By Abdallah el-Kurebe

GOVERNOR Magatakarda Wamakko of Sokoto has been on his toes in the last 24 months of his administration in a bid to fulfill his campaign promises. One of his promises is development of infrastructure to accelerate rapid overall development of the state.

On this score, the governor has embarked on projects in various sectors of the economy. For instance, to reduce the deficit in housing, Wamakko constructed 30 units of houses in each of the 23 Local Council headquarters, built 500 houses at Bado, 500 at Mana and another 500 are being built at Kalambaina. This excludes the 300 houses built for flood victims at Tsaro village and 250 at Goronyo.

Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State

To enhance security, the governor donated 60 Hilux jeeps and 1,000 motorcycles to the Sokoto State Police Command and this is apart from assistance to other security agencies including DSS, NDLEA, Civil Defence, etc.

He has also embarked on a rural electrification programme that would provide 30 megawatts of electricity at the cost of N3.8bn. He has spent N200m on solar power projects for the state capital.

On roads, the state government has, to date, constructed 1,100km of roads across the state. This includes rural roads linking the 23 local councils which constructed through direct labour.

In the area of health, he provided mobile ambulances for general hospitals and buses for School of Nursing and Midwifery and Health Technology. He completed the Murtala Muhammed Hospital and introduced Free Medical Care (FREMCARE) and Rural Medical Care (RUMCARE) and constructed Primary Health Care Centres across the 23 local councils.

The governor, who has maintained cordial relations with the other arms of government, has also embarked on ambitious projects to end the problem of water shortage. He set up a committee and provided it with N500m to find lasting solution to problems of water shortage in the state. The committee drilled boreholes across the state, provided additional three water tanks to provide one million gallons of water each.

Solar boreholes were also drilled across the 23 councils and 20-million gallons per day water project is almost completed at Asare village. Other projects of the state government include provision of 150 18-seater buses for the state poverty eradication programme, 70 Peugeot taxi cars and 1,000 motorcycles for youths and commercial motorcyclists in the state; building of Sokoto State University, School of Agriculture and College of Legal and Islamic Studies.

To boost agriculture, the state government purchased 146 tractors and 20 rice milling machines and gave a loan of N1billion to farmers across the state.

ANPP, LP differ over Wamakko’s performance
Assessing the governor’s performance two years after, the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP and Labour Party (LP) differed. While Alhaji Yusha’u Ahmed, ANPP governorship candidate in the 2012 election in Sokoto said that the present administration had done nothing, the state Chairman of LP and Chairman of Association of Sokoto State Political Parties, Alhaji Ahmed Ciroman Tangaza, said that Wamakko’s administration had done so well for the people.

Said Ahmed: “Tell me, what the Administration has done; nothing! There has been no economic transformation neither has there been infrastructural development for the people of the state. This also affects the nation at the federal level.”

Disagreeing, Tangaza said: “Our opposition does not stop us from telling the truth. Wamakko’s administration has done so well. Are you talking about education, health, youth and women empowerment, security, agriculture and so on? He has performed creditably and if he had not, we will say so.”