Governor Fintiri of Adamawa State
Recently, some All Progressives Congress members have out of ignorance, mischief or both, criticized the various rural road projects carried out by Governor Ahmadu Fintiri under the Rural Access and Mobility Project II (Ramp II) in Adamawa State.
The 281 kilometers flagged off by the Governor are currently progressing across the state including 65 river crossings.
Amazingly, some people who never see good things on the side of this present administration, are busy criticising, saying the projects belong to RAMP, refusing the Governor the credit for what is being done. I decided to call the attention of whoever thinks so to change his mind.This is because RAMP cannot execute any project without political will and approval of the government of the day
Let’s try to understand what RAMP is all about. Rural Access and Mobility Project RAMP is a World Bank-assisted project in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development. It has the backing of the French Development Agency. The states participating in the second phase of the project are Osun, Adamawa, Enugu states.
To be precise, state governments pay counterpart funding to RAMP before execution of any project. In 2016 and 2018, Adamawa state government under APC’s Umaru Jibirilla Bindow didn’t pay a kobo as counterpart funding to RAMP and that was why most of the projects earmarked were not successfully completed under phase two of the programme. The former Governor only paid for 2015 and that of 2017.
To this end, for an APC member in Adamawa to be mischievous about the current projects, is totally uncalled for. Was there no RAMP before? Why did APC apologists fail to think out of the box and come out with concrete criticisms that will benefit the people and the state in general? Since we came on board as a government, there have never been genuine criticisms on their side.
It’s noteworthy that, Governor Umaru Fintiri has paid the counterpart funding that enabled the RAMP to carry out the current projects cutting across the state. The Governor during his campaign assured the people that he will provide rural access roads to boost the socioeconomic fortunes of the state. This will go along way to ease transportation difficulties faced by rural dwellers.
Even though we remain mute over some of your false claims that you constructed more than 300 roads in the state it does not change the fact you only rehabilitated some of the roads and constructed few. Mind you, globally roads are measured in terms of kilometers not numerically. It smacks of utter ignorance for one to measure roads in terms of so-called numbers.
My advice, get something important that will draw our attention on good governance to the people of Adamawa State. We welcome meaningful criticisms because we are focused, steadfast and proactive in carrying out the mandate which the people elected Him into office for. Governor Amadu Umaru Fintiri means business and nothing else.
Muhammad B. Tukur, Senior special assistant (New Media) to the Governor
