Rising Population Overstretching Our Services, Infrastructure, Says Bauchi Gov

Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed, has said the rising population of the state is overstretching government services and infrastructure. Mohammed stated this yesterday, when he received members of the National Institute for Security Studies (NISS) at the Executive Chambers of Government House, Bauchi.

The governor said the population of Bauchi State had risen from the official record of 6.5 to about 10 million.

“We have the highest number of out-of-school children and, therefore, there is unemployment and youth restiveness,” he stated.

Mohammed said there were existing gaps in infrastructure and services, particularly health, education, and transportation, adding that his administration is doing everything possible to close the gaps.

According to him, "We have created a government that is looking comprehensively at all the MDAs to identify where and which gaps exist in education and health.”

The added, “We have discovered that we have not been able to access monies from government institutions and agencies that are giving counterpart funding to us, especially UBEC and SUBEB, and we have accessed over N19 billion during the period that we are because we provided the counterpart funding."

Mohammed said his administration had built over 600 blocks of classrooms in primary schools, saying this is huge given the reduction in the number of students. He said the state government had, in collaboration with the World Bank, through the

N-SHIP programme, UNICEF, and WHO, built over 300 primary health centres that were fully equipped.

He said, "With the establishment of drug revolving fund, if you go to local governments you will see well established clinics and health facilities that are at per with the those at the city centre."