Gombe State governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, has been nominated by the New Telegraph Newspaper for the award of Governor of the Year 2023 on Education.
In a letter signed by the newspaper’s managing director/editor-in-chief, Ayodele Aminu, and addressed to the governor, the media house said Governor Yahaya’s giant strides in education couple with his determination to chart a new course in public service, built on integrity, transparency and the strong desire to improve the livelihoods of the people, informed his choice for the award.
“As Governor of Gombe State, you have improved the state’s rating in nearly all indices of human development and standard of living. It is on record that under your watch, Gombe State has witnessed giant strides in Education. Since your foray into politics, you have left no one in doubt of your determination to chart a new course in public service, built on integrity, transparency and the strong desire to improve the livelihoods of the people,” Aminu said.
The organisation particularly noted the following achievements of the governor in the education sector: construction and renovation of over 1,440 classrooms across the state; mopping up of over 350,000 out-of-school children; upgrade of five secondary schools to mega-school standards and construction of four special schools (to take care of special needs); recruitment of 1,000 teachers and strengthening of vocational and technical education through various partnerships like the Innovation in Development and Effectiveness in
Acquisition of Skills (IDEAS), which is a World Bank-assisted project.
According to Aminu, these and many other efforts, led to a number of positive outcomes in the education sector, including a sharp increase in the percentage of candidates in public schools who passed WASSCE with 5 credits or above including Mathematics and English from 28 percent in 2019 to 73 percent in 2021 and 78 percent in 2022, noting that the governor’s performance had become a reference point to his contemporaries across the North East region and Nigeria at large.
The governor will be presented with the prestigious New Telegraph award at a ceremony slated for Friday, February 2, 2024, at Balmoral Hall, Federal Palace Hotels, Victoria Island, Lagos.
