*Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal fielded questions from journalists in<\/p>\n
Sokoto on wide range of issues affecting his state and the country. He gave
\nhis frank assessment of the measures needed to take Nigeria out of
\nrecession.*<\/p>\n
*The last administration promised to improve the welfare of religious and
\ntraditional rulers in the state. This includes providing them with vehicles
\nand modernising their palaces, why haven\u2019t you done much in that regard?*<\/p>\n
First of all, this government respects traditional institutions and since
\nwe came on board, we have accorded them the respect they deserve. They play
\nimportant roles in efforts to sustain peace and security, and in a larger
\nsense, they promote religious and communal harmony. Because of their place
\nin our history, we know we cannot do anything less for them. But you will
\nagree with me that our financial situation since we came on board has been
\nprecarious. Government has cut back on much expenditure, and has
\nprioritised areas of needs for the whole state. I am happy that our
\ntraditional rulers have understood clearly what we are faced with and they
\nhave not pressured us to continue with the policy of fixing their palaces
\nwhen there are more competing needs in our hospitals, primary healthcare
\ncentres, agriculture, education, youth, women empowerment among others.
\nSimilarly, if you look into the number and importance of projects we met on
\nground and the pressure to complete them, what we did is the best for the
\nstate. We have inherited about 30 large and important projects from the
\nlast administration, and we are working hard to complete all of them and
\nput them to use for the benefit of the citizens. These are projects that we
\nhave to complete as allowing them rot away will lead to wastage of funds
\nearlier expended to start these projects.<\/p>\n
Our philosophy has been to take these gradually, depending on availability
\nof funds, and complete them before delving into new ones. That policy has
\nserved us well in the last two years and we are happy to put them to use.
\nWhat you may not be aware is that many of those projects for traditional
\nrulers were to be executed from the joint accounts with the local
\ngovernment councils. But at the moment, many of those councils cannot carry
\nout any meaningful project outside payment of salaries. We have severally
\nbailed them out from the state government to enable them meet their
\nobligations to workers. In such situations, I don\u2019t think they are buoyant
\nenough to embark on building and repairs of palaces.<\/p>\n
*You spoke about local government councils, but there are complaints that
\nmany of their workers don\u2019t get their salaries on time, what is responsible
\nfor that?*<\/p>\n
We have carried out verification exercise to determine the correct number
\nof workers in each of the 23 local government councils of Sokoto state.
\nWhat we met on ground was beyond reason because the strength of the
\nworkforce in our local governments is twice more than that of Kano that has
\n44 local government areas. We felt this is not sustainable. We are
\ncontinuing with the biometric verification to ensure that only genuine
\nworkers remain in the schedule of payment, and they will be paid according
\nto their levels. We must do this to sanitise the system and ensure ghost
\nworkers or absentee workers do not find sanctuary in the local government
\nsystem.<\/p>\n
*Few days ago, you dissolved the management team of the state Board of
\nInternal Revenue, why now and secondly what is the current IGR figure for
\nSokoto state?*<\/p>\n
For almost two years, we gave the dissolved team the necessary incentive
\nand support to improve internal revenue base of the state, but they haven\u2019t
\ndone that. If you recall, I have stated publicly that we would take action
\nto ensure better performance in revenue generation. After a review of their
\nperformance, we decided to bring in new persons to reposition the board. As
\nfor the figures, since we came on board, the monthly IGR for Sokoto ranges
\nbetween N340 to N400 million. When I spoke to the ministry of finance, I
\nwas told that the previous administration received up to N500 million
\nmonthly. My argument is that this figure they are giving us is meager. What
\nwe deduct monthly as PAYE from civil servants alone, should be in the range
\nof this figure, so what happened to other revenue sources? The new team has
\nbeen mandated to put in place a new framework which will boost performance
\nand improve revenue figures.
\n*With this new target, are we seeing tougher measures against members of
\nthe public who are not paying tax?*<\/p>\n
We are fully aware of the economic situation in the country, especially
\nsurvival of businesses and the harsh conditions they are operating in at
\nthe moment. We will put that in consideration in pursuing what is due for
\nthe government. I am saying this because as leaders, we need to be clear
\nabout our intentions. Whenever we ask people to make sacrifices, we must
\nreassure them that it is for common good. So we are telling the people that
\nwhatever they pay to government as tax, will be applied judiciously for the
\nbenefit of all the people of the state.
\n*How will you review the performance of the state\u2019s 2016 budget?*<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve spoken about this during the presentation of this year\u2019s budget, and
\nin fact when I assented to the budget law a few days ago. Taking a holistic
\nview of the performance of the budget, I feel we can do more. That is why
\nwe started this year by making necessary changes in the personnel that
\ndrive the budget process, as can be seen from what we did at the board of
\ninternal revenue. We will continue to improve the system because time is
\nnot on our side. What I\u2019m promising the people is that the performance of
\nthe 2017 budget will be better than that of 2016 in terms of
\nimplementation, while even distribution of resources will be ensured. We
\nwill start new projects across the state, with much emphasis placed on
\nrural areas.
\n*At the meeting of the Northern Governors Forum recently, you agreed to
\nimprove the security situation in your states, how far have you gone in
\nthat regard? *<\/p>\n
We discussed many areas of cooperation, for example agriculture, education
\nand the likes. As for security, we agreed to share intelligence and this
\nhas been paying off. Take for instance issues of castle rustling; because
\nof renewed onslaught by security agencies and the inter-state collaboration
\namong all the states, this problem has reduced. We still have few scattered
\ninstances, but we are working to tackle that as well. This cooperation is
\nextending to cases of kidnapping, armed robbery, civil unrest and the
\nlikes. So the more we collaborate the better for us as states, and the
\nbetter for our citizens.<\/p>\n
*Your Excellency, the government has done marvelously well in containing
\nthe fuel situation which was getting out of hand in the last few weeks,
\nwhat are you doing with regards to prices of commodities in the market? *<\/p>\n
We read from the news that the federal government has set up a committee to
\nensure commodities are not priced out of the reach of the common man. In
\nSokoto, we\u2019ve already establish the state commodity board which will work
\nto give our farmers and citizens a fair deal. The board will buy grains
\nfrom farmers and store them. We hope to intervene when situation is getting
\nout of hand as you have stated. We are already taking to the Federal
\nGovernment and Flour Mill in Nigeria Plc for effective utilization of the
\nSilos here in Sokoto by buying and storing grains so as to do some
\nintervention when the situation arises. We intend to use the commodity
\nboard as a platform whereby we can always off-take excess produce from our
\nfarmers.<\/p>\n
*Who or what is responsible for the current economic situation in Nigeria
\nand secondly, what\u2019s the way out of recession for the country?*<\/p>\n
Experts have called on the Federal Government to inject more money into the
\nsystem. Personally, I believe creating job opportunities, especially
\nthrough the construction industry, and injection of more money into the
\neconomy, remain a sure way out of the current recession in the country. Ask
\nany Economist about the way out of recession, and I am sure they will
\ninform you that massive construction efforts, backed by release of funds,
\nwill create jobs whose multiplier effects will jumpstart the economic
\nbarometer. As Speaker of the House of Representatives, I\u2019ve had reasons to
\ndisagree with many of the policies of the last administration of President
\nGoodluck Jonathan which we felt were inimical to the overall development
\nand well-being of the people. Many thought we were raising the alarm
\nbecause we had personal hatred for him. That is not the case. I had nothing
\npersonal against the former President. The recession we are currently
\nfacing was as a result of the way the economy was mismanaged, largely, by
\nthe Jonathan administration. What is the way out? I\u2019ve said we need to
\ninject money into the system and create employment opportunities for the
\npeople. And one way to do that is to engage in massive construction
\nprojects. It is part of the reason why we encouraged the Federal Government
\nto disburse the funds from the debt relief for states to kick-start
\nactivities at regional level. Similarly, we\u2019ve read how immediate-past
\nPresident of the United States of America, Barack Obama, used this strategy
\nof massive construction works to take America out of economic challenges.
\nSo construction projects alone will create a lot of jobs which will benefit
\nthe economy. We all know that Nigerians are not happy and are running out
\nof patience, but they should be more patient. It is very easy to destroy
\nbut to rebuild the economy takes time.<\/p>\n
*You have announced an incentive that will benefit some 25,000 women across
\nthe state, can you shed more light on this?*<\/p>\n
What we are doing with the women groups is part of our overall strategy to
\nassist small and medium scale entities to boost their operations. We\u2019ve
\nasked the Sokoto State Small and Medium Scale Enterprises Development
\nAgency (SOSMEDA) to create a data base of all small business run by women
\nin the state. As a starting point, we decided to empower 25,000 of these
\nwomen who are in the rural areas with a soft loan of N10,000 each. That
\namounts to N250 million. We plan to expand it as time goes on but we are
\nstarting with the first set who are getting the N10,000 each very soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
*Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal fielded questions from journalists in Sokoto on wide range of issues affecting his state and the country. He gave his frank assessment of the measures needed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n