Mr. Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang is the executive Governor of Plateau State. In this interview with journalists, he speaks on ways ofimproving the infrastructure in the state, construction ofmodern motor parks, welfare of the citizens, like payment of backlog of pensions, among others. ONOJA AUDU brings the excerpts:
What has been the story since you came on board as Governor of Plateau State?
You know that governance continues daily. It keeps improving. It’s like a football club, every season, you see clubs buying new players because they need to improvethe competitiveness of the squad. I am happy with my squad; but I’m always looking for ways of improvement. As soon as we find ways in which we can improve, we will bring in the best hands that can be recruited
May we know what your administration is doing toaddress the quality of taxes imposed in the state?
On the issue of tax on land tenancy agreements, it’s not something that we created. I know that the Joint Tax Board – which is a national body ofall the states – usually they have all the tax heads in charge come together. Normally, if you have a tenancy agreement, it’s supposed to be registered with the government; and you are supposed to pay something on it. But I’m not sure that many landlords in operation today have tenancy agreements; and I can assure you, they are not paying anything to the government. So, if they are charging you extra, it is not because they want to pay the government. But we will soon be dealing with all the issues around tenancy rates in Plateau State. We are not going to leave it for landlords to take advantage of people. We are going to come into that space quite soon.
Recently, the government moved against the location of certain parks. What is the motive behind that action?
On the issue of illegal parks, let me say it loud and clear that we are going to regulatemotor parks. We have started; we shut down the one in NTA because unregulated motorparks are dens for criminality. We are not going to allow it tocontinue. We want toencourage those who were shut out of NTA Park to make use of the one in Jos South. It’s for your good and safety, because we want to make sure that both passengers and motorists are not put in danger. We want to appeal topeople who are operating those motor parks to know that their days are coming to an end. We’ll definitely get them out of those spaces. But let me also assure that we are going to create decent motor houses all over the city for people tohave access to. Again, on the issue of parks, we are also making arrangements toconstruct modern parks into the city gates from the Riyom, Bukuru, Mangu-Foron-Barkin Ladi, Zaria and Bauchi road axis. We are looking at how tobe able to bring modern facilities in that regard. Again, we like this to be private sector driven. That’s why it’s taking us a little bit of time because we want to cross the T’s and dot the I’s.
It appears school fees in the state are discriminatory. What can the state government do to address this?
Advertisement
Looking at it, should we scrap the said discriminatory policy of indigenous and non-indigenes? Those are things that we will continuously look into. I hope that we can get toa day that we can even say that primary education is free. Once we have the breathing space to effect that, why not?We’ll do that for the benefit ofthe people.
What is the deal for pensioners in the local and state governments? Do they have reason to smile under your government?
Pensioners at the local government are something that has challenged this administration very dearly. Wehave a backlog of over 15 billion naira at the local government; another, close to20 billion naira at the state level. We are looking for ways of how to clear those pension liabilities as much as we can. It’s not going to be easy; but we’ve started discussions with our financial advisors. And, so, we are looking at various options to deal with the pension issues with the local government autonomy that is up coming. It’s going to be a challenge; but we’ll look at it, and see how to navigate it.
What are your plans for the provision of water in the Jos/Bukuru metropolis?
We have already started totake a look at the issue ofwater supply on the Plateau, especially in the metropolis. It is a huge challenge on the ground. But we are working on it. What we have done is toreorganize the administrative machinery in the water sector. You may have heard that I appointed a Special Adviser on Water Management recently. It’s because of the kind of plans we have. Wecannot sustain urban water supply with boreholes. Wehave to have a comprehensive water scheme that can supply the city effortlessly. It is going to be challenging. With all the dams we have, we should be able to have sufficient and quality water supply on the Plateau. But the pipes to carry the water from Lamingo and Shen dams, and all the other dams, we have already put together; we are equally working on them. It is not a one day solution. But we hope that will really improve urban water supply by God’s grace.
There are some grant-aided missions and other private schools giving quality education, but they are limited. May we know if you are thinking of their sustainability?
I am a product of a grant-aided school. I went toGindiri, as you know, which is quasi-public school because it’s not an individual that owns it; and it’s not for profit. So, it’s something desirable. But we are working, trying, to first of all improve our financial capacity. Once we do that, weare going to look at how to be able to aid those schools. I believe in that policy; but wewill look at it within the limits of our resources. It may not be immediate; but we will certainly attend to it at some point in time. On the issue ofscholarships, certainly wehave improved on the scholarship scheme we met on ground because when wecame in, I think every student was being given four thousand naira, which was owed as at last year. I remember that I approved close to 300 million to be shared to students. Wehave also reduced the school fees for Plateau students in the tertiary institutions owned by Plateau. We are always looking at how to improvethat for the Law School students. Maybe because I’m a lawyer, you know, we’re able to pay some of their fees. And we are looking at how toencourage professional development of our students.
There are health concerns at the Jos Abattoir. What can you do to bring it tostandard using best practices?
I’ve listened to the pleas about the abattoir. One of the projects that are dear to me is that abattoir. We are going torebuild the abattoir to a modern facility. We are making arrangements to do that. You need to know this: presently big hotels like Transcorp import meat from South Africa. Because they claim that our meat production is not up to international standards. There are countries that are waiting to even import beef from Africa. And they have identified Plateau State as one of those states they can import beef from. Therefore, we are making plans to set up a modern abattoir which would mean that all the butchers will have to be trained and retrained. Some ofthem may have to run other ancillary facilities linked tothe abattoir. They need to also know that the butchery business is no longer going tobe for those who didn’t go toschool. So, they need to start improving on themselves now.
