*** My govt has reduced out to school population by 300, 000
“My government within the first year in office, has reduced the disturbing number of out of school children hitherto standing at 680,000, by over 300,000”, Governor Uba Sani has said.
He expressed this while speaking at the weekend in Kaduna at a lunch organized in celebration of his one year in office by Senator Uba Sani Support Group under the leadership of the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Sadiq Mamman-Lagos.
The governor said the feat was due to the priority given to the education sector in the state.
Addressing stakeholders, including the elders, traditional rulers, government officials, party faithfuls, labour leaders and members of organized private sector, as well as other citizens at the lunch, Governor Sani said, his administration has built 62 brand new secondary schools and 2,347 new classrooms in existing primary schools across the state.
He said having realized that, Kaduna is one of the most difficult states to govern in Nigeria, due to its cosmopolitan nature, he decided to run an inclusive government, which recognizes the importance of every stakeholder’s contribution, especially the elders, who have experience in leadership and governance, hence the success of his administration.
According to the governor, “a lot of people are surprised that, within one year, we have done ground breaking and completed 54 roads, totaling about 673 kilometers within one year. It is because we are consulting; we have reached out to every former Governor of the State, because we believe the only way we can get it right, is to tap from their experiences. We give credit of our success to them and the Elders Forum we formed under the chairmanship of Alhaji Abubakar Mustapha and General Zamani Lekwot.
“One of the key areas we are focusing on is education, because we recognize education as the greatest enabler. We believe the only way we can address the issue of insecurity, poverty and unemployment is to ensure that, every child in Kaduna State goes to school.
“When we came in, we realized that we had about 680,000 out of school children in Kaduna. Today, when I visited the SDGs office, the record before us as we speak, we have reduce it with over 300,000. And that is largely because of our aggressive efforts and investment in education.
“In the last 11 months, we built 62 secondary schools in Kaduna and we have commissioned all of them. We built, 2,347 classrooms in our primary schools in the last 11months. Close to this, we realized that have to focus on skills education, because we have deficit in the area of skills. That is why we currently building three major skills acquisition cities in the political zones of the state.
“We are going to complete these skills acquisition cities in the next three months by God’s grace. When that is done, at least 1,200 of our youths will be admitted and the state government will invest to ensure that all of them come out with requisite skills that will make them self employed, while the state will even be exporting skills within and outside Nigeria. This will reduce poverty and unemployment,” he said.
While highlighting the importance of agriculture and its 42% contribution to state’s GDP, Governor Sani said his government has recently reached out to 60,000 small holder farmers with input and equipment to ensure that, state does not lose its pride position as number producer of Maize, Ginger and Tomatoes in the country.
He also spoke about his efforts at reconstruction, remodeling and re-equipping the secondary healthcare centers in the state, which he said have been neglected for over a decade, as well as his rural revitalization project.
Speaking at the event, former Vice President and one time Governor of Kaduna State, Architect Mohammed Namadi Sambo and former Military Administrator, A.S Ahmed lauded Governor Uba Sani for uniting the seemingly polarized state within a short period and security moves.
The convener of the lunch, Hon. Sadiq Mamman-Lagos said the event was put together to celebrate their leader, Governor Sani who has performed excellently well, what usually takes others four years to achieve.
The occasion was used to give business grants to over 100 supporters of Governor Sani at the grassroot, while some People With Disability (PWD) selected from the three zones of the state, were given wheelchairs