By Abubakar Shekara
Dust is rising everywhere in Sokoto State but it has nothing to do with this year’s harmattan that is around the corner. Buildings are coming down, trees are being felled but not by any natural disaster.
It is indeed, what can be called positive destruction; the clearing of old structures to make way for the new Sokoto State, as envisioned by Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.
Designs are ready, MOUs signed, part payments made and compensations promptly paid. The bulldozers, pay loaders, cranes and other paraphernalia are on site, all the flurry not going unnoticed, under watch of the ever watchful media.
The Fourth Estate of the Realm is leaving nothing to speculation or chance, as the Sokoto State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists sets out on a tour of all the project sites.
Chairman of the NUJ, Isa Abubakar Shuni said Wednesday at the site of the new sports complex, “the construction of N1.7b Modern Sports Arena and Indoor Sports Hall being undertaken by the state government has come at a right time.”
Shuni commended the site engineers for the quality of work being carried out, adding, ” after the completion of the project, it would assist toward boosting sporting and economic activities in the state.”
The umbrella union for journalists representing all the national and international media houses in the state were at the construction sites of the State University Teaching Hospital and the Government Girls Science College a day earlier.
The Sokoto NUJ tour is a first hand assessment exercise of the projects being carried out by the administration of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, which has so much ground to cover, as there is so much work on the ground. Flyovers, roads, hospitals and schools all over the state are on cue for the journalists’ visit.
Meanwhile social media practitioners too are not relying on what they hear about Tambuwal’s projects. This is the third week of a tour of local governments by a group of committed young men, who seek out water works and schools being built by the Sokoto State Government.
Abdurraham Muhammad Yabo and Amar Shagari, two dedicated new media enthusiasts have covered so much ground in their self assigned work. And they have so far, provided a pictorial insight into what Tambuwal is accomplishing in the rural areas, where the big tabloids, TV channels and prominent radio stations have not reached.
In Sokoto State the media are on a foray. And if Tambuwal is a silent achiever, it is silence that the watchdogs do not support. They go, they see and they are impressed.
