From Jude Dangwam, Jos 

The Emir of Wase, Alhaji Dr. Muhammadu Sambo Haruna has called on the new administration of Barr. Caleb Mutfwang to give priority to the infrastructural deficit of the State as well as agriculture and the mining sector to boost the economic performance as well as transform the face of the State.

He said Plateau is blessed with various potentials especially in the areas of agriculture and mining that has not been given the needed attention which the Mutfwang’s administration must do justice to the sectors towards raising the required resources to handle the infrastructural needs of the State particularly in rural communities.

The first class traditional ruler stated this in a chat with DAILY ASSET in Jos the Plateau State capital while laying his key priority areas for the new administration in Plateau State.

“I would say that a lot has been done in terms of security and we have had relative peace in Plateau State and the person coming should continue in line with that, to build on the already existing efforts,” the traditional ruler stated.

The royal father stressed that the new administration should strife towards distinguishing religious and ethnic issues from criminal activities carried out by criminal elements to be dealt with; “Government should understand the distinction between criminality and religion problem as well as ethnic problem.

“This people that causes these problems do not care about your religion, they do not care about your ethnic tribe. They don’t even care about which part of the country you’re coming from, they don’t care whether you’re a Nigerian or not, their own is business. And that is why government should understand that some of the things happening are not religion or ethnic, they’re just act of criminality that must be dealt with the way it is,” he said. 

The Emir maintained that infrastructural development must not be overlooked again going forward for the State, “It’s good to have peace, but we need infrastructural development, let me give you an instance. In my place (Wase LGA) hopefully in the next one month, the raining season will start. There are certain areas that will be cut off completely and until after the raining season before we can see them again. 

“They don’t have network, there’s no road, and if anything should happen to them in the raining season there is no way they can get assistance. So, there is need for government to start looking at infrastructure on the Plateau because there is a lot of money in Plateau State that can be tap and used for this purpose, is just that the attention of government has not gone there. 

“The money from mining and agriculture in Wase alone is a substantial amount of money, if government can look at its IGR in that direction, they can effectively get the needed money to handle infrastructural development,” he passionately stated. 

HIs Royal Highness further suggested that empowerment programmes are also core area for the new administration to give attention to considering the rising number of graduates in the State.

“The next thing is empowerment, unfortunately over the years we have been clamouring for our children to go to school and a lot has gone to school, in my house a lone I have seven graduates who are unemployed.

“The civil service is saturated, so there is need for us to look outside the box so that we can gainfully employed these teaming youths so that they can stop being a menace in the society. So, my appeal to the incoming government is to concentrate on the youths and also empowerment of our women, because they are suffering in the villages,” he appealed.