The inauguration of His Excellency, Governor Dikko Umaru Radda, PhD, on May 29, 2023, marked a watershed in the history of Katsina State. For many indigenes of Katsina, Radda’s assumption of office as their 6th Executive Governor was the dawn of the State’s socio-economic rebirth. And truly, Mallam Dikko Radda, in just within his first 100 in office has exceptionally cum brilliantly raised the bar of purposeful governance and result-oriented leadership, not only in our dear Katsina, but across the country.
Amid the challenges of insecurity and paucity of financial resources to implement his electoral promises to the people of the state, the Katsina Chief Executive, is gradually laying the foundation of a prosperous and advanced Katsina State, through the execution of impactful projects and formulation of pro-masses policies.
To justify his long-standing pledges for boosting the economy of Katsina State, Governor Radda made his first official tour in the state to the famous Agricultural Extension School, Kafinsoli and that of Tambu in Daura local government area.
At the local stage, the Governor also pledged his readiness to resuscitate the 59-hectare Songhai Food Production Centre, located in Mairuwa, Faskari local government area, to bridge the agricultural output deficit in the State.
Malam Dikko Radda, in the period under review, established many fruitful partnerships with regional and global development partners.
In continuation of his strategic engagements, Governor Radda joined the governors of Zamfara and Sokoto States to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the official Lunch for the Northwest Prevention Facility, amounting to the tune of 13 million US dollars. Similarly, Governor Radda within the period under review, met with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) where he interfaced with the bank and sought for their assistance to expand the state’s economic prosperity by creating an industrial zone, eastern bye-pass, housing estate and industrial parks thereby boosting Katsina’s economic activities and infrastructures.
The state government also engaged the World Bank and solicited the assistance of the bank to established 3 model schools for gifted Katsina Children from poor backgrounds. Governor Radda again, within this period also met with the International Non-Governmental Organization Forum, and the Ambassador of Qatar to Nigeria to discuss areas of collaboration between Qatar and Katsina State.
The Governor also held an emergency meeting with all the revenue-generating agencies in the State. During the meeting, he explicitly expressed his firm determination to restructure the State’s Board of Internal Revenue for more revenue generation.
His primary target remains that the State’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) should be enough to pay the salaries of the Katsina State workforce without having to wait or rely substantially on the monthly shared Federal Allocation received from the centre.
And in exercise of the power conferred on him by the provisions of sections 5 (2) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended Governor Dikko Umaru Radda on July 3rd 2023 signed the Treasury Single Account (TSA) Directions Notice into Law. Thus, all revenues and money accruing and forming the Consolidated Revenue Funds including Funds from Excess Crude Oil Account grants or donations for Katsina State shall be paid into unified account to be referred to as Treasury Single Account (TSA). In implementing the content of the Building Your Future document, especially as it relates to health matters, the Radda Administration setup the Katsina State Health Sector Needs Assessment Committee to access the human resource infrastructure and equipment needs of the healthcare services in Katsina, and also to identify the most effective and realistic intervention to resuscitate the sector.
As part of its healthcare agenda, the Radda administration plans to establish 361 fully functional Primary Health Care facilities before the tenure of this government ends.
On security, Malam Dikko Radda, an architect of peace building, reaffirmed his administration’s genuine pledges as regards restoring peace, and protecting the lives and properties of the people of Katsina State. The Governor set the ball rolling by establishing a Ministry of Internal Security.
Synergies on how banditry and other kidnapping-related activities in Katsina State would be brought to an end. Determined to fight security challenges in the state headlong the state government sent an executive bill, the Katsina Community
The bill when signed into law will enable the government to recruit 2400 Security corps that would be sent to the frontline local government areas to maintain peace and order.
The Radda government within this period under review also approved an unprecedented sum of N7.8 billion for the purchase of security equipment to combat banditry and other criminalities in the state.
In the same way, to improve the quality of education in the State, the Radda administration expressed its ambition to increase the size of teachers in the state. To achieve this, the state government plans to employ 7,000 school teachers across the state under the S-Power Scheme and these will be done through evaluation test. In addition, a special examination would be conducted for secondary school teachers all over the state to evaluate their competencies.
Within 100 days Governor Radda approved the sum of N2.7bn as 20% advance payment to contractors of 75 new Junior and Senior Secondary Schools across the state.
To address the acute water shortage bedevilling the state, the Radda administration has pledge to take serious steps to ameliorate the suffering of the people.
Under the transport sector, the state executive council approved the sum of 600 million naira for the purchase of (40) forty additional buses to the state’s Transport Authority fleet. This is to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal on residents in the state. The buses will be deployed for inter and intra city transportation at affordable rate in the state.
The state government also provided relief materials to victims of the heavy downpour which wreaked havoc on many properties and caused huge obstruction at the Kofar Kaura underpass bridge and other areas within and outside the state capital. Within this period under review the state government took delivery of the federal government relief materials for the 2022 flood victims, under the supervision of SEMA the materials were shared among the 22 local government areas affected by the flood. To drive home his point he set up a special committee on illegal mining composing of professional and relevant stakeholders while at the same time suspending mining activities in the state pending investigations.
–Mohammed, is the Chief Press Secretary to Katsina State Governor,
