Kaduna State governor, Uba Sani, has advised the North-West Development Commission, (NWDC), to collaborate with the state governors of the geo-political zone in order to succeed.
Speaking when the commission’s Board, led by its Chairman, Lawal Abdullahi, paid a courtesy call at Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, the Governor explained that as elected Governors, they know areas where the zone is lagging behind, saying that if they come up with programmes as a Board without working with the governors to have common programmes and agenda, they may not succeed.
According to him, “The people will not own such programmes which do not have the input of Governors; and as such, they will not support them no matter how they are conceived”.
He stressed the need for the Commission to conduct a needs assessment of what the people want, by holding town hall meetings and getting inputs from the Governors, assuring that they are ready to give them 100% support. “I know that you are also discussing this with relevant stakeholders, but there are no stakeholders in this critical situation other than the Governors”, he added.
Governor Sani advised the Board to come up with its programmes so that they will sit down as North-West governors, and where they need to make an input they will do so.
The chairman of the Board, Lawal Sama’ila Abdullahi, assured Governor Uba Sani of the Commission’s loyalty to the Governors of the geo-political zone, explaining that his Commission’s mandate is “intervention, collaboration and support”. He added that they are ready to assist in every aspect of national development that will benefit the people, based on the Governors’ guidance.
He assured that most of the hurdles have been substantially surmounted and in a few months, it will be fully operational as they are struggling to take-off, and promised to reach out to the Governors through Governor Uba Sani, to fashion out a 10-year Development Plan “that will be achieved collectively”.
