Today, our Make Nigeria Better series takes us to Gombe State which has adopted the nickname Jewel of the Savannah

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Nicknamed Jewel of the Savannah because of its natural beauty, Gombe State is the smallest in northern Nigeria in terms of landmass and unfortunately has the fourth lowest human development index and one of the lowest gross domestic products in the country. It is another virgin state that remains untapped

[2] Of late, oil and gas reserves gave been discovered by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation at the Kolmani oil field, which borders Gombe and Bauchi states. I hope that this does not lead to them suffering the same fate as the Niger Delta. What the state government needs to do is invest its 13% derivation funds strictly in income-generating and infrastructural projects. Not a penny of it should go on recurrent spending

[3] Despite its economic weakness, Gombe is reputed to be a friendly city for doing business due to its modern infrastructure, secure and stable serenity, transparency and easy access to information. These earned her the World Bank's yearly appraisal, The Ease of Doing Business, in 2021 and 2023

[4] Gombe is another state with a lot of wildlife and tourism potential as it is situated in the Sudan Savannah area teaming with wild animals. Already for instance, the state government has announced plans to establish a hippopotamus colony at Dadin Kowa under an ambitious wildlife protection programme

[5] Gombe State has a Federal College of Horticulture at Dadin Kowa, which trains graduates in a variety of agricultural courses, including aquaculture, poultry production, livestock rearing, etc. Clearly, this college needs to be upgraded into a Nigerian Agriculture University with a massive livestock faculty and a huge Department of Cattle

[6] Economically, Gombe State is centred around agriculture, mainly sorghum, maize, yam, groundnuts, millet, beans, rice and tomatoes. The Gombe State government needs to woo commercial farmers to grow these crops in industrial quantities in large plantations and then it needs to woo food processors to open plants and convert these crops into finished goods

[7] Gombe State is also renown for the herding of camels, cattle, goats and sheep. What the state government now needs to do is turn all these small scale farms into commercial operations. That way abattoirs can be built next to such facilities and further value can be added in the form of by-product processing plants

[8] When it comes to cash crop production, cotton is the one commodity Gombe can produce in abundance. Again, the state government needs to encourage commercial farming and then woo ginneries, processors and textile mills to open factories in cities like Gombe, Kaltungo, Dadin Kowa, Kumo and Dukku

[9] Gombe State also solid minerals in commercial quantities. Its resources include uranium, gypsum, and limestone. Again, these need to be extracted and processed. I would like the Gombe State House of Assembly pass a law, insisting that only finished products are for sale

[10] Rather uniquely, Gombe State is also the snake capital of Nigeria. It is blessed with a number of snake species, including carpet vipers, the puff adder and the Egyptian cobra. Clearly the state government has to build a snake sanctuary in somewhere like Gombe City and turn it into a major tourist attraction