By Prince Mark Elayo
All is now set for the arrival of President Bola Tinubu GCFR, to Nasarawa State. The Nasarawa State Government under the able leadership of His Excellency, Engr. Abdullahi Sule will, on behalf the loving and hospitable people of Nasarawa State receive the president in Lafia, the state capital.
It is a one-day official working visit whereon the president will commission legacy projects executed by the able and forward looking Sule-led administration.
These projects include the Lafia Flyover and Underpass. This is a major infrastructure project in the state capital. It has eased traffic in the heart of the town and added to its beauty.
The second project the president will commission is the New State Secretariat. The state government has built a new administrative complex designed to give workers a befitting office accommodation.
The president will also cut the tape on the dualized five-kilometer Lafia-Shendam Road.
After commissioning the above named projects, the president will not just leave.
I find this visit historic and auspicious because the president is going to engage the state’s stakeholders in a meeting at the Alhaji Aliyu Akwe Doma Banquet Hall of the Government House in Lafia.
We who hold the peace, progress and development of our state dear to our hearts are really anxious to sit with the president to offer useful and purposeful suggestions that will turn the state around for now and years to come.
While not re-empting issues that will come up in the meeting, I would like to draw attention to few things that are of utmost interest to me. In case, for lack of time for full-scale presentations, I would mention here few things that must not elude this august gathering.
Foremost, the president should look critically at the persistent militancy in the northcentral states and find a lasting solution to it. There is a lot that we the people of Nasarawa State can do if insecurity is not on our way.
Nasarawa State is the Home of Solid Minerals with a huge agricultural potential. All this will not yield any meaningful dividend if insecurity continues to rear its ugly head.
President Tinubu administration should consider awarding contract for the daualisation of the Lafia-Jos highway. Road transport is the major mode of transport for us so no amount of investment in the sector is too much.
This year, the president signed the bill establishing the North-Central Development Commission (NCDC). Already, decision has been taken on sitting the headquarters of the commission in Lafia and recruitment of management staff.
It is my desire that the commission is quickly enabled with the necessary funds for it to embark on its task of tackling the numerous development challenges and promoting economic growth, reconstruction, and rehabilitation of infrastructure in our region.
In only two year, President Tinubu administration has promulgated very radical policies that have greatly shaped our economy. The administration’s groundbreaking decisions have redefined the polity even as things have changed for the good.
The president has engendered infrastructural transformation never seen before since the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999. The massive road construction across the country is unprecedented.
The opening of the Federal College of Education and Technical (FCET), Keana is what we are proud of.
On behalf of my family and the numerous well-wishers of our state, I thank the president for coming to our state.
Prince Elayo is the Turakin Keana
