INTERVIEW: Why I didn’t Take Any Loan – Gov. Aliyu
Governor Ahmed Aliyu of Sokoto was sworn in on May 29, 2023. Surprisingly, unlike his counterparts who have taken huge domestic or foreign loans, Governor Aliyu has not taken any loan in his over one and half years on the saddle. In this interview with our correspondent, Abdulaziz Musa, the governor spoke on this and sundry issues. Excerpts:
Q – Your Excellency from the Police Trust Fund to the Sokoto Government House, what’s your experience?
A – Let me start by saying that the two institutions are quite different in complexity, job demand, and nature. In the former, you manage a single institution with fewer tasks and complexity but here in the government house, the task is herculean with lots of things to contend with. You’ve governance at the epicenter, your commissioners, local government chairmen, heads of agencies, the public, and what have you. And despite the effort one will be making here, the opposition you have defeated in the ballot is also there making frantic efforts to criticise and discredit you in the eyes of the public. But so far so good. Within the time we have been here, we’ve attained tremendous feats in providing good governance to the people of Sokoto state, irrespective of religious, ethnic, and political affiliations, as enshrined in the doctrine of social contract. The fact is that it’s enormous here than where I come from.
Q – Your administration is more than one and half year in office, what have you been able to achieve within this period?
A – It would be recalled that when we were campaigning, we made several promises to the electorate, especially, to give them a better alternative to the previous woes in the state. Today, whoever witnessed the eight years of PDP in the state where vital areas of human endeavours were grossly neglected, infrastructure were decrepit, pensions and gratuity were never paid even once, civil servants were frustrated, and lots more, would vividly tell you that Sokoto state is better now, though we’re less than two years in office.
Q – So, what difference have you exactly made?
A – Sometimes my principle is to walk my talk without media hype. I’ve signed a social contract with the people, and I’m determined to fulfil my part. Nevertheless, at the civil service we met a backlog of pensions to the tune of over N15 billion. But today, apart from paying over N7 billion of the inherited debt. We’re paying N300 million monthly to the fresh retirees and N500 million to settle the accrued debt.
You know, civil servants are the engine room of the government, but in the case of Sokoto state, we met a deprived and demoralised workforce as the immediate-past administration delayed payment of their monthly salaries. However, since we came on board, salaries are paid between 19th and 20th of every month, unlike what was obtained in the past.
Also, to make the hitherto abandoned and redundant MDAs effective, we’ve graciously restored the monthly allocations to all agencies in the state which were stopped by the previous administration for reasons best known to them. For us, the government is like humans where all organs must work for effective service delivery.
Today, I’m proud to tell you that during the celebration of our one year in office, over 110 projects have been executed and commissioned. It’d interest you to know that with all we’ve done so far, we haven’t borrowed a kobo or incurred any loan whether domestic or foreign and we aren’t owing any contractor. By our standard, we mobilise contractors with 30 to 50 percent of the contract sum while making subsequent payments based on the progress made by every contractor. The final payment is made once the job is completed and certified. Sokoto state is wearing a new look – beautiful roads with streetlights across all the local government areas. I can’t summarise what we have achieved within the period under review but it’s fulfilling that the projects are there for all to see.
Q – Sir, Sokoto is one of the states ravaged by marauding bandits. What efforts is your government making to make the state safe?
A – You know security is a complex issue. In the contemporary world, no place is 100% secure. But as leaders, it’s our constitutional and cardinal responsibility to ensure the protection of of lives and property. Our efforts to decisively deal with the menace of kidnappings and banditry are paying off, especially with the killing of the notorious bandits’ kingpin, Halilu Sububu. He was terrorising the entire Northwest zone, particularly Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, and Katsina states.
In fact, we should not be discussing security issues in the public, it’s usually a discreet thing. But assure the good people of Sokoto state that our collective efforts are yielding results. Insecurity is a general problem, especially in the North-west, it’s been lingering for long, it didn’t start today.
Certainly, we have made substantial interventions to complement the efforts of the federal government, especially the Ministry of Defence. We procured and distributed over 130 patrol vehicles to security agencies in the state, largely the military. We also restored the monthly allowances of security personnel deployed to trouble areas which were stopped by the previous government.
In the same vein, we’ve established the Sokoto State Community Guard where our youths were carefully selected from the 13 most vulnerable local government areas of the state, trained and deployed to complement the efforts of the operation ‘Fansar Yamma’ which has its operational base domiciled here in Sokoto. We equally provided the corps with state headquarters and local government offices in addition to 40 Hilux patrol vans and over 700 motorcycles for their smooth operation. Apart from all these, recently we added 10 operational vehicles to the military for sustained patrols.
Q – What effort have you made to cushion the effect of the hardship in the land?
A – I want you to know that the rising inflation is a global phenomenon, yet, we’ve rolled out sustainable measures to reduce its effect on our people. From inception to date, we on two different occasions, procured and distributed fertiliser, seedlings, farm implements and inputs free of charge to farmers across the state. This was first of its kind in the history of the state.
It’s noteworthy that when I came into office, I immediately reinstated and reviewed upward from the N6,500 to N10,000 the monthly allowances to the physically-challenged and vulnerable people in the society. The programme was initiated by the Wamakko administration and was abolished by the Tambuwal administration.
In our efforts to make the various segments of the society feel the impact of government, for the first time in the history of Sokoto state, Jumma’at mosques are now enjoying monthly cash allocation which varies depending on the status of the mosque with grade A receiving up to N500,000.
Also, to boost both the inter and intra city transportation, especially due to the prevailing economic hardship, 110 mass transit vehicles, including Toyota Camry, have been procured for transportation of women only. We followed up with the procurement of 1000 motorcycles and 500 tricycles to be given to youths at a subsidised rate to boost inter-city transportation and fight unemployment in the state.
