Governor Mohammed Bello Matawalle was part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s team to Russia where important feats were achieved. He spoke to journalists on the visit and its significance to the people of Zamfara state. Our correspondent, Mohammed Hassan, presents excerpts of the interaction:
Tell us about this trip you have made with the President.
First of all I would like to thank my God and to thank Mr President for all the support given to the people of Zamfara State. As you can see, I am in this journey in order to get some investors for Zamfara State particularly in something that we have in my state, Zamfara and Mr President is a kind person and he is kind to the people of Zamfara State by introducing people of reputable character, and people who can go and develop the state in terms of solid minerals development and that is with the understanding and bearing in mind that the federal government will establish mineral resouces service centres in Zamfara state through which the prices of minerals can be controlled through my state. We are very happy with this initiative of Mr President and the kind of fatherly advice he gives to me, particularly on the issue of insecurity, he’s been advising me and he’s in support of what the government is doing to curtail the issue of insecurity and we thank him very much for his concern towards the people of the state.
What do you think about the engagement with Afri-exim Bank?
The Afri-exim Bank, we have already started engaging with them before we came here and which they informed me that the bank extended about one billion dollars investment to Zamfara State and they have brought a lot of investors and since we came here we have been having meetings with investors that will come to invest in solid minerals aspect.
What’s your vision for Zamfara State in terms of harnessing solid mineral resources?
I want Zamfara to become the largest city in Nigeria and I can assure the people of the state and Nigerians that Zamfara is in good hands and we are going to build the state and with the support of Mr President we are going to move Zamfara forward.
Your state was recently reported to have shored up its IGR. We would like to know the magic that brought about that unprecedented feat.
Well, you see it’s about diversification. When I emerged as governor, there were lots of loopholes and leakages especially in the areas of revenue and we had to block them. I changed the staff of the revenue agencies and brought in new person’s and the woman that is in charge of revenue presently is doing great. And you see, in Zamfara State, you see people doing illegal mining and there’s no revenue derived by the state but when I came in, we made sure that whatever we are doing, we must have revenues from there for government and I can assure you that next month, we’ll have more revenue improvement.
You were at the bilateral meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and his Russian counterpart, Putin. What would you say were your take aways from the meeting?
Well, that bilateral meeting was good because the Russian government is determined to do everything possible for Nigeria, and our President was calm and careful enough to give them what Nigeria needs. The president was specific about things that will bring about the well being of our nation.
Insecurity has become a big issue and setback in Zamfara, what is the situation now?
Well, I can say that Zamfara is now calm. As you know, before now there was no day that you will not hear about killing of innocent people, but as at today, at least we have spent three days here, there’s no such report of criminal activities. I have been getting reports every minute and as of today nothing like that has happened. You know security is not something that you can have 100 percent, but I can assure Nigerians that Zamfara will remain a peaceful state, and I am also assuring our people that they will continue to sleep with both eyes closed.
