Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani has advised states seeking to replicate the state’s Kaduna Peace Model to first identify the underlying causes and unique drivers of their security challenges to ensure the initiative’s success.
The governor also urged such states to encourage community ownership of the peace-building strategy, stressing that local communities must believe in and actively support the model for it to deliver lasting results.
Uba Sani gave the advice while receiving members of the National Economic Council (NEC) Implementation Monitoring Committee on a courtesy visit to the Sir Kashim Ibrahim House.
Reflecting on the early days of his administration, the governor said his government inherited a significant trust deficit between the state and its citizens, noting that rebuilding public confidence was one of its first priorities.
He added that his administration also focused on promoting justice, equity, and fairness, arguing that those issues had previously been exploited by some politicians for personal and political interests.
According to the governor, individuals he described as conflict entrepreneurs had taken advantage of religious and ethnic divisions to fuel unrest, while their supporters carried out acts of violence across the state.
He further explained that Kaduna’s security challenges had historically been driven by two major factors—ethno-religious conflicts and the growing threats of banditry and kidnapping.
‘’From our statistics and data, we realize that we lost more lives as a result of the religious crises in Kaduna State, than even banditry. And that is the reason why we sat down and looked at the situation,’’ he added.
According to the Governor, his Government has solved the issue of ethno-religious crisis in Kaduna State, through his policy of inclusion and even development across all the 23 local governments.
‘’I make bold to say that there has never been any incidence of ethno-religious crisis in Kaduna State since I became Governor on May 29, 2023, ‘’ he disclosed.
He said that the Kaduna Peace Model has drastically scaled down the twin security challenge of banditry and kidnapping because the model is home-grown and community-driven.
The Governor disclosed that many states have been reaching out to him to replicate the Kaduna Peace Model
‘’What do we tell them? You have to relegate politics and focus on governance. When we came in, we said the issue of politics is over. We focused on governance; it has nothing to do with political affiliation, religious affiliation, or geography,’’ he disclosed.
‘’Today, as we are speaking, we have reclaimed over 500,000 hectares of land that were abandoned because of insecurity. Now our farmers have gone back to their farms.
‘’When we came in, over 100 schools were abandoned in some front line local governments because of insecurity. As we are speaking, we have opened all our schools.
‘’ Our primary health care facilities, more than 150 of them, were closed because of insecurity. Today, as we are speaking, all of them have been opened. And they are operational,’’ he maintained.
Governor Uba Sani also said that his administration is focused on four main sectors, namely education, healthcare and agriculture as well as infrastructural development.
On education, the Governor noted that his Government is not just focused on formal education but also on skills acquisition and development.
‘’Kaduna State is leading in skill-based education in Nigeria. The Vice President, if you can recall, three months ago, sent a circular, urging other states to copy our policy on skill-based education.
‘’In line with that, the Honourable Minister of Education also, only a few months ago, made it clear that our Institutes of Vocational and Skill Development, are more equipped than any University of Technology in Nigeria.
‘’We have graduated about 4,300 trainees in our Institute of Vocational here in Kaduna. And all of them have been given certification by the National Board of Technical Education that will enable them work anywhere within and outside Nigeria,’’ he added.
The Governor recalled that there were about 550,000 out-of-school-children when he assumed office but based on UNICEF and Bureau of Statistics records, ‘’we have taken back at least 300,000 of them back to school.
According to him, ‘’education is one of our major priorities, and that’s the reason why we always budget at least 26% of our budget to education since we came in.’’
Governor Uba Sani further reaffirmed that quality healthcare is not for a privileged few in Kaduna State but ‘’a fundamental right of everyone, particularly the downtrodden.’’
He said that Kaduna State is the only subnational to have moved all its 255 Primary Healthcare Centres to level 2 status in the country, adding that the PHCs are manned by qualified personnel.
‘’When we came, we had about 20 secondary health care facilities that were completely moribund, obsolete, and were not really functional. We have been able to re-model and equip 16 of them,’’ he said.
According to the Governor, his administration had invited President Bola Tinubu to commission the 300-bed hospital last year, which is about the best health facility in the north.
He described agriculture as the mainstay of Kaduna State’s economy as it employs 60% of the workforce and contributes 43% of its Gross Domestic Product.
‘’When we came in, the budget of agriculture was about N1.4 billion. That’s what we inherited in 2023. Today, our budget in agriculture is about N123 billion. It has superseded the Malabo Declaration.
‘’In 2014, there was a Malabo Declaration, where it was agreed that states should earmark not les that 10% of their budgets to agriculture but in Kaduna, we’re talking about 13%,’’ he said.
‘’We are leading, as of Today, in maize production in Nigeria, we are leading in tomato production in Nigeria, we are leading in ginger production in Nigeria,’’ he disclosed.
The Governor said that his Government has been supporting small holder farmers, adding that ‘’last year, we distributed 900 trucks of free fertilizer to over 240,000 of them. No state has done this in Nigeria.’’
‘’In the next one week, I want to repeat the same thing, at least to support nothing less than 240,000 smallholder farmers again with fertilizer,’’ he disclosed.
The Governor further disclosed that Kaduna State was the first subnational to launch a Special Agro-Processing Zone, which promises to be a gamechanger in the agric value chain.
