From Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
Barely Six weeks into office, the Taraba State Governor, Dr Kefas Agbu has been receiving plaudits for some pronouncements he has made especially the declaration of free education and slashing of school fees for the State owned University by half.
For a state that has suffered what many referred to as acute bad governance in recent years, any sign of light could trigger great excitement expectedly.
However, many observers are reluctant at celebrating as the challenges of correcting the past wrongs in the state are already enormous.
Former Nigerian Envoy to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Alhaji Hassan Jika Ardo recently said that Taraba State has never been more divided along ethno religious lines as it has been in the last Eight years under the reign of the former governor, Darius Ishaku.
“I have said this before and I am still saying that I am afraid at the level of deliberate divisions being created in the state because of personal interests. Religion has always been an issue but never as bad as it has become under governor Ishaku.
“Apart from religion, tribalism has become something else in this state. For you to get anything in the state, you must be from a certain tribe otherwise, it’s almost impossible. To the extent that even the throne that is traditionally meant for a certain tribe is being wrestled to be given to a different tribe.
“Unfortunately, these damages are easily caused but difficult to correct. You can see the level of ethnic hostilities across the state now. These divisions are sinking deeper by the day and correcting them won’t be so easy”.
Over the better part of the last decade, the state has contended with various ethnic crisis, from the Tiv/Jukun crisis, Jenjo/Wurkun crisis, Kuteb/Fulani crisis among several others. These have cost so many lives and damage to property as well as displaced so many.
Consequently, the task ahead of the governor would be to bridge the divisions, unite the people, build mutual trust and confidence among the contending sides and rehabilitate the displaced persons. For many, this is one of the most daunting challenges confronting the governor.
Another monster the governor will have to confront is insecurity. The Northeastern state of Taraba is the least affected directly by the Boko Haram insurgency in the region. Unfortunately, the relative safety of the state led to an unprecedented surge in the number of persons who came to take refuge in the state.
While most of the people came in because they were displaced by insurgents, other criminal elements also saw a safe haven and moved in with all sorts of criminal tendencies. Besides this, the ethnic hostilities also caused a rise in the number of illegal arms in the hands of predominantly idle youths.
All these factors, among others, have caused a surge in cases of kidnapping, armed robbery, and other security challenges in the state.
Closely related is the activities of killer herdsmen who have made farming in most parts of the state a nightmare.
For several consecutive years, farmers have lost their farmlands to killer herdsmen who attack and destroy whole communities and turn people’s farms to grazing grounds for their animals. Most people have been displaced for upwards of five years by either herdsmen or ethnic militias.
The resultant effects are a serious threat to food security and an unprecedented spike in the prices of food stuff in the state. For the last six years or more, the state has experienced a steady hike in the prices of food stuff and some families simply can barely feed now.
The task ahead of the soldier-turned- politician will be to tackle these security challenges, ensure the security of farmers and encourage people to go back to their farms as the state is basically an agrarian state and boost good production.
Already, the governor has started making frantic efforts to boost the agricultural sector in the state. Recently, the state signed an MOU with Czech Republic for the supply of over Eight hundred tractors to boost mechanised farming. But beyond supply of farm inputs and implements, the assurance of farmers safety is a requisite for a meaningful solution to be achieved.
Political animosity is another challenge the state governor may need to tackle for a smooth sail of his reign.
In the build up to the primaries of the PDP that produced the governor as the then candidate of the party, a lot of toes were stepped on and deep seated enmity created.
The alleged fall out of the governor with his predecessor has further highlighted the differences that could create deliberate efforts at sabotaging his every development move.
Recently, the governor appointed 21 Commissioners and no one who held any active position in the previous administration was returned.
According to a political analyst, Mr David Yakubu, “ the governor is definitely doing everything to demolish the political structure that existed under Darius Ishaku because he knows that if they make their way into his government, they will definitely do everything to sabotage him. That is the more reason he is bringing in entirely new people different from the so called stakeholders”.
The governor has also constituted a committee to wade into the crisis rocking the party in a bid to reconcile all aggrieved members. Political observers have however noted that he tactically constituted the committee after choosing his cabinet members.
Taraba State is considered one of the most backward states in terms of infrastructural facilities. Most of the local government areas lack access roads even as Jalingo, the state capital itself is nothing to write home about.
Taraba has suffered serious infrastructural deficit and decay. Currently, the state owned Jolly Nyame Stadium, the Specialist Hospital, the School of Nursing and Midwifery, and several other hospitals as well as schools, road offices are in dire need of renovation and rehabilitation.
In the last few years, the Taraba State Motel has been reduced to army barracks, while facilities at the stadium have deteriorated to a pitiable state. The state male and female football teams have also gone into near extinction literally.
It now beholds on the governor to make the hospitals functional, revive sports in the state and consequently renovate the stadium, construct roads, most of which contracts were awarded and commissioned without any reasonable level of work done.
In the midst of these, the state is confronted with a huge debt burden of over N200 billion with no visible investments, and other liabilities.
Currently, the state governor, Dr Kefas Agbu is negotiating with a consortium of banks to raise a facility of over N150 billion to enable him carry out some major projects. The governor has also gone round most schools in the state to have first hand assessment of the state of infrastructure and has declared a state of emergency on education in the state.
He has repeatedly said that he has a blueprint that is full-proof and he will change the narrative by tackling the issues and attracting investors and investment into the state but certainly, the damage that has been done to the state in the last decade will remain a growing monster he must undo in order to achieve the glowing plans he has for the state and her people.
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