New Nigerian Peoples Party guber candidate for Kaduna state, Senator Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi has pledged to review Governor Nasir el-Rufai’s policies on the sack of teachers, district heads, local government and health workers, if elected governor in 2023.
This is just as the All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate, Senator Uba Sani, said he will build on the legacies of the Governor Nasir el-Rufai’s administration in the state.
Addressing a public policy dialogue with gubernatorial candidates in Kaduna State to present demand charter to influence manifestos, organised by civil society organisations in Kaduna state on Monday, Hunkuyi, who faulted APC administration for failing to address the insecurity ravaging the state and curb proliferation of firearms, said his administration will first send a supplementary budget to the State House of Assembly to enable it take care of priority areas.
The dialogue was attended by Sen. Hunkuyi and Sen. Uba Sani, while People’s Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial candidate for Kaduna state, Hon. Isah Ashiru joined virtually.
Hunkuyi told the gathering that, “Once elected, I will first of all come up with a supplementary budget. Then there are draconian el-Rufai policies that we need to review or reverse. The unfortunate dismissal of our workers that has affected negatively the agenda of governance, the dismissal of local government staff, health workers. The entitlement of workers had to be revisited and reviewed. Pensions and availability of funds to address the situation of those unfortunate dismissed workers found themselves.
“We will review the good but badly implemented school feeding programme, reversing the school fees palaver. The fees imposed by our higher institutions is needless and we have to reverse it and revert to status quo. Other areas is the reversal of the dismissal of our district heads. Review of the unfortunate indices and number of people meted with demolition of their residences, places of business, markets and other locations. Other area requiring rejigging is the illegal deduction of local government funds which we envisaged in our state today.”
The former Commissioner for Finance in Kaduna state said his government will recruit more personnel for security, train and equip them to address the spate of security challenges in the state.
“In the area of security, no meaningful development can take place under this serious avoidable abduction of our people in rural and urban roads where security is a major agenda. Security is a critical and crucial aspect of development. The number of security agents we have today is anaemic to secure the state. About 18 states of the federation operate one form of civil security organisation or another,” he said.
Ashiru said his government will focus on five points of security, agriculture, education, health and youth and women development.
