On Wednesday, the present administration of Abaji area council put up an event to celebrate and review its achievements in the last one year. AWAAL GATA, who was there, reports
Hon. Yahaya Garba Gawu is the Chairman of Abaji area council. He got to office last year following a victory at last year’s area council elections. On Wednesday, the council’s secretariat was brimmed with people as he celebrated and reviewed the council’s achievements in his one year in office.
Inaugurating him alongside other five area council chairmen in the territory last year, the FCT Minister of State, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, remarked that they should complement the efforts of the FCT Administration to fast track development in the grassroots.
However, in his inaugural address, Gawu assured his people that “infrastructural and educational development would be part of major focuses of my administration; infrastructural development for giving the people, as challenged as they are, a sense of belonging, and education for individual development and positioning them for the new world.”
One year after this address, a number of feats were achieved to indicate that his promises were not but a boast, as politicians do.
Recounting the achievement of his administration at the event, in the area of education, the Chairman said the administration has been “sensitizing parents and guardians on the need to enroll their wards in school, especially the girl-child.”
In the same period, the administration also awarded N9 million scholarship to “deserving students of higher institution of learning across the ten political wards in the council.”
In the area of electricity, Gawu highlighted that his administration has connected a number of rural communities to the national grid in order to boost rural electrification.
According to him, communities like Pelele Gigbe, Tungan Usman and Agwara had successfully been connected, adding that eight other communities would be connected soon as transformers, service wires, aluminium conductors and electric poles were ready.
Abaji is perennially challenged by lack of potable water. In order to alleviate the difficulties faced by the people at the backdrop of this, the council, the Chairman said, has “provided a water supply scheme at Gawu, while we wait for the commissioning of Abaji Water Scheme Project funded under the MDGs in collaboration with the FCTA. Boreholes were also built or repaired at each of our ten political wards to improve access to potable water.”
On the area of roads, Gawu said the “council has concluded arrangement for the award of contract for the construction of Pelele and Gigbe roads” and paid N50 million out of the liability left by the past administration for the construction of Pandagi River bank road.
In the same vein, because over 80 percent of Abaji people are peasant farmers, Gawu’s administration has in the last one year invited agriculture extension service workers to educate farmers on modern farming techniques so as to boost food production in the council. Supports were also given to some of these farmers in the area of tools.
Other areas in which the administration achieved commendable feats are environmental sanitation, security and youth empowerment.
According to the Chairman, “we have been routinely evacuating refuse from various collection centres to the permanent dump sites. We have been clearing drainages and road sides promptly and we have been sensitizing our people on how to keep the environments clean in line with the vision of the FCTA.”
Coming to insecurity, Gawu said: “to enhance security in the council, we instituted security committee comprising all security agencies domiciled in the council, traditional institutions as well as all religious bodies. The committee meets on regular basis to discuss and fine tune ways for the peaceful co-existence of residents of the council.”
Speaking to newsmen after the event, Gawu said his “giant strides” were inspired by his affection for the people as well as a gesture towards fulfilling his “electioneering promises in spite of the lean financial resources that we have.”
He appealed to the federal government to improve on the “finances that go to the area councils so that more basic amenities that have direct bearing to the people would be provided for them.”
In his address, the former Chairman of the council, Hon. Yahaya Mohammed, commended the chairman for his developmental strides, saying “he has done a lot as far as the period under review is concerned and I must also commend him for bringing about continuity in the government in the council by completing the projects he met on the ground and establishing new ones. It is a very herculean task coupled with the dwindling financial resources in the council within the period under review.”
He, however, advised him to remain focused and “keep his ears on the ground to listen to the yearnings of the people so that more should be achieved.”
Commending the Chairman, the Ona of Abaji, Alhaji Adamu Yunusa, said: “Abaji has been peaceful thanks to the unifying activities of the Chairman in the last one year.”
The Ona, however, urged him to do more in terms of youth employment in order to upkeep the peace he has worked a lot to earn.
The celebration also featured distribution of books to primary school pupils, commissioning of projects and handing over of a pick-up van to the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company for maintenance purposes.
