From John Bassey, Gusau.
Federal University Gusau (FUGUS has held the first-ever hybrid national conference with the theme “Zamfara @30, 1996-2026, governance, security and sustainable development pathways to commemorate the anniversary of the state and to proffer possible solutions to the challenges of the state.
The conference was championed by Centre For Leadership and Democratic Research at College of Health Science Theater, FUGUS in Gusau the state capital.
Dr. Abdulraman Adamu, Director for the centre Federal University Gusau spoke on the purpose of organizing the conference and the targeted solutions it intends to bring to the challenges facing the state.
In his words, the Director said, from the name of the centre, it has everything that concern the leadership which forms our major focus, and were carefully presented and addressed.
The Government of Zamfara state as an institution has piloted the affairs of the state from creation to the 30th year and deserve Commendations.
There is no doubt that the state is facing challenges of all kinds, in order to bring about widely accepted solutions, there must be a comprehensive dialogue where every stakeholder must put head together to offer possible solutions.
Considering my personal assessment of Zamfara state from 1996 till date, I will say, there is a clear difference in equitable growth and advancement in all aspects. The state is indeed doing well but we have not reached where we suppose to be, because of the poor management of the state.
It should be noted that, everything in the state whether rising or falling is attributed to the leadership, from the creation, the state has experienced diverse levels of leadership, all of them claimed to have done their best, but none of them have ever brought the state to the limelight the way this current administration is trying.
The government of Governor Dauda Lawal has in three years recorded remarkable growth, touching all aspects of the state via his “Rescue Mission Agenda”. I still maintained that, the state is not doing bad, but it’s has not reached where it supposed to be.
Professor Shehu Sidi one of the resource persons said, on the matter of security, the government may be trying its best, but if the people constantly refuse to cooperate with the government, the good efforts are thwarted without a second thought.
While assessing the state in the past few months, we have deduced that many good efforts of the state government to its people are strongly opposed by the people, but that is common to humanity because considering the level of exposure the people had before now, it would take certain didactic measures to let them understand where the current administration is leading.
Houses are built without occupants, schools are constructed without pupils/students and Teachers. We had experience of certain schools and numbers of Teachers available in some areas of the state but while on visit to those places we discovered that the schools only exist on paper and every salary including children study tables, books and chairs were received on paper while those places do not exist in reality.
It is very sad to know that, the security situation of the state is very weak despite the effort of the state government and children of school age increase in streets and major roads begging with and some with shovels in their hands patching pot holes.
Despite these and some challenges which are yet to be addressed, the state is growing stronger and has attained greater levels of progress within 30 years.
