He said “It is a thing of great joy to witness the excitement exhibited by our compatriots who have left other pressing engagements to mark this milestone with the Administration, and appreciate “Senator Kashim Shetima, Vice President for honouring us with his presence and to commission the project.
He has shown himself as a patriot who prioritizes the broader and nobler demands of national unity and progress over narrow and destructive partisan interests that dot the shifting quick sands of our political landscape”.
He recalled that at the inception of this administration during my first term in 2019, we had enunciated a clear policy thrust, under the My Bauchi Project agenda, aimed at improving the welfare of our people, orchestrating a robust and diversified economy and upscaling both the social sector and infrastructure in all ramifications.
Governor Bala said “The remodeling of the dilapidated, badly run down and inadequate Government House fell under our infrastructure remediation programme, even as we also identified it as a strategic cornerstone of our ambitious urban renewal agenda.
He said “My tenancy of the Government House, from 2019, provided instant and compelling justification for my earlier feeling and indeed brought to the fore the urgency of holistically resetting the architectural and psychological milieu of the Bauchi Government House, Characterized by inadequate office space for the critical staff of the Government House, lack of meeting rooms, vulnerability to security breaches, an un conducive residential environment and the ever present risk of de-branding the state, I needed no further conviction that the question of remodeling the Government House had been overtaken by whether it should be done.
The pertinent question had become: when, indeed, how soon?that I kept it on hold was borne out of the dictum that what concerns us comes last, that as the pilot of our dream reconstruction effort, I and my family could afford to suffer personal inconvenience if that was what was needed to achieve the ambitious vision espoused in the My Bauchi Project document.
But it was a delicate balancing act between, on the one hand self-denial and on the hand, operational efficiency, minimum convenience, the image of the state and the security of both the Governor and all those working in the Government House, due to rampant incidents of security breaches.
We decided to act.
What you see today is the outcome of that action”
Governor Bala said “Standing on this hallowed turf of our Government House, where generations of patriots, living and dead, diligently served the state, Your Excellency, I feel a sense of fulfilment, not just because we dared but that we dared in a big way.Let me quickly say that, over the years, I have developed the paradigm of “big thinking” in Government. Big thinking allows us to envision the future, to deploy today’s resources in a manner that anticipates the needs of our great grandchildren and not just our children.
With big thinking, we avoid the innocent mistakes that limited the vision of our highly patriotic progenitors who built narrow bridges, constructed single lane roads and captured electricity to take care of a limited number of consumers, domestic and corporate.
Nigeria and Nigerians are still suffering the consequences of those actions that were taken, obviously, with the best of intentions”.
He said ” this big project is not an isolated case. Whether we are talking about the dualized airport road or the ongoing dualization of the major roads linking the headquarters of the five other emirates of the state, our goal is to establish legacy projects capable of sustaining the ambitious developmental needs of our people across time and space.
Our vision is to replicate and if possible, improve on those assets that attract our people to Europe, the Middle East and the Americas so that with time, the financial hemorrhage that attends foreign expeditions will abate and Nigeria, nay Bauchi State will enjoy the benefits of internal tourism where indeed, we excel.
We believe we can do it, and, to the glory of God, the re-modelled Government House complex is evidence that, where there is the will, and with prudent management of resources, there will be a way”
