By Marie-Therese Nanlong

AS Governor Simon Bako Lalong takes oath of office for his second term today, the tasks before him are clearly marked out. One of the major disturbing issues in the state since 1999 is insecurity, which has worsened in the last three years.

During his first tenure, the All Progressives Congress, APC, governor came up with a five-pillar policy thrust of “Peace, Security and Good Governance; Human Capital Development and Social Welfare; Agriculture and Environment; Entrepreneurship and Industrialisation and Physical Infrastructure and Environment.”

Lalong

Although some efforts were made to meet the target of the policy thrust, critics are of the opinion that no significant results were achieved hence the fierce battle by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to reclaim the seat from him. Having won the seat, the Governor is faced with the task of proving his critics wrong by compensating the citizens’ gesture with purposeful leadership and good governance.

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The tasks before him are enormous especially in areas of addressing the perennial insecurity, bearing in mind that if the herders/farmers conflicts are not addressed, the danger of food shortage and worsened security situation looms. The state’s economy too needs to be improved; tackling the menace of drug abuse among youths cannot be ignored, mechanism to facilitate good neighbourliness among the diverse peoples of the state must be established and sustained and above all, he must judiciously manage the state’s resources to create wealth for the generality of the people.Yoruba youths hail Fayemi’s election as governors’ forum chairman(Opens in a new browser tab)

Again, he has to keep to his promise of completing the uncompleted projects which were initiated by both himself and his predecessor, Senator Jonah Jang among which are the construction of major roads in the state, rebuilding the burnt Jos Main market, buying back the hitherto state-owned BARC Farm, creating employment and providing enabling environment for businesses to thrive, re-positioning the tourism sub-sector for expanded business activities, rural electrification, tackling indiscriminate waste disposal, sustained payment of salaries, gratuity and pension as well as robust government-workers relationship for improved productivity.