Governor Sani’s Town Hall Meeting And Unnecessary Matters Arising!
BY ENGR MARTINS GALADIMA
The Kaduna State Government under the leadership of Governor Uba Sani, ably supported by his Deputy, Dr Hadiza Sabuwa Balarbe and all team members, is very clear about its commitment to implement its SUSTAIN Agenda. One of the cardinal pillars of the SUSTAIN Agenda is the ‘N’ in it, which represents “Nurturing citizens engagement”. The Saturday 30th March, 2024 town hall meeting with major stakeholders in Kaduna state was designed to achieve the purpose of engaging citizens.
Like in all engagements, the convener presented the object of the engagement and received feedback from the citizens in attendance. This style of governance promotes transparency, accountability, inclusiveness, participation and responsiveness amongst many other key elements of Good Governance. The Saturday 30th March, 2024 citizens engagement was not different from the previous ones.
The significance of the engagement was to:
- Review with the citizens the vision of the Kaduna State Government
- Inform citizens on how far the State Government has gone in realizing this vision for the collective benefit of state citizens.
- Inform citizens about challenges of the Kaduna State Government encountered in implementing its vision.
- Inform citizens about steps taken by the State Government to overcome challenges.
- To receive feedback and suggestions from citizens in order to strengthen the steps taken by the State Government.
The town hall meeting under review was a huge success in all the five (5) objectives listed above. For instance, the governor was clear about his vision for the state as he explained his vision to complete projects within the urban areas and improve rural infrastructure, encourage agriculture and promote the quality of education, among others.
He was on point on the achievements of his government towards realizing his vision so far. For example, the several kilometers of rural roads that have been flagged off across the length and breadth of the state, the intervention on several health facilities and the positive fallouts of the state government’s efforts in partnering with countries like Qatar, Morocco and corporate organizations like Google that resulted in the building of several housing projects, boreholes and training of citizens on ICT skills across the state.
Senator Sani made it clear to citizens, during the meeting, of the enormous challenges confronting the state, which includes, amongst many others, security challenges and debt burden. He disclosed that there is a debt burden of $587million which is about N845 billion foreign loan, N85 billion local debt, 115 contractual liabilities and a N20 billion Zenith bank loan that was obtained in the wee hours of the last administration, and the repayment plan was tied to the Kaduna State IGR account domiciled with the bank. The total debt burden for the state both local and foreign is within the neighborhood of N1 trillion. The agreed monthly repayment of this debt is indeed and rightly a huge challenge for the state.
The governor equally explained steps his government was taking and still pursuing to get over these challenges. Some of the steps, he mentioned, include improving Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and reducing cost of governance as demonstrated in his directive that no new operational vehicle should be bought for any government official, including himself until there is improvement in the financial status of the State. He has also approved downward review in allowances for government officials and plugging of leakages in all financial transactions within the state, among many other measures.
Governor Sani also explained steps he has taken to reduce the security challenges to the barest minimum within the state. He bought over 100 pick-up vans to support security personnel across the state, recruited and trained in the police college located in Kaduna over 7,000 vigilantes. These are all in addition to the several collaborating meetings he has had with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chief of Defence Staff, Service chiefs and inspector General of Police with encouraging outcomes. During the same town hall meeting, the Governor also received robust feedback and suggestions from citizens that were well documented for necessary actions.
It is, therefore, disturbing that some people have decided to ignore the huge gains and achievements recorded during the March 30, 2024 town hall meeting and, instead, resolved to dwell on one challenge Governor Sani mentioned and are building political capitals on it. How does mentioning the challenge of debt burden amount to a quarrel with anyone? It is only an identified challenge and that is what it is!
Senator Uba Sani enjoys a very robust relationship with all his predecessors and, on no account, should political jobbers and attention-seekers be allowed to injure these relationships because it will be unhelpful to the state and its citizens. It is also important to state that Governor Sani is not alone in this. He enjoys the support of the majority of Kaduna citizens who voted him into power and are happy with his level of transparency, accountability and the need to embrace inclusiveness in democratic governance.
It is important to salute well-meaning citizens, including several leaders that have shown understanding and empathy with Governor Sani in tackling the present challenges and responded appropriately with maturity to the ‘State of the Union’ presentation that was delivered by the governor during the town hall meeting of Saturday 30th March, 2024.
The present Kaduna State Government under Governor Sani and his team remain committed and resolute to SUSTAIN Agenda and won’t be distracted by elements that are bend at given Senator Uba Sani’s good intentions bad interpretation, or what the Hausa man would call ‘mumunar fasara’ (ill-intended interpretation)
Engr Galadima wrote in from Kaduna.