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Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, has disclosed that he has succeeded in delivering developmental projects in his state by cutting down on the cost of governance.
Speaking to newsmen after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa Friday evening, the governor said he slashed his salary by half and reduced allowances to his commissioners and aides to free funds for the execution of projects.
Asked how he has been able to raise funds for projects, he said, “We embarked on a very serious adjustment. As you are aware, we made it clear that we need to reduce the cost of governance in Kaduna state. To date, we have not bought a single vehicle for any government official in Kaduna state.
“That’s really helped us. We’ve reduced the allowances of all our commissioners, advisers, even my humble self, receiving half of my salary since I became governor of Kaduna State, and I’ve not had a single new vehicle as a governor. So, we tremendously reduced the cost of governance and that’s the way to go if we really want to address our problems and improve on major areas of education, healthcare infrastructure.”
The governor, who said he was at the Villa to brief the President on development in his state noted that in last last few months, incidences of banditry, kidnapping and insurgencies had reduced in Kaduna state.
He added that he discussed the progress he had made on the MoUnhe signed with Huawei in China saying that the government had achieved the first phase of the agreement.
Aside from discussions in areas of education, healthcare and infrastructure, the governor said, “We also discuss our efforts toward addressing the out of school children in Kaduna. I informed him that in the last six months, we have reduced the number of out-of-schools to the tune of about 300,000 because we built about 62 secondary schools in Kaduna, 2,340 classrooms in primary schools, and we have employed teachers.
“We have also been able to reconstruct, remodel and equip about 12 secondary healthcare centres in Kaduna state. Not to talk about the 62 roads we are constructing, totalling about 700 kilometres across Kaduna state. Some of them have been completed and commissioned. Some are still in progress.”
He added that the government had procured 100 CNG buses for mass transportation awaiting commissioning by the President.
In the area of security, Sani said, “The issue here is that you know, we have had a very robust collaboration with security agencies in Kaduna state. We also increase the level of synergy between the security agencies government and other relevant stakeholders that have been helping the state in terms of intelligence gathering and sharing.
So for me, we made it clear that security issues are the responsibility of every citizen of Kaduna not only the security agencies, and that has really helped us to address the problem. I was in Birnin Gwari last month, and of course, I was informed by the Emir that in the last few months, we have not had a single incident of insurgency or banditry in Birnin Gwari local government.”
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