Gombe State Governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya has called on all politicians and stakeholders across partisan divides to join hands and move the state forward in order to consolidate on the gains of the first tenure.
Speaking at the swearing in celebration for his the second tenure at Patami stadium on Monday, the Governor promised that his administration shall be just and fair to all irrespective of political, ethnic, religious and sectional affiliations.
He used the occasion to catalogued his scorecard of his administration which cut across all sectors while 1000 teachers were recruited with the aims of strengthening vocational and technical education through the various partnership like the IDEAS( Innovation in Development and Effectiveness in Acquisition of Skills).
The Governor pointed out that his administration constructed and renovated over 1440 classrooms across the state, mopped up of over 350,000 out-of- school children and upgraded five sccondary schools to mega- school standards as well as constructed four special schools in four years.
According to him, there was sharp increase in the percentage of candidates in public schools who passed WASSCE with 5 credits or above including Mathematics and English from 28% in 2019 to 73% in 2021 and 78% in 2022.
In healthcare, the Governor said his administration ensured the provision of a fully functional primary healthcare centre in each of the 114 political wards, upgraded the State Specialist Hospital in Gombe, while currently upgrading the General Hospitals in Bajoga and Kaltungo.
Additional, a 200- bed general Hospital in Kumo is being constructed and a brand – new 600- student capacity school of Nursing and Technology in health sector is ongoing.
Inuwa disclosed that his administration also established the Gombe State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency,(Go- health) in order to provide affordable healthcare for the vulnerable while 35,116 beneficiaries have been rolled and are getting proper service.
He noted that they established the Gombe State Hospital Management Board to provide leadership and direction to the administration of the hospitals, as well as the Gombe State Medical Consumables and Wholesale Supply Agency which aims to checkmate the menace of substandard and inadequate supply of medical consumables in the state.
On infrastructure and housing, the Governor said they constructed over 700 km of urban and rural roads under the network 11-100 projects which aim to connect the nooks and crannies of the state and has attracted billions of naira in local and international investments within the past four years.
He also promised to sustain the principles of people – driven, needs – based and participatory governance by improving the open government policies which enabled them to become one of the top 7 states in the country in the 2022 Transparency and Integrity Index while the efficient use of public resources through plugging leakages and reducing wastages would foster a culture of meritocracy and inclusivity in governance, hence improving the efficiency of the system.
Meanwhile, the swearing in celebration was filled with people jubilating and chanting the Inuwa song “Ko Gezau ” meaning no shaking.