The People of Plateau state made a bold and resounding choice in 2023 at the poll by electing Governor Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang under the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
It was a vote of confidence anchored on hope, experience and a shared desire for a purposeful leadership and the prosperity of Plateau state.
Two years after, the Governor in an interactive session with journalists in Jos the Plateau state capital spoke on how his administration has handled security issues and transformation across all sectors of the economy.
Our correspondent Golok Nanmwa was there for this medium.
Your Excellency, what can you say about the last two years of your administration in Plateau State?
First, I must place my gratitude to the people of Plateau state for their support and believing in our transformative leadership since we came into government in 2023.
We have restored hope and confidence in governance and we have brought inclusive development across all segments of the state without sentiment.
We have also enjoyed a tremendous relationship with the media, and I want to thank you for your sense of patriotism, so far deployed.
Some of the reportage have demonstrated that you are actually stakeholders to the Plateau Project.
The essence of the media is not to destroy, it’s to build, and therefore, what you report should add value to the state, being a critical contribution to our progress.
Let me go back memory lane; when we took over on May 29, 2023 we were not oblivious of the challenges we were going to confront.
The first was of course, the issue of security, those who have followed us would remember that we convened a security council meeting two days after we were sworn in, and to our chagrin we found that none had been held for close to a year.
We immediately swung into action, trying to appraise the security situation, and see how we can re-motivate the security agencies, and it’s unfortunate that the security challenge has not abated as we had hoped.
But one thing we have done is that sometimes it’s difficult for people to appreciate what government has done when these challenges continue but, I assure you that we will not relent, we are reviewing our strategy to ensure lives and property are safeguarded in the state.
But I want you to know that if we hadn’t done the much we had done with the intelligence at our disposal, Plateau State would be a different place.
There are so many details we cannot unveil, but I’m glad to tell you that Plateau State is relatively safer than most states.
At the moment, we do not have any local government that is completely a no-go area unlike some states. What we have are very opportunistic attacks that come in, and then they disappear.
We don’t have a resident camp of bandits on the Plateau except situations that have arisen in Wase Local Government Area.
But I’m glad to tell you that we’ve been able to push back and we’ve been able to substantially regain ground in Wase. That’s why today, the grazing reserve in Wase is available for investment by the grace of God.
What new strategies are you bringing on board to confront the unabated security challenges?
We have continued to redouble our efforts, rejig our efforts, to recalibrate our efforts, to make sure that we stem this tide, and I’m sure that with the efforts, we are putting in place, we’re going to see significant improvements not too long from now. One thing I must say is that we brought Operation Rainbow back to the frontier of security operations.
Today, there are people who are complaining about the operations of Operation Rainbow, and I believe that if Operation Rainbow was not functioning, they would not complain against it. But it has been a good compliment to the security agencies on ground, and going forward, we can only strengthen it and not take it out.
More than the issues of security which has beclouded the progress we have made, is that what we promised the people of Plateau State is leadership. We promised that we’re going to lead, we are not going to be political.
As a matter of fact, i used to tell people that I’m not a politician. I’m in politics, but I’m not a politician. I’m in politics because that is the only platform by which you can come into governance, in our country, and my attitude is not just to be in office for the sake of it, but to be able to provide leadership that will take Plateau State to the level where we all dream it to be.
A state where it’s economically buoyant, it’s economically self-sufficient, it’s a state that can compete with other states in Nigeria, even beyond the shores of this country.
What was the kind of leadership you wish to give Plateau State that is different from what had been seen in the past?
Going with the leadership that we promised, we have brought hope to our people.
We brought hope that they can expect something tangible, that government and governance is not an avenue for wishful thinking or deceit, that governance is for the benefit of the people, and I think that if you ask me what our achievements are, one that I can readily point out is that we have brought hope back to the people of Plateau State.
I know that we haven’t fulfilled all their expectations, but the people of Plateau State can at least hope that things will get better tomorrow.
That for me is very important, and so; this has been the focus of our administration, that in every critical sector of our lives, in education, healthcare, sports, economy, agriculture, mining sector; in fact, all the sectors of our lives, that we are able to let people know that things can be better, and that is why the way we have approached our output in governance is to see how we can turn around every sector for the betterment of our people.
Over the last two years, by the grace of God, we’ve done the much we could have done within the constraints of resources at our disposal.
I recall that when we came in, we found a backlog of four and a half salaries unpaid, and what we did immediately was to rejig the state finances, and reach out to our creditors, and we were able to resolve the issue of unpaid salaries within a few months.
I believe within the first two months, we were able to fix that situation, and I’ve often said it, that payment of salary
It’s a duty. It’s a responsibility, and therefore, we don’t count it as an achievement, we have only done what we were supposed to do.
If all we were elected was to pay salaries, then I think it’s not worth it, anybody can do that.
But I’m glad that we’re able to stabilize that situation, and I’m also glad that with the issue of minimum wage came on board, we are among the states that was able to start the implementation, and so I believe with the new minimum wage, I believe that our civil servants today will testify to you that the work environment has improved for them.
We met a situation where ministries, departments, and agencies were conducting a lot of government business outside government offices, and it was pathetic where our Permanent Secretaries were entering the government offices, going to business centers, but we’ve been able to give hope back to the service.
Some of them have not gone for any training for a couple of years before we came on board, and today, I believe that there’s a revival going on. We are not there yet, but there is work in progress. We have dealt into how to improve the lives of our people.
With the removal of fuel subsidy, what can you say that has affected the states positively economically as regards to transportation?
One of the key policy decisions of the federal government when we came on board was the removal of the fuel subsidy, and of course, it left a gap in the standard of living in purchasing power of people and government, and what we did immediately was to see how we can ameliorate that situation, and that’s why we’ve made tremendous investments in the transport sector, for example.
We decided to go on and make sure that we improve public transportation, we subsidize it. Instead of giving people palliatives, we thought that this kind of palliative would count, I believe that we found that at the end of every month, an average user of our public transport was going save 39 to 50,000 monthly and for us, that is a very more transparent way of putting more cash available to people because those savings can be deployed elsewhere.
And that’s why we also made sure that we worked on the railway system. Globally, the railway is one of the cheapest sources of transportation.
We had to collaborate with the Nigerian Railway Corporation we had some feats, but I am glad that despite some of the challenges we’ve had in that sector we’ve been able to bring it back again on online and I am sure in the last week or two people are using the train service effectively.
I’ve read some social media comments deriding what we have done, why are we not doing the blue metro line like in Lagos.
Of course, like people would say the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step and i believe that we can only do better, we are not retrogressing.
When we came also on board, you remember that there were issues even with air travels and I am glad that we’re able to restore that service to the people of Plateau State, in fact if anything, it has improved because we now have at least three flights in and out of Abuja every week and then we have about six flights in and out of Lagos and in and out of Jos.
We have improved tremendously.
One of the things that I am happy with the media community is that you have not painted Jos as a no-go area and that is why today I am glad to let you know that our room occupation rate in our hotels is one of the highest in the country because people come into Jos and sometimes they struggle to find hotel rooms to sleep. Now what that has done also is that standards of hotel accommodation are beginning to improve because competition is there and I am glad that this year we’ve also been able to hold a lot of high-profile events where a lot of visitors have come into town.
I remember we had almost a category of about a thousand lawyers when the Nigerian Bar Association Legal Practice section had their conference.
We also recently hosted the north central zonal consultation of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Review which brought a lot of people out of South America and we had our own group from outside the state, we’ve had diplomats that have come in here, and the amazing thing is that all of them that have come, are amazed that this is not what they told us about Plateau.
They discovered that Jos particularly is a very peaceful, pleasant, attractive city to visit and to stay in. And they have continued to be our ambassadors outside the state.
Despite all the destruction brought by insecurity, by the grace of God, we have continued to attract people to this state, and I’m sure we can only do better as the days go by, and so aligning the transport sector with our general urban renewal program, we’ve been able to make a lot of investments in urban infrastructure, the roads we’ve had to construct, and that is where, like the commissioner said, we’ve demonstrated inclusivity, we’ve made sure that the road infrastructure traversed the entire nooks and crannies of the city.
We didn’t discriminate, we made sure that we went into Muslim areas, Christian areas, so-called.
There is improvement in infrastructure, what is the secret of this improvement despite other competing demands?
People are seeing the benefits of those infrastructural.
Along that line, of course, we didn’t just stay in the city. We’ve been able to go back to all the local governments. I’m glad to inform you, and I’m sure the Director of Press and Public Affairs can give you the details of all the road constructions going on in virtually every local government on the Plateau.
We are trying to make sure that all the road infrastructure, and the interesting thing is that we are not awarding new contracts, particularly for the local governments.
We are only trying to complete the well-thought-out projects under the last PDP government of our father, Da Jonah Jang, that most of those contracts were awarded during this era, but they were not followed through, and we believe that governance is a continuum.
There is no need to discriminate who started which project, as long as it’s for the benefit of the people of the state, and that’s why we’ve been able to mobilize most of those contractors to go back to site.
Where we have not started is a work in progress, and we are confident that, by the grace of God, between now and early next year, we are going to see tremendous impact in terms of the road infrastructure, we are looking at it from different angles.
Some of it are from the World Bank projects we inherited, but we need to manage them well in order to get the desired impact, and so, for us, this has been very key. Road infrastructure is what benefits everybody there is no limitation as to who benefits what. And even for car owners, when the roads are better, your cars stay longer, and I believe that that is a benefit to all.
What interventions have you done in the education, health and other sectors since 2023?
When we came in also, we found that the education sector was completely in disarray. I can tell you that when we took over, Plateau Polytechnic, for example, was about to lose many of its courses because of non-accreditation. We immediately swung into action, at the time we came in, it had sunk to the lowest of about 3,000 admissions. Today, we’re above 6,000, getting towards 7,000 with confidence coming back, and I’m glad that we were able to make those changes. The changes we made in those institutions is yielding the desired dividend.
At the Plateau State University, we’re able to also stabilize things, and I’m sure that if you go there today, you’re going to find significant improvement because we’ve not only improved the quality of teaching, we’ve been able to also increase the faculties, and work is going on steadily in the state university.
At the College of Education, Gindiri, we’ve also made quite some giant strides, none of which was to get the approval of the National University’s commission to start about 17 degree programs at the College of Education, in addition to strengthening what was already on ground, and so we are making progress.
But we didn’t just stop there we’ve been able to go down to look at the secondary level. We are looking also at the basic education level, and one of the things we are doing is to be able to put round pegs in round holes and make sure that the system is functioning the way it should be.
We are beginning to lay emphasis on continuing education particularly for personnel in the education sector so that they could continuously improve themselves, and so we are making progress.
We are trusting God that the journey we have begun in the education sector is to reposition education on the Plateau within the next two years. When we came in, in the next WAEC, you will notice significant changes, and we are making steady improvement in that sector.
In the health sector, we came in also, and it was a situation we found that was rather despondent. We swung into action immediately, dealing with it from the primary health care, which is the foundation, and to the tertiary institution, which is the Plateau Specialist Hospital, and I’m glad when we celebrated the two years anniversary some of you went with us on a tour of the hospital where a lot work has been done, projects that started during the Jang administration we’re able to complete them, and today one of the high points of that initiative is the setting up of a modern lab which is comparable to any lab institution in the country.
Today I want to believe that our medical personnel will not be doing guess work, they will do evidence- based diagnosis to be able to deal with all the complaints of people, and we’ve also been able to improve the departments within the hospital.
We’ve moved from two departments to six departments. We have also brought the dental clinic under the hospital.
By God’s grace, we’re going to make significant improvements in that sector.
If you plot a graph in the health sector, I’m sure you’re going to find that it’s an upward trajectory, and then ultimately to cash in on the advantage of our weather to build capacity for medical tourism.
We’re looking at how to be able to achieve that in the not too distant future. More so because we’re about to start the Medical Faculty at the Plateau State University, and so in the next two to three years, it has become imperative to have a teaching hospital owned by the state. This we hope to pursue by the grace of God.
I have been reminded that even in the transport sector, I forgot to mention, the MOU was signed with the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria to be able to designate the Jos Airport as a Cargo International Airport, and therefore, in the next year, we’re going to be making investments to make sure that, that airport fits into that purpose so that from here it will become a regional hub for cargo aviation.
We’re working on that strenuously. the mistakes that air hostesses used to make when we were landing Jos, they say we’re about to arrive at Yakubu Gowon International Airport, and I look forward to seeing it become a true International Airport.
What is the state of the state’s economy vis-à-vis the need to develop its agricultural sector?
Of course, we are looking at other sectors. We haven’t left them to lie hallow. But we are looking at how to improve the Plateau economy. I cannot talk about the economy without talking about agriculture, which is the main economic driver for us. We discovered that we’ve been doing agriculture with just primitive sense, if I may call it.
Our agriculture is still at a very, very primitive subsistence level, and even though we know that we farm a lot, but actually all the farming we have been doing is far below the capacity of what we should be doing, and therefore, we’ve gone about setting up the critical infrastructure for improvement, and advancement in agriculture.
We’ve reorganized the sector, one of the things we did was to split the ministry into two, because we discovered that it’s such a large ministry, and if you are dealing with crops, you’re also dealing with livestock, it’s quite huge. We have been able to separate the two so that we can focus critically on it.
The thing is that God has blessed us so much that whether it is about crops or livestock, we have a natural advantage, and we want to take full advantage of that.
In the crop sector, we are doing a lot now to be able to improve our flagship agricultural product, which is what we used to call the Irish potatoes. Now we have Christianised it, Plateau Potatoes.
We are making sure that in the next two years, we have given to ourselves, we’re going to develop such capacity that will dominate that particular sector and make sure that we raise it to international standards, and there’s a lot that is wrong with that sector.
We are trying to fix it from the point of view of seeds, right to the farming method, right to the harvest, right to the storage, and the entire value chain around it.
It will shock you that all the big hotels that serve French fries, as they call it, and we’re going to reverse it soon and call it plateau fries, they don’t use our potatoes.
They import from South Africa because they say our own is not of good quality, and it hit me when I discovered that, and what is the secret?
You start from seeds, and the seeds we have in potato are 15 to 20 generation seeds, and therefore, they are not of good quality. They can’t give you the good output, and to compound that, what you are doing is to harvest maybe three to four tons, you know, per hectare, when the global standard is a minimum of 10.
We are doing a lot to be able to turn around that sector. We’ve given ourselves the next two years, that’s why we had to also plead with the African Development Bank that had given us a facility, you know, before we came in, given Plateau State a facility to develop the tissue culture lab.
Those of you with a scientific mindset, you know, the value of a tissue culture lab. It’s important for the propagation of seeds, and that project was messed up before we came in. We’ve been able to secure a one year, addition from the African Development Bank, and I’m sure when we do it, it’s going to be a game changer.
But more than that, we are having international collaboration, one of the biggest seeds, not one, the biggest seed company in Nigeria, in the world, Agrico of the Netherlands they came to visit us and we are discussing collaboration, and so there’s every hope in that sector in order to be able to key into.
To become a major player into the crop sector, that’s why we set up the Plateau Commodities Marketing Company, last week, there was a launch of a similar project in Lagos state, you know, Lagos is bigger than us, but then they launched it with about 500 billion.
Now we are hoping that, with what we have started will eventually also become a key player so that we’re intervening in the market.
One of the problems we had before is that our farmers get shortchanged, they don’t get value for money, and, even the quality of what they are doing, sometimes the market has made nonsense of it with the coming, you know, PLACOM will be able to stabilize, improve the market, and that’s why one of the key strategies for us is economic improvement is building new markets, markets with storage.
Capacity, we are looking at how under one of the World Bank projects RAAP, we’re doing, we’re building a market in Shendam, Mangu, and Jingri, these are aggregation centers that will ultimately dovetail into a bigger market that will become an international market, of daily patronage on the Plateau, and so we are working on these strategies to be able to improve our economy.
We are also, trying to make sure that we improve even the markets within the city we are trying to come up with neighborhood markets, but we are not interested in dislodging small traders. No, we only want to organize it better, so as we develop the neighborhood markets, which we started in Bukuru. Some of you would have visited; it is a model of what we want to duplicate all over the city so that our traders, our traders don’t need to trade in dirty environments.
They can trade in modern environment and you that patronize those markets, you also want to go there and make sure that, what you are buying is of good hygiene equality, therefore, we are placing premium on that, and hopefully we’ll be able to leverage on agriculture to drive our economy.
Has the Internally Generated Revenue of the state made any impact?
One of the things that government must do is to be able to improve the capacity to generate internally revenue. Now, before we came on board, we discovered that 80% of the revenue that board of internal revenue generates comes from what you call payee and 20% from business.
What we have done gradually is to reverse the ratio, the more you can get from business, the better, rather than payee, and I’m glad to let you know that from the, what we’ve, what was declared in June, 2023 was 800 million as the IGR, and I’m told by the chairman of our Internal Revenue Service that last month we made 3.5 billion.
There’s a significant improvement, but we can do better, but we don’t want to tax poverty. We want to make investments before we can be able to tax people. And that’s what we’ll be doing in the last two years, trying to improve the businesses of people.
