William Attah, Gombe
Stakeholders from Kaltungo and Shongom Local Government Areas of Gombe State have expressed a desire to see stronger workable systems in all sectors of the economy of the State.
Speaking differently to our correspondent on the sidelines of a stakeholders meeting held in Shongom and Kaltungo organised by Faida Community Development Association in conjunction with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), some traditional and religious leaders said they expect policies and programmes of Government to be more feasible in execution.
According to them, strengthening the system to allow policies and programmes to work would ensure that the development plan benefits the common man especially in the rural areas.
In the words of the District Head of Awak, Mohammed Adamu, “bringing fertilizer to the village has always remained a herculean task.” He said, in most cases, they don’t even get the one or at most the five bags that can help support their farming activities which is not encouraging at all.
He added that in the entire district covering about several villages and towns, there is only one Primary Health Care Centre, thus, making it difficult to travel long distances on bad roads to Kaltungo or Billiri General Hospitals with emergencies like child delivery for women. They are therefore in urgent need of a cottage hospital.
On his part, the Village Head of Wange town in Tula, Andrew Aliyu, said the forecast for his people in ten years to come is to see the establishment of more and better schools, provision of water and an improvement in their farming activities from the traditional to the mechanized throughout the villages.
For the religious leaders, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Chairman, Reverend Canon Sani Danladi and his counterpart of the Jama’atil Nasril Islam (JNI) Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim in Kaltungo said as long as there is consistent engagement, with the religious leaders coming together and rubbing minds, the followers will definitely follow suit thereby coexisting peacefully.
Reverend Canon Danladi said, “once different religious adherents are brought together, the followers will always follow suit. What is happening today, I’m assuring you that not just the development plan, we can plan all we can, but if there is no peace, the plan can be aborted”.
According to Umaru Ibrahim of JNI, ” since we now have a Governor whose target is always the truth and who pursues it, we hope that in the nearest future the fortunes of Kaltungo will be turned around.
He said, “we shall continue to ensure that our people stay peacefully with each other since we are one and God willing, peaceful coexistence will not be a challenge in Kaltungo LGA. We will even improve on that’.
However, in Shongom, respondents expressed need for urgent intervention in the areas of power (electricity), motorable roads and addressing of erosion menace.
Most of those who spoke to our correspondent commended the initiative to plan for them. They said, ” we have suffered infrastructural neglect the most for so long and if this plan would consider our inputs from the grassroots and implement them, this will be the best thing that has ever happened to us”.
No fewer than 468 persons, 234 from each of the two LGAs participated in the stakeholders meeting.
