TELL Magazine

Honourable Mustapha Muhammad Anka

Governor Abdul’Aziz Yari Abubakar, Shattiman Mafara, is, indeed, an administrator with high repute and integrity who brought his wealth of experience, exposure and wisdom to bear on his performance in Zamfara State. On the quest to ensure that the common man benefits from dividends of democracy, Governor Abubakar has initiated and completed meaningful and people-oriented programmes and projects in all the local governments in the state. Buoyed by a vision to better the lives of his people and make them enjoy the dividends of democracy to the fullest, the positive attitude with which the governor approaches governance speaks volumes of a man who strongly believes in result. He parades scorecard which underscores how a focused and principled leader can cause a positive turn around in his sphere of influence. He is driven by the philosophy of selfless service.

Governor Abubakar’s reputation as high-performing and service-focused administrator is second to none, and he has ensured wide coverage of key infrastructure across the state.

He is the greatest thing that has ever happened to Zamfara people as par achievement. He has positively touched lives and upgraded the standard of living of his people.

Honourable Mustapha Muhammad Anka, Chairman, Anka Local Government Council was born and educated at Anka. After his education, he went into business and later joined politics where he was elected as councillor. In 2011, he contested under the platform of the then All Nigeria People’s Party, ANPP for the chairmanship position and won the election as the chairman of Anka LG. As a grassroots developer, Alhaji Anka has endeared himself to the people of the local government because of his humility and hard work. He has keyed in to the developmental projects of Governor Abubakar by empowering people of Anka as well as providing infrastructure and social amenities. In this interview he reels out his achievements, assessment of the governor and other issues. Excerpt:

Can you tell us what Governor Abubakar has done for Anka LG?

The Governor has done and he is still executing programmes and projects worth emulating by other governors. He has worked and he is still working particularly on road networks, schools and hospitals among others. These are among the basic infrastructure that our people are seriously in need of. People of Anka Local Government will never forget the good things His Excellency has done for them. As you can see yourself, there are township roads in some of our villages and the local government headquarters. Before the advent of this LG we had three dilapidated roads in Anka town but now we have many well-tarred roads. Apart from roads, we have schools, some were constructed and many of them were rehabilitated to a befitting standard in every nook and cranny of Anka LG. Likewise in the health sector, government under the leadership of Abdul’Aziz Yari Abubakar has improved the health sector and equipped many of our health centres. We recently commissioned a completed hospital at Gima and there is another one at Rafin Gero village with a 120-bed facility about to be completed. On electricity Anka LG will soon be linked to the national grid from Talata Mafara substation. Although all efforts made by the previous administration to link us to electricity from Sokoto failed; the administration of Governor Abubakar is making frantic efforts to achieve this task. On water the government will soon provide clean and potable drinking water for the people of Anka. The contractor (ZINGHOU), a Chinese company is about to finish the water project.

Renovated JNI Primary School

What projects have you executed in Anka LG?

We go alongside the state government; that is we operate a joint account as you might have heard from some of our colleagues. You see the joint account has really helped the LG in terms of project execution. We name the projects and the projects will be done, unlike the previous administrations (LG administration) where they got their money directly from the federal government and yet no appreciable project was done.

I will like to use this medium to thank His Excellency on the work he is doing all over the state and I will like to thank him particularly on Anka Bagega Road. Other Anka LG projects include construction of market stalls in Anka, Rafin Gero and also culverts where necessary and we constructed mosques at Anka Waramu and Shiyar Ajiya.

I intended to give the Local Government Secretariat very befitting outlook therefore decided to erect a storey building which will serve as Admin Block and it is about to be completed. On health, that is a continuous spending. We are always spending on the health sector. An impromptu problem will arise, and one has to respond quickly if not we will end up with very high casualties and deaths. Other areas of development include:

Boreholes

The LG is constructing 100 boreholes across the council. We have achieved 50 per cent completion. This includes construction of new ones and rehabilitating the ones already available.

Poverty Alleviation

We have expended millions of naira on alleviation of poverty among the people. We picked 20 people in each ward and give each person the sum of N20,000 to start a trade. Those people include 15 men and six women. We also gave out 30 motorcycles and five cars as our poverty alleviation programme to our youths.

Do you assist in given scholarship to the people?

We do give scholarship. We at times ask Ministry of Local Government to be our guarantor in transaction with some tertiary institutions, so that at the end of the day we balance anything we incurred either from the schools or Ministry of Local Government.

What about security?

Our security problems are not much, though we shared common borders with Maru Bukkuyu Bungudu and Gusau. What is happening in Maru LG emirate occurs a little in Anka LG but God has been protecting us in spite of all these calamities. We spend much on security. I’m using this opportunity to say may God bless our law enforcement agencies and our governor.

How would you assess Governor Abubakar?

We all thank God for having a personality like Abdul’Aziz Abubakar Yari who as a leader has a great wisdom. A man who thinks and do things for better tomorrow, Governor Abubakar is developing Zamfara State to a status of any well developed state in Nigeria. Gusau has now been transformed to any of the big cities in Nigeria.

What will you say to the people of Anka LG?

I am calling on all the people of Anka LG to continue to support the administration of Governor Abubakar especially his second-term bid so that he will complete his Transformation Agenda.