Hauwa Garba Kazaure
His Excellency Governor Umar Namadi, who is being awarded today as the Governor of the Year 2024 by the Leadership Newspaper, is indeed an excellent awardee, looking at his superlative performance since he took over the mantle of leadership of the state in 2023.
His leadership style and uncommon sense of commitment to delivering the dividend of democracy to the state in every sector is worthy of commendation.
Governor Namadi hit the ground running immediately after he was sworn in 2023 with a clear vision and determination to change the narrative in Jigawa State in the areas of youth and women empowerment, Education, health, Agriculture, and infrastructure, among many competing demands.
One of the first transformative decisions he took less than three months into office was the establishment of the Jigawa State Youth Empowerment/Employment Agency (YEEA) to address the challenges of youth unemployment in the state.
This agency opened a website that was widely circulated in the state for the youth to upload their data in order to capture the population of the unemployed youth in the state.
Within the short span of its existence, it has trained and empowered over 100,000 youth in various skills acquisition programs in areas of agriculture, ICT, small-scale businesses, etc. The state government has provided grants and start-up capital worth over N1.7 billion to these youth. It has also facilitated formal employment to some of these youth with relevant qualifications in both state and Federal services.
The J-Health, J-Teach, and J-Agro are worthy initiatives in this direction.
Jigawa is largely an agrarian state, and the government’s efforts in improving the socio-economic lives of the people through innovative agricultural policies is commendable.
In order to ensure a constant and adequate supply of agricultural inputs, the state government injected N5 billion into the Jigawa State Agricultural Supply Company (JASCO).
The Governor Namadi-led administration has provided new policy direction in the agricultural sector through improving the value chain in rice, wheat, sesame, and hibiscus production in order to boost the state’s comparative advantage in these areas.
During the period under review, the state purchased 9,200 tonnes of fertilizer, 60 tractors, and 10 combine harvesters while providing 40,000 hectares of land for joint Jigawa and Federal Government wheat production Initiative.
The state government has also signed an MOU with the World Bank, African Development Bank, and Islamic Development Bank in the area of agriculture, among others.
The performance of Governor Namadi-led administration in the area of education is also outstanding. He is about the only Governor in Nigeria to exceed the UNESCO recommendation of 25 percent budgetary allocation to education. For the first time in the history of Jigawa and perhaps Northern Nigeria, Governor Namadi allocated 32 percent of the budget to education, a very rare achievement in Nigeria. He has increased student scholarship awards by 100 percent while increasing the cost of student feeding by 40 percent.
His government has employed 150 first-class graduates from the state as Lecturers in the state’s higher institutions while 3,570 teachers were employed for primary and secondary schools across the state through the J-Teach initiative. The government has also constructed mega-secondary schools in the state.
In order to solve the out of school children syndrome, the administration has come up with an innovative Mega Tsangaya schools combined with western education and skill centers to address this problem once and for all.
The state has also collaborated with the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to train and deepen Jigawa teachers’ knowledge and proficiency with ICT to enhance their teaching skills.
The heath sector in the state is also witnessing a lot of transformation with the release of funds to the tune of N17.2 billion for the completion of the various hospital projects across the state.
The government has also released N1.2 billion health equity fund to establish the Social Insurance Health Scheme for over 140,000 households with 500 eligible persons per 287 wards across the state.
The state government is poised to construct one Primary Healthcare Centre per ward as well as one General Hospital per constituency.
Governor Namadi is also keen in addressing the challenges faced by the poor and vulnerable persons in the society. He has taken a comprehensive census of all orphanages, orphans, People with Disabilities, and the aged, among others, to assist them.
He has increased the social security allowance from N7000 to 10,000.
Part of the recent tours the Governor embarked on across all the Senatorial districts is to hear directly from the talakawas to put in place lasting solutions for the vulnerable in our society.
His Excellency has also put in place structures to alleviate the burden of patients with chronic ailments like Kidney failure, cancer, and liver problems in the state by footing the bills of the patients, which has gone a long way to help them recover from the ailments.
In less than two years, Governor Namadi has demonstrated competence, capacity, and commitment to improve the quality of lives of people of the state, and the result is the national recognition he has been receiving.
May Allah continue to guide and protect him
Kazaure wrote from Dutse, Jigawa State Capital.
