Kano state governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has listed positive results of the recently closed Nigerian borders by the federal government, even as he commended President Muhammadu Buhari over the policy.
Ganduje, who was declared the best governor in infrastructure development after a 100 days in office by the African Democracy Assessment Network (ADAN), Monday in Abuja, gave reasons he embarked of some of the projects which earned him the award among the 36 state governors.
Commenting on the border closure which said has turned around the fortune of rice farmers, Ganduje thanked President Buhari for the initiative.
“We have to thank Mr President for closing the borders because the price of farm produce reduced drastically, because the farmers were crying, because they no longer sale at a profitable level. I am sure those who are buying rice will say yhe price has increased but they should know that when the price of rice was so low, they were eating and laughing while the farmers were crying but now they are eating with caution, while the farmers are smiling.
“If you want a sustainable situation, you must strike a balance for sustainability. So, we are happy that a lot has improved.
“Mr President graciously approved to ban importation of some food items like rice, mize, to some extent wheat.”
On the effort of his administration to fix agriculture sector in Kano, the governor said: “We gave the farmers N100 million revolving fund to go and purchase quality seeds, improved seeds and distributing it without taking the money back to Kano. During another season, they use the same money to purchase again.
“We had another problem of the fertilizer blending plant which was abandoned for over 25years which was built by Abubakar Rimi but was abandoned. we had to spend billions of naira to put it back on track and now it is producing almost 24hrs. most of the northern states are now purchasing fertilizer from Kano.
“In a day you can get a hundred trucks from Kano. So we don’t even want to launch the sale of fertilizer because it is out dated. There is fertilizer in the city, rural areas.
“We have the highest number of processing mills in the country. A lot of rice is being produced by the farmers, for irrigation, we bought more than 1 thousand pumps, distributed them freely to the farmers. we recruited over 900 extension workers which they are working hand in hand with the farmers to educate them on best practices.”
On education, Ganduje said said the curriculum of Almajiri system of education needs to be reformed, adding that it was the reason his government embarked on the integration of Almajiri system of education with western system.
On health sector, Ganduje said Kano has the best health scheme for citizens in Nigeria.
He also revealed the recently commissioned two hospitals by his administration which he described as the best in the country.
On the insecurity, Ganduhe said “Kano is the safest.
“If there is a notorious kidnapper, just give us the hint we will deal with it. In Kano, no tibql conflict, no religious conflict and we are all living in peace.”
On the unemployment, Ganduje said his administration discovered 24 skills that if acquired youth will be independent “and that’s why we built Dangote Skill Acquisition center which will be commissioned very soon.”
Speaking earlier on why Ganduje deserved the award, the West African regional coordinator of ADAN, Samson Theodore, who was represented by the organisation’s senior programme manager, Samson Gomina, said the governor was shortlisted the best among all the serving governors after a first 100 days in office.
