By Peter David
For years, the story of government in Nasarawa was often told in numbers that made ambitious development appear almost impossible.
With monthly inflows from the Federation Account hovering around ₦3.8 billion to ₦4.5 billion, the room for a state government to build roads, improve schools, expand healthcare and invest in infrastructure was severely constrained.
Today, Governor Abdullahi Sule says that financial reality is changing.
According to him, Nasarawa now receives an average of about ₦14 billion to ₦16 billion monthly following the economic reforms introduced by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
For residents, the significance of the change is not simply found in the figures.
It is increasingly visible in roads, public buildings, water infrastructure, skills centres and other projects spread across the state.
Sule made the disclosure in Lafia while receiving members of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors National Media Tour, led by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
The delegation, comprising presidential media aides and more than 50 senior journalists, was in Nasarawa as part of a nationwide inspection of Federal and state projects across the North-Central region.
Standing before the media team, Sule connected the changing fortunes of his administration to the reforms that initially generated considerable public anger.
He acknowledged that subsidy removal and other economic measures came with painful consequences for Nigerians, but argued that they had also unlocked resources that states had long needed.
“For us in Nasarawa State, we are very transparent. I came from the private sector, so, every contract I give, I announce the amount that we are spending on that contract,” Sule said.
He explained that before the reforms, the country was sharing between about ₦590 billion and ₦620 billion monthly among the three tiers of government.
For Nasarawa, he said, the state’s monthly allocation was then between ₦3.8 billion and ₦4.5 billion.
That level of funding, he suggested, made it difficult for the state to pursue the scale of infrastructure development now being witnessed.
The change has provided what Sule described as greater fiscal space to respond to the needs of communities across the state.
“Today, we are beginning to see the benefits because the resources available to us have increased tremendously,” he said.
The impact of the additional resources became more tangible when the media team left the conference room and moved into the field.
One of the projects inspected was the completed multi-billion-naira Nasarawa State Secretariat along Shendam Road.
The facility accommodates Ministries including Education, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Justice, while a one-megawatt solar farm provides power for the complex.
For a state where inadequate infrastructure has often constrained public service delivery, the new secretariat represents more than another government building.
It is part of an attempt to create a more functional administrative environment while reducing the burden of inadequate office facilities.
The delegation also inspected the completed 16-kilometre Makurdi bypass in Lafia, linking Nasarawa and Benue states.
The road is expected to improve connectivity and facilitate movement between communities and neighbouring states.
Other projects inspected included the Wing Commander Abdullahi Ibrahim Vocational and Skills Acquisition Centre, the Shinge Waterstorm Channel and the completed Kilema Bridge along the Lafia-Doma Road.
Each project offered a different picture of what increased public resources can mean at community level.
For Sule, however, infrastructure is only one part of the story.
He pointed to education, healthcare, water supply, industrialisation and skills development as other areas receiving attention.
The Governor, who has a background in the private sector, said he believed strongly in equipping people with practical skills that could make them economically independent.
His administration’s skills acquisition programme, he explained, is designed to train people in areas ranging from electrical installation and machinery operation to carpentry, cabinet making, welding, radio mechanics and agricultural mechanisation.
The goal, he said, is not merely to produce graduates seeking government jobs.
“It is to create people capable of creating opportunities for themselves and others,” he said.
Onanuga acknowledged the difficulty of that period while defending the decisions as reforms that previous administrations had recognised but failed to implement.
“When President Tinubu came in 2023, he initiated some audacious reforms that ought to have been introduced some decades ago,” Onanuga said.
He recalled the President’s declaration on his inauguration day that “subsidy is gone,” followed by the floating of the naira and the end of multiple official exchange rates.
According to Onanuga, the immediate consequence was inflation, hardship and widespread anxiety.
“The first year was very difficult. But later, things got better,” he said.
The presidential aide also recalled Sule’s early support for the reforms when opposition to them was particularly intense.
He said the Nasarawa governor had publicly defended the President’s decision and recognised its implications for subnational governments.
“I think he was the one who came out on television…and said that what the President has done is something that should be commended,” Onanuga said.
He added that Tinubu “took the bullet for the sub-nationals” by implementing reforms that ultimately increased resources available to states.
For the journalists on the tour, the significance of the exercise was to move beyond official claims and physically examine projects.
Sule himself welcomed the scrutiny, saying the media should assess not only what governments say they are doing but also what the resources available to them are producing.
He urged journalists to compare allocations with actual projects and examine whether public funds were translating into improvements in citizens’ lives.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Public Enlightenment, AbulAziz AbdulAziz, echoed that philosophy to the President.
Speaking during the inspection of the Makurdi bypass, AbdulAziz said the scale of infrastructure development observed in Nasarawa and Benue offered evidence of what he described as the impact of the Renewed Hope Agenda.
“The quantum of work and infrastructure development witnessed across Benue and Nasarawa states indicates that the Renewed Hope Agenda is working,” he said.
Yet the most compelling evidence of that argument was not contained in speeches.
It was along the roads, at the government secretariat, around the water infrastructure and inside the skills acquisition centre.
For the ordinary citizen, a higher state allocation only matters if it translates into better roads, easier access to healthcare, reliable water, functional schools and opportunities for young people.
That is the test that Sule’s administration now faces.
The increase from roughly ₦4.5 billion to about ₦16 billion monthly gives the state greater financial capacity, but it also creates greater expectations.
More resources mean more projects can be executed, but they also mean citizens have stronger grounds to demand accountability.
Sule appeared conscious of that responsibility when he emphasised transparency in government contracts.
His insistence on publicly disclosing the cost of projects was presented as part of an effort to allow citizens and the media to judge expenditure against results.
The media tour, therefore, offered more than a showcase of government projects.
It provided a glimpse into the bigger economic argument behind the Tinubu reforms: that painful decisions at the centre could eventually translate into greater resources for states and, ultimately, more development at the grassroots.
For Nasarawa, that argument is now being tested in concrete form.
The question is whether the additional money will continue to produce roads, bridges, public facilities, skills centres and other projects capable of changing everyday life.
For now, the transformation is still unfolding.
But in a state that once struggled to execute ambitious projects with monthly allocations of less than ₦5 billion, the difference is becoming increasingly visible.
And for the people of Nasarawa, that may be the most tangible measure yet of what economic reform means beyond Abuja’s policy debates
