Building Capacity to Support Sustainable Devt 2

OUTSIDE THE BOX By Alex Otti

The Abia State infrastructure restoration project across all parts of the State is designed to create strong enablers for private sector-led growth in our areas of comparative advantage, especially trade, agriculture and light manufacturing. Things are beginning to look up in several urban and sub-urban locations as we continue to win the trust of the general public through sustained investments in the critical enablers of growth and prosperity.

To protect the environment, we have taken measures to insulate our forests from profiteers and those whose activities are unhealthy for our forest reserves. More importantly, the State Ministry of Environment has been repositioned to adequately cater for our environment’s dynamic needs by setting up robust mechanisms to monitor mining and mineral exploration activities in all parts of the State, protect our water bodies from pollution and safeguard our greenbelt regions.

While we are not yet at the point where we can adopt the same development priorities as our peers in the developed world, we are still conscious of our shared responsibility to the planet, and the future of the environment. This explains why we have gone ahead to set up a department in the State Ministry of Environment with a clear responsibility for climate actions, initiating and executing programmes and policies that limit damage to the natural environment.

I am proud to inform this special audience that the state has chosen to adopt an integrated approach in dealing with the threats of climate change because as earlier mentioned, everything is intricately connected. In the 2024 fiscal year, we made substantial provisions to finance our climate actions by identifying areas of critical needs. We have also integrated many important infrastructure projects, including the “Light Up Abia” initiative, to conform to our climate response framework. In this regard, we are actively installing thousands of energy-efficient lights using solar technology to increase night time visibility on our roads and walkways in urban and rural communities. Our on-going and recently completed projects in the public schools and health institutions like the Amachara General Hospital, Umuahia, and the Abia State Specialist and Diagnostics Centre, Umuahia have been fully equipped with energy-efficient solutions that have not only reduced our carbon footprints as a State, but have also cut down on our energy spending, supported standard preservation of drugs and consumables, and generally improved service delivery at these institutions. Recently, I directed the State Commissioner for Power and Public Utilities to engage with the management of the State University to develop an alternative energy framework to address the perennial power problems in the school. We shall extend this effort to other institutions in the State. We believe that renewable energy is the way to go for reasons of cost efficiency and climate friendliness. Our grand vision is to power all government buildings in the State with suitable eco-friendly energy systems, tapping into the abundant renewable energy sources in our environment. It may also interest us to note that the State is presently developing a robust policy framework for off-grid energy solutions to support economic and social activities, especially in the rural areas.

Just recently, I appointed a climate expert to coordinate the State’s response to changes in climate conditions and support the drafting, adoption and implementation of policies designed to limit actions that threaten the natural environment across the boundaries of our State.

The message from our State is clear: while we are hungry for tangible fruits of development as it concerns our current status, we are also not ignorant of the damages that actions of the present generation can do to the ability of the environment to support future generations. This approach aligns with our long-held position that the most pragmatic development philosophy for those of us in the developing countries is one that tries to quicken the pace of development and then prepares us for the future because we cannot afford the misery of isolation. We must therefore keep our eyes on the ball at all times, focused on today’s challenges, and mindful of the demands of the future.

In Abia, we have also set new standards in empowering women politically by elevating them to senior positions at the decision-making table. In our State, we deliberately place women in key offices where they are given a free hand to drive major government decisions and achieve excellent results connected to the sustainable economic development agenda in education, finance, health, and general administration.

Creating awareness is the first order of business because leaders can only act within the limits of their individual knowledge. Through constant engagement with the various stakeholder groups across different levels of government, the organised private sector, and leaders of socio-cultural groups, the message has been sent that we must take deliberate steps to tackle many of the socio-economic and political challenges facing our land without hurting the capacity of the next generation to address the challenges they may face.

This point is consistently harped on during development strategy meetings, project flag-offs and at other platforms where stakeholders often meet. The great thing is that this initiative is not just for the Governor alone; everyone connected to the Government understands what we want to achieve and knows what is expected of them in terms of leading by example and creating a new development paradigm across the State. Because we have consistently spread the message of sustainable development through various platforms, community leaders and business executives know exactly what to expect and the checklists to tick when initiating or executing various development projects. At the very minimum, new projects are required to create jobs in the local communities, use resources responsibly and do little or when possible, no environmental damage. In all project execution frameworks, measures for mitigating environmental damages must also be holistically identified through environmental impact assessments (EIAs) before approval is given.

Beyond awareness, project officers across all government agencies continue to receive structured technical support on our development priorities to improve their capacity. We have also implemented robust institutional and governance mechanisms to oversee and evaluate the progress of implementing our programmes and policies across relevant frontiers. Commissioners and Heads of Agencies are required to constantly measure their performances against key parameters designed and agreed upon by the relevant stakeholders, including leaders of the communities and clans. We are very particular about the impact of each programme on important development metrics such as job creation and poverty reduction, especially in rural communities.

As a government, our priorities are based on our core development objectives. Abia is presently not at the same level with some of the sub-national units in the developed economies, so it is prudent to be very strategic in the application of resources. Our immediate priorities revolve around tackling the menace of poverty and unemployment in the first instance. We are also keen to deploy resources and, where necessary, work with interested partners to improve access to quality healthcare services and education rapidly. The guiding philosophy is that when we have satisfactorily taken care of poverty, created jobs for our youth population, and provided quality education and healthcare to the people, we can then move a notch higher to effectively expand our scope of interest because development is about the sequence of steady progress.

We are working very hard to improve the capacity of our people to deliver on the core programmes tied to our outlined priorities. Periodically, Heads of Government Agencies are required to liaise with other stakeholders to identify how to realise maximum benefit out of every dime spent, cut down wasteful spending, and redirect resources to areas of optimal impact. We are very particular about robust stakeholder engagements and constant consultations because our experience has shown that the buy-in of these stakeholders is required to drive important initiatives as captured in the various elements of the general sustainable development framework.

Through these engagement activities, including our quarterly budget review sessions, clear communications are made, and concerns are addressed holistically — in the presence and with the input of all stakeholders. Why do we involve the grassroots leaders in the conception and execution of our policies and programmes? Simple: it follows our whole-of-society philosophy and the need to guarantee that the peculiar realities of the various communities are adequately represented, seeing that no one is left behind.

The importance of setting clear priorities in pursuit of steady progress brings us to the imperative of creating a robust partnership framework to drive the execution of our development agenda. We are a government that treasures collaboration and partnerships across institutions and agencies on the one hand and between government and those in the private sector of the economy, on the other. We are also keen to expand the scope of our partnerships with international agencies and development partners. We regularly interface with organisations and groups that have shown interest and demonstrable capacity to work with us to achieve important milestones in our development agenda. We are open to grants, capacity-building programmes for our teachers, health workers, and farmers, as well as equipment and material support for our schools, hospitals, and registered local NGOs.

Abia is currently working with several local and international partners to reduce poverty and hunger through programmes and projects that empower our people to earn on their own through prudent use of our untapped local resources, including very fertile agricultural land and water bodies, large population which easily translates to steady market for food and agricultural commodities, and very strategic markets such as the famous Ariaria International Market.

We said not long ago that we are not a hand-out driven population; our people are resilient and love to earn through enterprise, creative engagements and honest labour. What they need to soar is the right support and enabling environment that will spur them to take advantage of the abundant opportunities around us. This explains why we have remained strongly committed to rebuilding the State’s stock of physical infrastructure, especially roads and public institutions and improving the aesthetics of the environment to reflect the taste of the age.

The overall objective is to dismantle the many obstacles that have stood between our people and their true potential. I am happy to announce that while we are not exactly at the point where we can finally proclaim Uhuru, it is now beyond dispute that Abia is rising, and a new era of optimism has arrived. We shall remain open to support from interested partners because Abia is an important community that is exceptionally strategic to the future we all seek to create through the instrumentality of the sustainable development framework.

Achieving our integrated development objective requires new capacities on the part of those who will drive the core elements of the development framework, expanding their skillset to be able to respond to new realities and deal with age-old problems in a new and effective way. The emphasis is on processes and results. Public sector officials and other relevant stakeholders need the right exposure to understand the nuances of development through the years to be able to situate the superior proposition and suitability of the sustainable development framework for the new age. In Abia, we are consistently exposing our people to new knowledge areas because one of the most important appeals of the sustainable development framework is the fact that it is very practical and relevant to the needs of communities across various parts of the world, especially in Nigeria and Abia State in particular.

Concluded.

Dr. Otti, OFR, is the Governor of Abia State. This concludes excerpts of his keynote speech at the International Conference on Human Rights, Sustainability and Climate Change (ICHRSCC) which took place at the University of Buckingham on Friday, September 20, 2024