If other states wish to follow the Kaduna Peace Model, Governor Uba Sani says they need first identify the causes and symptoms of their unique security problems.
Once that is done, the governor stated, the states should let the communities believe in the Peace Model and drive it to success.
During a courtesy visit to Sir Kashim Ibrahim House by the National Economic Council’s Implementation Monitoring Committee, he offered this advice.
Governor Uba Sani recalled that when his administration came into office, there was a lot of trust deficit between the government and the people, adding that ‘’this was the first thing we addressed.’’
He claims that many politicians were using issues of justice, equity, and fairness for their own gain, thus his administration prioritised these concerns.
The Governor said that conflict entrepreneurs hiding under the canopy of religion and ethnicity, had a field day and their foot soldiers were wrecking a lot of havoc in Kaduna State.
He disclosed that the security challenges in Kaduna State used to comprise ethno-religious crises on the one hand and kidnapping and banditry on the other hand.
‘’From our statistics and data, we realize that we lost more lives as a result of the religious crises in Kaduna State, than even banditry. And that is why we took stock of the situation, he continued.
According to the Governor, his Government has handled the issue of ethno-religious strife in Kaduna State, through his policy of inclusiveness and even development across all the 23 local governments.
‘’I make daring to claim that there has never been any occurrence of ethno-religious crises in Kaduna State since I became Governor on May 29, 2023, ‘’ he disclosed.
The two security challenges of banditry and kidnapping, he said, have been much reduced by the community-driven and homegrown Kaduna Peace Model.
Numerous states have been contacting the governor in an effort to copy the Kaduna Peace Model, the governor revealed.
‘’What do we tell them? Put politics on the back burner and concentrate on running the country. Politics was a non-issue when we arrived. We focused on governance; it has nothing to do with political party, religious affiliation, or geography,’’ he confessed.
Over half a million acres of land that had been abandoned due to insecurity have been reclaimed today, as we speak. Now our farmers have gone back to their farms.
‘’When we came in, over 100 schools were abandoned in some front line local governments because of insecurity. As we are speaking, we have opened all our schools.
More than 150 of our primary care clinics had to close their doors due to safety concerns. Every single one of them has been opened as of this very now. He emphasised that they are functioning properly.
In addition to infrastructure development, education, healthcare, and agriculture are the four primary areas on which Governor Uba Sani’s administration is concentrating.
Regarding education, the governor made it clear that his administration is committed to both formal education and the development of relevant skills.
‘’Kaduna State is leading in skill-based education in Nigeria. You may remember that three months ago, the Vice President issued a circular calling on other governments to adopt our policies regarding skill-based education.
That being said, it was brought to light not long ago by the Honourable Minister of Education that our Institutes of Vocational and Skill Development are better equipped than any Nigerian University of Technology.
Here in Kaduna, at our Institute of Vocational, we have graduated almost 4,300 trainees. The National Board of Technical Education has certified each of them, so they can find work anywhere in Nigeria or even abroad, he said.
According to data from UNICEF and the Bureau of Statistics, “we have taken back at least 300,000 of them back to school.” This change is in contrast to the 550,000 children who were not in school when the governor took office.
He stated that “education is one of our major priorities,” explaining why the education budget has consistently been set aside at least 26% of the total budget since his arrival.
In addition, Governor Uba Sani reiterated that access to decent healthcare is “a fundamental right of everyone, particularly the downtrodden,” and not just for the well-off in Kaduna State.
According to him, all 255 primary healthcare centers in Kaduna State have been upgraded to level 2 status, making it the only subnational in the country to do so. He also mentioned that all of the PHCs in the state are staffed by trained professionals.
Twenty secondary health care facilities were in a state of total disrepair and non-functioning when we arrived. He proudly announced that 16 of them had been remodelled and equipped.
This 300-bed hospital, which is considered to be the finest in the northern region, was reportedly invited to commission by President Bola Tinubu last year by the governor’s administration.
He said that 60% of the people in Kaduna State work in agriculture, and that 43% of the state’s GDP comes from that sector.
We arrived to find the agricultural budget at around N1.4 billion. In 2023, we were given that responsibility. Our agricultural budget is approximately N123 billion now. It remains in effect instead of the Malabo Declaration.
He made the following statement: “In Kaduna, we’re talking about 13%,” referring to the state’s budget allocation from 2014, when it was agreed that states should not allocate less than 10% to agriculture.
In the following one week, I want to repeat the same thing, at least to support nothing less than 240,000 smallholder farmers again with fertilizer,’’ he stated.