Paying salaries, building flyovers is not an achievement, Zamfara government tells its colleagues

Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, has warned governors and other political appointees in the state against making routine deliveries to the people they serve as achievements worthy of appreciation.

The governor criticized basic responsibilities such as paying salaries and building roads as achievements, and stated that leadership should be measured by impactful and innovative solutions.

Sule was speaking at the 59th inaugural lecture of the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, on Wednesday where he reflected on governance and the need for leaders to go beyond conventional approaches in meeting the needs of citizens.

He said, “A project that has no direct impact on the people you lead is not a service. Whenever you see a governor saying that one of my achievements is paying salaries or providing water, electricity, building roads, even if it is a flyover, that governor has no idea what he is talking about.

“Because that’s the thing you chose in the first place. So, just because you’re paying salaries, building roads and other projects, you think that’s an accomplishment? That’s not the leadership that people are looking for.

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“But thinking outside the box to do things that people don’t expect will impact them and what they do is what life is all about. That’s what service is all about.”

Sule cited interventions his government has made to address recurring challenges, including rebuilding markets vulnerable to fire outbreaks.

He said the government replaced repeated financial assistance to the affected traders with the construction of a modern market, which has since eliminated fire incidents.

“When I lived in America, every time I came home, I was told that our small traders in the market were always burning their goods and the government would come to help them. From N2m, we started going up to N5m and before I came, I think the highest was N10m, which was distributed.

“After nine months or a year later, the market will catch fire again. And then, we will come back as a government, look for something to give them and then move on. This is actually what happened for a long time until we started thinking outside the box.