From Umar Dankano, Yola
The Acting Governor of Adamawa State, Hon. Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri’s scrapping of the Special Projects and Programmes Unit (SPPU) has been seen as setback to the empowerment and skills development drive embarked upon in the state which should be given priority by any Government.
The SPPU comprises of the Local Apprenticeship Scheme (LAS), Farm Skills Acquisition Centres (FSAC) and Technical Training Service (TTS) which trains thousands of Adamawa Youth various skills and entrepreneurial skills which was established by Former Governor Murtala Nyako’s administration. It could be recalled that, the new transitional Government announced the scrapping of the SPPU last week Thursday. A cross section of people who spoke on the scrapping of the unit said it was done in bad faith saying that they believed that the acting.
Governor was misadvised to scrap the unit as it was central to the empowerment of thousands of the state’s Youth, women and the less privileged in the society.
One of the beneficiaries, Hauwa Umar Jimeta said the scrapping of the unit came at the wrong time when unemployment is ravaging the state which consequently led to rise in criminal activities in the state.
Another beneficiary Martha Musa who learnt hairdressing with LAS, condemned the government’s action ascribing it as a bad omen to the people of the state who have been positively affected by the SPPU.
“I was shocked when I heard the news and will not hesitate to describe it as politically motivated. How can the acting governor who as a Speaker presided over a bill that approved LAS to be upgraded to anagency because of its remarkable achievement in poverty alleviation now turn around as an acting governor to kill it with the scrapping of SPPU.
“I expected him to assent to the bill if his predecessor has not done that. And if his administration has something with the person of former Gov Nyako or those Nyako appointed to run the unit, the right
thing to do is to replace them instead of throwing away the baby with the bath water”, Ibrahim said.
Some politicians also criticized the action and advised the acting governor to reverse the directive in the general interest of all as they advised the acting Governor to concentrate in organizing a free
and fair by-election instead of rushing to scrap programmes of his predecessor.
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