SHENDAM REMAINS ONE OF THE MOST DEVELOPING LGAS IN PLATEAU STATE.

SHENDAM REMAINS ONE OF THE MOST DEVELOPING LGAS IN PLATEAU STATE...

CAPABLE TO LEAD ALGON-MISKOOM NAANTUAN.

By Nanyah Daman,Yuwana Enoch,David Kazi & Justin Jattim. 

In an Exclusive interview with a select Media Executives and Publishers, the Executive Chairman of Shendam Local Government Council, Hon Miskoom Alex Naantuan after the swearing-in ceremony spoke on his blue print for the development of the Shendam LGA, IGR, the relationship with the Executive Governor of Plateau State and his capacity to lead the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) if given the mandate.He also harped on good governance as a function of the followership and the leadership. 

Do enjoy the Excerpts, it is unputdownable.

Emerald Magazine:  Chairman, Congratulations on your re-election as the Executive Chairman of Shendam Local Governmrnt Council. NewsGate Magazine, NewsCrest Newspaper, Jat HotNews,Frank News Magazine, Emerald Magazine, Ace News Online, The Age Newspaper and the News Parrot Newspaper will like to know what you will do for your people in your second term; agreed you have done a lot in your first term?

Hon.Miskoom Alex Nantuaan: Thank you very much and I give gory to God for this opportunity and I must quickly appreciate His Excellency,Rt Hon Barr Dr Simon Bako Lalong KSGG, the Executive Governor of Plateau State and the Chairman of the Northern Governors' Forum for creating this platform for us to get elected by our people. My mission and vision for the second tenure is simple. I want to consolidate on the gains of the past, improve on those areas we failed to meet the needs of our people because our target remains to transform our people, their standard of living, to transfer them from poverty to prosperity, to work on the attitude of our people towards seeing governance as a collective responsibility where both the leadership and followership must come together to agree on those practical steps that will require improvements on the lives of our people.That will remain my cardinal objectives,of course not forgetting that we need to emphasis on the need to improve on the peace and security of our respective Local Government Areas, particularly, in Shandam to ensure that we promote tolerance amongst and within the people where we would meet regularly to discuss, analyze and appraise situations.This will  be my primary focus, while also emphasizing on the need to improve on the long infrastructural decay that we have witnessed in the past.We will improve also on those areas.

Jat HotNews: Talking about internally generated revenue because you need revenue for you to develop the Local Government Area, in what areas will you involve your administration so you can have improved internally generated revenue for development?

Hon.Miskoom Alex Nantuaan:  Yes,thank you very much.You see, Shandam is part of the global economy.You can see clearly that our reliance on oil will no longer sustain us and therefore,we need to change from the previous method of over reliance from the federation account.We are potentially endowed agriculturally in Shendam Local Government Area, that is why we have to improve in agriculture. We have also since, realized that we are the commercial hub of the Southern Senatorial Zone therefore, we have constructed quite a number of markets in order to enable farmers have value for their produce, but we are going to do more on the area of improving the attitude of our people, the revenue collectors and the tax payers will ensure that they change their attitude where revenues are collected and remitted to the coffers of government or where the tax payers are not disposed towards paying taxes because of the experience of the past,so we would ensure we expand our tax basket in capturing those pockets of revenue potentials that hitherto were not captured but above all, we will ensure a transparent system of governance where there will be probity and accountability. 

Once people see value for what they are giving, they will willingly contribute and these are some of the measures we are going to concentrate on. 

The psyche of the collectors and the attitude of the tax payers will have to be worked upon so that collectively, we will be able to sustain our Local Government without eyes on the federation account. Whether we like it or not, it is already depleting and it is obvious that if we do not work hard, to improve on our IGR, we would be left licking our wounds, which we pray not to witness.

Jat HotNews: Sir, you talked about certain challenges and difficulties that you were unable to do, and promised to do them this time around. Can you list some of this challenges and areas that you want to address?

Hon.Miskoom Alex Nantuaan: We will improve on our communication with our people. Communication in the sense that our people need to know more about governance. They need to know what is happening at the seat of government. They need to appreciate the challenges of government; they need to understand that they have obligations to also contribute towards building or running a successful government. We have to improve on those areas. We have to emphasis on the aspect of providing infrastructure in some of our communities because when we got on board, we had a mirage, a plethora of complains, request left, right and center and we were able to do a chunk of it and as we go back now, we will try to reach out to those areas like providing the rural roads, improving on our health facilities while  trying to provide a line of communication between our communities and most importantly, trying to reduce dispute amidst communities which is key, e g. land dispute, boundary dispute which are key in sustaining the peace in our areas. In the areas of staff salaries and motivation of workers, we have not fared badly but we will rather improve  on that and see how we can sustain it by that we would reach out to the rural communities which are in dear need of our attention as a government. These are basic areas we intend to concentrate more on.

Jat HotNews: You are fortunate to have the Executive Governor come from Shendam Local Government, what are the benefits and challenges of hosting the Executive Governor of Plateau State?

Hon.Miskoom Alex Nantuaan:  The challenges are obvious. We live in a society were sycophancy seem to have taken the order of the day, where all functions, seminars, programs; people would rather pay lip service or eye service to his Excellency the Governor and this is putting a lot of pressure on us but we are privileged that we share the same Local Government with him because, it has also exposed the Local Government to a lot of investors.People who come for certain programs would see how hospitable the people are and would rather settle their.That is why I stand to be corrected that Shendam remains one of the most developing Local Governments in Plateau State, because of our economic potential, agricultural potential and the fact that we are exposed to the world.

 We are also privileged the Governor is from our place but one good thing about His Excellency is that he is a patriotic citizen. He takes the entire State as his constituency and doesn’t treat us differently. He treats the entire 17 Local Governments equally, because he is the father of the state. I thank God that one of ours is the Governor and we are also happy that he demonstrates equity and fairness to the 17 Local Government Areas of the State.

Jat HotNews:  Lastly Sir, talking about ALGON Chairman, your colleague and friends outside are hipping the role on the Chairman of Shendam Local Government, how do you feel and how do you see their call?.

Hon.Miskoom Alex Nantuaan:  I wouldn’t say I am hearing that from you, but whatever it is, if it is the will of God, let it be.We already have the wherewithal to man the Association very well, drawing from our wealth of experience.

The fortunate thing is that I am a grassroot man, I grew up in rural communities, I was a councilor and I rose to be the State Chairman of Councilors Forum in Plateau State, so I am a bit familiar with the workings of such Association. If given the opportunity, it will not be bad, but if my colleagues decide otherwise, so be it. It is an Association of first amongst equals. We are all equal and qualified but whatever it is, I wouldn’t want to dwell so much on that.We will be meeting soon to decide on who leads us, but whatever it is, whatever the outcome, we are ready to carry ourselves along, because the most important thing is for us to deliver to the ordinary man on the street, on the nook and cranny of our various communities. It is not all about leadership at the center.