The recent ranking of Gombe State as number 1 in the North East sub- region and 7 in the entire Nigerian federation in good governance, fiscal probity and financial prudence in public service expenditure on the Transparency and lntegrity Index has been adjudged as a positive offshoot of Governor Muhammadu lnuwa Yahaya’s holistic civil and public service reforms geared towards ensuring a more efficient, credible and responsive service delivery to the Gombe people.
According to the Centre for Fiscal Transparency and Integrity Watch (CETIW), the annual Transparency & Integrity Index is aimed at promoting transparency, monitoring public sector expenditure and strengthening the integrity mechanisms of public institutions.
In the exercise, the Centre used data available from official websites of state governments and federal MDAs to establish the extent of institutions’ disclosure of vital information relating to good governance within the public domain using 5 variables namely; Website Integrity, Fiscal Transparency, Open Procurement, Anti-Corruption, Human Resources and Inclusion, Citizens Engagement, and Local Government Transparency.
As indicated in the rating of the 36 states of the federation, Gombe State is ranked 2nd in fiscal transparency, 3rd in citizens engagement and 6th in website integrity.
This latest independent assessment of the information obtained from the official website of the Gombe State Government is a further proof of the commitment of Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya’s administration to improving transparency and accountability.
Indeed, there is ample cause to celebrate this fortuitous ranking as it has moved Gombe State four steps upward from No 11 to No 7, a veritable sign that the state is reaping bountifully from Governor lnuwa Yahaya’s incredible foresight in linking a re-invigorated and repositioned civil and public service with swift economic growth and rapid infrastructural development of a state or nation.
Before he assumed office as the 4th Executive Governor of Gombe State, a forensic-minded Inuwa Yahaya burnt the midnight oil for quite some time, studiously noting the imperatives, strategies and policy thrusts of governments and administrations around the globe that had succeeded in transforming their states or nations into the economic juggernauts that they are today and he paid particular attention to Southeast Asia were countries like China, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea and Malaysia had lifted millions of their citizens out of poverty and into prosperity in less than two decades.
For instance, Singapore under the ever watchful gaze and supervision of the renowned statesman, Chief Minister Lee Kwan Yew established an incorruptible and efficient civil service, a network of roads, railways, airport, seaports, waterways, a sound educational system, state-of- art health care services and social and environmental facilities of the highest order that propelled the city–state to first world status.
Governor Inuwa Yahaya saw the Singapore model as a fitting example of what modern Gombe State should look like and so it came as little surprise that when he took office, the Gombe helmsman hit the ground running with the formulation and implementation of a vast array of policies, projects, programmes, initiatives and reforms geared towards lifting the state’s economy from the doldrums; raising its GDP to record levels, putting solid infrastructure in place while ensuring that the industrial and agricultural sectors were reinvigorated thus raising the living standards of the rural and urban folks alike.
One of the key lessons absorbed by the savvy Governor Inuwa Yahaya during his treatise on Singapore was that the most effective way of guaranteeing the fast track economic growth and infrastructural transformation of a state is the enthronement of a virile, productive, efficient and incorruptible civil service, without which any policy or structural reform would be a waste of time akin to erecting a structure on shaky foundations.
Thus one of his first priorities was urgent civil service reform and this was kickstarted with the establishment of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) which took the lead in identifying those sectors in need of drastic reform and implementing them without let or hindrance and at full capacity.
Previously the Gombe civil and public service was bloated, politicized, unduly competitive with unhealthy inter- agency rivalry, lack of proper working tools, a demoralized workforce, haphazard payment of salaries and emoluments and an inherited huge backlog of unpaid pensions and gratuities.
Without much ado, a determined Governor Inuwa Yahaya engaged full gear in driving lasting reforms in the Gombe civil and public service, streamlining appointments, ensuring that professionalism prevails over politics, provision of state -of -the- art office equipment to all echelons of the workforce, ensuring the prompt payment of salaries and emoluments and beginning clearing the huge backlog gratuities, a feat unprecedented in Gombe history.
Crucially, Governor Inuwa Yahaya has enthroned a durable system that enthrones probity, transparency accountability, due process and the rule of law, that permeates deployments, transfers and promotions as well as contract awards, tenders procurements and pre-qualifications in the entire length and breadth of the civil and public service.
The happy result is that the Gombe civil/public service is one of the most professional, most efficient and most responsive in the nation which has translated into swift socio-economic growth, infrastructural transformation, rapid industrialization and a corresponding rise in the GDP, GDI and living standards of the Gombe people to the extent that Gombe State is fast approaching the enviable status of the Singapore of the Sahara having emerged as the most investor-friendly and most favoured destination for foreign direct investment in Nigeria as evidenced by the immensely successful outing of the first Gombe Investment Summit ‘GoInvest2022’ which attracted the movers and shakers of the global, sub-regional and national corporate, financial, industrial and manufacturing elite.
With the auspicious ranking of Gombe State as No. 7 by the Centre for Fiscal Transparency and Integrity Watch (CETIW), coming on the heels of the superbly successful Investment Summit and Gombe State’s enviable status as the No 1 in the Ease of Doing Business Ranking, it is clear that Governor lnuwa is walking his talk in the probity, transparency accountability, due process and the rule of law regimen of the global comity of nations.
– Misilli is DG Press Affairs, Government House, Gombe
We’ve got the edge. Get real-time reports, breaking scoops, and exclusive angles delivered straight to your phone. Don’t settle for stale news. Join LEADERSHIP NEWS on WhatsApp for 24/7 updates →
Join Our WhatsApp Channel
