April 29, (THEWILL) – A gubernatorial Aspirant under the umbrella of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Dr Hilkiah Bubajoda Mafindi, has voiced his capacity to govern Taraba state and rolled out an agenda if given the mandate come 2023.
Dr Hilkiah, who made this known to our Correspondent in a media interaction in Jalingo, recently has purchased his Nomination form and has been successfully screened to contest in the primaries.
The Gubernatorial hopeful began his public service in 1999, he served in different capacities including Personal Assistant to the then Taraba state Governor, Rev Jolly Nyame, for eight years.
According to him, his wealth of experience over the years has opened his eyes to possibilities of accelerating the pace of the economic and social development of the state.
“I worked in the Governor’s office for eight years and my schedule was such that I was the gatekeeper, the clearing house in the governor’s office. I was also Executive Chairman, Taraba State Universal Education Board, Executive Chairman, Taraba State Planning Commission. So the issues of policies are becoming very clear to me and I learnt working closely with various Chief Executives. In every step of the way I see possibilities, I see challenges, I see strategies for grappling with these challenges”, he said.
While identifying some strategies he will put in place to ensure the security of lives and livelihood, he said it is quite challenging, but there’s also a window of opportunity that exists, which is a home grown security outfit.
“When the Military, police, state security service, are under the federal government, but there is a synergy between the federal government and the sub national, I think they can operate more effectively.
“With that kind of synergy and the fact that the state government will continuously engage the community agencies, review security situations and grapple with the form that the security challenges will present themselves in the state, I think the state can survive that”, he affirmed.
In the areas of Internally generated revenue and developing other sectors of the state using the available resources, the governorship hopeful, said the state has a lot of resources that have not been properly harnessed to boost the economy.
In his words, “What I intend to do is to make sure that all agencies of government are properly positioned in terms of the number of personnel, the skills, the tools required and the resources. By the time all these things are in place, we ensure that all agencies of government will perform.
“There are a lot of natural resources in the state that have not been harnessed, solid minerals for instance. It will require synergy between the state government and the federal government because while solid minerals are on the exclusive list, you’ll discover that it will require synergy between the state government and the federal government to be able to explore this. I will make sure that Taraba state government is able to synergise the federal government, so that both the federal government and the state government will harness and benefit from the enormous solid mineral potential that is in the state.”
Speaking on the zoning arrangement of the party at both state and national levels, the aspirant expressed a lot of confidence in the party, especially with the electoral act as amended stressing that he trusts the party to give a level playing field for all contestants in the spirit of fairness.
THEWILL gathered that Dr Hilkiah Bubajoda is from the Northern zone of Taraba state, where many stakeholders are advocating for power to shift to the North this time around.
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