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| Dr Ado Abubakar |
I
have a zeal for grass roots development- Dr. Ado Abubakar
Ado Abubakar is a Surgeon and the
current executive Chairman of Wase Local Government Council. Recently, he spoke
with African Drum on why he abandoned his medical profession for politics and
his plans for the people of Wase. Enjoy the excerpts.
Sir, what are the problems you
inherited?
As
usual when you take over governance from a predecessor, you are likely going to
inherit both liabilities and assets. So, we have inherited a lot of on-going
projects at the grass root; we have inherited a lot of programmes introduced at
the grass roots by Federal, State and the Local Governments.
You are more than a month in office;
have you perfected ways of curtailing these problems?
The
first assignment ahead of us actually is to constitute a Council. What I mean
is to have full legislative and executive arms of the council. So far, we have
inaugurated the legislative arm and its leadership is already in place. We have
sworn-in our supervisory councilors but we are yet to appoint advisers and
other political appointments. We have constituted a team to look at the
challenges we met on ground and to look at the resources at our disposal to
give us a direction on how we can tackle the issues within these three months
before the end of the year. We are also planning towards the general elections
scheduled to take place in February next year. We are in the process of doing
our own budget for 2019. So, these are the three issues that have pre-occupied
our minds at the moment.
What really prompted you to contest for
the Chairmanship position and what is your blue print for the people of Wase?
What
prompted me to go into politics generally is the zeal that I have for grass
root development. I don’t want to be a pessimist who always sits on the
sideline and complain of what goes on at the centre and that is why I decided
to abandoned what I so much love (which is my profession, I am a surgeon) and
go into the turbulent waters of politics. Its all about the love that I have
for grassroots development. We started right from the time when I was chairman
of management committee where I did a lot of protects in my local Government
which I can’t list them all now because of time. But I want to assure you that
we are going to continue from there and make sure that we touch the lives of
our people positively.
Can you just be specific by mentioning
just two of your programmes for the people of Wase?
Well,
number, I would want to strengthen our infrastructures, our facilities
particularly in terms of health care delivery? We have a total of about 56
primary and comprehensive health centres. I intend to actually improve on the
services rendered by these centres to our people. I also intend to do a lot of
intervention programmes for the youths and women because Wase is one of the
Local Government areas in Plateau State that has suffered from crises and
whenever there is crisis, the youth and women are always the people at the
receiving end. So, since we have been able to restore peaceful co-existence in
our communities, the next task actually is to introduce some social
intervention programmes alongside those that are introduced by the Federal and
State governments so that we can at least revived the livelihood of our people.
Thirdly,
my community is largely agrarian and I intend to go into farming and cattle
rearing, (It’s not the local government doing that per se) but the local
government is to bring-in policies that will improve in these two areas. This, I
am sure is going to have a very enormous impact in our local economy. Finally
on this, I would also like to block the loopholes that we have in our revenue
generation system. And I believe that will go a long way to improving our
sources of revenue for development.
The general election is just about three
months from now. What are the plans on ground to ensure that your party, the
All Progressive Congress wins?
Well,
if you look at what we had in the last local government election, you will know
that my party, the All Progressive Congress has improved tremendously in Wase.
The gab between me and my opponent was more than the gap Buhari gave Goodluck
Jonathan in 2015 in Wase. It was the highest. However, mine is the highest now.
So, there is great improvement and we hope to have wider gap in the general
elections next year.
Sir, the issue of local Government
autonomy has been bordering the people at the grassroots. Now that you have
come on board as P.R.O. of ALGON, how do you intend to synergize or brain storm
to ensure that local Government autonomy see the light of the day?
Local
Government Council as provided for in our statutes book is under the state Assembly.
I am aware that before now, there have been agitations for autonomy for not
only the local Government but also for the legislature which they have secured.
I feel that the more devolution of powers from the centre to the periphery our
democracy is able to achieved, the more dividends of democracy to the
grassroots and I am sure the people of Nigeria would speak with one voice on
this an it will surely come to pass.
As a medical personnel, what plans do
you have for your people at the grass roots with regards to Health insurance
scheme since the state is already keyed to the policy?
If
you look at the Health Insurance Scheme, it’s a system that has been tested
over decades in developed worlds. And let me tell you, a common man affords
very expensive medical treatment regardless of his economic status simply
because of the scheme which is all over Europe and America. I think if we are
able to strengthen our own, we are also empowering the ability of the common
man on the street particularly in our rural areas to afford very expensive
treatment that ordinarily would not able to afford through his pocket. That is
the advantage of the scheme. It’s a pool from where monies can be paid for
treatment of individuals and it is contributed over a long period of time. Some
of the contributors might not even benefit but they have regularly contributed.
It is for this reason that a common man can be able to pay his bills despite
the fact that his in-come or earnings would not be able to take if he were to
pay from his pocket. That is the importance of the Health Insurance Scheme
world-wide and we also welcome it. I am sure it has been tested at the Federal
level particularly on Federal Civil Servants and now some states are embarking
on that from their staff and I am sure, the target of the Nigeria Medical
Association is actually to ensure every one in Nigeria benefits and not only
public or civil servants and I am sure they will hit that target in the course
of time.
In terms of water supply, your local
Government has a little challenge which previous administrations could not overcome.
Now that you have been given the opportunity, how do you intend to tackle this
problem?
To
say that the problem of water supply in Wase is little is an under statement.
It is a very big problem. But I am sure that with the inputs from various tiers
of Government, we would overcome the problem. I am aware even my member in the
House of Representatives was able to mobilize for many sources for us and we
have been able to get a lot of bore-holes, both motorized and hand-pump; dams both
water for Agricultural development and for consumption and I think he has done
much in that regard. But because of extend of lack of water in Wase that has
not been enough. Even at the Local Government level, we have done quite a lot
and now we are also getting another source which is going to be through the
Ranching Programme (you know Wase and Kanam are the two Local Government
choosing for the pilot scheme of the ranching programme in Plateau State) It is
a federal government and a comprehensive developmental project that involves
not only water for animal husbandry but also water for public consumption. So,
I believe through that, we would also have a lot of input into our local
Government areas. I also have in my budget quite a number of bore holes to be
cited across the length and breathe of the local government.
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