2019 Elections:Top 5 Governors That Deserves Second Term

Agency ReporterAugust 26, 2018

0 5 minutes read

Nigeria politic generally is poor and most people believe there’s no saint in politics which I completely agree, but there are some of these politician who are actually good/fair.

We take you through the 5 first timer Governor in Nigeria that deserves a second term ticket come 2019 general election.

1. Mr. Akinwumi Ambode
Although the list is in no particular order but even if the list is in descending order, Governor Ambode would still be our number 1.

When Fashola was the Governor, we thought Lagos state has witnessed the best of development but Ambode has taken that to another level. He within the space of 3 years turned Epe around to a city to be proud of, he constructed over 21 roads in Alimosho area of the state.

He brought another set of modern bus to replace the usual BRT buses, Lagos State as rowdy as it is is witnessing the best secured environment in the history of the state with his achievement in the security sector, he lighted up at least 365 streets in Lagos state.

Ambode had also greatly improved the Internal Generated Revenues in Lagos state as the state is making around 1bn per day now. What of the Pen Cinema Flyover, the world class Oshodi Transport Interchange, five new Art Theatre built, Epe and Badagry Marina Projects, Airport Road, Abule-Egba to Oshodi BRT laneetc.

That only little above 6 months to a general election, virtually no opposition members has shown interest in replacing Ambode speaks volume of how high the opposition in Lagos state rate the performance of his administration

The excellent man overseeing the affairs of the center of excellence has performed excellently well and therefore deserves a second term.

2. Nyesom Wike
The controversial Governor of Rivers state who is also now the leading opposition party, PDP figure is without any iota of doubt an achiever, he may have been in the news more for political related issues but the truth is, the infrastructure provision he is providing for the River state people is unprecedented.

One and his most important achievement is that, Rivers state which is known to be a killers den, Rivers state which house arguably the highest number of Cultists, political thugs, touts, hooligans and rascals in Nigeria is enjoying a relative peace.

There was a time Killing used to be a day to day occurrence in all the nook and crannies of River state but the narrative has changed with Wike in charge.

Any government that is successful in the provision of adequate security for her citizen is a government that deserves to be credited. Wike is credited for this and should be returned to complete his reform in River state.

3. Atiku Baguda
Unlike Wike, the Kebbi state Governor is a silent achiever, there is a silent revolution taking place in areas such as agriculture, education, health, youth empowerment and security.

There has been so much noise and advice about diversifying the Nigeria economy and Baguda is one of the few Governors walking the talk.

In the area of agriculture, Kebbi state signed a partnership deal with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to provide loan facilities to the rice and wheat farmers in the state.

The same Kebbi state under Baguda had a partnership with Lagos for the production of Rice in large quantities, today, Kebbi is providing over one million metric tons of rice and that is the brain behind the LAKE rice which has flooded our market. This agricultural achievement has also created thousands of job opportunity to the Kebbi citizen. State like Imo, Enugu, Katsina, Ebonyi etc have all visited Kebbi to understudy their rice production techniques.

Baguda also performed well in the education sector by renovating several school and providing enough teaching and learning materials to students and teachers. Teacher in Kebbi are been retrained among other landmark educational achievement in Kebbi.

In the health sector, all the General Hospitals in the state has been renovated by Baguda, All the existing comprehensive health centers in the rural areas were not left out as they were provided with necessary drugs, equipments, qualified personnel to man them and the list continues.

Baguda is a testament to the popular saying that empty barrel makes the loudest noise. He is not a popular media figure like Fayose but he is an achiever per excellence that deserves to be returned for a second tenure.

4. Dave Umahi
The Governor of Ebonyi state has built over 20 standard roads within the capital city of Abakaliki, road construction are visibly seen to either be ongoing or completed across Ebonyi, the first fly over in the state was constructed by this present government

In other to reduce Lassa Fever, Umahi built the first virology centre in the south east from scratch. Umahi greatest achievement however is in the area of agricultural.

Like Baguda, Umahi has turned around Ebonyi state with his agricultural initiatives, soft loans to the tunes of billions was provided for the farmers to expand rice production and the results has already been seen as rice production tripled in Ebonyi in 2017.

Umahi also provided parboiling machines for the 3 rice mills in the state and the state is today the biggest producer of rice in Nigeria.

The workers welfare is another great achievement of the Umahi led Ebonyi state government, for a state which had no concrete source of IGR, for a state that is in the caliber of Osun, Ekiti to be able to pay the workers salaries promptly despite the economic quagmire, such state Governor deserves an accolade.

The government has paid workers’ salaries till date and workers have received 13th month salaries for the last two years. Salaries are paid before 20th of every month, while those of teachers are paid before the 15th of every month. Pension of retired workers are also paid as and when due.

No doubt, Dave Umahi deserves to be re-elected.

5. Nasir El-Rufai
The lanky Governor of Kaduna is not just one of the most popular and influential Governor in Nigeria, he is also one of the best performing Governor, he has performed remarkably in steering the progress of Kaduna state.

The most notable of his achievement is Kaduna Educational reform, El-Rufai despite the criticism wielded out the unqualified teachers in Kaduna state, he then appointed over 2,500 qualified and well screened teachers, he further embark on a massive renovation of the state owned public schools.

State owned Tertiary Institutions were also giving the deserved attention as there are massive capital projects that are either ongoing or completed in the state’s tertiary institution, this is aside the increased budgetary allocations to these institutions to boost their effectiveness and place them amongst the leading tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

El-Rufai is also fighting corruption as much as Buhari is fighting it. First was the massive recovery of government’s property from illegal occupiers and encroachers which had hither to led to distortion in some of the government’s plan.

A rigorous verification exercise that was carried out for the state civil servants which led to the extrication of over 13,000 ghost workers from the state’s payroll, thus saving the state huge sums of money and then the adoption of Treasury Single Account (TSA) was replicated in Kaduna state.

There are massive construction of road ongoing in Kaduna at the lowest possible cost. The IGR been generated in Kaduna state has also increased under El-Rufai by more than 60%, moving from 11.5B in 2015 to 17B in 2017. New investors are also moving to Kaduna on regular basis as the government signed a partnership deal with a Chinese firm to build a new 50,000 barrels per day refinery in the state.

The former F.C.T minister maybe in the news more often than not for political reasons but he is obviously a ground breaker when it comes to governance and therefore deserves to be returned next year.