By Olu Samuel, Lokoja
Kogi state Governor, Yahaya Bello has inaugurated the Kogi state 32 -year plan (2023 – 2055) stating that while the current New Direction blueprint is a medium term plan, the ‘32-year Development Plan’ is a prospective plan that would facilitate the state’s developmental aspiration on a long term basis.
He said “we are being intentional about a 32-year development plan now, because we want the future of Kogi state that is optimized to harness the massive advances in human development which are inevitable over the next three decades”.
Governor Bello stressed that at the end of the committee’s exercise he would appreciate action points that would guide his and subsequent administrations on how to make kogi state Nigeria’s confluence of opportunities in reality
He stated that in 32 years from now he envisioned a state that has a strong and sufficient economy, with the highest standard of living obtainable anywhere across the nation alongside abundant social economic opportunities for all residence and citizens
The governor pointed out that the major duty of the developers of this plan would be to interpret the vision and detail the means of achieving it asserting that the plan must provide for new venture creation and development of industrial hubs in an environment where foreign direct investment would thrive and local enterprises flourish.
According to him “The plan must stipulate an improved network of housing, roads, bridges, telecommunication and electricity infrastructure across the entire state. It must also adjust for the effect of climate change while promoting incremental improvement in education and healthcare, human capital development, security, agriculture and diversity management”.
Governor Bello expressed passion about launching kogi state into a development trajectory that would outlive his tenure; hence the kogi state developmental plan according to him would not only sustain the current successes of his administration but build on them.
He recalled that in the past years of his government, good progress was made in education, health, infrastructure, youth empowerment, civil service and pension reform, agriculture and human capital management as well as critical areas of diversity management, cooperation and integration.
The governor highlighted that the New Direction Government has excelled in public finance management, which according to him had reflected in its number one position among Nigeria’s state in the State’s Financial Transparency Accountability and Sustainability performance in the last four years.
He said the results achieved under his leadership were not by mere guess work noting that from inception there was the New Direction blueprint which guided the government and has helped to make quick progress towards accelerated and proportional development of the state in all constituencies.
Governor Bello tasked members of the steering and technical committees to deliver a developmental plan that was not only far reaching, functional, practical and sustainable but also bold and transformational.
He also charged them to avoid personal and clique interests while they collaborate in the overall best interest of the public, deploy and conduct extensive research, in depth analysis of gathered data which must be extracted from a wide spectrum engagement cutting across all critical sectors.