Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago of Niger state has supported a single term in office for state governors for good governance.
The governor who has spent two years in his first term in office did not however recommend the duration of the single term or the effective year for the take off.
Bago who was speaking at the swearing in of newly appointed Commissioners and new local government council chairmen and their deputies as well as some permanent secretaries and members of some Boards and Agencies observed that looking for a second term in office is a hindrance towards taking some decisive decisions that would move the state forward.
“There are some steps I ought to have taken to move the state forward but I dare not because of fear that taking such decisions would affect my victory in 2027. For example, some people who failed examinations and should have been sanctioned one way or the other could not be punished because of second term ambition.
“I am an advocate of a single term for governors. Everything in Niger state is being politicised and because of this, more decisive actions cannot be taken. There are some people I want to sack but I cannot. As the Governor, I am preoccupied with the search for a second term in office and as a result, governance is suffering and this is why one term is better to serve because you will be more focused from the beginning to the end of your one term tenure,” he remarked.
Speaking on the kidnapped students, pupils and teachers of St Mary’s Catholic Primary/ Secondary School Papiri in Agwara local government, the governor described the development as strange to the state and called on all to stand against the evil.
“In the past, the forests across the state were safe for members of the Boys Scout to go for expedition, but that is not the case now. The forests are now being used as hideouts by bandits and that is why kidnapping and abduction are strange to us in Niger. “I urge you all to rise to the challenge at hand and pray for the rescue of the remaining abducted Papiri school children and their teachers and for peace to return to all parts of the state,” he remarked.
Bago called on those newly sworn in to key into his new Niger agenda towards moving the state forward in all spheres of life.
“There should be no room for discrimination against anyone on the account of his area of origin, religion and parental background. We should have a new Niger where the son of a nobody will become somebody and this is time to retrace our steps to build a new Niger state,” he declared.
He did not however announce portfolios for the newly sworn in commissioners promising to do so within the next one week.
