By Abu Shekara
Barrister Bello Muhammad Goronyo is the current Minister of State for Works, of course, is no longer news or that prior to that he held the same post at the Water Resources Ministry. The lawyer-cum-politician is constantly in the press and media, discharging his duties all over Nigeria, inspecting federal projects, commissioning roads and attending interactive events that advance his ministry’s mandate of transforming the nation’s infrastructure.
Goronyo is from Sokoto State, the agrarian part of the Seat of the Caliphate, of which he is a prince. And in the royal setting, his current nomenclature would translate to the position of “Wakilin Aiki” (Royal Councillor for Works).
Conscious of his obligations to the state and people of whom he is son, the Minister is giving back to his immediate home community, his own local government, the zone he hails from and his state of origin at large.
From his tenure at Water Resources to his current post at Works, Goronyo has afforded for his people a share the dividends of democracy. His numerous interventions across the state tend to address the critical needs of beneficiary communities.
A part of Barrister Goronyo’s intervention is in the area of the provision of potable water. Here, 50 solar bore holes have been initiated and constructed by the Minister, when he was at Water Resources across the local Government areas of the state. Beneficiary communities in Goronyo Local Government include Kwakwazo, Kojiyo, Sabon Garin Dole and Giyawa, among 11 wards of the council.
The Minister also renovated and provided a new Mikano generator for the Goronyo LGEA Secretariat water works and reconstructed the Goronyo Dam main gate.
The series of interventions extended beyond Goronyo to the State Capital, where the Minister constructed boreholes at Nagarta College of Education, Usman Danfodiyo University State University and Wurno and Shuni roads situated in the GRA.
With his assumption of office at the Federal Ministry of Works, Barrister Goronyo has begun work in earnest on the provision of transport infrastructure to connect communities in various parts of the state. While the Kagara waterway is renovated, work is advance on the construction of the Goronyo-Sabon Garin Dole Road, as part of a plan to facilitate the movement of people and goods in this agriculturally productive part of Sokoto State.
Also in Sabon Garin Dole, his home town, Barrister Goronyo has undertaken the complete renovation of the hospital, as well as the provision of an ICT center, in order to link the people to the state, national and global community.
In Sokoto State, as everywhere else in the dominantly Muslim Northern Nigeria, the mosque is not only a place of worship that addresses the spiritual needs of the people, it is also a nucleus of social and economic interaction. Conscious of this fact, the Minister is endeavouring to maintain this crucial facility, starting with the renovation of the Jumuat Mosques at Sabon Garin Dole and Kagara towns.
His intervention in human development is equally remarkable. Between his tenures at Water Resources and Works Barrister Goronyo has secured employment for over 20 indigenes of Sokoto State and empowered 30 individuals with cash assistance, occupational tools and brand new motorcycles, with beneficiaries cutting across all age groups.
Barrister Goronyo is also exhibiting concern for the unfortunate victims of the perennial floods and banditry that ravage settlements in Goronyo and Gada Local Governments. This, he is doing, through the distribution of relief materials like beddings, construction materials and cash to affected communities.
The Minister is pursuing these efforts as a means of improving the lot of his people in all facets of life. Barrister Bello Mohammed Goronyo also regards these various interventions as a compliment to the drive of the Sokoto State Government under Dr Ahmed Aliyu, to provide the dividends of democracy to the masses and transform the state.
Relatively a young politician, Barrister Muhammad Bello Goronyo is being celebrated especially, by the youths and a cross section of the elite, because of the unique approach he has adopted in reaching out to the people. Unlike the usual practice of politicians and the materially affluent to engage in giving out doles to the people, he has chosen to embark on empowerment of the youths and provision of infrastructures of positive and lasting benefits.
Self-effacing and humble to a fault, unlike the typical politician, the Minister has been going about his efforts in enhancing development of the state, quietly without the usual frenzied celebrations, pomp and pageantry.
Very significantly, Goronyo stands out by the fact that, the people of Sokoto state cannot recall any Minister from the state in recent times, who has done a modicum of what he has been doing by way of leveraging opportunities of his office to impact the state.
Abu Shekara, a former Deputy Editor of the LEADERSHIP Newspapers lives at Arkila, Sokoto.
