Adamawa recently experienced another flood disaster. What is the state government doing to cushion the effect on those affected?
This is one government that has been very serious with its approaches to things that affect lives and the environment. Most of what is happening to us, as far as the flood disaster is concerned, is natural, and some is man-made. Some people have built their houses on waterways, and this has taken a long time without government agencies’ control. Some traditional institutions are involved in selling these lands to these innocent citizens, especially when we experience long years of insufficient rainfall and when floods do not happen, and people think these are comfortable places for them to build houses. One good thing is that government agencies never approved these places. This doesn’t mean, however, that if people fall into calamity, the government won’t be there to rescue them. We’ve provided immediate shelters at IDP camps and other forms of support to those affected by the flood. They will also receive recovery support that will help them rebuild and resume their livelihood. We have set aside a chunk of the supplementary budget to assist in recovery. As soon as the rainy season is over, we will demolish structures blocking waterways so rainwater can flow properly and help minimise future occurrences. Again, this government has built Water storm canals of over 20 kilometres across the state, mainly in the capital, Yola. We went to the extent of desilting existing water canals to have free water flow to prevent further flooding. Measures are taken to cushion the impact on those affected and guard against future occurrences.
Are there plans to relocate people from flood-prone areas?
First, we are enlightening people about resisting the urge to build in flood-prone areas. We will collaborate with the traditional institutions, the leaders, and other prominent people to talk to those in areas susceptible to flooding. We will acquire plots, do a proper layout, and then ask them to relocate. Still, we have been asking them to leave the flood-prone areas and move to the uplands. We wish to plan it out, to move them to where they can have permanent comfort. This year alone, we lost close to 28 lives, which is very disheartening. We will not allow it to continue, so we will do what is constitutionally right to support them in relocating. However, first, we must educate them and enlighten them on the dangers of where they are. Yes, some have built their houses out of ignorance because they did not know these are waterways. It happens because people can cheat when they have the opportunity. They may have sold these lands during the dry season, when the place is comfortable, as anywhere around the state.
With the increased menace of insecurity, do you think the nation should consider establishing state Police as clamoured for in some quarters?
I have mixed opinions. The way the federal government is running the police, only using them to go after their perceived enemies, I would say I want state police. But in these times that we are going through, economic challenges, if you have state police today, how do you manage it when some states cannot sufficiently provide for their civil servants? I will, however, add that state governments already heavily fund the police. Without the state government, no state command can function in terms of logistics and running costs. So, what is the federal government doing? However, on state police, if created, there will be conflict of interests. By the time you provide arms for people who will be half-baked and poorly equipped, and especially in this political era, the police could start going after political opponents. This is my fear, but if you can restructure the federal police to make it more effective, it will be better for this country. Let us first get over the proliferation of crime around the country. There is hardly any state today where you don’t find one particular endemic crime, which I may talk about as state crime going on. Let us as a country get over these crimes, and then we can sit down and see how we can reform the police. So, I am not for state police at the moment.
Why is your administration focusing more on building infrastructure instead of prioritising human capital development?
You are not being fair to the government’s approach. We devised very clear programmes which we crystallised into an eight-point agenda. This defines all facets of life. This state has been christened a civil service state. Why should we be a civil service state when we have boundaries with international communities and a population of over five million people, and our cattle business is doing well? People are coming from Lagos to buy cattle here. People are coming from the East to buy their grains and cotton here. So, why should we not open the state as an investment destination? To do that, we have to build world-class infrastructure so people will not meet you living in a slum. They would not wish to invest. So, we must change our development approach to build our world-class infrastructure around the state capital and other parts of the state. And link our local areas to the local government headquarters through rural roads. That’s why in the first instance; we built over 360 kilometres of roads linking our rural areas so that they can easily evacuate their agricultural produce and the city can look attractive. A lot of people are coming to invest here. Many hotels are opening, and existing ones are changing to 3- and 4-star status. You also see lots of standard restaurants. You see many mini markets and supermarkets adopting the modern approach. This is what we need. This is how we feel we can attract people and investments to our state. This is the thinking behind our focus on aggressive infrastructure upgrades.
…And what are you doing in the area of human capital development?
This is one government that has also done a lot on human capital. We have done a lot to help our micro-business owners, women and young people, to grow their businesses. This is human capital. We have sent hundreds of students to India to study medicine, engineering, and so on, and they have graduated. Some are serving, some are about to go for service. Now we are sending 320 of our students to Australia, Canada and other countries, to go and do their master’s degree in various areas, including architecture, ICT and other areas of need to the state and the nation. We have been paying our pensioners their monthly pension promptly. We are paying salaries as and when due. We are attending to the welfare needs of our workers. So, what is more human capital than these things? Everybody has attested to what we have been doing regarding infrastructure and human capital. We are not saying we are there yet but hope to be there. By the end of 2027, if we have another serious-minded governor who will come and do the same in eight more years, we can become the best. Even now, we are the best in so many areas. Today, in terms of healthcare delivery, global agencies have rated us the best in the Northeast. In terms of financial transparency, we are the best in northern Nigeria. We have also earned recognition as the best in the areas of good governance, infrastructure development and prudent economic management.
Adamawa State has very high agricultural potential. What is your state doing to effectively harness this?
This is one key area that we have given earnest attention to. Apart from the ministry that is anchoring agriculture, we have a food security committee made up of highly experienced people. They have been sitting as a committee and advising the government on what to do to ensure that we produce enough for us to consume and to sell to other parts of the world. This approach has led to cultivating 300 hectares of fresh farmlands across seven pilot local government areas, where we allocate one hectare to the youth. We even provide farm inputs for free. We intend to do that for two years. And we will continue to expand to other local government areas. We feel that if we support our youth in that sector, we are creating job opportunities to give us sufficient food production. We did not stop there. We have also reorganised our cattle and produce markets, restructured them and incentivised our farmers.
Regarding cattle production, lack of grazing reserves is one key challenge which has fueled farmer-herders clashes. What is Adamawa doing to ensure that grazing reserves remain intact?
Most of our grazing reserves in the state are still intact. And we have established some new ones where the herders conveniently move. You may notice that the tension between farmers and herders in this state has gone down drastically. The relationship is so cordial now. Not only have we established new grazing reserves, but we have also been developing them, putting highly nutritious grasses for the herds to graze. We are also trying to harness the value chain in the cattle business end-to-end. Today, we can make Adamawa a hub in the country. Today we have 32 cattle markets, which we have developed and provided modern facilities. We have scheduled for commissioning, in November, one of the largest cattle markets in Africa. All the facilities you can think of are there, supported by the African Development Bank. We will be feeding Lagos from only one of our markets. Now, we are talking with some investors in Egypt and Malaysia to come and build an abattoir. One of them will have the capacity to slaughter about 2000 cows, another will have capacity for 1000 cows, which means we will be slaughtering 3000 cows per day in Adamawa. And they will be moving this product to Abuja, Ibadan, and Lagos. This is what we intend to do in the animal sector.
What is the idea behind the Model Schools Project which seeks to offer pre-nursery, nursery, primary and even junior secondary school?
When I came in, I was confronted with a very frightening figure. UNICEF said we had half a million out-of-school children. I was baffled. This is a state with enthusiasm for Western education. I inaugurated a small committee to look at the situation. I knew that the governments I inherited did not access UBEC funding for five years before I came. I had to ensure we access the counterpart funds from UBEC. It helped us build or rehabilitate 5000 classrooms so our children can be comfortable. I went further to subsidise education and, more or less, make it free. These were incentives to return the young ones to school. We went ahead to identify some legacy schools in the state, and voted large sums of money in the budget to ensure that we rehabilitate and furnish such schools. We recruited about 2000 teachers to fill gaps. Following my efforts, even UNICEF itself had to come to rehabilitate schools in two LGAs of Fufore and Guyuk and do quite several other things. But we were not done yet. We felt a need to build new schools, expand opportunities, and provide incentives to make children want to go to school, hence the decision to build the Model School, one in each LGA, for our children to start school from Creche to nursery to primary school to junior secondary school.
The schools have staff quarters, complete with sporting facilities. This September, we are opening the schools. This is the way we feel we should open the space, so parents and students will have no excuse. not to come back to school. It will interest you to know that last year, UNICEF gave us a very favourable assessment by saying that now we have fewer than 50,000 out of school; the best in the North after Kogi. I believe that by the end of September, October, when we will have opened these new schools and our students will come back to school, the number of children not in school will drop to almost zero, because this is a state that I still feel has no reason not to embrace education. Mainly because this is a state where we have made a law that all our children must have compulsory basic education. We did not stop there. We are building three mega schools, one in each of the three senatorial zones. One will be dedicated to girls, to be called the Science and Technical College, only for our girl children, so that in the next five to eight years, when you bring your wife to the hospital, she will be attended to by a lady like her. We made it so that any girl who has nine credits can enjoy our scholarship. The programme has been on for the last four years. Any female student, we will even look for admission for you when you get nine credits. We will be handling your tuition, feeding, accommodation, and upkeep. If I have a whole day, I can tell of the space we provide for our people to thrive. We came prepared to govern and improve our state and our people. And we have followed our programmes religiously.
What is your vision for Adamawa youth?
I want to take them to greater heights. I have told you why I am investing heavily in their education. The first thing is to ensure that they are properly grounded in terms of skills and general education. Once you do that, they can even stand on their own. Today, in my cabinet, half of my commissioners are youths. More than two-thirds of my advisers are youths. Almost all my senior special assistants are youths. The chairmen of the local governments are youths. All the vice chairmen who are women are youths. And now we have opened more opportunities for them. I am employing more than 5000 youths in the state civil service. I have given them the directive to use 2000 in the health sector. The health management board has opened their portal. We have really positioned our youths to be first.
Why has the PDP failed to provide vibrant opposition as expected of it?
I am an experienced politician in this game. After 2023, when we lost the election, losing brings its pain, but there are legal ways to try to get justice. If that fails, you can take your time, restrategise for the next opportunity, but there are people who believe in pushing the government not to perform. But we know that playing such a a game will affect the ruling party and the country itself. If the president gets it wrong, we will all get it wrong and suffer for it. So, some of us said no, let’s allow him to govern. This is where we disagreed with those who feel this country belongs to them and they must be president, or it is their time to be president, and they were not fairly treated at the election. No. You have lost power; whatever happened. You have to respect the person who is there so he can govern well. If he is making a mistake, you point it out, which is what the PDP has been doing. Even I have had to point out corrections. So, who is PDP? When individuals like us talk, are we not PDP? We talk as a party and as individuals, but it is not for the party or its members to seek to stand in the way of the people and government and try to stop progress. I won’t do that. No reasonable person should do so. The party is coming back. Is the party not moving forward? Are we not doing congresses to reposition? Wait and see. You will see the momentum that PDP will soon bring into the system.
What should Nigerians expect from the PDP after the convention?
We will have a brand-new PDP. A well-rounded party ready to give a credible alternative government to Nigerians. And Nigerians trust us. Nigerians like us.
You are serving your second and final term as governor. What’s next for you?
The next step for Governor Fintiri is to see that I end well. I finish my projects for the good people of my state. I ensure that those children not in school are back in school, to ensure that I provide enough manpower by sponsoring our students to go higher with quality education in different fields so that we can achieve the Adamawa of our dream.
