Ganduje New Steps Towards The Development Of Kano State
In the beginning, only a few believed that the Kano State governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje would make impressive impacts within a short time considering the poor economic situation and prospects in the state.
Ganduje, who was part of the immediate past administration of Alhaji Rabiu Kwakwanso was conscious of the template set by his former boss especially in areas of infrastructural development.
Hence, his commitment to perform. This, perhaps, propelled him and his kitchen cabinet to the drawing board resulting in the construction site that the state has become. Many are still surprised at what the governor was able to do in the last one year.
On hand to tell his success story was the governor, who in a special broadcast to the state as part of activities marking his one year in office, said his administration had “sacrificed the comfort of governance to achieve greater Kano over the last 12 months.” He said: “I can state that the government has within a span of a year expended N16, 833,372,872.00 on such infrastructural development.
Those completed and commissioned are the Post Office Road, Dorawa Road, Gurin Gawa-Maidille Road, Niger Street, Lagos Street, Dorawa Road, Kofar Dawanau/Yantaya Road, Ahmadiyya Road and Kwankwaso Town Road network. “There are those in progress, such as the continuation of Murtala Muhammed Bridge, Prince Abubakar Audu Underpass at Kofar Gadon Kaya, construction/dualization of Dakata-Bela Road Phase I, upgrading/dualization of Sheik Mahmud Salga Road, expansion/dualization of Zaria Road, Paediatric Hospital Zoo Road and Giginyu Specialist Hospital among others.
He disclosed that in the quest to achieve greatness and development across the board, the Revised Kano State Development Plan (KSDPII) was launched. He said: The development plan is an important policy and information document, which is going to help in moving Kano State to its desired destination.” However, many are surprised that the governor was able to achieve these considering the limited resources accruable to the state.
Speaking on that, the Director General, Media and Communication to the governor, Alhaji Salihu Tanko-Yakasai said: “We invented home-grown solutions to solve home-grown problems.” He said: “We cut down government expenses reduced the salaries of political office holders by half, plugged leakages, and most importantly our IGR is improving today more than any other time in history.” He explained that most of the projects completed by his principal were done with tax payers’ money.
Notwithstanding, some think the governor is not doing much like his predecessor. Arguing in that line, Alhaji Yaluwa Rano said Ganduje had derailed from policy and programmes initiated by his former boss. “The inability of Ganduje to continue with free education, free feeding in primary schools, and disbandment of educational institutions inherited from the previous administration was sad commentary on human capital development” Rano, who recently resigned his appointment as an aide to the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, described Ganduje’s one year in office as “one step forward and four steps backward. “Yes, there areas where Ganduje performed, but when put side by side with what was deliberately left out, it’s a big step backward, “he explained.