Anybody who thinks that money will continue to come from Abuja by way of monthly federal allocations is actually making a big mistake. As this era of free money will definitely pass, the worse will be what the north and indeed Adamawa State should begin to prepare against.
In addressing this, it will not be out of place to mention that mong the factors that hinder the Adamawa state’s economic growth are our distance from major production centers of Lagos and Kano, and, as in most states of the north, we have very young but unproductive population of boys and girls lacking in technical education, the only subject that produces engineers and technicians that will manufacture goods and grow the economy.
Thanks to Governor Fintiri, now we have roads and overhead bridges to ease up traffic movement in our state capital. Next is to spread them round so that investors can, with electricity, beging to manufacture goods and use the roads, when spreaded round, to move goods to markets and create job opportunities for the youth.
The roads I always talked about are access roads and bridges that will link us with the neighboring states and Cameroon. Here the federal government has to be involved. Cameroon Republic shares borders with five countries of Chad, Central African Republic, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria. This is a huge market.
The economic situation in Adamawa is difficult but the situation is not hopeless. I have hope. We have the potentials and the people. Many people may not have noticed that we have actually made modest achievements in education and road devepment since the return of democracy in 1999 though we could have done better.
As there is room for improvement, the next frontier is to have a governor that will improve economic growth through technical education, building of health institutions, roads and electricity for manufacturing and eventual opening up of markets in the countries mentioned.
Governor Boni Haruna has laid a modest but a lasting foundation by providing rural electrification and establishment of the Adamawa state university dreamed of by late Governor Abubakar Barde of the then Gongola state.
Today, I understand that Governor Ahmadu Fintiri has moved the Faculties of Agriculture and that of Social and Management Sciences from the Boni Haruna campus to a new site called Abubakar Barde campus where the state government and TETFUND are providing more infrastructure.
The task of the next governor of the state should be to prioritize technical education in this university. I understand Engineering, Medicine and Law have been approved for the university. The Law faculty has since commenced and students have already completed their 100 level. However Engineering and Medicine are yet to commence.
It may also be recalled that Governor Nyako tried by laying a solid foundation for technical and vocational education by building Technical and Vocational Centers. They have, unfortunately been abandoned. These should be revived. There is a need also to make all the new secondary schools being built by Governor Fintiri to be technical colleges. Then we make a deliberate effort to train science and technical teachers for the secondary schools, even if by sending them abroad to train. Secondary schools are the level from which we can get science students into our two universities.
Today we have three universities in the state. AUN though private, is doing commendably well. The state university is not doing badly as well. And Modibbo Adama University is full fledged now. As it is originally a university of technology, priority should be given to engineering by the new Vice Chancellor. Our Medical College students in this university are in their third year. This is encouraging.
On roads, it was Governor Nyako who laid the standard by building roads in the state capital and in local government areas on which Governor Bindo built on by providing many atteries of roads in not only the capital city, but in Mubi, our second largest city, and in most local government headquarters. Governor Fintiri has opened up the state capital with overhead bridges, the economic impact of which may not be felt until much later.
Next on roads, the next governor may be able to construct dual carriage roads from Welcome to Yola to the Numan bridge, dualize Mayo Belwa to border with Taraba state and urge Taraba state government to bring same from Jalingo to our comon border. The Jada-Ganye-Toungo road need to be made to open up access to Gembu in Taraba state.
Yola-Fufore-Gurin road be made dual as well. Jimata-Gombi be dualised with a view to connecting Hong and Mubi. The Ahmadu Bello way in Mubi be dualised. We need to develop a commercial city out of Mubi, by improving the road infrastructure in Mubi and perhaps build an alternative air port there. That will open up Garkida, Lassa and Biu as the intellectuals in this area can patronize the air port. So will Chadians and Cameroonians.
Also in Mubi, the road from Mubi Burnt Bricks company/ADSU permanent site be dualised to the Sahuda border with Cameroon that leads to Cameroon and Chad while from the T junction/Kasuwar Borkono, be dualised to Gella and to the Cameroon border at Kwaja.
Michika Madagali are equally important. The federal road now made impassable by insecurity can be reconstructed to Maiduguri. Access to Cameroon through Sina/Kamale at Michika LGA at the border with Cameroon be opened up. So should the border crossings at Toungo and Gurin. The road from Jibiro/Jabbi Lamba-Malabu-Farang-Sorau-Belel is already a work in progress. We need to push more vigorously.
Roads are critical to development. They open up areas for business and drive away poverty. Penury is, most times a choice. If we decide, we can take our people out of poverty. It is certainly not impossible.
Combine roads with educated labor force trained in technology. This is what produces goods and services in an economy as economic growth has always been attributed to accumulation of human and physical capital that increase productivity. Only educated labor force trained in technology, produces goods and services in an economy.
China is a good example of this while northern Nigeria is not. We can make Adamawa our China. We should do so before money stopes coming from Abuja.
It is not a bad idea to urging us to elect leaders not necessarily because they belong to the same party with us provided they have a clear idea of what they intend to do with our votes. Let’s continue to provide roads, build science schools, train science teachers and limit the size of our families whether we are Muslims or Christians.
