Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State has said the Governor of the Year award conferred on him by LEADERSHIP is a motivation to do more.
Lawal stated this on Wednesday when he received the award letter from the management of LEADERSHIP Media Group, led by its Editor-in-Chief, Azu Ishiekwene, in Abuja.
An elated Governor Lawal said, “The award will encourage me to do more. It means we are doing something good and people are watching us. I will keep doing more and show people that it is doable.
“I am grateful for the award especially as it comes as evidence of what we have done in office for the people of Zamfara State.”
Lawal said he was delighted that his administration’s modest efforts in changing the narrative of Zamfara had earned him the award, adding that he would do more.
“We are just laying the foundation, because we need to bring Zamfara back to the map,” he said. “The first thing we did was education. Before now, for eight years, our students could not get their WAEC certificates and for two years, they also had issues with their NECO certificates. I had to pay N4 billion to resolve these challenges.”
Speaking on some of the challenges he faced, the governor said “I inherited only N4 million when I took over. Civil servants were paid poorly and infrequently; there was no water and even the hospitals were operating under very terrible conditions.”
Lawal said he inherited a bloated civil service, adding, “A state of about six million people, had 48 commissioners, 52 permanent secretaries. I had to do a lot of restructuring to bring the state back to the right path and control wastage.”
While listing some of his administration’s achievements, Governor Lawal said, “We are one of the best in revenue with over 300 per cent increase. We have built or rehabilitated over 500 schools, we have projects of about N10 billion in each local government in the state. All these we are doing despite the fact that N 1.2 billion is deducted monthly for payment of debts from our federal allocations.
“In terms of security, it has improved now as we employed our own security outfit. Between 2011 and when we took over,no pension and gratuity was paid. We have paid over N13.6billion to clear all the backlog. Even though we have challenges, we are working to ensure that the people get the benefit of governance.”
Earlier, Ishiekwene said the award was in recognition of the good work the governor had done in the critical sectors of security, education , health and infrastructure, adding that LEADERSHIP believed the press has a responsibility to hold the government to account and also to encourage government when it is doing well.
The LEADERSHIP team included the Vice Chairman, Mr. Mike Okpere; the GMD, Mr. Muazu Elazeh; the Director Conferences, Mr. Abraham Nda-Isaiah, and the Senior Director, Advertising, Fadilah Ismail.
