The Gombe State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Naomi Awak has lamented the challenges that confronted her when she assumed office on the 12th November, 2019, blaming the past Government under the leadership of Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwambo as not been serious with their work while thanking God for bringing the current Executive Governor, Alhaji Mohammed Inuwa Yahaya on board for putting things in place through his pragmatic leadership towards addressing the maladministration of the previous Government.
The Commissioner who also noted with dismay that on the 12th November, 2019 when she assumed office at the premises of the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development at exactly 7.49am and reported in her office at 8am that morning, there was no access to her office, workers did not come to work until calls were put to them, these were workers who supposed to be at work at least 8am -8.30 am and such negative narratives were later changed by the leadership style of Governor Inuwa Yahaya together with his commissioners who come to work on daily basis by 7.30 to 8am daily.
Mrs Naomi Awak pointed out that the first week of her assumption to duty, the challenges that confronted her was attendance, they dont come to office in time and she thanked God that the punctuality has improved because she ensures that she comes to office in time by 8.am which the staffs studied and they improved punctuality hence not only Ministry of Women Affairs but all of the Commissioners come to office in time in their various ministries.
Another disturbing revelation from the Commissioner was that she met dilapidated building with falling ceilings, dirty environment and bushy premises which were not conducive for productivity activities hence Mrs Naomi Awak blamed the workers on the other hand and the past Government on the other hand because if the past Government had the people at heart honestly things would not have been on that way, we appreciate God, we give God the glory for bringing the mantra of change to Gombe State for giving us good Governor, the Executive Governor Alhaji Mohammed Inuwa Yahaya.
According to her, when I toured the Rehabilitation Centre, we discovered that the children in the Remain home were sleeping on bare floor, you can imagine human beings sleeping on bare floor at this harmattan, this is terribly bad despite the fact that they are there for correctional measures but that does not mean we should keep them on bare floor and treat them as if they are not human beings, on getting there and seeing the situation, Government of Gombe State quickly intervened and bought them Kitchens utensils, mattresses, blankets, food items and even drugs that was not available in their Pharmacy as well as bought out those items while we are working on falling ceilings, falling roofs and dilapidated building to make it habitable which should be done before the end of this month.
Another lamentable situation was a lot of things were in shambles and the previous Government did not take a drastic measures to address them and they thanked God for APC mantra of change that brought the Governor Mohammed Inuwa Yahaya who has the interests and aspirations of the masses at heart in delivering all the campaigns promises made to the people of Gombe state while declaring a state of emergency on education sector whereby all the children who were initially out-of schools- had gone back to schools.
She said further that the Rehabilitation Centre which houses deaf workshop. Blind workshop where the people of disabilities produces various art works for sell and make small profit is a laughing stock which needed urgent action and efforts are on the line to change the ugly narratives of the Centre by the Government.
Mrs Naomi Awak noted that the Governor had made giant efforts in addressing the challenging facing the state such as the BESDA programme intervention which have benefitted women, children and vulnerable where the girls acquired both Islamic and western education had come on board.
Last year, over 100 women benefitted from the bank of Industry and Federal Ministry of agriculture by getting soft assistance to open up poultry farms and other sundry assistance to enable operate small scale businesses and that had gone a long away in assisting women in the state while the programme is ongoing.
Similarly, Honorable Commissioner pointed out that First Lady of Gombe State, Hajiya Asmau Mohammed Inuwa Yahaya had flagged-off distribution of food items to less privileged in the state to support the needy members of the society initiated by the office of the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Hajiya Aisha Muhammadu Buhari.
According to her, the food distribution programme targeted the less privileged members of the society which included orphans, widows, people with disabilities as well as religious groups, associations and others.
She said that the Wife of the Governor Hajiya Asma’u Yahaya in her efforts noted that the initiatives was being pursued by Aisha Buhari through her pet project, ” future assured’ and it was in line with policies and programmes of the state Government’s programmes which was targeted at the empowering youths, women and other vulnerable groups within the society.
She added that the overall objectives was addressing immediate needs of a common man which should be a matter of priority to every responsible Government, as such Gombe state will ensure close and sustained partnership with the Federal Government and other Non-Governmental organizations in developing initiatives that have direct bearing on the lives of the people.
According to her, state First Lady used the occasion to appeal to the representatives of the benefiting individuals and groups to be fair and just in distributing the items while the monitoring team has been set up to ensure a fair distribution process with a view to reaching out to the targeted beneficiaries.
