Nasarawa at 30: Sule says states must stop waiting on federal allocation

Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule has urged North Central states to pursue economic and security independence, saying "the era of states saying that we are waiting on federal allocation should be over", Leadership reports.

Sule spoke at a lecture in Lafia marking 30 years since the state's creation on 1 October 1996. He said the push for state police signals a transfer of power to the states, and pledged that his administration would keep working until kidnapping ends in Nasarawa.

Delivering the keynote, Prof. Attahiru Jega said the state's population had grown from about 1.5 million at creation to about 3.3 million. He said tarred roads had risen from 200-300km to 1,500km and primary healthcare centres from 150 to 895, but cited survey data putting multidimensional poverty at 79.8 per cent.

Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah said managing diversity remains Nigeria's greatest failure and warned that progress means little if it does not change people's lives.