One Year of Service: Wamba LG Chairman Reflects on Achievements, Challenges, and the Road Ahead

As November 4th approaches, the Executive Chairman of Wamba Local Government Area, Honourable Ezekiel Musa Jagga, will mark his first year in office, a period that according to him, is defined by both daunting challenges and visible progress. In this exclusive interview, he reflects on the journey so far, sharing insights into the realities of grassroots governance, the obstacles he met on assumption of duty, and the strides his administration has taken to improve the lives of his people.

From inadequate staffing across vital sectors such as education and healthcare, to insecurity, youth unemployment, food insecurity, and dilapidated infrastructure, the Chairman inherited a host of problems demanding urgent solutions. Yet, through what he describes as God’s grace, teamwork, and community engagement, his administration has been able to make headway reducing insecurity, improving workers’ welfare, and prioritizing projects that strengthen democratic institutions at the grassroots.

With the commissioning of a new legislative complex on the horizon and efforts to improve internally generated revenue without debt dependence, Hon. Ezekiel Jagga believes the local government is on the path of renewal.

In this interview, he speaks candidly about the realities of leadership at the grassroots, the strategies deployed to address pressing challenges, and his vision for a more secure and prosperous Wamba.

By November 4th, you’ll be a year in office. How do you describe the experience so far for this one year in office? What challenge did you come to meet in office and how have you been able to surmount some of them?

Well, thank you for this opportunity. Any government that comes in or goes out, there must be challenges and there must be ways of activities that were carried out.

However, I inherited the mantle of this leadership on the 4th of November, 2024. And then when coming into the office, I know that my predecessors had done their best and led to the best of their ability.

First and foremost, the greatest challenge I had and I still have in this local government is the issue of personnel and staff. In all the departments, the staffing is inadequate. Performance in such a situation can never be 100 percent. It can never be adequate. You go to education. The number of teachers you have, the teachers are not adequate. The number of health workers are inadequate.

Basically, if any government wants to succeed, it must have this list of staff that I have mentioned. The health sector, education, works department, agric department – virtually all the departments are relevant.

And secondly, the issue of insecurity. It is an issue that when I was part of the system, we were having this challenge of insecurity, insecurity, insecurity. This was up to the time we came to power. But with God’s intervention, we have been able to reduce the issue of insecurity to a minimum.

And you know the issue of insecurity, you cannot get it right at a particular time. It is a gradual procedure. So I cannot say that the issue of insecurity is completely ruled out of the Local Government Area. But it has been reduced to a minimum. That people can be able to operate at any hour, do their daily work, come to work, people flowing into the Local Government and getting out of the Local Government freely. Unlike when we were not on the seat.

Thirdly, when I came into office, I saw the state of the office accommodation. And because as a technocrat, I know how important having a decent accommodation is. It is where you have a decent accommodation that you can be able to perform, give to the best of the environment you are working in.

When I came in, I knew as a chairman, I inherited an office that is minimally good for the chairman to operate. The deputy also has where actually he can be able to operate. But when I look at my legislators, the councilors, the structure we inherited has been there like that from when we were not even born. That is the structure that is still on ground. When they have legislative matters, people that may have interest in being present to listen to what they are actually debating cannot be accommodated in that structure. If you go there and you call that structure the legislative council’s chamber, there is nothing to write home about. That was a very big challenge to us.

When we looked at it, we decided that it is very important for us to start thinking how we are going to have a befitting legislative council for our councilors. And that is one of those things that we are currently on.

Thirdly, we all know the issue of food insecurity in this country. It is a very big issue. Farmers, our parents are already getting tired. They don’t have the capacity to go to the farm. The children that have interest in going for Western education, after graduating from the Western education, they don’t even think of going to the farm. That is why you see issue of the food costs in the market. The prices go up all the time because there are less people that go into farming. So it has become a very big challenge to us as a Local Government.

Even when outsiders bring food to be sold to our various communities, it is also a big challenge. Because as an indigene, if you don’t have the food, you don’t have the money to buy the food crops, you have no magic. That is why the issue of the rate of insecurity on the aspect of robbery, burglary of individual houses, are mostly done by the youth. These people don’t have anything to do for themselves. So it has become a problem.

Then there is the issue of the youth empowerment. That is an issue because we know the population is growing. And the supply in the country cannot meet the demands of the population of youths. Every day, everywhere, every year we keep generating children that go to school. These children graduate from schools but employment becomes inadequate. Insufficient. So that has been a very big challenge to this country.

As a Local Government, we are no different because we are also facing it. And that is why from my initial statement I told you that staffing is a problem. If the youth that graduate are given employment, the issue of staffing would not be a problem.

That is why I feel that the youth, wherever and whenever they see themselves, they see themselves as unfortunate people within the society. Because they need to eat, they need shelter, they need to satisfy their ego. But if all these things are not provided unto them, that is when you will see the rate of insecurity become so rampant. Some will go into kidnapping, some will go into robbery, some will go into prostitution. All these are things that in a society we can never rule them out.

There is also the issue of workers’ welfare which includes their promotions and everything. But thank God that when we came, workers were complaining that they were denied their promotions and everything. But when we came, His Excellency, Governor Sule did his best to see that all the workers in the Local Governments were promoted, were given all the benefits that are attached to their promotions. The process is still ongoing. It is something that you may never be able to completely satisfy everyone.

I know there are issues of infrastructures within our communities. There are communities that are crying woefully every day, that the politicians are not taking care of them when they get to the office. Sometimes the road networks are totally poor, especially during the rainy season. And sometimes when the workers or the farmers don’t have access roads, how do they carry their food products to the market? It becomes very difficult. Even the children that go to schools.

So, these are some of the challenges that I know I see being faced within my local community. There are road networks that need rehabilitation. But we are thanking His Excellency that he has started implementing some policies and projects that have begun taking care of these difficulties within the members of the community.

So, so far, this is what I try to be able to mirror for some of the challenges that we are faced. And we are looking on to it to see how we can be able to solve some of these challenges within the period of our time.

So I will still speak about some actions that you have taken. Like for the issue of the good work environment, especially for the Local Government legislators. I could see the building, the magnificent structure outside. So we’ve seen how you’re tackling that challenge. And the issue of insecurity, I can testify that the stories of insecurity from Wamba has greatly reduced. But I want to know, what steps did you take to make the story better within this period of time? Maybe others can learn from your experience.

The issue of insecurity, that has been the basic thing. His Excellency always tells us. That we should do our best to see that we reduce the issue of insecurity within our society.

First and foremost, is that we need to interact, have interface with members of the community. Like myself sitting here, I’m basically a rural man. There’s no community in this Local Government that I have never been to when I served as a director. There’s no community that from when I started my campaign in 2018 for this same seat, I have never been to. I know them, they know me.

So, the first thing I did when I came into office was to interact with the security outfits that are within Local Government Council. I tried to relate with them, know their area of difficulties, what we can do in order to improve on the security of our community. When we met, they told me their difficulties on aspect of their welfare. That is the monthly welfare that the Local Government used to support them with. When I evaluated that, I said there’s a need for us to improve the welfare of the security. I doubled their allowances from what my predecessor was giving to them.

Secondly, whenever any challenge arose as it relates to any uprising within the community, I always assisted them in terms of fueling, giving them vehicles to go to where the challenges are.

We always have our monthly security meetings. There are stages of my security meetings. Sometimes I will do with the key principal officers of the security agencies. That is the military, the DPO, the DSS, the Civil Defense. There are other stages that I can go to do meetings with the whole security arms of the Local Government. Then there are stages that I can organize my security meeting, including the traditional rulers. There are issues that we have to start from the traditional rulers to know the actual reports they have received from their villages or the districts. If there are issues of that nature, it is where we prepare our minds for our monthly security meetings. It is at that stage that the security arms of the Local Government sit, resolve, and provide a solutions. These are some of the ways that I’ve tried to maintain the standard.

I think by maintaining the standard, it is actually helping us. Apart from the security outfits within the Local Government, there are other security outfits either from the State, from the federal, or within the zone. It is my responsibility to see that I take care of them because the Local Government are under them at the zonal level. I can remember when a Joint Task Force of Security men came here. They were about 50. They were here around June or July. I was seated here in Wamba. They just came with their vehicles, and they said they came for a joint task force. I took responsibility for fueling their vehicles, I gave them little allowances that they can go take care of themselves. So security is something that we can never compromise.

We also observed that our people were becoming fond of holding parties at late hours. I tried to discourage it. If you are going to organize parties, organize your parties to a certain period of time so that people will come and enjoy with you and leave. But when you spend much of your time in the party up to the late hours, there is the tendency is that you are inviting criminals to come to your community.

Recently, I have a crisis within the community. Somebody had his new structures. These new structures were hosting parties almost on a daily basis. In fact, within the week, they came and removed armoured cables within two communities. That was where we had to intervene. Now we have given a standing order. Parties of that nature should be stopped for now until they have further clearance from the Local Government. We instructed all the District and Village Heads, as well as the security arms that they should enforce that. They should never allow that thing to happen.

And lastly, we appreciate the assistance we have received for the funding of the security efforts we are making. You know, security is something that has no limit. But His Excellency has been giving us support on the aspect of security. So what is meant for security officers, we do give them. We don’t have to compromise. There’s no two ways about it.

But lastly, God is the one that protects. I can’t say all these things without mentioning God.

God is the one that protects. God is the one that gives wisdom. So we appreciate God for what He has been doing.

Now, on the beautiful structure as mentioned by you, earlier I told you that when I came in, especially when I presented my budget in that cubicle or house, it was not something to write home about.

And I think the current set of Local Government Chairmen in Nasarawa State are fortunate because His Excellency, he relates with us very well. He gives us his mind. He was the one that advised us. The Governor asked us to design what we intend to do in our Local Government Areas. So when we designed, it took us about two or three times for His Excellency to moderate and finally gave approval that we should do a project that has meaning to our people at the grassroots. And graciously, he released the sum of 460 million to us at the Local Government, for projects. That is why I gave my priority to this legislative arm of the government. And that project, by the grace of God, by the time I am celebrating one year in office, that structure is going to be commissioned and it’s going to be handed over to the appropriate quarters.

So I think we have made the right choice, because they are the ones that make laws. They are the ones that are dealing with the people at the grassroots. It’s not going to be proper for me to sit in a comfortable office like this while my speaker and other arms of legislators are not comfortable.

That is why I see sometimes when they go for sitting, they just do their sittings and leave. That is not how it should be. It should be an avenue where after their sittings, everybody will enter his office, go and sit down. Probably they will have appointments with their members of the communities. Let them come and enjoy the dividends of democracy. But the moment they don’t have any place, no appointment, when they finish their sitting, they either meet in the market or meet in the beer parlour. And that is not a good atmosphere for you to discuss government policies. So I felt that the government privacy should start with having a befitting accommodation for my councilors.

And when people were saying that, that is supposed to be for the Chairman. I said, no, they are lawmakers. They are lawmakers.

And I want to sincerely thank the contractor that is giving me the best. I have visitors coming, flowing into this Local Government. Some of them are coming because of the news they have heard about this building. They will come just to come and see. Some are here on functions, they will just have their time to go and look at that structure. All the commendations are coming on the contractor and the Local Government because we try to be transparent. We have tried to be sincere with the contractor. And that is why you see the contractor is doing his best to meet up the time frame and the quality of the work that he is giving to us. I think you have already gone there and you see it for yourself.

You have already touched on my next question. It is about the resources coming in. And you said His Excellency is doing well. So the question I want to ask following that is the issue of the internally generated revenue. I know it is one thing that His Excellency has always spoken about at the state level, at the local government level. Have you done anything concerning that?

Yes, you know, dealing with revenue is a very sensitive area. Dealing with the people that collect the revenue is also very sensitive. Because before you understand the secrecy of collecting revenue, you must have to study them. You must have to look at the sources of this revenue. You must have to meet with all the departments to know how they collect revenue. Who is responsible? Who is the leader of that group? Is it departmental? Is it a task force? Or is it contracted?

So, when we came, we inherited that the task force that is already on ground, headed by one of the staff within the Local Government with other staff within the Local Government. They were the ones doing the collections. When I came, some said I should dissolve them. I said no, I can’t just dissolve them because I’m just coming in. Bringing a new person before he gives me what actually I want, or before I detect what is ongoing, it is going to take me time. Let me just allow them to continue while I assess them on their performances.

Meanwhile, the output of the revenue collection has increased from where actually we had. Because I know I cannot to block all the loopholes. But some of the loopholes, we try to block it, to reduce the leakages in order to have something that we can be able to maintain ourselves. So the task force is still in force.

And His Excellency, the Deputy Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Akabe, on our economic council meetings, he always tells us that we should avoid contracting the collection of revenue to contractors. Even if we are going to contract them, we should contract them on ways of advising the Local Government on how to collect revenue. And that is why you see it very, very difficult for us to contract.

I think in a month, we can generate something that is reasonable for us to keep the Local Government going.

And what actually I would interest you to know is that since my coming into office, I have never gone out of what I have in the Local Government to maintain my Local Government. I don’t go to the bank to have overdraft. I don’t go to any cooperative to go and borrow money to manage. I manage what I have. With what we have as our monthly allocations, with what is coming in as revenue, that is how I have been maintaining myself because I am afraid of debt.

So I believe that if not because the revenue generation has improved, I wouldn’t have been having an opportunity to maintain the smooth running of the Local Government. Thank you.

Wamba Local Government is one that, probably because it’s not the State’s capital, you have a lot of your indigenes outside the Local Government. Have you made any deliberate efforts to build a relationship between the Local Government and let’s say your indigenes in diaspora, whether in other Local Governments or even outside the State, how to keep the relationship going?

Well, as a politician, we look for people all the time. And when I came on board, I inherited the structure that was already designed by our Royal Highness, the Oriye Rindre, and the Chairman of the traditional council that we meet with stakeholders. We deliberated on issues that have direct bearing to the Local Government. And there are issues that need us to interface with some of them. We either have interaction with them through phone or organize a meeting with them to see so they can be able to dialogue on issues.

There is one of our prominent sons that is in Abuja.  Yesterday, I had a very good interaction with him on what actually is going on.

They have been giving me support at all times on what actually we are doing in the Local Government, how are we doing, what is the way forward. So these are some of the ways that we interact with some of them.

And you know, sometimes you cannot say it’s smooth running, because everybody is where he is. And sometimes, if not on issue of political gathering, sometimes you hardly have them at home. Sometimes some of them will respond and some will not respond. Unless there’s an occasion, either in terms of commissioning, in terms of courtesy calls, sometimes you get some of these stakeholders that can be able to interact with them. People like the former Secretary of the State Government, Elder Timothy Anjide, the present DG, Revenue Board, people like the House Member, Hon. Manding. These are people that we meet. At any time, we sit down and interface with them and try to see how we can go forward.

But in terms of development, it becomes very difficult. Because of the economy, sometimes when you try to ask them to contribute, the economy is so hard. But we understand with everybody. But they are doing their best. We are also doing our best to see that we keep the tempo of awareness. If we are not speaking with one voice, we can never succeed.

Thank you very much, sir.