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Sometimes, one wonders if religious instructions are only valuable at Church or Mosque or they are to constantly guide our general lifestyle. Everyone knows that God says we should give thanks for everything. Why is it not the case with some Tarabans?
Some people complain at every available instance. When you look critically at Governor Ishaku’s government, you will see so many things to thank God for. By doing so, God will use him to do more for us, don’t you think? In case you don’t know, here are 16 things Tarabans should thank God for the Governor.
- Supportive Wife: Many Governors are not as lucky as Taraba to have a first lady that is highly educated, disciplined, God-fearing and a great achiever. Unless you have been living under a rock, you must have seen, heard or experienced one of the Governor’s wife achievements that have touched thousands of lives and greatly complements her husband’s.
From discovering the Ndola people and helping them to get a development area, to interventions in skills acquisitions, cancer, and drug abuse campaigns among several others, Taraba Governor’s wife fits the exact description of a rare gem that other states would gladly pay a fortune to own. God gave us this great gift. We should be grateful.
- Strategic Governor: It is no doubt that Governor Ishaku is a strategic Governor. Strategy simply means a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term aim. While others may be thinking of short-term achievements, Governor Ishaku is thinking of what Taraba should be in 10, 20, 30 and 50 years ahead, years after his terms in office. Some of the examples of his strategic projects include:
a.) Current water project that should last around 35 years before another major expansion.
b.) Partnership with Dangote for Sugar manufacturing.
c.) Functional airport and
d.) Partnership with several other organizations for agriculture, mining, tourism among others.
No wonder Rosalynn Carter says “a great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be”.
- Vocal Governor: When it comes to speaking up and taking a positive stand on important life-threatening issues, Governor Ishaku has always done that. Can you remember his stand on the anti-open grazing bill and the recent Mining week organized by miners association in Abuja where he boldly expressed displeasure over mining title holders from Abuja who engage in mining in states without permission or notifying authorities?.
From sacking of Chiefs who seized lands belonging to IDPs to gradually eliminating ghost workers and ghost schools, Governor Ishaku has never dragged his feet about serious issues that affect lives. Chris Brady is right when he said “No guts, no story.”
- Peace Loving Governor – The Governor has created an enabling environment for dialogue. No matter where the problem is coming from, he always seems to have this natural ability to know how to bring people together to settle their differences.
From working with the Benue Governor to settle boundary issues to setting up Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Mambilla crises, and several other interventions, Governor Ishaku has always never fallen the hands of Tarabans when it comes to Security. No one says it better than Albert Einstein’s “Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”
5. Meticulous Use of Resources: After inheriting state debts worth billions of naira and meeting a completely empty treasury, Governor Ishaku did not enjoy the financial abundance that the previous administrations enjoyed. Everything was there to discourage him from venturing into projects that will make any meaningful impact.
If not for the meticulous use of resources, the Governor would hardly have recorded any tangible achievement that would affect lives. In just two years, he is rated as a top performing Governor. Is this not what to thank God for?
6. Salaries: First there was the issue of ghost workers, then the issue of salaries slashing, then all kinds of frauds. The Governor set up various committees to curtail anomalies and has done everything humanly possible to ensure that every Taraba Civil Servant gets his or her salary when due.
According to him, he has also been a salary earner and knows the pain and frustration that comes with not getting your monthly payments. Unless money is not released from Abuja on time, Governor Ishaku has never wasted time in approving and paying salaries. We have several states that don’t enjoy this. Is this not something again to be grateful for?
7. Debt: Everyone knows that when you don’t pay off your debt, you become a slave to the lender. The Governor has been reducing the state’s debt. This has gone a long way to help the state to self-sufficiency once all debts are paid. This is one of the silent achievements that hardly go noticed but have a huge impact on the general economy of the state. We would have been dancing to a different music by now if this was not attended to.
8. Internally Generated Revenue: The amount of the internally generated revenue of any state determines how powerful that state is, in relation to other states, and is one of the factors that determine what allocation a state gets from Abuja. Governor Ishaku has caught this vision and has been working very hard to increase the IGR of the state in order to fund governance and services in years to come.
He has revived the highland tea which can be sold worldwide, established one of the most powerful greenhouses in Nigeria and several upcoming projects. He even established the Revenue Monitoring Team, an arm of the Rescue Watch that ascertains the internally generated revenue of all government systems in order to block leakages and increase revenue. This has no doubt added some extra millions to government coffers.
9. Grassroots Governor: Most people know that most projects in this government enjoy a reasonable balance between Rural and Urban areas, especially in the areas of Water, Health, Power supply, Roads and several others. How many governments have achieved this feat? Let’s be grateful.
10. Rescue Watch: Rescue Watch is one of the programs anyone will call an administrative genius. It is structured in such a way that the three arms of government, along with all Ministries and Agencies, Local Governments and Traditional rulers are brought together to tackle issues across the state with all hands on deck. Shhh, let’s not tell the outside world much about this. They will repackage this and sell it back to us. The Rescue Watch can make the G20 nations call an emergency summit. Are we not grateful that this genius project is originating from Taraba state?
11. Touched Several MDAs: The Governor’s Projects and impact cuts across several Ministries and agencies. From providing counterpart funding, completing delayed projects, employment, empowerment and creating new projects, the Governor has touched nearly every MDA with his unique achievements. We should appreciate God for this too.
12. Bonuses: Several thousand pilgrims from both religions have been airlifted to the holy lands for the past two years. He has been faithfully providing foodstuff and beef during Christian and Muslim festivities. Governor Ishaku has made Taraba the envy of other states. He deserves a pat on the back. This is really cool.
13. Capital projects: Several noticeable and unnoticeable capital projects have been going on all over the state. Since the projects do not affect lives directly, like employment, salaries or bonuses do, many people think he is not doing anything tangible.
When we take statistics of before office and after assumption of office, we will fill up several books of his achievements within two and a half years. From the construction of roads, digitization of TTV and TSBS, schools, hospitals, water and several others, the capital projects by this administration can speak for themselves.
14. Not religiously biased: Any discerning person that cares to ask the simplest question will easily know that the Governor is not religiously biased. Some of his closest aides are not of the same faith with him. According to him, he does not even give any religion financial support secretly. He treats both equally in everything. Anyone accusing him of religious biasedness is not being fair at all.
15. Track record: Governor Ishaku is doing several things well because he has track record. As someone who managed a business, has two Masters Degrees and a PhD in view, been a University lecturer, widely travelled and oversaw three Federal Ministries as a Minister under the previous regime, Governor Ishaku has enough track record that makes him a dynamic leader.
16. Counterpart Funding: Despite the lean resources that come into the state every month, Governor Ishaku has scored very high in the provision of counterpart funding that initiated several foreign interventions in the state. Most times, Taraba is usually among the best three to provide counterpart funding.
That’s it for now. If you have any reason to criticize, you can do it and be heard. Check out three kinds of criticsm to get the Governor’s attention. As you can see, giving thanks is more profitable than complaints…If you get any occasion to complain, simply look up one of these areas and thank God instead.
