A former member of the North East Development Commission, NEDC, and APC stakeholder, Chief Dr David Sabo Kente, has appealed to the Commission to consider Taraba State in its developmental programs and activities.
He stated this in Jalingo as part of his message to mark the Thirty-Four Years of creation of Taraba State.
“NEDC should look at Taraba State with compassion. No single road has been done by the commission in the State, unlike what is tenable in other States in the region.
“I also call on the state government to liaise more with the commission by appointing a consultant who will liaise with the commission on the governor’s behalf”.
He said that he is basically in the state for three things.
“My former office was taken over by the Taraba State government, and it is now an agency. I think it’s now a Taraba State investment promotion agency. So I’ve to get another office for my political program. So I’m here to inspect my new office, the view of the furnished place, and preparation for the upcoming political activities.
“Secondly, to inspect a piece of land I’ve acquired earlier for a project I’m proposing to bring to the state, as an investor, I’m coming as an investor.
“Lastly, since the deputy governor was ill, you know he has been my close political associate. He was my deputy governor when I ran for governorship in 2015, before my brother, the governor, inherited him.
“He’s been ill for a while, so I contacted the family they said he was OK and they are back to Taraba, so I took the opportunity to come and see him.
On the improvement of private sector investment in the state, he said:
“Taraba is 34 today, so far so good, having gone around the city, I’ve seen quite an improvement in terms of facilities, shopping malls, hotels, and schools. So the private sector has done very very well in the state. Because I grew up here, and I knew what we had here before, even though we’re still far from where we want to be.
“Yes, I made that clear in a church in Wukari that more need to be done. I repeat again that a lot needs to be done in the next two years for the Governor to get the next four years.
“That’s to say, we are falling short of the performance and result, especially in infrastructural development, we’re a bit very far behind. I’ve also spoken to quite a lot of people in the government. They’ve told me they are doing a lot of repackaging, remodelling, and restructuring certain infrastructure.
“To be honest, most of those things actually went down, and if they are focusing on bringing dead structure to life, I think they’re doing well then. In times of roads, we’ve fallen short in times of road infrastructure.
On his visit to the Deputy Governor, Alhaji Aminu Alkali, Chief David Sabo Kente appreciated God for his healing.
“I visited the deputy governor with my team, they’re here, they can testify that the man is stronger than we thought, very healthy, so for me I knew we were putting pressure for nothing, but we don’t want to use human feelings to assess the situation, but he’s back to work. He’s back, he’s strong, I’ve seen him physically, he hugs me and I hug him – he said.
Taraba State (Nature’s Gift to the Nation) was created on 27th August 1991, exactly 34 years ago, out of the defunct Gongola State by the military administration of Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (Rtd).
