Gombe state Governor, Alhaji Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for nominating an illustrious son of Gombe, Lamido Yuguda as the Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC.
It will be recalled that the Senate has received a request from President Muhammadu Buhari for the confirmation of Mr. Lamido Yuguda from Gombe State as the new Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Governor Inuwa Yahaya in a statement, described Lamido as a thorough bred accountant, financial expert and highly cerebral figure of international reckoning with pedigree and impeccable footprints in the nation’s financial sector.
The Governor, on behalf of the Government and people of Gombe state congratulated Yuguda for being found worthy by Mr. President to superintend over the main regulatory institution of the Nigerian capital market.
He tasked the incoming SEC DG to continue to bring pride and honour to the Jewel state and keep on with the remarkable trajectory, assuring him of the support and solidarity of the Government and good people of Gombe state as he takes on the onerous task.
Yuguda, an economist, banker and investment manager, with over 30 years’ experience in financial services was a member of Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya’s 2019 pre-inauguration Transition committee where he served as chairman of sectoral committee on Finance and economic development.
Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State has flagged-off the distribution of Palliatives and Relief materials to the less privileged members of the society across the state.
The flag-off ceremony took place in Boh the headquarters of Shongom Local Government Area of State.
Governor Inuwa Yahaya who was represented at the ceremony by the State Deputy Governor, Dr. Manassah Daniel Jatau, said the palliative package targets to reach 30 less privileged individuals in each of the 2218 polling units across the State, translating to about 66, 000 households or 400,000 individuals.
The items include rice, maize, Millet, sugar, spaghetti, macaroni,cooking oil, salt among others.
He said the items were made up of donations received from the Federal Government and Northeast Development Commission, as well as those supplied by the Gombe State Government
The Governor said his administration is mindful of the hardship occasioned by the Coronavirus Pandamic, hence the decision in setting up of the palliative committee to strategically come up with modalities and undertake the distribution to ensure that the items get to the intended beneficiaries.
Governor Yahaya said his administration will continue to spare no effort in ensuring the welfare of the people through the formulation of policies, programmes as well as initiatives that will give the people a sense of belonging and bring Government closer to them.
He noted that since the palliative will not get to every citizen of the State, those that are privileged to have should be generous to share with neighbours in the spirit of brotherhood.
He said the palliatives will get to the intended beneficiaries irrespective of political parties.
The Chairman, Gombe State Relief and Palliative committee and Emir of Gombe, Alhaji (Dr) Abubakar Shehu Abubakar lll said his committee came up with sub-committees to ensure that the items get to the intended beneficiaries and get all classes of people to whom the palliative are meant for are well captured and attended to.
He assured the Governor that the palliative committee will ensure that the relief materials get to over sixty six thousand less privileged households across the State.
A total of two thousand seven hundred and ninety households in Shongom Local Government Area have each received a bag of rice and millet carton of macaroni, vegetable oil and salt.
Covid-19: Gombe flags-off distribution of palliatives
…Targets 400,000 individuals in 66,000 households
Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State has flagged-off the distribution of Palliatives and Relief materials to the less privileged members of the society across the state.
The flag-off ceremony took place in Boh the headquarters of Shongom Local Government Area of State.
Governor Inuwa Yahaya who was represented at the ceremony by the State Deputy Governor, Dr. Manassah Daniel Jatau, said the palliative package targets to reach 30 less privileged individuals in each of the 2218 polling units across the State, translating to about 66, 000 households or 400,000 individuals.
The items include rice, maize, Millet, sugar, spaghetti, macaroni,cooking oil, salt among others.
He said the items were made up of donations received from the Federal Government and Northeast Development Commission, as well as those supplied by the Gombe State Government
The Governor said his administration is mindful of the hardship occasioned by the Coronavirus Pandamic, hence the decision in setting up of the palliative committee to strategically come up with modalities and undertake the distribution to ensure that the items get to the intended beneficiaries.
Governor Yahaya said his administration will continue to spare no effort in ensuring the welfare of the people through the formulation of policies, programmes as well as initiatives that will give the people a sense of belonging and bring Government closer to them.
He noted that since the palliative will not get to every citizen of the State, those that are privileged to have should be generous to share with neighbours in the spirit of brotherhood.
He said the palliatives will get to the intended beneficiaries irrespective of political parties.
The Chairman, Gombe State Relief and Palliative committee and Emir of Gombe, Alhaji (Dr) Abubakar Shehu Abubakar lll said his committee came up with sub-committees to ensure that the items get to the intended beneficiaries and get all classes of people to whom the palliative are meant for are well captured and attended to.
He assured the Governor that the palliative committee will ensure that the relief materials get to over sixty six thousand less privileged households across the State.
A total of two thousand seven hundred and ninety households in Shongom Local Government Area have each received a bag of rice and millet carton of macaroni, vegetable oil and salt.
The Ministerial Task Team on Covid-19 headed by Dr. Nasir Sani Gwarzo has commended Gombe state Government for putting in place, a robust operational strategy which has helped in checking the community transmission of the coronavirus in the state.
The task team was in Gombe at the instance of the Minister of health to assess the state’s preparedness and to give professional advice where necessary.
The leader of the team, Dr. Nasir Sani Gwarzo, who is also the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment, during a courtesy visit to Governor Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya at the Government House, commended the state for its timely response in containing the Coronavirus Pandamic in the State.
“At coordination level, the State is well prepared with a formidable team comprising of people with track records and sound backgrounds on public health and infectious diseases that were assembled even before the outbreak of the Pandemic in the State which is a right step in the right direction”.
He lauded the political will of Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya without which he said the Task force will not have recorded the successes so far achieved in curtailing the spread of the virus and creating awareness on the pandemic.
Dr. Gwarzo who observed that the proactive measures put in place by the state in imposing some restrictions and closing it borders as well as in subjecting those intercepted at the entry points to quarantine, test and isolation have greatly helped in protecting the state and curbing the spread of the virus, advised the Government to strengthen surveillance the boundaries considering the State’s location in the centre of the Northeast.
He noted that majority of positive cases reported from Gombe State were returnees or travellers transiting through Gombe.
The Task Team leader said having visited some health facilities in the State, the team is satisfied with the measures put in place to contain the spread of the Coronavirus.
He however stressed the need for the state to improve its testing capacity by putting its testing centre into effect.
He assured of the task team’s support to ensure that the State has a testing Centre so as to address the anxiety patients have to go through before getting their test results.
“We are aware that the state Government has purchased PCR machines in readiness for the establishment of a testing centre. When we go back we will do whatever it takes to mount additional pressure and advocacy to ensure that Gombe is prioritized for a testing centre, especially considering the strategic location of the state.”
Responding, Governor Inuwa Yahaya described the visit by the ministerial task team as timely, saying it will help encourage the state and put her on the right pedestal in line with the NCDC’s guidelines and International best practices.
The governor attributed the recent successes being recorded in the state to the proactive measures adopted by the government, considering the sad development in some affected states.
Governor Yahaya lamented the delay in arrival of the state’s PCR machine after two months of procurement due to the shutdown of International airports and urged NCDC to intervene in fastracking the arrival of the machine so as to enable the state improve its testing capacity.
Governor Yahaya said Gombe state government is committed to adopting corrective measures and other technical advice that the ministerial task team may have come up with.
The Ministrial task team had earlier met with the Professor Idris Mohammed- led Task force on covid-19 at its secretariat and also visited Amada quarantine zone and Kwadon isolation centre where Dr Sani Gwarzo expressed satisfaction with the serenity of the environment and the facilities put in place, commending the frontline workers and encouraging the health workers to continue to be humane to the patients under their care.
…as Task force receives additional donation from chinese firm
Gombe state Task force on covid 19 says aside from the 72 patients earlier discharged, it has given a clean bill of health to 18 additional patients who tested negative, bringing the total number of discharged cases to 90.
The chairman task force on covid 19, Professor Idris Mohammed made the disclosure while briefing the media on the state’s status on the pandemic.
He said Gombe state has a total suspected cases of 1,236 out of which 124 were found to be positive.
The Task force Chairman disclosed that 31 results returned from Abuja on 15th May, 2020 out of which 5 cases returned positive while one of the 5 positive cases died before the results returned, bringing the recorded deaths to 2.
As a result of this, there is no single covid-19 patient at the federal teaching hospital Gombe isolation centre, he added.
Speaking on the re-opening of worship centres in the state, professor Idris said the task force had been to some Juma’at mosques in the state and was impressed with the level of the adherents’ compliance with preventive measures such as physical/social distancing and other protocols.
In another development, the task force has received a donation of operational items from SK, ECC, a chinese construction firm.
Items donated to the state task force include 7000 face masks, personal protective equipment ( PPEs) that included 850 pieces of hand gloves, 150 protective wears and 150 protective glasses as well as 10 pieces of thermometre.
Displaying the donated items to the media, the chairman of the taskforce, thanked the donor for supporting the state in the fight against the pandemic and pledged judicious use of the materials.
Gombe state Governor, Alhaji Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya has congratulated Professor Ibrahim Agbola Gambari on his appointment as the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a statement, Governor Yahaya described the appointment as a well-deserved one and based on merit given Professor Gambari’s enviable pedigree in diplomacy, administration and academics.
“I wish to applaud President Muhammadu Buhari for appointing Professor Ibrahim Gambari as his new Chief of Staff. This is indeed a good choice, considering his vast knowledge, experience and pedigree in administration and diplomacy both at national and global levels. I have no doubt that he will deploy his wealth of experience, national and global connections in giving Mr. President the needed support to deliver on his mandate of taking the nation to the next level”.
Governor Yahaya prayed Almighty Allah to guide the new Chief of Staff and bless him with more wisdom as he discharges the onerous national assignment.
Gombe state Governor, Alhaji Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya has received with sadness the news of the demise of Mr. Elisha Ingila Amajila, who until his death today was the Deputy General Manager (TV), Gombe state Media Corporation, GMC.
In a condolence message, the Governor described the deceased as a dedicated and versatile journalist who gave his very best in the various capacities he served during his remarkable broadcasting service in both Bauchi and Gombe states.
He said the late Mr. Elisha Ingila will be remembered as a civil servant who put a meritorious broadcasting service in Gombe state and played a vital role in laying a solid foundation for the state Television ( GMTV) in particular and Gombe state Media Corporation in general.
The Governor extended his heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased as well as the management and staff of Gombe Media Corporation, praying Almighty God to repose his soul and comfort those he left behind.
Gombe state Governor, Alhaji Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya has received with sadness the news of the demise of Mr. Elisha Ingila Amajila, who until his death today was the Deputy General Manager (TV), Gombe state Media Corporation, GMC.
In a condolence message, the Governor described the deceased as a dedicated and versatile journalist who gave his very best in the various capacities he served during his remarkable broadcasting service in both Bauchi and Gombe states.
He said the late Mr. Elisha Ingila will be remembered as a civil servant who put a meritorious broadcasting service in Gombe state and played a vital role in laying a solid foundation for the state Television ( GMTV) in particular and Gombe state Media Corporation in general.
The Governor extended his heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased as well as the management and staff of Gombe Media Corporation, praying Almighty God to repose his soul and comfort those he left behind.
…seeks commitment on social distancing, other preventive protocols as pre-condition
Following persistent calls for worship centres to reopen for congregational prayers, Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya has met with religious leaders in the state, where he requested for their commitment to strict observance of social distancing and other preventive protocols as pre-condition to lift ban on congregations.
Governor Inuwa Yahaya, while addressing religious leaders from the two major faiths of Islam and Christianity, said the move to seek for the counsel of the religious leaders on social distancing at places of worship was in furtherance of his administration’s commitment to expanding the frontiers of inclusiveness and democratic practice.
The Governor said his administration’s decision to ban all social, cultural and religious gatherings in the state was to prevent community spreading of coronavirus and not to deny anyone from performing their prayers at mosques or churches.
While reeling out some of his administration’s modest efforts to contain the spread of the Coronavirus, Governor Yahaya said his government had before the index cases in Gombe, ordered the closure of all entries into the State. This, the Governor said was in addition to the provision of a one hundred and fifty capacity bed isolation Centre in Kwadon and another fifty bed isolation centre at the Federal Teaching Hospital Gombe.
He said his administration has also established an Intensive Care Unit fully equipped with Ventilators, oxygen concentrators and other facilities for treatment of severe covid-19 cases and also paid for the supply of a Polymerase Chain Reaction PCR machine for the testing of individuals perceived to be carrying the Coronavirus.
Governor Yahaya said he had earlier resisted the imposition of total lockdown in the state and opted for a dusk to dawn curfew instead in order not to add to the economic hardship already being felt by the citizenry.
He said as Governor of Gombe State he has taken an oath to protect the lives, property and dignity of the people, describing steps so far taken by his administration to contain the Coronavirus as rational and for the collective good and over all interest of the people.
Meanwhile, no position was taken at the parley due to time constraints, but the government had asked the religious leaders to take a collective stand, in collaboration with the security agencies and relevant officials on the matter and quickly give feedback to enable government announce an agreed position.
In the ongoing fight against the dreaded novel coronavirus disease, code-named COVID-19, different states in Nigeria, including Gombe State, adopted various measures, albeit in line with the accepted established protocols by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
Even before Gombe State recorded its first COVID-19 index case, Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya had swung into action, mandating the establishment of several COVID-19 isolation centres complete with hundreds of bed spaces, sanitary facilities like running water, hand sanitizers, personal protective equipment for the health workers, ventilators, oxygen concentrators as well as a conducive working environment for the health workers to ensure that they were not infected by the index case and contact cases they were likely to treat.
For the records, Gombe has some of best COVID-19 isolation and treatment centres you can find in the region, with facilities for the treatment of mild to severe cases. Gombe is also one of the few states to put machineries in motion for the establishment of its own testing centre, having already procured a PCR machines waiting for accreditation by NCDC.
Undeniably, Gombe State Government was one of the first states, outside the Federal Government, to set up a COVID-19 Task Force under the chairmanship of a renowned immunologist and public health expert, Prof. Idris Mohammed and its terms of reference ranged from ensuring that the preventive measures put in place by the state government were strictly adhered to and to come up with innovative programmes that would further strengthen the containment efforts and battle against the COVID-19 menace.
Also, at a time many states had not fully grasped the extent and severity of the COVID-19 crisis, Governor Inuwa Yahaya had imposed a partial lockdown on the state and restricted the inter-state movement of persons to avoid the transmission of the dreaded virus from the affected states. If other states had adopted the proactive stance of the purposeful Governor Inuwa Yahaya’s administration, I believe the rapid spread of the virus would have been greatly curtailed and the people would have been better for it.
The Gombe State Government had already ramped up the education and mass sensitization of the populace on established safe practices such as frequent hand washing, proper disposal of sanitary products, wearing of face masks and safe social distancing by avoiding congregation of large crowds and keeping a suitable distance from one another to curb community transmission.
Again, Gombe State was one of the first states to restrict social, cultural and religious congregations involving large gatherings, and appropriate sensitization to that effect was embarked upon to avoid rumour-mongering and the propagation of falsehood among the populace. To ensure that every segment of the society was carried along in the buildup to the announcement of the restriction orders, the Governor first had series of engagements with traditional rulers, religious and community leaders, heads of security agencies and local Government officials.
Also, being fully aware of the negative socio-economic impact of the lockdown on the people, particularly their means of livelihood, a compassionate Governor Inuwa Yahaya constituted a multi stakeholders relief and palliative committee under the chairmanship of His Royal Highness, the Emir of Gombe, Alhaji Abubakar Shehu Abubakar III, to ensure holistic distribution of palliatives to all nooks and crannies of the state, particularly to the needy and vulnerable, including the widows, the indigent, the infirm and the physically-challenged as well as family members of those in isolation.
These preventive and palliative measures have a multi-pronged objective to curb the spread of the virus and cushion the effects of any harsh negative impact respectively among the masses as a result of the restrictions and preventive measures. Even representatives of WHO, UNICEF and other international humanitarian bodies hailed the steadfast and result-oriented approach adopted by Governor Inuwa Yahaya to the extent that one country representative described him as ‘the last best hope for the Northeast geopolitical zone’.
It is instructive to note that while some states have recorded multiple deaths, Gombe State, to the glory of Almighty Allah is yet to record any from Covid-19. Governor Inuwa Yahaya has mandated a robust testing regime – some may say aggressive – in which hundreds are being tested whether they have shown symptoms of the virus or not. While some other states only test those that have shown symptoms of the virus, it is different in Gombe State as the government, heeding to the advice of health experts, is testing all and sundry, especially those intercepted or those believed to have had contacts with the confirmed cases.
As Gombe State was trying hard to attend to its first set of index cases of COVID-19, reports of a protest staged by some asymptomatic carriers of the virus at the Kwadon Isolation Centre were on social and some traditional media recently.
Truth is some crucial issues at stake seemed to have been blown out of proportion in the Media, especially the social media, though a number of print media also feasted on the story without properly interrogating to know what exactly the issues at stake were. Thus, attention was diverted from the proactive efforts taken by the Gombe State Government and even the isolation centre’s health officials and managers to decisively tackle the COVID-19 hydra-headed menace.
The Task force has already put things on records as to what the isolated covid-19 asymptomatic cases in Kwadon were agitating for as against what was peddled. The alleged non-provision of drugs by the centre’s health officials and the presence of a woman with a smelly wound as well as the welfare of their immediate families were brought forward by them. It should be noted that all the cases tested positive before they were brought to the centre, but they have not shown symptoms of the disease, so the health officials averred that they could not be administered with drugs unless they showed symptoms to avoid any unhealthy side effects. Their stay at the centre, therefore, is for observation and to prevent them from infecting others in the wider community.
Therefore, the reported protest arose from a misconception of the treatment process on one hand and the whole covid-19 pandemic on the other as they wanted to be given medication, which the health officials deemed unnecessary and even dangerous. Well, the issues have since been resolved, and the ultra modern centre is functioning optimally and cohesively in line with the foresighted Governor Inuwa Yahaya’s well-known mantra of ‘health for all, all year round’.
Clearly, it appeared the media pounced on the story in an attempt to get materials to inform the public about happenings in the society. But as media practitioners, let’s be always cautious, especially at a time like this. Let’s not sensationalise issues. It does no one any good if at this time we spread news that create panic rather than douse tension among the populace. It has since emerged that fake news has become the order of the day during this period. The media shouldn’t be seen to be giving space and time to people whose major occupation is to create chaos in our ongoing battle against COVID-19.
The Kwadon incident, it seemed, also gave some politically docile individuals an opportunity to vent their anger of not being in public domain for some time as they equally cashed in on that to score low political points. As a people, the greatest disservice we can do to ourselves at this time is to politicize the issue of COVID-19. For God’s sake, this is a disease that has no respect for any divide – religion, ethnicity, race, creed, political or any group that one belongs to.
It is therefore, incumbent on all of us to contribute our quota in curtailing the spread of COVID-19 and eliminating it in our society. The earlier we realise that the fight against COVID-19 pandemic is one that we all must work assiduously to win, not just in Gombe State but in the country at large, the better for us as a people.
…to be continued
Misilli is the Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity) to Gombe State Governor.
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