By Dahiru Hassan Kera
The industrial revolution in the United States, Asia and Europe have totally transformed those societies thus ushering an era of mass production of goods and services sold at relatively cheap prices to the mass citizenry which in effect tremendously raised their standard of living while lifting millions of people out of mass poverty and mass hunger.
In the case of Nigeria, while a lot of our leaders have pontificated on the need for rapid industrialization and the diversification of our nation’s economy from a mono-product to a multi-product one, it has more or less been a case of motion, without movement as since independence the level of industrialization has been static, even declining, as available data and statistics have shown.
However, things are set to dramatically change in Gombe state, the acclaimed Jewel in the Savannah as the renowned action governor, Dr Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, has set up high powered committees with the mandate of exploring modalities for the establishment of several medium scale and blue-chip industries. These industries are aimed to exploit the agricultural, food processing, raw materials, mineral and natural resources and medicinal resources potential of the state for the benefit of the state citizenry and Nigerians in general. Indeed, it takes only a visionary and farsighted leader of the like of Talban Gombe to take giant strides towards the realization of this noble objective of agricultural, industrial and food processing sufficiency.
The overall effect is of this giant stride that the state can become a net exporter to other states and countries of the world if those potentials are adequately harnessed and exploited.
For instance, many states in Nigeria are daily lamenting the dearth in financial resources and dwindling revenue base as a result of decreased allocation from the federation account, which have led to a backlog in payment of salaries and allowances of workers in the affected states. Without an appreciable increase in the internally generated revenue (IGR) in many states, their revenue profile would continue to depreciate this further impoverishing their citizens as well as stalling crucial development and infrastructural imperatives. However, those states that have continually complained of dwindling revenue base have hardly taken steps to ameliorate their condition apart from the habitual incessant grumbling and finger pointing at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Abuja.
In Gombe State, it will interest one to know that Governor Dankwambo has never been known to engage in defeatist or negative shenanigans aimed at scoring cheap political points with scant benefit to his state or its teeming populace. As far as he is concerned, it is infinitely better to make hay while the sun shines rather than locking the stable barn when the horses have bolted away.
Thus, the dynamic governor is attuned to taking the most cost effective decisions for the benefit of the populace rather than engaging in needless political slug fests that hardly advance the economic and political emancipation of his people. Also the compassionate governor has the noble distinction of being one of the few chief executives in the state that pays the salaries and allowances of state workers promptly without delay or excuses despite the relatively meager federal allocation that the state receives monthly in comparison with other high earning states including those in the Niger Delta that are owing huge backlogs of unpaid workers’ emoluments.
Therefore, Governor Dankwambo stands on terra firma as he embarks on this cogent policy of unprecedented industrial revolution that has the capacity to transform Gombe state as the undisputed hub of industrial creativity, innovation and intrepidity both for the Northeast region, Nigeria and the West African sub-region. With this ambitious industrial development plan worthy of Chairman Mao’s famed Giant Leap Forward industrial mega plan, a committed Governor Dankwambo has recently set up a powerful committee on industrialization that is charged with establishing medium and large scale enterprises for various sectors that include; Tomato Processing, Flour Production, Soya Beans Processing, Hide and Tannery Production, Solid Minerals Extraction, Cement Production, Gypsum Processing, Water Recycling, Solar Power Production, Kaolin Processing, Pharmaceutical Production, Manufacturing, Baryte Production, Textile and Garment Production, Petrochemical Products Manufacturing, etc.
The scope, length and breadth of the industrialization and manufacturing policy undertaking is, indeed, breath-taking as it is unprecedented and if fully actualized will lift Gombe State to the enviable status of the most industrialized state in the nation with a capacity to produce goods and services worth hundreds of billions of naira annually. It will also provide gainful employment for hundreds of thousands of citizens with revenue generation running into billions of naira monthly.
The amiable Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo’s vision for Gombe State has never been limited to the confines of the state’s physical, cultural, political or geographical environment as he believes that man must of necessity, transcend and even surpass his physical, mental or psychological environment and reach for the stars. In this regard, the sky is not the limit of the Gombe State working governor’s industrial revolution but rather a platform for the ultimate realization of this transformational game changing agenda. This will give birth to an only state that can depend on its own in the whole northern region without over dependence on the dwindling oil revenue that poses a threat to any state that has not woken up to exploit all avenues of internal revenue generation.
Kera wrote from Gombe
