Architect Hart Bankat is the General Manager, Jos Metropolitan Development Board (JMDB), in this interview with KOLADE ADEYEMI in Jos, he speaks on the implementation of Executive Order 003 signed by Caleb Mutfwang, the Executive Governor of Plateau State, and its impact on restoring the beauty and order of the state. Excerpts:
The complaints from certain quarters is that people are not being carried along, what have you done in this regard?
In terms of enlightenment and sensitization, you know the number of press conferences I’ve held. You know the number of announcements we’ve put out, both in print and regular media.
We’ve been running adverts, including street adverts. We went to all the markets and all the areas to announce to them the intentions of the government. You see, the truth is that the people are being deliberate and being mischievous. And we are not mincing words about that. So we are not even trying to patronize anybody. And that’s why you see us going out to do our work.
We have records and minutes of meetings we’ve held. We have the attendance. So even when we called for meetings, they chose to send fake representatives. It’s their business. But we disseminated the information over six months ago, even before the executive order came on board, informing people that we want to do this and want to take action on this. Even as of then, begging traders to take off their things from the road and give us the road in the first instance pending when we come for enforcement, they remained adamant.
What alternative have you provided for traders displaced by the enforcement of Executive Order 003?
Alternative arrangements were made for those who are trading on the streets. We told them that the old market in Terminus was opened up for them, and that they should return to the market.
For those in Gada Biu, we told them to go back to the satellite market. For those in Farin Gada, we told them that the market was large enough that they should go inside the market, we have a new market here.
And we have other satellite markets that are scattered all over the place that people abandon but prefer to trade on the streets. And then when they go and they don’t get spaces, and they come back to us, we make allocations to them. Let me give you an instance, the ladies selling fish on the road, you know that that has been a thriving business for a very long time. But we have told them, you have to move, it doesn’t speak well of our city, we provided a space for them in Vandepoye. We are now the ones begging them to come and see the space. But tomorrow when we take action, people will say we didn’t inform them.
If you noticed, yesterday, when you got to Old Airport, you noticed that they are no more on the streets. I mean the women selling fish; we explained to them. We said we don’t like coming to chase you. We understand that times are hard, but can you listen to us? There are available spaces off the road where you can go and do your business. It mustn’t be on the road.
We have lost millions of dollars in investments. These are things that will improve the lives of the people. I want to take the state back to that. You are complaining about hardship, you are complaining about no industries. Do you remember when Jos used to mother a lot of industries? Those people who were running shifts, people who were working in Grand Cereals in the morning, they would move to ECWA Feeds in the afternoon, and would go to JIB in the evening. We had a lot of young people coming up and making it. There was a middle class. But today, what do we have? A group of criminals and bandits are coming up every year because nobody has any opportunity for them.
You cannot have a successful society if you don’t create a conducive environment. And part of creating a conducive environment is what we want to do. You can’t bring an investor from a foreign land to come to Nigeria and then come to Plateau State and then he’s seeing zincs and containers and bamboo on the road and you’re telling him to come and invest $100 million, $200 million, and you think he’ll take you seriously.
The activities of tricycles in the metropolis have been a source of concern to residents, is there any plan to regulate their activities?
For tricycles, the government has introduced new initiatives. We’ve already started introducing QR codes. I told them that we don’t want them to operate parks on the road. We’ll go around with them. Because the ones that came were just from Jos North. I told them to get their counterparts from Jos South so that we could discuss together, so that we know that we’re on one page, we don’t want anybody to say he was not carried along. When they come, we’re going to discuss with them, we’re going to identify setbacks, and part of what I will suggest to them is that they should have e-tickets in such a way that they know themselves, their PT numbers, they know the station they operate.
