In this interview with Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State, he spoke about his administration’s strides in health, education, agriculture, tax and other issues. Excerpts:
What is the secret behind your achievements in less than two years in office, unlike what is happening in other states?
Well, I don’t know about other governors but here in Kano State you know that since the election has come and gone we have to concentrate to do as much as we can to achieve much within the tenure of four years. Because of the economic recession in the country the first thing we did or have done was to reform our internally-generated revenue which is the main source of our revenue because the federal allocation is not even enough to pay salaries, so we had to re-oganise the board of internal revenue and secondly to reduce the cost of administration by reducing the number of ministries from nineteen to fourteen and all political office holders are on half salary.
And it made us to look inward to be more focused and to be conscious of how we spend our money and then see how we can collect more taxes from people by indicating our capital projects that is where the money is going into, through signboards: that is tax payer’s projects. And that is giving me and the rest of my team a lot of motivation to do more.
Is there a special committee that is in charge of tax collection in Kano State?
Yes. We created a new board of internal which was independent and we allowed the board to recruit its own chairman and a director, we also allowed the board to recruit a technical adviser and that is how we operate. So we believe that as we continue to do better in that regard, we shall continue to progress in bringing development to our people.
Recently, the Emir of Kano, Malam Muhammadu Sanusi 11 called for girl-child education in Kano State and also advised Islamic leaders to convert the mosques into primary schools. What is your reaction?
Well, I don’t want him to be misunderstood or misquoted; he is not saying that we should convert our mosques to primary or any school at all. He said that mosques should be used to teach our children during their free period so that it can serve a dual purpose for children’s development in our society. And it is also important for teachers to go and teach in the mosque in Religious Studies, Arabic and even western education during their free period.
You have made big strides in the development of education in Kano State with teachers’ salary alone amounting to N31billion in 2016. How are you sourcing fund to run education?
Well, I told you that we inaugurated an education committee for each local government and charged it with the responsibility of looking for funds from those who are well-to-do and those who are desiring and determined to do, and I think we have gone very far indeed.
What have you done in the area of agriculture knowing full well that agriculture is the main stay of the state?
We have done a lot to reposition agriculture in the state since we came into office in 2015. First and foremost, we have tried to identify the real farmers and even went to the level of going from place to place in order to see the farmers in the farm, as well as ascertain the small, medium, and big farmers because our intervention programme will be of great importance to them.
We made available the sum of one hundred million (N100m) to the farmers as loan and improved seeds for those involved in dry season farming.
And also we have spent N1billion on our fertilizer plant to put it in good shape and now it is working day and night and fertilizers are made available to all sectors of our farmers in the state, and from time to time I also go and visit the farmers to ensure that it is happening.
It is also said that your administration has invested so much resources in the health sector as well. How true is that?
You see, a number of hospitals were dilapidated, so we have to put in a lot of money to ensure that we put in place good health system for our people. But you know that the health sector is also a very wide sector with so many problems, especially when you examine the communicable diseases. Pertaining to polio, we had a tripod agreement with the Bill Gate Melinda and the Dangote Foundation. They sponsored the programme of the eradication of polio and luckily enough in the last two years, we have not had any outbreak of polio in the state.
But the time for tripod agreement is over and now we are sponsoring it and it will continue. We also inherited some mega hospitals that were not completed about twelve years ago, so immediately I took over as governor we did assessment of abandonment and it was only 40 percent job that was done but now the buildings have been completed.
And we have ordered for modern equipment for the two hospitals amounting to N3billion and I believe that by the end of this month, everything will be completed and I will invite Mr. President to come and commission it. So you can see that hospitals, especially in the urban areas, are congested but with these two new hospitals coming on board, I think we can decongest our hospitals and also get involved in the best practice in the health and hospital management. So that it will increase our efforts for various health services to the people of Kano State. You know that Kano State is the most populous state in the country and wherever you have high population, you will have problems of education, health and sanitation.
In few months’ time you will be marking your two years in office, and Kano State will be 50 years as a state. What are the preparations to celebrate Kano at 50?
Well, the preparation will be a gigantic, so we have appointed a committee of fifty members, well-experienced; some of them were in government as permanent secretary, secretary to the state government (SSG), as commissioners, and some were governors even in some states during the military regime. And so, who-is-who in Kano State have been made part of this fifty member-committee in order to advise us on what to do or how we should go about it. They will design programmes for us but what assure you is that it is going to be gigantic that is why we put people with probity in the fifty membership committee.
