Paying salaries, building flyovers is not achievements, Zamfara gov tells colleagues

The governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, has admonished governors and other political office holders in the country from presenting routine deliveries to the people they serve as achievements meant to be hailed.

The governor criticised the presentation of basic responsibilities such as salary payments and road construction as achievements, noting, that leadership should be measured by impactful and innovative solutions.

Sule spoke at the 59th inaugural lecture of Nasarawa State University, Keffi, on Wednesday where he reflected on governance and the need for leaders to go beyond conventional approaches in addressing citizens’ needs.

He said, “A rendered project that has no direct impact on the people you are leading is no service. Any time you see a governor saying that one of my achievements is that I pay salaries or provide water, power, building roads, even if they are flyovers, that governor doesn’t know the hell he is talking about.

“This is because that was what you were voted to do in the first place. So, just because you are paying salaries, building roads and other projects, you think it is an achievement? That is not the leadership that people are looking for.

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“But thinking outside the box to do things that people don’t actually expect that impact on them and what they do is what life is all about. That is what service is for.”

Sule cited interventions by his administration to address recurring challenges, including rebuilding markets prone to fire outbreaks.

He said the government replaced repeated financial assistance to affected traders with the construction of a modern market, which has since eliminated incidents of fire outbreaks.

“When I was living in America, every time I came home, I was told that our petty traders in the market always got their items burnt and the government would come in to support them. From N2m, we started going up to N5m and before I came, I think the highest was N10m, which was shared.

“After nine months or a year later, the market would get burnt again. And then, we would go back as the government, find something to give them and then continue. This was actually what was going on for a long time until we started thinking outside the box.

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