By Dr. Kabiru Usman Hassan
I want to start by appreciating and commending the giant effort of the visionary leader of our dear state (Gombe state), Governor Muhammadu Inuwa yahya for his landmark achievement on infrastructural development in the state. The governor has already print his name with gold and is well known for his commendable triumphs and positive infrastructural changes, while delivering advanced socio–economic programmes and crucial infrastructure to the citizen of the state in the last couple of years.
The trail blazing administration of Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya on infrastructural development has not come to us as a surprise as the governor is a prominent and successful businessman before venturing into politics and is really working the talking. He has since embarked on a novel and ground breaking Network Eleven Hundred road project (N11-100) that is meant to link up the rural and urban areas of the state. The governor initiated the Network Eleven Hundred ‘to build at least one hundred kilometers of roads in each local government area of the state to open up the state for the free movement of person’s, goods and service.
Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahya has a strong belief that road construction and maintenance is essential in order to preserve the road in its originally constructed condition, protect adjacent resources and user safety, provide efficient, convenient, travel along the route for the benefit of the citizen in the state. However, this has come with so many challenges to the government of the day ranging from rising cost of materials, friction between the different stakeholders, (e.g. owner and contractors), Compensation, poor productivity, poor project performance (i.e. the risk of going over budget and the risk of failing to deliver within specified timelines), skilled labor shortages, and sustainability & efficiency.
One other crucial challenges faced by this administration with regards to the road construction and other infrastructural development in the state is the issue of COMPENSATION MEASURES (i.e. Payment process and reluctant of those affected to move while adhering strictly to the orders & development control guiltiness of non-encroachment) AND THE DISORGANIZED NATURE (HIGGLEDY-PIGGLEDY) OF THE SETTLEMENTS, this poses higher developmental risk and compensation depending on the complex factors and specified site conditions which often do not reach the desired target of the development and time frame by the government.
As it is already, TUMFURE is an autonomous community in AKKO Local Government area of Gombe State, its major problem are Urbanization and Overdevelopment. Urbanization is the increase in population growth & one of the major factors that contribute towards urban sprawl. As number of people in a city grows beyond carrying capacity. While Over-development is best described as an expanse or spread of development, the quantity of buildings or intensity of use that is excessive in terms of demands on infrastructure and services, or impact on local amenity and character. Over-development is also an undesirable condition where the number of buildings and other infrastructural facilities exceed the carrying capacity of the environment. This results to so many environmental effects and consequence to the society. In other words, overdevelopment or the unplanned areas are areas characterized by poor arrangement (organization) of houses, and infrastructures. Therefore, TUMFURE is not an exception, which needs a very good physically planned community, and neighborhoods that is suffering from unplanned settlement. The issue of on-street trading is one of the major problems in TUMFURE which distort the use of transportation facilities such as pedestrian walkways that is meant for the pedestrians. It was observed that most of the pedestrians end up not using the pedestrian walkway as a result of on-street trading activity which has taken over the road thereby being left out to share the small space meant for cars and in some cases this has resulted to accidents.
Overdevelopment and unplanned settlement come with their natural consequences and effects which give government a very tough and hard decision to fast track the desired development needed in the area. Some of the effect of overdevelopment are:
Creation of slum
Overpopulation
Pollution
Traffic flow & congestion and
Vulnerability of communicable diseases
As the Nobel Prize winner and political, social & environmental activist (Wangari Maathai) put it, “The environment and the economy are two side of the same coin, if we cannot sustain the environment, we cannot sustain ourselves” Thus, the inadequate development control measures in those areas gives people an edge to plan and build houses, shops, hotels, and even schools in spaces meant to be an open spaces, residential area, or recreational area, and in some cases, there is also an encroachment on road, parking lots and water channel areas.
Urban development is key to survival of any great city where people around tend to depend greatly on the natural environment for their health and livelihoods especially in developing countries. A healthy environment supplies the necessities of life, like water, food and air. It’s also provide resources for economic growth and the means to fight natural hazard. Therefore sustainability is a massive tool to be used in ensuring better and sustainable community which the administration of Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahya is fully focusing on.
Therefore, in my capacity as the DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF GOGIS and a professional town planner, my main concern and focus to my dear state (Gombe State) is to be able to move beyond our difficult past of development and find ways to give primacy to our older history of economic, cultural and civilizational connectivity, while being cognisant of modern realities and development. It is for this reason that I have given so much attention to the development of our communities and neighborhoods while proffering solutions to improving the road condition in Tumfure and other communities within the state. These may include:
Rehabilitation of existing roads where necessary, and expansion
Construction of new roads to connect the disconnected land uses
Construction of interchanges and drainage systems.
Governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahya is a progressive man, a point that he has taken to heart as he continues to provide succor and developmental projects to the citizen of the state while distinguishing himself to stand out firm from others. We are very much sure that other communities in the state will enjoy his landmark achievement in the coming years.
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