connected to the national grid.
We came within this period and actually during my electioneering campaign, I promised that I will ensure and construct and commission the electrification project in six months. I underestimated the enormity of the challenge. Thank God that two years down the line, we would be commissioning it and it will come to light. I think we should be given Kudos. If any government is able to do all these things that I have mentioned to you, and is appreciated by her citizens, then it is enough to keep the party of the government in power flying. Some governments have not done anything in this country and they won the election. In this state, our people understand the value, they cherish excellence and they know how to reward achievements and I think we will benefit from that.
