In Gombe, Yahaya Unveils 10-Year Development Plan

Ismaila Uba Misilli, Director-General, Press Affairs, Government House, Gombe highlights the importance of the recent 10-year development plan for Gombe State unveiled by Governor Inuwa Yahaya

The challenge of underdevelopment in Gombe State is getting a pragmatic attention with the launch of the state’s 10-year development plan, a long term vision to reposition the state for growth and sustainable development.

Encapsulated in a document titled Gombe State Development Plan (GSDP) 2021-2030, unveiled by the state governor, Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya, at an event in Gombe, the state capital, the document represents an ambitious plan, loaded in socio-economic aspirations and broad in clear objectives.

It is actually a fitting answer to the remodeling of the state’s pathway towards a realistic and consistent socio-economic development paradigm, properly articulated as a long term visioning and planning that draws on the findings of the 2019 Needs Assessment Report commissioned by Governor Yahaya immediately he was declared governor-elect.

Thus the new document was built on the outcome of a state-wide consultation process that involved a broad section of the Gombe society including the private sector, civil society, community associations, state and local governments and the general public.

A major interest in the document is the fact that it mirrors the essentials of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the basic categories as index of development, which incidentally also has same year 2030 as expiration date for relevant assessment and reflections on the inherent aspirations and deliverables.

As stated in the foreword to the document by Governor Inuwa Yahaya, “The Gombe State Development Plan, with a vision of growth, development, peace and prosperity for all, maps out the way forward for Gombe State and its people to realize their full potentials.

“Its implementation, strategies, with specific policies and targets are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the first by any state in Nigeria. This is also the first plan by any state in Nigeria that is modeled and costed by putting into consideration the Integrated Sustainable Development Goals (iSDGs)”.

Thus the scope of the GSDP is comprehensive and embraces all the main drivers of development in the state as it sets up a definitive paradigm for decision making and resource allocation as a basic reflection of the philosophy and policy of the Yahaya administration and in tandem with the collective aspirations of the good people of Gombe State.

The mission and vision of the plan further reveals the big thinking of the state government which the documents says is to respectively “transform Gombe into a highly educated, innovative, healthy and prosperous state propelled by peace, efficient infrastructure, sustainable environment and good governance” and “to create an enabling environment for sustainable peace, cohesion and an allinclusive development for the people of Gombe State.”

In specific terms, the document identifies five development pillars upon which the GSDP revolves, a strategic linkage of socioeconomic and administrative anchorage that is also built on the model of the UN’s SDGs as a global trend.

The pillars are those of Economic Development, Infrastructure Development, Social Development, Sustainable Development and Governance, Administrative and Institutional Development pillars.

Each of the pillars has a wide range of underlying activities that border on the greater good of the people as government performs its duties within some basic institutional framework detailing the policy thrust, policy target and policy objectives and overall betterment of the people.

In this regard, agriculture has topics like crop production and animal husbandry and fisheries. Then there’s manufacturing, oil and gas, solid minerals, commerce, trade and industry, micro, small and medium enterprises, tourism and cooperatives. Under the Social Development category are health, education, science and technology, entrepreneurial development, youths and sports, women and children, social protection/ safety nets as well as security and safety, law and order and justice.

Besides, the infrastructure pillar encompasses issues like water resources, transport, electricity and power, renewable energy and ICT.

Just as agriculture as the mainstay of the Gombe economy got the right attention as specified in the document, infrastructure and sustainable environment in the state are equally important and duly accorded relevance , the latter in particular being critical as a factor of recent concerns on the danger which environmental degradation poses to the people in the state. Consequently, issues like flooding and drainage, erosion control and climate change policy objectives are of major interest in the document.

And considering the challenge of water provision until the Yahaya administration came on board, it is gratifying that the development plan reckons as policy objective “to achieve sustainable provision of water for domestic, agricultural and industrial purpose to improve growth and development by 2030”. Interestingly, all the stated major pillars of development including the critical infrastructure needs have such ambitious accomplishment target at the expiration of the development span in the next 10 years.

Overall, the purpose of the GSDP 2021-2030 is to set out the long-term spatial planning framework for the state between 2021 and 2030, the document says, adding that “this will signpost the quantity, quality and location of the development plan, and ensure that provision of infrastructure is aligned with growth.”

“This will provide a mechanism for coordinated decision-making on all aspects of social and economic life, including investment”, the document emphasizes.

Under the sub-title, “Development Strategy: From vision to Policy”, the document spells out the strategic direction to follow in achieving the various development pillars of the plan.

While the economic development pillar will promote investments in sectors that can create income and employment opportunities to reduce poverty, the infrastructure development pillar deals with provision of critical infrastructure that is affordable, accessible and capable of catalyzing public and private investments in productive sectors. Whereas the social development and welfare pillar is meant to facilitate investments in education, training and skill acquisition programmes, provision of efficient healthcare services and social safety nets to improve the welfare, including the security of the people. Yet the strategic direction of the sustainable environment pillar is improved management of the environment to ensure a clean, healthy and sustainable environment that incorporates the key issue of climate change and its dynamics. Lastly, the governance, administration and institutional capacity pillar relates to the creation of a workable and accountable governance framework for the attainment of the GSDP through: deepening democratic systems, building effective institutions, promoting human rights, strong civil society, rule of law, fighting corruption and strengthened access to media and information.

Obviously, the collective of the Gombe people have been given the opportunity to participate in the process and play crucial roles in their future.

“The strategic direction is predicated on an understanding of the fundamental developmental needs of Gombe State, which is to create a strong economy that will in turn create jobs and wealth, and so help the state to fulfill its other responsibilities and goals’, the document stated.