Mr. Ezekiel Pabuet.
By Marie-Therese Nanlong
Jos – Plateau State outgoing Chairman of Association of Local Government of Nigeria, ALGON, and outgoing Chairman of Mikang local government area, Mr. Ezekiel Pabuet, has unveiled the newly-built local government council secretariat to boost the morale of council staff to give their best at work.
Pabuet also gave free uniforms to some indigent pupils in eight schools from the four districts which make up the local government area.
Unveiling the edifice at Tunkus, headquarters of Mikang, as part of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the creation of the local government, he noted the efforts were consciously deployed to bring governance closer to the people in its true sense.
“The essence of local government is to bring governance and development to the grassroots. That informed my decision to initiate this project in the rural communities to touch the lives of our people.”
“The role of civil servants as the engine room of government cannot be over stressed as such the construction and furnishing of the secretariat complex is to reposition staff for a refined efficiency in the process of implementation of government policies and programmes.”
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“When I came in the first thing I did was to declare a state of emergency in the education sector, looking at Mikang, it is one of the local government areas that is educationally backward. Out of the 17 local government areas, Mikang is the most backward not only in education but virtually everything. The first thing we did was to recruit teachers, that is the foundation, we recruited about 300 to ensure that our pupils are well taught and once they have that foundation, they will be able to compete with their peers nationwide.”
“We did that because they were deficit, in terms of learning spaces, some were sitting under the trees, with the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, we ensured that we built more blocks of classrooms all over the four districts that we have in the local government.”
“I also promised free uniforms to the less-privileged pupils. This will be sustained, it is my pet project, either in office or not, I will be doing this every year, this borne out of the experience I had as a pupil who used to wear tattered uniforms. I know the shame I endured, some pupils may even drop out of school because of lack of uniform.”
Commenting on the silver jubilee celebration of Mikang, he added, “We are a people of hope…, it is worthy of celebration.
“For the fact that Mikang is 25, and we are still together as one, it is worthy of celebration. As a local government, we are 25, this is part of the celebration today, we are commissioning this edifice, out of the 17 local governments, I can proudly say that no local government has a magnificent secretariat complex like this. It is something that is worthy of celebration that within the limited resources and the financial challenges, we were able to build this.”
As he prepares to leave office, Pabuet disclosed he would want to be remembered for “the things we have done, this brand-new secretariat, the unity we brought, we are celebrating our founding fathers, we have honored those who fought for the creation of Mikang local government area, we have named this edifice and some streets after some of them.”
However, the Chairman of Langtang North local government area, Joshua Laven who came to celebrate with his colleague commended him for working to lift the standard of the council.
He stated, “It is a thing of joy, I came here to celebrate with my colleague on the giant achievement, with the present economic situation, it is difficult to see someone who would want to embark on building this kind of edifice in such a rural setting but we need something like this to develop the place. He has done well.”
