By Waziri Garba
Some management and development experts often posit that the accountability expected of leaders towards their people did not just stop at minding and dispensing the public till, but it should entail living up to one’s word in action and in deed in the fulfillment of the covenant entered into with the public by especially a politician, at the onset of a serious political journey.
Kaduna State Government’s largesse to farmers on Saturday, 25th July, 2026 falls into such redemptive acts to fulfill a pledge on which the administration had sought the people’s mandate and won: to transform the state into a prosperous egalitarian entity. The platform on which such rapid transition to communal well-being is the seven-point development programme tagged SUSTAIN Agenda which when implemented religiously, the administration argued, would serve as a reliable road to prosperity for rural and urban communities in Kaduna State.
Agriculture is one of the seven roads that would pave the way to improved living condition by a peaceful and harmonious society that Kaduna is envisaged to be. Other programmes of action under the SUSTAIN Agenda include safety and security (foremost), Upgrade of Infrastructure, Strengthening Institutions, Trade and Investment, Investment in Human Capital and Nurturing Citizen’s Engagement.
The Saturday 25th July event saw Governor Uba Sani presiding over the distribution free to farmers, of 500 trucks of Fertilizer and accompanying agricultural mechanization equipment to 150,000 small-holder beneficiaries across the 23 Local Government Areas of the state. And it has come timely too, as the rains have become steady. Such largesse to farmers was not the first time that the Governor would preside over such event. In 2024, 500 trucks of Fertilizer were also distributed to farmers free and in 2025 400 trucks were similarly delivered with the beneficiaries cumulatively over the years peaking to over 400,000. With the rise in Agriculture’s budget this year to over N100bn from a paltry N1.48bn in 2023, the provision of some agricultural mechanization inputs in the free package is understandable.
Government said the Saturday event and indeed the previous gestures were its bold plan to revolutionize agriculture and empower small-holder farmers the sole aim being the upliftment of the rural communities. Agriculture accounts for 42% of Kaduna’s GDP, therefore, the mainstay of the state economy as such the provision of the farm inputs uninhibited would unshackle the farmer to produce more with higher yields. The trickle-down effect would cascade in good prices for their products, increased investments in agro-allied industries, all at the end which would translate into prosperity in the communities.
Kaduna’s well-articulated SUSTAIN Programme where agriculture is one of the pivots will no doubt dove-tail seamlessly into the federal government’s initiative, the Agricultural Value Chains for Growth (AGROW) which has $500m that states could benefit from. AGROW is expected to place farmers at the centre of national economic planning by improving productivity, strengthening agricultural value chains and attracting private investments. Kaduna is poised to reap from such benefits.
Elsewhere in the Agenda, the story is the same. The administration, marked three years in office not quite long ago, with reflections on the journey so far coming in fast and thick from admirers and critics alike. The basic question still remains, where was Kaduna State before the inception of the present administration and where is it now?
Governor Uba Sani as stated earlier, pegged his avowed rural transformation on a seven-point Sustain Agenda namely Safety and Security, Upgrade of Infrastructure, Strengthening Institutions, Trade and Investment, Agriculture, Investment in Human Capital and Nurturing Citizen’s Engagement and, thus in a way challenging all to assess his administration on the success or otherwise of the implementation of the programme, so to speak.
Commentators on the Kaduna Sustain Agenda project naturally are varied in their verdicts. What stands out as an unassailable truth and a recurring decimal in the analysis however is the fact that the state had hitherto been hindered in its march to progress by a pall of insecurity that had enveloped some parts of the rural and semi-urban centers of the state, areas which are fortunately now “powering on all cylinders”, as one analyst put it.
The key initiatives and strides of Governor Uba Sani will have to be looked at from the government’s other performance indicators aside agriculture. This include the economic development perspective, its financial inclusion drive, revenue generation, investment and job creation, security, infrastructural development, education, health and social welfare among others.
In all, there is no sector the administration has tackled with gusto, and which has impacted on other areas of governance like safety and security.
Starting with his recruitment of 7,000 youth into the State Vigilante Service (KADVIS) early in the life of the administration, to boosting the capabilities of security agencies with 150 patrol vehicles and 500 motorcycles, his active liaison with federal security agencies and the local communities in policing, as well as the recourse to the non-kinetic approach (Kaduna model)in tackling insurgency, the administration has indeed succeeded in making Kaduna State appreciably safe.
A pointer to the success of the renewed vigour in the revamped security architecture is evident in the coming to life of the hitherto deserted,high-risk and insurgency-prone areas of the state like Birnin-Gwari and Giwa LGAs where link roads had become no-go areas to all kinds of users for over a year due to the unchecked activities of bandits and other non-state actors.Famous cattle markets in Birnin-Gwari and Giwa LGAs that were forced to close the sites have now returned to full cattle trading thanks to the brinkmanship and savvy of Governor Uba Sani and the local communities who brokered a truce that now seem to be working.
The local and popular grain market places are now in full swing trafficking track-loads of grains estimated to be in hundreds of trucks and other agricultural produce across neighbouring states and down to as far places in the south of Nigeria with ease.
The peace archived has triggered serious agrarian activities and heightened after-harvest cross-community interaction boosting socio-economic relationship.
The Governor said on a television programme of recent that over 500,000 hectares of land which insurgency had denied farmers access to have now been reclaimed. Not that insurgency and banditry have been banished; pockets of abductions and other sundry crimes are still being reported mostly in the remote rural areas, but the Kaduna model which involves all stakeholders in the management of the peace has drastically minimized the incidents safe enough for people to engage in fruitful endeavours across the communities for their livelihoods without as much of the previous trepidation.
The Kaduna model has reduced the trust deficit between the government and the people, while Governor Uba Sani’s inclusion policy of governance had given little room for the manipulation of emotion by “conflict entrepreneurs”, as he puts it. A proof that the model is the working is fact that in three years of the administration, not a single ethno-religious crisis has been reported in the state.
Success in the security areas have impacted on other sectors with equal effect. The financial inclusion drive for instance has gained traction. From a projected 1.5 million beneficiaries initially planned at the launch of the executive order in 2023,registration has peaked at over 2.5 million people currently with their favoured banks some of whom have started benefitting from intervention programs that from both state and federal sources are being channeled to them through financial institutions. Increased tempo in economic activities in the wake of the drastic reduction in banditry is reported to have shot up the internal revenue in the state. Surges in revenue generation in one financial year alone reportedly outstripped what were recorded by the state internal revenue service in previous years. The favourable investment inclement induced by secure environments has resulted in over $2bn garnered in various investment portfolios from both foreign and local sources.
An avalanche of jobs is expected to come in the wake of the coming to fruition of some of the ventures that are just taking shape. Projects such as Sunagrow Soy oil Refinery Plant, Lithium Processing Plant, Ming Xin Mineral Separation plant, the multi-billion naira Kaduna Bus Rapid Transit (KBRT) project, being undertaken jointly with France as well as, a host of mining licenses that are ready to go full swing, are some of the investments that readily come to mind. The launch earlier on of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone, SAPZ, tells stories of a state in rapid motion towards serious economic resurgence.
Governor Uba Sani’s assessment of the state of Kaduna finances speaks eloquently of the economic landscape: “In the last 3 years, we have been able to pay over N90bn of the debt we inherited and since we came into government, we have not taken any loans. We have also generated $2.5bn in investment for our state”, he enthused to a large audience not too long ago.
Add the above developments to the upsurge in the spread of infrastructural projects. A total of 150 road projects covering more than 1,355 kilometres were initiated by the government across the 23 LGAs in the state for construction, completion or rehabilitation. Over 70% of the roads linking rural and semi-urban communities have been completed and commissioned. Over 50 similar road projects have been initiated in the urban centers covering a total of 630 kilometres.
“Government is prioritizing infrastructural development in line with the transformational agenda of the administration aimed at improving transportation, boost economy, enhance access to schools, health care facilities and markets,” according to a senior government official.
Indeed, the roads stimulate local trades between communities with attendant emerging new businesses, timely evacuation of agricultural produce which reduces post-havest losses, attract investors willing to be involved in business development, ease access to essential service with the resultant increase in public confidence in government.
Governor Uba Sani while commissioning one of the rural roads in the southern part of the state recently describes road arteries as “enduring symbols of our resolve to ensure that no community is excluded from the dividends of democratic governance”.
Reforms in the water sector where the administration had proposed to spend N93bn in four years have equally started yielding positive results, according to the state Commissioner of Public Works and Infrastructure, Arc Ibrahim Hamza. The two water treatment plants in the state capital had been rehabilitated resulting in “unprecedented increase in water supply” such that areas which had not been getting water in the last seven years “now have water gushing out from their taps courtesy of the Kaduna State Water Corporation (KADSWAC), he further said. Both the 150MLD and 10MLD Zaria works, and the Kafanchan Water treatment plant, are reported fully operational now after repairs making such dense urban centres less prone to water shortages unlike in the past.
Education and the health sectors, as well as staff welfare issues have received commensurate government attention over the years. The administration which early in its tenure reduced tuition fees for its students in state owned higher institutions by about 40 percent; embarked on serious injection of funds into the same institutions to ensure that their academic programs measured up to standards that were required for accreditation by national bodies. This was just as government focused its attention on the construction of Skills Acquisition Centers, one each in the three senatorial zones of the state, named after onetime leaders of the state. This was seen as a long time panacea to youth unemployment. The administration also listened to yearnings of its students abroad and approved 407 million naira to offset outstanding school fees for the state’s overseas students who have been owing the backlog long before the inception of the administration.
This year, 25% of the budget is injected into education. This has meant increased enrolment in tertiary schools by over 200 percent and drastic reduction in out-of-school children from 500, 000 to 187, 719.
The lower level of education has received a similar boost not seen before the coming of the present administration. At the last count, 62 new secondary schools have been constructed, 100 others built in partnership with the Kuwait Fund for Arab development while over 2,300 new classrooms have been built to complement the 707 others that have been renovated across the state. Plans are also said to be afoot for the construction of additional 55 Secondary Schools.These efforts together with the improved welfare to teachers had resulted in improved learning outcomes with, for instance, results of WAEC, NECO and NABTEB posting remarkable improvement from 54 percent maximum passes recorded before this administration to 65 percent in the most recent results. The positive outcomes in education is at tributed to the promotion of evidence-based education planning through the use of reliable data for policy formulation and decision making.
The same success story is replicated in the health sector which early in the journey of the administration recruited 89 medical doctors into the system, employed 1,800 other categories of health personnel and empowered its 290 Primary Health Care Centers (PHCs) with necessary equipment and drugs. Currently it is rehabilitating and upgrading 255 of the Centers to level two facilities thus reducing long journeys in search of health care facilities and access to medical care especially in the remote areas. At the same time the government is refurbishing and remodeling 16 General Hospitals across the state some of which had not been retouched since their commissioning decades ago.
The icing on the cake for the health sector is the commissioning of the 300-bed Specialist Hospital in the state abandoned for decades by successive administrations which has been made functional and is now a pride of the state. Government’s approval of the CONMESS and CONHESS Salary structure in the health sector and other welfare packages have meant that there have been very few labour-induced interruptions in the health sector over the three years.
As the administration takes stock of its journey this far, civil service veterans on pension are likely to be at the forefront of showering accolades on the government for its prompt response to pension matters. The recent payment of the sum of nearly four Billion naira brings the total payments to the pensioners and to families of deceased civil servants in the last three years to over 17billion naira. Governor Uba Sani’s vow that with his administration no one or segment will be left behind has in so many ways played out in words and actions.No wonder,awards of different persuasions have come to him in recognition of his commitment to better the lot of his people. The latest of such recognitions being the Good Governance, Peace Building award by the Nigeria Union of Journalists NUJ in Abuja, citing the Governor’s commitment to peace and even development as reasons for his meriting the honour.
One other notable impact of the present administration is in transportation, especially in the metropolis. When the government introduced 100 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) powered buses into the transportation system in the state capital, few gave the operation a chance, no doubt the lesson of previous failed attempts at mass transit. The free CNG mass transit scheme has however defied critics; it has ferried 3.2 million people across its designated routes in the city with civil servants, students, security agents among others the main beneficiaries thus saving communities a total of N3.5bn in fares had they paid from their pockets in the one year of the operations of the scheme. Governor Uba Sani shrewdly ensured that the buses operated from the Government House for safety and proper monitoring while world-class terminals and bus stops in strategic places are being constructed for the mass transit buses. Transportation system in Kaduna is being overhauled with the construction of three terminals which according to the General Manager, KADSTRA, the state transport management outfit, Engr Inuwa Ibrahim, would revolutionize public transport in the state and environs. The facility, touted as the largest in West Africa on completion, apart from accommodating all unions in one place, will feature such facilities as ticketing halls, passenger waiting lounges, hotel, restaurants, CNG filling stations among others and would be capable of generating over 20,000 jobs. Engr Ibrahim said when such facilities align with the KBRT and the upcoming Kaduna light rail project, and the possible water transport system on river Kaduna, the state will be well-positioned as a modern transportation hub.
All these developments would not have been possible without government strengthening those institutions and the human capital that drive development. The government recognized early enough that the push for an egalitarian society needed to be hinged on a secure and motivated workforce hence the priority government placed on continuous development of the state civil service. Apart from training and the retraining programmes in place, welfare packages including timely promotions and salary payments, free bus rides, monetary loans to civil servants, among others had empowered civil servants and ensured that they are willing partners in government’s reforms towards the pursuit of a prosperous Kaduna State.
Uba Sani speaking at a public function recently said that Kaduna State was now a beacon of hope and progress. This he attributed to the success of the implementation of the Sustain Agenda “which has served as an umbrella for all and a veritable road to peace and prosperity irrespective of beliefs and other persuasions”.
Conclusion:
The implementation of the SUSTAIN Programme in all its facets has left profound achievements in its wake enough to sway the voting public to endorse the re-election of Governor Uba Sani. With 2027 looming large on the polity, party faithful and other followers of political of developments in Kaduna State may be permitted the belief that Uba Sani has really laid the groundwork for a resounding acceptance by the people where it mattered most, at the polls. The SUSTAIN Programme may yet be a positive referendum for the Uba Sani administration.
Garba, a Public Affairs Analyst resides at Badiko Ward, Kaduna
