THISDAYonline

If there was any state in the country where the citizens travailed in long, arduous labour until its birth became a reality, it is, indeed Nassarawa. Providence had, right from the colonial rule, favoured its inhabitants,as they had lived together as one, administratively, historically and politically.

Alhaji Musa Mohammed, a retired director in the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs, and who as Dan Darman Lafia is a highly revered traditional adviser to the Emir of Lafia succinctly captures this crescendo of tightly woven political-historical tapestry which has now given its citizens the resolve to champion their own total development."

Right from colonial rule, we had been together here. Historically, the citizens of Nassarawa were in the old Nassarawa province in 1920, the Benue Province in 1929, then in Benue-Plateau in 1967 and Plateau State since 1976. A 1926 administrative restructuring took eight out of the ten local governments in the state out of the Nassarawa province. The eight became part of the Benue Province. The other two became part of the Plateau province" But, by the creation of Nassarawa State on October 1 1996 by the Late General Sani Abacha Administration, all the component administrative units of the old Nassarawa Province were brought together into one. And that had been the dream of the inhabitants.

That the people of Nassarawa wanted their own state which they could develop to their own taste and consequently enjoy its abundant offerings was so clear from the text of their final memorandum to the then Chief Arthur Mbanefo-led Committee for the creation of States. They had argued then:" sir, we do not support creation of states on the basis of the old provincial boundaries except where the people concerned have expressed such a desire. Similarly, we do not support the lifting of any part or parts of the proposed Nassarawa State to be merged with any other state." It was therefore very clear from the outset that they wanted their state as they defined it by themselves and for themselves. And that was what they got.

But as soon as baby Nassarawa was born, it became very clear that she was born into hard times just as her labour had been. Federal presence in Nassarawa was non-existent. The reason for this was, indeed, not far fetched , as the people, being traditionally hard-working farmers, do not depend on anyone for survival. Thus, they carried this philosophy over to their sustenance and development, completing several agro-allied industries and other social infrastructure by self, joint or community efforts.

It is therefore not surprising that since the inception of the 4th Republic, the issue of development of the state and its socio-economic dynamics has been the central value in Nassarawa. Indeed, right from his first day in office, the state Governor, Alhaji Abullahi Adamu was subjected to an endless stream of unsolicited visitors, constituted in the main by the political movers and shakers of the component units, many of whom even opted to spend days in Lafia, the state capital, waiting patiently to take their turn in a courtesy call to the Government House. Though many of them had come to thank the Governor for letting them and their communities into democracy's dividends hall by executing or proposing development projects in their areas, they, nevertheless had Oliver Twist mentality and orientation: each time they received audience, they would seize the opportunity to ask for more.

But in his quest to execute an even development of the state, Adamu whose government had premised its mission on rural development and balanced spread of amenities, soon ran into fierce political fire storm. Some Lafia youths who believed that the governor had not significantly improved the face of Lafia, and therefore, should tread softly on his rural development and amenities drive, attacked him last year at the Lafia Central Mosque. The ensuing fracas between his operatives and the rampaging youth, resulted in the death of two youths.

Yet that incident goes to underscore the central dominance in Nassarawa politics in the issue of even development of a much beloved but undeveloped state.

But the good news is that Governor Adamu rose from that scorching political heat and threat to his life to crystallise the vision of the citizens for a development-driven state. Indeed, today, Nassarawa is on the move for unprecedented development. For instance, the N2.54 billion supplementary budget which Adamu presented to the State House of Assembly early September last year brought to N6.963 billion the year's budget of rebirth. And, in keeping with the governor's avowed commitment to the development of rural areas, the thrust of the supplementary budget, just like the main budget, remained rural development, poverty alleviation, agriculture and industrial development. Education also constituted a major plank of the budgetary allocations.

Nassarawa citizens believe a glorious era had dawned on their chequered developmental history. There is an aggregation of opinion that, Governor Adamu has performed creditably well, thus giving the people hope. Residents talk lavishly about quantum leap in infrastructure in the state, the spread of prospects and programmes across various communities and the amazing speed with which some of the projects and programmes were handled. Many indigenes who have hitherto sought the rosy life in the metropolitan heaven of the nearby Jos have returned to Nassarawa for a perk of the dividends of even developments. Still many others say it is now they can conveniently lay claim to the creation of their own state.

However, it was as if the hunger of the people for a development driven state found expression in Governor Adamu's fast-paced development vision. The ensuing marriage of the two visions resulted in an accelerated pace reflected in the state's year 2001 budget. Five sectors received prime considerations in the budget, the first being education.

"Governor Adamu told THISDAY why this choice was made: "education continues to have the lion's share of our budget for obvious reasons. N880 million, which is twenty six per cent of the budget goes to education.

Right from inception, Governor Adamu had made it clear that education ranks top on its list of priorities. "Education is the modern key to human development. It is hardly news that our state is educationally disadvantaged. As soon as we took office, we began a comprehensive rescue operation of education in the state."

He informed that his government has changed the depressing picture it found eighteen months ago in the sector. it rehabilitated dilapidated schools, provided free exercise books to primary and post - primary schools; established six new science secondary schools and boosted the morals of teachers by attending to their basic needs of housing, transportation and an enhanced standard of living.

"We converted four secondary schools based in Toto, Awe, Akwanga and Keana local government areas into boarding schools. We made JSS1 - JSS3 tuition free throughout the state. We recruited 1,350 teachers from across Nigeria to improve our student-teacher ratio in the state." He said.

Perhaps the most important development in this sector is the proposed multi-campus state university. The bill for the establishment of the university is already before the state House of Assembly. We expect the university to take off in the 2001-2002 academic session".

Indeed, the proposed university is being anticipated with much hope and happiness. The state advisory committee on the establishment of the state university headed by Benue State-born Professor Ochapa Onazi, former vice-chancellor of the University of Jos submitted its report which had recommended a multi-campus university, system at Lafia and Akwanga, with the main campus at Keffi.

The committee said it reasoned that Keffi with the status of one of the two locations of model colleges built by the Northern Region Government should host the main campus.The other town, Zaria in Kaduna State, has long been a university town. The premises of the Government College, Keffi is said to have enough physical facilities to enable the university take off. Another choice for the University is Judeed town, a choice influenced by the siting of a State Polytechnic and College of Agriculture in the area.

The second priority area of Adamu's quest for Adamawa's development in Budget 2001 is the transport sector, in real terms, roads development. Over one thousand kilometres of roads are scheduled to be developed within the budget year because as Adamu explains, "so long as our rural areas are cut off from modern development because of lack of roads, our rural development programme will be meaningless.

Housing and urban development occupies the third priority under which Governor Adamu explains that his administration will take steps to provide necessary incentives to private estate developers to assist in this area. Coming closely behind housing is information N685,000 was budgeted for the setting up a state owned television station, the establishment of a business information centre, television viewing centres and the running of the state owned newspaper, The Nigerian Newsday. The newspaper is currently a weekly publication, but the government intends to have the weekly and daily versions of it. Mobile cinema vans have also been bought for the purposes of educating the rural populace on government activities while the business information centre is to provide a bank of information about the state to local and international consumers. The government hopes, to develope its information technology further by putting in place the infrastructure necessary for a complete state of the art information technology centre.

The government is also set to undertake major rehabilitation works on the water supply schemes in Nassarawa Epon and Nassarawa town. The administration since its inception had embarked on major rehabilitation of the various water schemes in the state, while its industrial development programme is on course.

It would be recalled that prior to the creation of the state typhoid fever was very predominant in the area and the people complained bitterly that they did not know its cause. The reality, then was that the major source of drinking water was well water as pipe-borne water could then be counted on the finger tips. As at the time state was created, pipe-borne water only existed few and far between in Akwanga, Keffi, Lafia and Doma, The water in Lafia was clean and pure but does not flow regularly. The Adamu led-government seems to be spearheading a water revolution which could be further appreciated when its is further recalled that until some years back, the area was the leading endemic place for river blindness. Though the World Health Organisation battled it to a standstill prior to the birth of the state.

But nothing speaks more clearly for Nassarawa's fast development plan than the state's 2001 - 2003 Rolling Plan, of which the appropriation bill is part. Out of its seven objectives, top on the bill is the production of more food to ensure food security through increased land cultivation and supply of agricultural inputs.

Thus, it was in pursuit of this objective that the state recently performed the foundation laying ceremony of the Nasarawa Beef Processing Company at Musaka, Kara Local Government Area, late last month.

Mr. Dameshi B Luka, the state's commissioner for Agriculture, Water Resource and Rural Development explains the rationale for the company: "the plant when completed will have facilities for slaughtering, processing, packaging and storage with on-site energy generation. All the products to be delivered to the market will be value added. The plant would start with 200 heads of cattle per day within two years and grow to 400 heads per day to over the next five years".

Luka further explains, " historically, and at present, most if not all the citizens of Nassarawa State derive all or a major part of their income from farming or cattle herding." His ministry, he said will pursue a policy of integrated agricultural development of animal and crop production as a way of promoting socio-economic development of the state.

But Governor Adamu while insisting that the beef industry is poised to take up the opportunities in the market existing in the West Africa sub-region further said that the reason for the location of the factory near Abuja is part of his government's deliberate efforts not only to tap the huge commercial opportunities in the FCT, but also to create an enabling environment to arrest the social drift that has,engulfed the neighbouring towns of FCT due to the suffering of displaced persons who were forced off their lands to give way for the development of the FCT.

Indeed, development in Nassarawa is a multi-faceted issue embedded in the people's political and historical past But the union of the people's wish and Adamawa's vision has, indeed, produced a turbo-charged developmental matrix. Its rivetting colours are unfolding daily like the rose petals.