By Marie-Therese Nanlong, Jos

To contribute to the financial status of Plateau State, some Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of government hitherto not known for revenue generation have ventured into agriculture and others to source funds for their activities.

The State Ministry of Justice which was recently struggling to meet its basic needs has ventured into fish farming using the abandoned swimming pool in its premises to subsidize its allocation from the State budget.

The State Attorney General/Commissioner for Justice, Philemon Daffi disclosed this at the weekend during the second phase of the Town Hall Accountability Forum, organized by the Office of the Director-General, Research and Documentation (Governor’s Office) in collaboration with the Plateau Radio/Television Corporation, PRTVC, Jos.

Daffi, alongside his contemporaries in the Ministry for Higher Education, Kachollom Gang; Ministry of Agriculture, Samson Bugama; Ministry of Transport, Davou Jatau; Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Joshua Laven; Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Ephraim Usman; Ministry of Health, Cletus Shurkuk spoke while giving accounts of their stewardship.

Others who also presented their scorecards were the General Manager, of Plateau Express Services, Samuel Gwott; that of the Jos Metropolitan Development Board, Hart Bankat and that of the Plateau Environmental Protection and Sanitation Agency, Samuel Dapiya.

Daffi stated that besides gaining grounds in justice/legal matters and staff welfare, his Ministry had ensured a business-enabling environment by converting the abandoned swimming pool to a fish pond where over 5,000 fish are being farmed to be sold to the public and raise resources for the day-to-day running of the Ministry.

His Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs counterpart, Ephraim Usman disclosed that he has refurbished the offices to give staff a conducive working environment, and has commenced the process to digitalize court marriages and upgrade indigene certificates to curb the indiscriminate manner where a person has many indigene certificates to manipulate the system.

Usman among other things, lamented the lack of accountability in the local government areas and added, “We discovered virtually every Saturday, there are marriages at the Registry but you will not get a penny because no one accounts for the finance.

“So, we are digitalizing the marriage registries within Plateau State. On the issue of indigene form, every local government has its indigene certificate, which you can even go to business centres and print.
“We have gotten approvals to digitalize all the processes of issuance of indigene certificates. And that will be connected to your NIN, so that you will not have that of Jos North, and you will still have one in Kanam and have one in Mangu.”
He further stated that entitlements of local government staff and pensioners which have been sorted out and the filling of the vacant traditional stool of the Ngolong Ngas which had been left unoccupied for almost a decade were other pluses for his Ministry.
Cletus Shurkuk of the Ministry of Health added that among other things, plans are underway to reposition the Primary Healthcare Centres in the rural communities to deliver quality healthcare services to rural dwellers and stressed all is set for citizens to have access to quality and affordable drugs for the different ailments.
Other Commissioners and General Managers also spoke on their respective achievements.
Earlier, the DG, of Research and Documentation (Governor’s Office), Sam Godongs noted that the State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang is passionate about good governance, peace and security, virile economy, education, agriculture, and others hence the periodic reports make citizens to know what government is doing and government also gets feedback from citizens.
The Acting General Manager of PRTVC, Rita Pam commended Governor Mutfwang’s commitment to ensuring accountability and providing an enabling environment for citizens to actively participate in governance.
The Forum which was a live radio and television programme also had an interactive session where citizens asked questions and got clarifications on their concerns.