Bala Mohammed’s Journey to Consolidation of Purposeful Leadership in Bauchi

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Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State

By Iliya Habila

The swearing-in of the 6th Executive Governor of Bauchi State, Sen. Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed (Kauran Bauchi), on Monday, May 29th,2023, at the Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium Bauchi for the second time witnessed a tumultuous crowd, coming from across the Country.

Party stalwarts, supporters, fans, family and friends from all walks of life came in droves from the 20 Local Governments, and across the Country to felicitate with the Kauran Bauchi, commonly called the Architect of Modern Bauchi, apparently because of the massive infrastructural developments the state witnessed in the last four years.

The event was as memorable as it was epoch making, for a state that had yearned for purposeful leadership and development for many years as many trooped in to be part of the achievements of this development czar.

First elected as Senator representing Bauchi South District in 2007, Gov. Mohammed was later appointed Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), by President Goodluck Jonathan after the death of former President Umaru Musa YarAdua in 2009.

Mohammed’s performance as the Minister of the FCT earned him accolades from across the Country, thereby paving way for him for further contest not only in the state but the Country at large.

On assumption of office as the 6th Executive Governor of Bauchi state, Mohammed immediately swang into action on 29th May 2019 after he was sworn in as the Governor.

The Governor who assembled his cabinet across the 20 Local Governments and all divides, began the implementation of his blueprint known as The Bauchi Project.

A visit to Bauchi state will confirm the fact that the state has moved from its former state of absence of development to a state with massive developmental projects in areas of roads, water supply, housing, healthcare delivery, agriculture, electricity, education, empowerment and human capital development, among others.

In fact, the Urban Renewal Policy of the present administration has turned the State capital to a modern city as its peers in the country.

It is to the credit of Mohammed’s administration that the 6.2Km Sabon Kaura to Jos Road, the 4.4Km Gombe Road by-pass to Tirwun, along Maiduguri Road the 1.1 Km Muda Lawan Market dual carriage roads and the 1.8Km Yakubun Bauchi Quarters link road have been completed and boosted city transport, beauty and hygiene.

Similarly, construction of another 11 township roads in Bauchi metropolis Gwangwangwan to Bakaro, Bakaro to Kofar Dumi, Malam Goje street to Bakin Kura and Bakin Kura to Muda Lawan market and Rafin tambari link Road have all been completed, as well as those of Shagari to Kofar wase,  Karofin Madaki to Railway Quarters, Yakubu wanka to Kofar Tirwun , Zonal Education , Saleh Saleh to Gulmammu, Central Market to Makera .

In Azare, two contracts for the design and construction of strategic township roads, namely: the 1.8 km Tafawa Balewa Road and the 1.5 km Hospital Road projects are now completed, the 16Km Sade – Akuyam Road which links Darazo and Misau Local Government Areas; completed and the design and construction of the 62 Km Yelwan Duguri – Tora – Badaran Dutse – Birim – Bajama – Kundak – Wurno Road linking Alkaleri and Tafawa Balewa Local Government Areas.

Other road projects awarded by the present administration is the 3km Bununu Township road in Tafawa Balewa LGA, 2.65 Sade township road in Darazo lga, Disina township road 1.65km with flood control project and drainage system are all ongoing. The 13.5 km Warji- to Gwaram road project will link Bauchi state with Jigawa state; the 11.6km Bogoro to Lusa and Malar as well as the 11.2km Boi to Tapshin road projects which link communities in the two Local Government Areas of Bogoro and Tafawa Balewa with plateau state. Currently some of the critical and strategic roads are undergoing dualisation to ease transportation in the state capital: the 17.7 km Giwo Academy to Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Airport, the 7km Awalah roundabout to Bauchi State University Yuli campus, the Adamu Jumba Road while the Road linking Dogon Yaro Roundabout and Zaranda Hotel has been completed.

The administration has also embarked on the building of the 24.5km Itas to Gadau linking the two major towns in Itas-Gadau LGA and the 15km Arinja- Balma as well as the 2.5km Nasaru township road projects all in Ningi local government.

In the same vein, government has opened up communities in Toro, Dass. Alkaleri, Ganjuwa, Bauchi and other Local Governments through the construction of the Rimin Zayam-Palama-Bazali-Durr 22km linking Toro and Dass Local government Areas. The rehabilitation of Magama to Gumau 27km and Rishi-Tama -Tulu 20km, Maraba to Liman Katagum 17km, Yashi to Duguri 56km, Bakari to kafin Larabawa 1.1km. The Bypass-Alkaleri 7.2km, Miya-Zara-Ganjuwa-Soro 56km and Sani Abacha road Azare 1.1km recently awarded are ongoing.

In housing, the government has embarked on an unprecedented provision of housing to its citizens across the state. The construction of 2,500 Housing units of 3 and 2 Bedrooms in the State which was distributed as follows: Bauchi emirate council, 1,500 units; Katagum emirate council, 350 units; Misau emirate council, 250 units; Ningi emirate council, 200 units; Dass and Jama’are emirate councils got 100 housing units each.

Another initiative in housing is the ‘’Kaura City’’, a new district around Old Airport area covering approximately 81.5 hectares of land located at the north western part of Bauchi. The Kaura city will have new roads connecting to Murtala Mohammed way (Federal low-cost) , GRA 2.8km Tambari By-pass that will link to Bauchi –Jos Road and Bauchi Gombe Road. The project will create 456 residential plots of (900-1200 m2) on-going.

One project that stands tall is the reconstruction and rehabilitation of new Government House comprising the main Governor’s office, Government House annex staff quarters, International Conference Centre and Government lodge and Governor’s office Abuja. These projects have already projected Bauchi as a model city, like its contemporaries.

In a bid to ensure safety and security of Pilgrims travelling to Holy land for the spiritual obligation, the administration has built a new Model Hajj camp close to the Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa International Airport Bauchi while the Abubakar Umar State Secretariat and 20 local government secretariats of the state renovated.

The traditional institutions also benefitted from Kauran bauchi’s gesture of leadership with the reconstruction and rehabilitation of their Palaces. The government rehabilitated the Emir of Katagum’s Palace, District Heads Houses at Zaki, Yelwan-Duguri , Warji, Itas, Darazo, Kafin Madaki, Nabardo and Garin Bauchi as well as all Village Heads Houses in Dass Emirate.

To ensure smooth running of their areas, 38 official cars were distributed to all district heads in the state, 20 Local Government Chairmen in the state.

If the saying “health is wealth’” is true, then the present administration of Mohamed has created a wealthy citizenry in the state through provision of many healthcare delivery projects and services to the state. Notable among the health projects are the rehabilitation and re-equipping of a minimum of one General Hospital in each of the 20 LGAs, aimed at extending quality healthcare services to the doorsteps of the people.

Under the government’s 2021/2022 Health Project, nine dilapidated general hospitals in Alkaleri, Kirfi, Toro, Kafin-Madaki, Dass, Misau, Gamawa, Zaki and Itas were renovated and equipped while four new cottage hospitals were constructed in Dambam, Warji, Azare, and Yelwan Duguri.

In the areas of primary health care (PHC), steady progress is being made towards equipping the PHCs in each of the 323 electoral wards in the state to have at least one functional PHC. With this development the collaboration with development partners has yielded great dividends.

Also, in collaboration with EU- UNICEF Project, 107 PHC facilities across the state were renovated while additional 42 PHC facilities across the state were constructed while with support from Global Affairs Canada through PLAN INTERNATIONAL, BORN Project, a total of 12 main PHCs were renovated.

The maternity complexes of 25 primary health clinics were refurbished as part of “The Challenge Initiatives'” 72-hour makeover scheme while a collaboration with the World Bank, under the AF-NSHIP, a total of 204 PHCs, spread across 10, out of the 20 local government areas in the state, have been upgraded and stocked with medical consumables.

To live up to its responsibilities, the Government paid over One billion Naira as counterpart contribution to PHC MoU basket fund; launched a Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) Drug Revolving Fund (DRF) worth N480million in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Global Health Supply Chain-Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) project.

In its bid to cater for the vulnerable group in the society, the Bauchi State Health Contributory Management Agency (BASHCMA), has enrolled over 50 thousand beneficiaries across the state while more than N250million has been disbursed for primary and secondary Health facilities.

The Mohammed’s administration also Signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a UK-based HP capital for the construction of 250 bed capacity university Hospital in Bauchi including a 2500 staff accommodation of international standard.  In additional the partnership also includes construction of 30,000 seat capacity convention center and construction of 5-star Hotel.

Governor Mohammed inherited a state where most of the micro, medium and small enterprises (MSMEs) as well as industries in the state were in a state of comatose. This was ostensibly due to the absence of power supply. To revamp the economy, the government embarked on projects aimed at providing power supply to both urban and rural areas of the state.

Government embarked on procurement of tools equipment, transformers, accessories, renovation and rehabilitation of electricity routes across the state. Among them are the Bauchi-Panshanu to Narabi route 33kv line, emergency maintenance services at Bauchi-Alkaleri 33kv line route (Gombe Road) and procurement of materials and renovation /rehabilitation of Bauchi- Ningi -Nasaru 33kv line route.

Others include the procurement and installation of 500KVA, 11/0.41KV transformer and its accessories of Fati Mu’azu link , New GRA Bauchi, procurement and installation of 500KVA, 11/0.415KV transformer and accessories of Tafawa Balewa Estate, Bauchi, repaired three crane lorries, seven Hilux  and Vehicles, supply of 300KVA Transformer Sabon layi and awarded contract for the provision of electricity to 37 village communities across the state.

It is said that education is the key that unlocks all areas of development; that probably informed the priority attention the Bala Mohammed administration accorded to education from primary,secondary to tertiary levels.

Some remarkable efforts the administration made in this sector were the construction of 238 new classroom blocks, renovation of 406 classrooms and school furniture worth N5 billion, a joint work between Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, and the state universal education board SUBEB-2017-2018 intervention.

In the light of the above, the administration accessed additional N3 billion UBEC funding after paying its counterpart funding for the-2018-2019 intervention.

The government was able to upgrade three Model Primary Schools in  Dagauda, Yelwan Duguri and Mashema in Dambam, Alkaleri and Itas gadau Local Governments, respectively with classrooms, laboratories, ICT, Staff accommodation, computer center, Health center and administrative blocks.

Other initiatives adopted by the Government to revamp education in the state were providing more access to the numerous out of school children, addressing WAEC racketeering, promoting teachers’ welfare, reviewing schools’ curriculum, introduction of biometric registers for teachers, enhancement of teachers’ capacities, payment of JAMB registration for 3,812 SS3 Students, among others.

To address the challenge of over 1 million out-of-school children in the state inherited by the administration BESDA captured 60,642 and 33,733 from 1050 and 365 Tsangaya and Girl child centres respectively while 94,000 pupils from nine LGAs of the state have been enrolled.

The government also paid scholarship for Local and Foreign Students amounting to N133.3 million while Women Education Centres in Dass, Misau, Jama’are,Katagum, Ningi, and Kirfi LGAs have been renovated besides the supply of vocational and skill Acquisition Materials across the 20 LGAs  under Bauchin State Agency for Mass Education.

The maxim that ‘’water is life’’ has captured the efforts of the Bala Mohammed administration to put life into Bauchi state through provision of urban and rural water, sanitation and hygiene.

On assumption of duty, the governor immediately embarked on the overhauling of the 1,500KVA generating set at Gubi Water Treatment Plant, rehabilitation of the 800mm diameter transmission mains from the Treatment Plant at Warinje reservoir and attending to leakages within the distribution network. Similarly, government Constructed the 7000m3 concrete reservoir at Buzaye Hill, booster Wuntin dada and Water reservoir at Miri and other projects in the state capital, thereby reducing to its barest minimum the scarcity of water supply witnessed before he came to power.

At the semi urban and rural areas, thousands of water schemes, solar powered boreholes and hand pumps had been drilled across the 20 Local government Areas through the Ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) as well as from international organisations.

In the area of agriculture, the Government has kept faith with its pledge to fast-track agricultural revolution in the State through servicing of 29 tractors and tools, settling of N12 million liaibilities for the purchase of 28 tractos and provision of N150 million naira for the purchase of assorted grains to cushion the effect of food and nutrition insecurity as well as agro-chemicals worth N46m to serve as buffer stock for the control of agricultural pests and diseases (2019-2022).

To ensure improved access to inputs by farmers, the administration re-structured and revived the Bauchi Fertilizer Blending Company, Agricultural Supply Company and engaging private sector participation in the supply of quality inputs and farming implements.

The government also released N32m for the vaccination of over 800,000 herds of cattle in the state for the 2020/2021 annual livestock vaccination, expanded the number and skills of Extension Services Workers from the less than 15 that it inherited to, at least, 2000 highly trained hands.

In its bid to ensure wholistic development, the administration deliberately engaged on human capacity development programmes to develop the skills of its citizens towards self empowerment.

To achieve this, 500 unemployed youths were trained in welding/fabrication of farm tools; animal traction; goat/sheep rearing; poultry production and information/communication technology (ICT). Other areas are handset repairs, computer engineering/repairs and MS Word operations. They also received training in hair dressing, tailoring, petty business, furniture production and fish farming. This was done in collaboration with the Industrial Training Fund, ITF.

The 1,000 commercial tricycles promised by the administration have been procured and delivered aimed at empowering youths in the state, while 154 commercial cars were given to drivers and under the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN).

The Kaura Economic Empowerment Programme (KEEP) disbursed cash and properties worth N75m in each of the 20 LGAs while Katagum and Bauchi received 115m and 180m respectively for empowerment of the people of the state.

Under the Bauchi State Commission for Youth and Women Rehabilitation and Development; (BACYWORD) 779 Youths and Women were engaged in Kaura Sanitation Programme in 12 Communities in Bauchi metropolis from 2019-2022.

The Bala Mohammed administration also facilitated the training of 500                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                women and youths in (ICT) Bauchi South, collaborated with Aliko Dangote Foundation to empower twenty thousand women 20,000 across the 20 local governments.

As a responsive and responsible Government, the Governor has always preached peaceful coexistence and harmony. Despite that, as in every society, few cases of unrest have been recorded. When such unwanted developments occur, the Governor has always identified with the victims. For instance, relief materials such as food and non food items were presented to those affected by the crisis in Gudun Hausawa and Gudun Sayawa villages of the State capital.

Women and youth development also received a boost as 1,427 women benefited from Conditional Cash Transfer in over 1000 communities in Bauchi and Katagum LGAs under which a lot of vulnerable women have set up micro businesses raised on gender based violence such as goat, petty trading to support livelihood.

Still on rural transformation, there has never been any concrete developments in the Local governments in the recent past, than the ones recorded under Mohammed’s first tenure. Besides the provision of rural projects across the communities by the Councils, all the 20 the Local Government Secretariats were either rehabilitated or reconstructed, thereby creating a conducive atmosphere for work.

There is no doubt that the Bala Mohammed administration has ensured tremendous projects that have made Bauchi State a model city while his recent pronouncement, during his second inauguration, of lifting embargo on employment is indeed a good news that will go a long way to renew hope of the people, especially the unemployed youths in the state.

As a mark of honour and trust for the leadership of Mohammed, his colleagues, the PDP governors elected him as their Chairman, a development that testifies to his good leadership qualities and good omen for more of good things to come from him.

Even on the nagging issues of pension and gratuities owed retirees, the governor has made tremendous efforts in paying N4 billion. But more cheering is the news that he promised to continue to pay the N23 billion debt still owed to pensioners and their next of kins which he inherited.

“On concerns over gratuities, I wish to reassure the workers that the government will fast track ongoing effort to create the required synergy between the PENCOM and the recently established Bauchi State Contributory Pension Scheme to defray the backlog and guarantee regular payment of gratuities.”, he said.

With all these assurances and the compilation of achievements of the administration and areas of improvement, there is a reassurance that Mohammed’s second coming will sustain and consolidate the developmental strides recorded in the first tenure.

Habila is a journalist and former Executive Chairman of Bogoro Local Government Council of Bauchi State.