Why Gaidam focuses on healthcare, education – Bego

Abdullahi Bego is the Director of Press Aff airs to Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe state. In this interview with MUSA M. BABA in Damaturu, the longest serving media aide speaks on a wide range of issues, including the governor’s legacies, such as massive investment in health and education, building of a cargo airport in the state capital and other matters. Excerpts:

You have served Governor Ibrahim Gaidam as his image maker for the past eight years. What will you say are his achievements so far?

First, let me say that this is an administration that belongs to the people. It is from the people, and for the people. Everything that’s done over the course of the life of this administration has been done in the interest of the people of Yobe state. His Excellency, Governor Ibrahim Gaidam remains committed to all the pledges he made to the people during the campaigns in 2011 and 2015 – to move Yobe forward, to improve the living conditions of the people and to make Yobe a much better place by the time he leaves offi ce in 2019.

How do you feel being the longest serving media aide and Director of Press Aff airs to a governor in the country? What’s the secret behind it?

I think it’s a combination of fate and hard work. Every single day that I step into this offi ce, I try to do my best to propagate the activities of the administration, to protect and promote the image of the governor, and serve as a link between the government and the people of the state. I always work to make sure that I live up to my responsibilities by trying to maintain and expand my network of contacts and make sure that I have the broadest possible relationships across the media spectrum, and to leverage those relationships to the benefi t of the administration of His Excellency, Governor Gaidam and the people of the state. Th e opportunity to serve this long is an honour and a privilege. It is a privilege for which I remain grateful to Almighty Allah every single day.

With your vast experience, do you have any political ambition, especially given that the country is gearing up for the 2019 general elections? Well, 2019 is still a long way away. All am doing right now is to continue to do my job as best I can and serve the governor who appointed me to the position, and the people of the state whom the governor is dutifully serving. Everything that happened in my life from the get-go happened by the grace of Almighty Allah. If Almighty Allah wishes for me to join politics after this job, I will look forward to that. But at this material time, what I am focused on is the job that I am doing right now and making sure that through the functions of my offi ce, we are able to make people appreciate even more what the governor is doing and what he stands for. Bego Abdullahi Bego is the Director of Press Aff airs to Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe state. In this interview with MUSA M. BABA in Damaturu, the longest serving media aide speaks on a wide range of issues, including the governor’s legacies, such as massive investment in health and education, building of a cargo airport in the state capital and other matters. Excerpts

There have been calls by many people from your Bade/Jakusko constituency to run for the House of Representatives. Will you yield to those demands? Let me say that I am grateful to the people who have shown so much love and concern and the belief that I can represent them. But like I said earlier, this is not time for me to talk about what will happen in 2019. We are still in the mid-term of this administration. I know that His Excellency, Governor Gaidam, is focused on delivering promises to his people on health care, education, water supply, making the civil service vibrant, etc. and I am personally committed to helping him achieve those objectives. When the time comes for expression of political interests, that is when we will see what happens. I am a strong believer in Almighty Allah and I am confi dent He will determine for me the best possible way forward.

Nigerian politics has come of age; do you think Nigeria can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with other African countries in terms of political maturity? It is not just that Nigeria can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with other African countries. It is that Nigeria is far ahead of the park. We have a vibrant and big, even if noisy, democracy in Nigeria. We have a population of more than 170 million people, and there is no African country that has such a population. In every big and noisy and active democracy like ours, you are bound to see confl icts and disagreements but even those are part of the democratic process. What is important is that democracy is increasingly entrenched in this country, as it is coming of age. We have elections and civilian leaderships in the country since 1999, and this shows that our democracy is growing even with all the contradictions and occasional disappointments. In this sense, Nigeria is the leader of Africa, and will continue to be for a very long time to come.

Governor Gaidam has spent so much time and resources on health and education. What motivated him to do so? Health and education are primarily the bedrock of genuine progress in every nation across the world. You cannot achieve anything without education, and the only way you can make a population active and productive is to give them the best possible education. Th is is why the governor is concerned about making sure that our primary, post-primary and tertiary institutions have the best possible environments to operate. Presently, we are renovating, rehabilitating, and expanding secondary schools across the state. Many primary schools are also being upgraded and provided with learning materials. Th e Yobe State University is currently the fastest growing university in the North-east part of the country. And, like people say, ‘health is wealth’. If you are able to provide the people with aff ordable and quality healthcare, then you are helping them to be healthy enough to engage in meaningful activities, like going to the farms, markets, etc. to engage in legitimate businesses. Th ere is no alternative to a good healthcare system and a good education system. Th is is why Governor Gaidam is focused on these two key areas, alongside water supply, road construction, etc. I wish to reiterate that healthcare and education are very near and dear to his heart.

Yobe recently approved N11.3b for the construction of an international cargo airport in Damaturu. How viable is that to the state? Th e construction of the international cargo airport is a long-term prospect. We have suff ered more than six years of Boko Haram insurgency in Yobe state and the rest of the Northeast. Th is is the time to rebuild the state since Boko Haram, by God’s grace, is no more. If you look at the level of destruction and setbacks we suff ered as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency, we need to dig in and do even more and leverage every possible opportunity to rebuild and revive the economy. To rebuild, you have to focus on short-term, medium-term and long-term goals. Yobe cargo airport is a long-term prospect. We don’t have an airport across the entire North-east that is dedicated to cargo, one that has all the storage facilities dedicated specifi cally to bringing in cargo, holding cargo and distributing it in the state and other states of the region. Th is is the fi rst airport that will be devoted to large scale cargo business. Remember, we have businessmen and women in Yobe, Borno and the rest of the North-east states who bring in wares from Kano, Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Onitsha and even outside the country. Many of them use land transportation, using heavy-duty trucks to transport those goods, spending many days to reach Damaturu and other parts of the North-east.

If we have cargo planes that can fl y in those goods directly, that could save time and reduce cost and even damage to some of the goods being brought in. Also, the large-scale cargo business that is envisaged would provide young men and women an opportunity to be employed. By the time the full of range of benefi ts begins to manifest, people will express gratitude to God for the governor’s foresight to put in something that we have needed a long time ago, and that would possibly be twice or thrice the cost if it were to be delayed for longer. Of course, I understand that people hold diff erent opinions with respect to this. Th at’s democracy. But we are committed to this because we believe that the project will help Yobe recover some of its lost economic ground.

 

 

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