Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, on Monday, expressed optimism that his state would be the future of Nigeria because of the discovery of oil, gas and other mineral resources abound in Alkaleri Local Government Area and other parts of the state.
The governor said this while addressing journalists on his two-day engagement with stakeholders of Alkaleri LGA as part of his ongoing community engagement.
He disclosed that the state government had taken the necessary measures and steps to enable it benefit maximally from oil discovered in Alkaleri.
According to him, his administration would establish a skills acquisition centre with a view to providing the needed manpower for oil exploration activities in the Alkaleri oil site.
“The issue of discovery of oil in Alkaleri is good development not only to Alkaleri, northern Nigeria but Nigeria as a whole. Definitely, this discovery is an opportunity for everybody.
“As a government, we are planning to establish a skills acquisition centre to ensure effective engagement of our youths in oil activities to reduce unemployment,” Governor Mohammed said.
He, however, appealed to stakeholders, especially traditional rulers in the area, to set aside their personal interests for proper utilization of the opportunity provided by discovery of oil in the area.
He further urged them not to support people with questionable character to engage in criminal activities in the area.
Speaking on his two-day engagement with key stakeholders in Alkaleri LGA, Governor Mohammed said the engagement afforded him the opportunity to brief the people on the successes recorded by his administration so far.
He asserted that the engagement, which he said also enabled him to tell the people what his government was doing in the areas of security, communal relationship, was a new system of embarked upon by his administration
In his words, “I am in my local government as part of community engagement that we are doing to foster security and of course communal relationship, inter relationship, and love for those who identified with us.
“This is a new system of government we are doing. We will not abandon those who voted for us and we have a lot of burden of gratitude to God and to the people of Alkaleri, Bauchi and Nigeria in general. This two-day engagement certainly is more than a year’s engagement.”
