Wednesday 5th June 2013 – About two years ago, as a government, we were driven by a collective drive of consolidating the gains of Redemption phase I in our first tenure (2007-2011), which was anchored on the vision of ‘building a new Plateau in the plan of God; a people working together; responding positively to the developmental challenges of building a new era of progress’.The implementation blueprint of the Redemption Phase II in this second term was premised in the Ten Point Agenda that rests on the Three Pillar Policy of Human Capital Development, Infrastructure and Financing Options.

This was to be achieved by exploiting the abundant lands and rich natural and human resources that are potential sources of high economic growth that could help create wealth and reduce poverty. Combined with a dynamic private sector as a critical partner, these endowments have the potential of transforming our state into a powerful growth magnet in Nigeria and beyond.

Supported by the active dynamism of our citizens, several key initiatives were implemented in terms of efforts towards fast tracking our internal revenue generation capacity, strengthening our human resource capacity as well as intervention in key sectors of the economy- agriculture, roads, education, environment and transportation.

Wednesday 5th June 2013 – About two years ago, as a government, we were driven by a collective drive of consolidating the gains of Redemption phase I in our first tenure (2007-2011), which was anchored on the vision of ‘building a new Plateau in the plan of God; a people working together; responding positively to the developmental challenges of building a new era of progress’.The implementation blueprint of the Redemption Phase II in this second term was premised in the Ten Point Agenda that rests on the Three Pillar Policy of Human Capital Development, Infrastructure and Financing Options.

This was to be achieved by exploiting the abundant lands and rich natural and human resources that are potential sources of high economic growth that could help create wealth and reduce poverty. Combined with a dynamic private sector as a critical partner, these endowments have the potential of transforming our state into a powerful growth magnet in Nigeria and beyond.

Supported by the active dynamism of our citizens, several key initiatives were implemented in terms of efforts towards fast tracking our internal revenue generation capacity, strengthening our human resource capacity as well as intervention in key sectors of the economy- agriculture, roads, education, environment and transportation.

On the whole, the implementation of Redemption II is being executed to achieve the desired results as captured in our resolve at Obudu in August, 2011. There is a sense in which, this Mid-Term Review Retreat is geared towards assessing the progress made so far, as well as challenges, with a view to strategizing towards the realization of concrete benefits for our state and its people.

At this juncture, the contribution of the German International Cooperation (GIC), as an indispensable partner in terms of its support for sustainable economic development in Plateau State needs to be appreciated. This partnership has been quite helpful in providing the necessary assistance and policy advise towards our developmental aspirations as a state.

We equally wish to appreciate all the other partners in our developmental strides so far. Our desire is to sustain this partnership for the overall development of our people and their future. However, apart from the need to catch up with lags in project implementation, we are convinced that we have every compelling reason to fast track the pace of our collective efforts through commitment and cooperation at both national and international levels, as a key building block to the physical, institutional and to our human development.

In toeing this path, we have crafted several policy initiatives such as the setting up of a task force on revenue generation, task force on city renewal, as well as a committee on staff verification and biometric for the civil service among others.

As we take advantage of this retreat to review our roadmap, our vision will be hinged on five interrelated strategies:
(I) facilitate and promote trade and investments opportunities for our people.
(II) promote the growth of agriculture, solid minerals and tourism as main stay of our economy.
(III) strengthen infrastructure linkages in the area of health, education, transportation and the environment.
(IV) develop human resource capacities and competences, as well as enhance natural resource management.
(V) strengthen institutional arrangements and mechanisms for cooperation and collaboration among MDA, at the expense of competition.

In conclusion, as a government, looking ahead, we remain resolute in our commitment to instituting a policy and regulatory anchor, which is aimed at providing an enabling environment and policy that is conducive for growth and development. This is anchored on the firm belief on the need for a more disciplined and well-informed process for identifying initiatives and projects based on sector strategies, clear transparency and accountability for delivering project outputs, monitoring based on results, and an action-oriented implementation roadmap for achieving Redemption II in 2015.

In achieving the above, we are not unmindful of the fact that we must remain transparent in our dealings. Our faith lies in the mission of confidently taking responsibility for better ways of doing things with emphasis on value re-orientation that maintains zero tolerance for corruption at all levels of governance. As a team, we should sustain our resolve to make a difference in the life of our people; more so, time is not on our side. I charge us to step up our drive especially in this closing lap of the administration.

I wish us honest and fruitful deliberations, Plateau is on the rise!

Thank you and God bless Plateau state.

The above is the full excerpt of the speech by Da Jonah Jang Governor of Plateau State at the retreat in Jos today, ViewPointNigeria is currently collating responses from Plateau opinion leaders, students and political analyst in Jos regarding the points outlined here-in and shall bring you these shortly. If you have any comments or contributions please do get in contact with us or leave a comment on the page.

Stay with ViewPointNigeria as we bring you reactions to this speech

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5th June 2013 – Da Jonah Jang’s address at the “Redemption Phase II” mid-term review retreat in Jos