The rising profile of Governor Sule

Tuesday Column By VICTORIA NGOZI IKEANO 

vikeano@yahoo.co.uk | 08033077519

Nasarawa State Governor, Engr. Adullahi A. Sule is among the increasing crop of top notch professionals that are now dotting our political landscape as former chief executives of blue chip companies, etc. Until some years ago Nigeria’s highly trained and experienced professionals in various field disdained Nigerian politics more or less, and watched events from afar as seemingly unconcerned persons. However, with increasing economic and social challenges confronting our nation, it became imperative for all hands to be on deck to help get the country out of the woods. Hence the rising number of technocrats and professionals that are now involved in governance.

When Sule was first elected in 2019 I wrote that he was most suited for the state at that time because Nasarawa state being one with about the least allocation from the federation account and largely a civil service state,  needed a management  expert as Sule  that can make efficient use of  its scarce resources. There is a difference between being efficient and being effective. Being efficient means making use of the least resources to achieve the most result which is the mantra in the private sector where the Nasarawa number one citizen came   from, as chief executive/managing director of a public quoted company in the Dangote group.  I also wrote in his first coming that the task  before him was to bring his wealth of experience in the private sector as both an industrialist and management expert to move the state to the next level which is industrialization, away from its tag as a civil service state.

Turakin Keffi, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, the state’s first democratically elected governor laid the basic foundation for the state from scratch (1999 – 2007) while Alhaji Umar Tanko Almakura a.k.a. Ta’al built on it by among others opening up particularly the state capital through construction of numerous roads thus banishing to the dustbin,  the capital city’s  rather derogatory appellation as a ‘one street capital’. And now Governor Sule is not only building on the works of his predecessors but taking it a notch higher. He started off with a planned investment drive to attract investors into the agricultural sector where the state has comparative advantage. And quite a number of them have set up shop in Nasarawa state. They include Dangote Sugar company, Azman rice, Flour Mills, etc., etc.

And now Governor Sule has veered into the oil and gassector. Large quantities of hardrocabons had been discovered in the Ebenyi Oil Well A in Obi local government area of Nasarawa state. Last year the spud in ceremony on behalf of then President Muhammadu Buhari (who attended virtually) by both the NNPCL chief executive, Melo Kyari and Governor Sule was undertaken at the site.  The well is said to harbour 13 billion barrels reserve capacity and considered to also have one of the finest types of oil. It is the second official commencement of oil drilling and exploration  in northern Nigeria after that of Bauchi that was similarly inaugurated by former president Buhari. Sule said some few weeks to his inauguration for a second term that drilling of the well is almost completed. It means that Nasarawa state would soon rank among oil producing states in Nigeria with concomitant benefits for both human and socio-economic development.

Recently, Governor Sule commissioned construction of 23 metric tonnes liquefied natural gas and 1,500 cubic metres liquefied compressed natural gas (LCNG) project in Lafia, the state capital. A memorandum on the project was signed last year with a private company under a public-private partnership (PPP). And construction works kicked off this July for this two million dollars investment facility. The project comes in handy and useful at this time when Nigeria is seeking to move away from petrol (PMS) as chief source of energy and looking to compressed natural gas as a cheaper and environment friendly alternative. Establishment of industries is the fastest means for development because of its multiplier effects. Undoubtedly, Governor Sule has performed creditably in attracting numerous important investments, leveraging apparently on his contacts as a hitherto top player in the industrial sector.

And now he is expanding his leadership acumen to core political field. He is currently chairman of the north central governors’ forum, comprising chief executives of Plateau, Benue, Kogi, Kwara states and of course Nasarawa state itself.  This gives him added responsibility and influence and by extension Nasarawa state. In this regard he averred that the zone should exert its relevance in the political and economic sectors. As the food basket of the nation, feeding the entire country the north central zone should use this advantage to command more respect from the nation with concomitant benefit for its citizens in terms of citing important federal projects in the zone. Additional the zone is the link between southern and northern Nigeria and so plays an important unifying role in Nigeria. Governor Sule has his job as chairman, north central governors forum cut out for him in view of the herders/farmers crisis, ethnic and communal feuds that threaten  its  once political, economic  role as titan in Nigerian generally, It devolves on the new chairman, Governor Sule to restore North central  zone to Nigeria’s pride of place. I believe he is up to the task. All things being equal his term as Forum chairman would terminate at end of his constitutional permitted second tenure as state governor on May 28, 2027. One can only wish him the best.