Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai on Monday said his
government has fulfilled all the electoral promises he made to the people.
The governor said this in a state-wide broadcast to mark his
two years in office.
El Rufai said despite recruiting over 7000 personnel within
the last two years, the state’s 2016 recurrent expenditures showed a N5bn
reduction in personnel cost, as it moved from N26.8bn in 2015 to N21.8bn.
“In the last two years, we have done as we have promised. We
have steadily implemented the Restoration Programme. No segment of our campaign
platform has been left untouched,” he said.
He said in 2016, the Kaduna State government raised N23bn as
taxes, levies and interest earnings, describing it as the highest in the
history of the state.
In education, the governor said his administration raised
primary school enrolment from 1.1m in July 2015 to 2.1m by September 2016,
adding that 29% more students sat for WAEC in 2016 than in 2015.
“We renovated 400 of the 4250 public primary schools in the
state before we decided to move to a programme of school reconstruction to
accommodate the growth in population.
“We have broadened access, improved teacher quality and
enhanced school facilities. We are emphatic that basic education shall remain
free for the first nine years. We abolished levies, provided uniforms and fed
1.5m pupils every school day from January to July 2016. And to further expand
access, we have passed a law to abolish street trading and hawking,” he said.
On infrastructure, the governor said his government was
fixing 414km of intracity roads, while over 2500 solar street lights had been
installed.
By Ameh Comrade Godwin
