We are not just talking about developing Dutse into a little beautiful city but creating 27 new towns all over the state.

Every human being has pride. Every human being has a sense of belief in himself, or at least, should have it. These will become obvious when the institutions or the platform he needs are given him to demonstrate it. The first thing was that I knew my people to be very proud, very hard working, very industrious and very humane. I was humbled that they made me their governor.

The first thing I did was to ensure that the government belonged to them. When you are down, it is up to you to decide that you want to pull yourself up. Otherwise there is nothing anyone can do for you. We felt embarrassed and pained when we were being rated so lowly, and we knew that what they were saying was true. We had to unite to save ourselves from ourselves.

So, I decided that I was going to lead, not in terms of being a leader but being part of the people. I do not have any particular training, or qualification, but even when I was foreign minister, I kept my eyes open, and I noticed that there is something called class, and when I became governor, I decided it was an opportunity to prove that what other people now take for granted in other parts of the world we can do it here. I am going to build structure, infrastructure and institutions that will support our collective drive towards achieving human dignity. Our destination is peace and prosperity and a humane decency. We started by having a conference of all Jigawa citizens. We called it the Talakawa Summit.

This summit brought in all artisans, all professionals, from the local midwife in the village to the carpenter, from the woman who makes fura to the vulcaniser and the carpenter. We decided to listen to them first. Then I told them that Jigawa had been a victim of poverty, squalor and destitution. We the elite were here living in comfort and the ordinary people were living in pain. We have switched off from human compassion. We must switch back on and begin to look our people in the face, their clothing, what they eat and how they live.

It was time we listened to their stories of agony, ordeal and pain. It should not be like what we always did, discussing about hunger, poverty, refugees and their kwashiorkor in the comfort of seven-star hotels without even listening to the people who were going through these things. When they had narrated everything, we decided to use what we got from them to form the basis of how to run our government. So, what you are seeing today is the result of the collective will, strength and energies of the people of Jigawa State, not Sule Lamido.

We all travel all over the world and we read about how Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and now Dubai grew and transformed from backwardness to grade one entities. Why can’t we do the same here in Jigawa State? These people started from somewhere, now see where they are. It is up to us to compel ourselves to be what we want to be. It is not Sule Lamido, but the resolve of Jigawa people to put the inglorious past behind them and move from darkness to light. We refused to go by the Nigerian pace but we decided to dictate our own pace. We knew our potentials, and we summoned the discipline and commitment and passion to change our situation.