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Kaduna govt reduces out-of-school children to 300,000 — Gov Sani

Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani, has said that since assuming office, his government has reduced the disturbing number of out-of-school children from 680,000 to over 300,000.

He also said that his government had equally constructed 62 secondary schools and over 2000 classrooms, as well as built 673 km of roads across the 23 local government areas of the state.

He made this known during a lunch organised to mark his one year in office by the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Malam Sadiq Mamman-Lagos, at the weekend.

The governor also said his administration has built 62 brand new secondary schools and 2,347 new classrooms in existing primary schools across the state within the period under review.

According to him, having realised 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 that recognises the importance of every stakeholder’s contribution, especially the elders who have acquired experience in leadership and governance, hence the success of his administration.

“A lot of people are surprised that, within one year, we have done ground-breaking and completed 54 roads, totalling about 673 kilometres 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 into their experiences.

“We give credit for 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 recognise education as the greatest enabler. We believe the only way we can address the issues of insecurity, poverty, and unemployment is to ensure that every child in Kaduna State goes to school.

“When we came in, we realised 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 was reduced by over 300,000. And that is largely because of our aggressive efforts and investment in education.

“In the last 11 months, we have 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 11 months. Close to this, we realised that we have to focus on skills education because we have a deficit in the area of skills. That is why we are currently building three major skills acquisition cities in the political zones of the state.

“We are going to complete these skill 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 the 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 the state’s GDP, Governor Sani said his government has recently reached out to 60,000 smallholder farmers with input and equipment to ensure that the state does not lose its pride position as the number one producer of maize, ginger, and tomatoes in the country.

He also spoke about his efforts at reconstruction, remodelling, and reequipment of the secondary healthcare centres 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 polarised state within a short period of time and making 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, which usually takes others four years to achieve.

The occasion was used to give business grants to over 100 supporters of Governor Sani at the grassroots, while some people with disabilities (PWD) selected from the three zones of the state were given wheelchairs.

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