By Aminu Binji
It’s the essence and substance of every democracy to people first in the scheme of things, the focus of the administration of Ahmed Aliyu remains unshakeable in propelling profound development of the state in all dimensions of human endeavour.
These 32 months have brought with them tremendous transformation to Sokoto state and its people who massively voted-in this administration into office. Transformation that transcends all spheres of physical and human improvements are visible and palpable across the state. The truth is, Ahmed Aliyu has lived up to his categorisation as an illustrious son of the state who means well for the overall development of the state and its people by daring the odds particularly in the teething days of this administration to properly place the state on the roadmap to transformation. It’s marvellous how this administration has maintained the tempo of juxtaposing itself comfortably between improvement in physical infrastructure and execution of activities that dwell directly on people’s empowerment. Unarguably, this administration has successfully singled itself out by executing resplendent metropolitan beautification of the state capital with round-the-clock maintenance of roads and roundabouts ,this compares well with the elegance of other state capitals in the country.
It’s all through a galore of intervention packages to support one category of people or the other, there was cash intervention for people across the 23 LGAs of the state who were victims of flooding, though the cash donation was a combined efforts of NEMA and SEMA, the programme was inaugurated by Governor Ahmed Aliyu himself as an eloquent illustration of his readiness to better the lot of his people.
The Sokoto central market got burnt years ago, unfortunately, the immediate past dispensation did not do much to rebuild the burnt portion of the market. However, as a testament to his unflinching willingness to right the wrongs of the past, Ahmed Aliyu graciously approved the sum of over 8bn Naira through the instrumentality of the State Executive Council for the reconstruction of the burnt market so that the business and economic activities that have suffered a setback will bounce back..
We will recall the recent Launch of the Elderly Support Scheme of the Renewed Hope initiative by the Sokoto First lady, Fatima Ahmed, where 50m Naira was expended as intervention to some aged people in their hundreds who were supported with cash and food items including rice, spaghetti and cooking oil. That particular activity is a clear demonstration of how genuinely concerned Ahmed Aliyu is as it relates to the wellbeing of his people.
So far, 3,750 young men and women have been trained in various skills from across the state as a gateway to self-reliance. The Ahmed Aliyu-led administration has always identified itself with strides to empower people as a strategy for socio-economic improvement. It’s encouraging to see how batches of young men and women are trained and graduated as either, fashion-designers, electricians, solar system technicians, metalwork technicians, etcetera. At each graduation ceremony, sets of trainees were discharged with financial support and tools to work with.
What is clearly evident is that, this administration has thus far gone along way in making things better in the state in terms of purposeful governance and improvement in physical infrastructure and human resources. It’s safe to hold that, ‘ kwalliya ta biya kudin sabulu ‘. Though 2027 is still not here, but its drumbeats could be discerned from afar that there’s no vacancy at the Lodge Road edifice.
Binji is on the Research Team of SOLID (Sokoto Liberal Democrats Media Foundation), Sokoto.
