By Deborah Hassan
Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, has applauded the United States consistently supporting and recognising Sokoto State in many areas of development through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The Governor, in a statement issued in Sokoto by his Special Adviser Media and Publicity, Muhammad Bello, on Wednesday, February 17, noted that the US embassy in Nigeria has maintained a sustained interest in the development of the state over the years.
Speaking when he received the management team of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/ Nigeria States Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness (State2State) programme led by the programme’s Deputy Chief of Party, Mr John Onyeukwu at Government House, Sokoto, the Governor pledged that his administration would continue to cooperate with it, its agencies as well as partners, in order to not only promote and improve transparency in government, but also enhance service efficiency and effective service delivery.
He added that the state government will immediately set up a steering committee as required by the State2State project work plan and direct the steering committee to come up with their state working plan and areas of collaboration and engagement.
Describing the State2State programme as a ‘clearly important one’ aimed at improving efficiency in government and transparency in governance and governance processes, Gov. Tambuwal commended the initiative stating that it is the best way to engage and support states in coming up with strong development programs that will capture the actual needs of any given state.
In his remark, the Deputy Chief of Party, Mr Onyekwu said the five year project is being implemented in six states of the country, including Sokoto, with focus on increasing accountability, transparency and effectiveness of the selected states and local governments in Nigeria, particularly public finance management, education, primary healthcare and WASH.
Onyeukwu also said other objectives of the programme are to increase efficiency of the sub national government operations, improve sub-national citizentry needs and improve government capacity to mitigate conflict.