THE NEWS NIGERIA
Abdullahi Sule, Nasarawa State Governor, in this interview speaks on why he deserves a second term, the 2003 presidential election and the alleged anger of some northern governors who are against Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Candidate
Sule argues: “If there is any governor that is unhappy with Tinubu and is trying to go to opposition, believe me, I have never heard from such a governor, nor met such a governor. And I think such governor(s) will have some difficulty being able to defend himself in the sense that it is the same northern governors that came together to say power must return to the South.”
Excerpts:
What have you been up to in the last one year in terms of concrete development?
A lot has happened and it is difficult to just summarise, but I can say that we have done quite a lot in agriculture, health, education, industrialisation, and other sectors. We have achieved a lot.
In the last one year, we have reviewed some security protocols and seen a lot of improvements in the security architecture. We have been able to arrest situations before they occur. There are still situations happening in the state, because our state is becoming more attractive because of mining activities and discovery of lithium which has jumped from $8,000 to $80,000 per kilogramme. Because of this, we are beginning to see a lot of interest coming into Nasarawa State. And so, we are arresting potential areas of situations of difficulty. And because the elections are coming up, there are also lots of interests coming up. And we are learning from what has happened in other states, especially in the North-west. So, in the area of security, we have seen great improvement and strategies to overcome the challenge.
In the area of education, we have employed more teachers into the system in order to equip our students. We have done more accreditation of our tertiary institutions. In fact, tomorrow, we would have a combined convocation for seven years of the College of Education, Akwanga, same with the Polytechnic which is over nine years in existence; and the College of Agriculture which has been upgraded to College of Agriculture, Science and Technology. Also the accreditation went through in the last one year. We have seen the building of more primary and secondary schools in the last year.
In agriculture, we have seen more improvement. Our power supply is better with the sub-station. It’s not everything that has been good. We have seen challenges. Because we are an active state, it’ll be difficult to summarise the last year which could take a 10-hour discussion.
Why do you think you have been so successful in attracting investors and getting them to put billions of dollars in Nasarawa State? What makes them choose Nasarawa?
I think it’s a combination of so many indices. Nasarawa State has great potential and it is a good place for agriculture or land-related investments. We have also seen people who are comfortable with the kind of peace that we maintain in the state. Investors are also looking for the proximity to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which they see as the potential market. Investors are also comfortable with our administration, because they believe we have excellent understanding of investment, and will protect their investments.
