Nasarawa State Governor, Engineer Abdullahi Sule has expressed satisfaction that Nasarawa State was lucky to receive funding from both the World Bank and Federal Government, following which more and more projects are to be executed by his administration in the new year.
Engineer Sule gave the assurance while presiding over the seventh and final state executive council meeting for the outgoing year, at the Government House, on Wednesday.
According to the Governor, with a lot of blackmail coming from the opposition, especially during the campaigns, his administration will not shy away from discussing projects being implemented because everything is being done transparently.
Nasarawa State Governor, Engineer Abdullahi Sule, has assured that he has nothing to fear because he runs a transparent administration, with every project undertaken openly discussed during the state executive council meetings.
“They (opposition) will say things and it’s up to us to defend what we are doing. If we are very transparent in what we do, we should not be afraid to discuss about what we are doing. That is why everything we do as a government, we discuss them at the exco meeting,” Engineer Sule stated.
He explained that a major reason for convening the executive council meeting, was for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to appraise the 2023 budget already passed by the Nasarawa State House of Assembly and ready to be signed into law on Thursday
Engineer Sule added that the meeting is also meant to review the budget passed by the assembly, especially since there was an upward review from the roughly N148bn submitted to the assembly, to N149bn.
“As you all know, we submitted a budget of roughly 148bn and currently we have 149bn as was approved. Definitely, there must be some changes, either deduction from some other areas or additions. We will discuss them further during the meeting,” he stated.
He said the executive council meeting became necessary in order to discuss several other projects that are coming earlier in the new year, mostly as a result of funds received by the state from both the World Bank and the Federal Government.
He further explained that security concerns, particularly in the western senatorial zone of the state equally necessitated the council meeting, to enable members to discuss further with a view to proffering solutions.
While thanking his Deputy, Dr..Emmanuel Akabe, who was Acting Governor when he was away in Saudi Arabia and curbing the security challenges, Engineer Sule disclosed that he found it necessary to meet with security agencies over the situation in Nasarawa West.
The Governor equally used the opportunity of the meeting to update the council members on the successes recorded by the state, especially as Nasarawa State, during the period under review, recorded zero infection, particularly regarding the outbreak of the seven major diseases namely measles, meningitis, cholera, Lassa fever, COVID-19 and very recently, the monkeypox.
He expressed appreciation that Nasarawa State continues to maintain its number position on the table of vaccination in the country, with 98 percent coverage.
The engineer used the opportunity of the meeting to thank officials of the state Ministry of Health and frontline health workers, for all the good work that they have done.
He particularly thanked the Executive Director of, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib, for the recognition accorded him recently at the head office of the agency, as well as what the council members have done, that is giving the state visibility and recognitions globally.
The Governor earlier requested for a one-minute silence to be observed in honour of the late Damishi Barau Luka, a former deputy governor of the state, who passed away recently.
