SENATOR AL-MAKURA: THE PACESETTER AND HIS INDELIBLE FOOTPRINT AND HARD WORK IN NASARAWA STATE.

There can never be options to governance outside a brilliant performance with a standing and visible records that cut across physical structures and human development. Governance today entails inclusive sectoral enhancements that add values to people’s standard of living. Nasarawa State amongst others from Central Nigeria has been lucky with unprecedented rise in development and human empowerment in less than 30 years from creation in 1996.

Notably, Nasarawa State began attracting the interest of foreign and local investors when world state of the art facilities through deliberate policies to advanced infrastructures, socio-economic and creating enabling environment for businesses to thrived was orchestrated by the then administration of Alhaji Umaru Tanko Al-Makura from 2011 to 2019. And to his credit, many top politicians in Nigeria have described Senator Umar Tanko Almakura as the most successful Governor in the class of governors in his generation (1999-2019). It was and still on record that during his tenure as Nasarawa State Governor, he stood out from the pack.

According to political pundit, Al-Makura remains a prominent governor of our time and still has a lot more to offer. From health to education, the economy and security, back then, Nasarawa state like many others were in turmoil as a results of insufficiency but Umaru Almakura made the most progress out of all other Governors in reforms in various sectors.

Some of the huge transformations he achieved came as a result of assembling best brains in Nasarawa state to examine each sector of the state economy and provided a workable solution to its unique challenges.

Recounting his rare but transformative hallmark, a closed ally of the former governor said “in the education sector under Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, the administration discovered that out of the 7,877 classrooms that were available, 5,908 needed renovation. “With 682,000 students, the 7,877 classrooms were insufficient due to the UNESCO standard of 1:25 students per classroom.”

“The Al-Makura-led administration was tasked with figuring out how to add 5,768 more classrooms to the existing ones, and he rose to the challenges by erecting new elementary, junior and senior secondary schools to address this issue.

“Al-Makura led government consequently embarked on human capital development to guarantee that pupils and students received the finest education possible with series of staff training and development programs in various courses, seminars, and workshops,” he added.

Also eulogizing the contribution made by the immediate past governor of Nasarawa State, a critical public analyst from Keffi Local Government Area, Alhaji Suleiman said, “The former governor played a significant role in the development of the state.

Pointing out that, in order to keep up with the most recent global educational trends, Nasarawa State under Al-Makura funded the training of 1,400 teachers to teach the recently introduced family life health education by the national council on education, stressing that in doing so, Nasarawa State became the first to adopt and execute FLHE program.
He noted;

“His leadership was instrumental for social change. Overcoming social problems, modernizing and abolishing social norms which have been impossible without the right kind of leadership. But during his tenure as governor, he reversed the trend and ensured civility in all realms,” he noted.

Senator Umaru Tanko Al-Makura’s role in redesigning Nasarawa State from a slump to a world class community fitted with modern edifices remains the ladder for generations to climb and build upon. This landmark account of governance reeled out in Nasarawa State stand as a challenge to our political leaders to imbibe for the general good of our society for the holistic advancement of our country.

*Garkuwan Giza*