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Sunday
January 23, 2022 / 07:50 AM / Address by Malam Nasir El-Rufai /
Header Image Credit: Malam Nasir El-Rufai
Being Address by Malam Nasir El-Rufai at the State Banquet in honour of
President Muhammadu Buhari, at the conclusion of his two-day working visit to
commission some projects of the Kaduna State Urban Renewal Programme, held at
the Umaru Yar'Adua Hall, Murtala Mohammed Square, Kaduna, on Friday, 21st
January 2022
Protocols
1. It is with immense pleasure that I welcome the
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, his distinguished entourage and
all the prominent citizens here to this State Banquet. This event honours
President Buhari's working visit to Kaduna State, and celebrates the milestones
so far achieved in our sustained efforts at a comprehensive remake of Kaduna
State.
2. We came into office in 2015 having campaigned on a
Restoration Masterplan, the manifesto that gave muscle to our slogan of Making
Kaduna Great Again. After 16 years of largely dysfunctional and wasteful
governance, the people of Kaduna set aside cynicism and gave us the opportunity
to convert their hopes into reality.
3. Though we inherited a state characterised by the
economics of dwindling revenues, the politics of self-enrichment and an
environment of depleted social capital and suspicion, we have done all we can
not to disappoint Mr. President who urged us to run, our party members and
leaders of the APC, for trusting us with the ticket, and the voters in Kaduna
State who invested their hopes in us since 2015 by electing us to lead the
state. Mr. President, you attended the November 2014 event where I publicly
declared my interest in leading the rebirth of Kaduna State on the platform of
the APC. In your speech at that event, you said that in voting for me people
will not be doing me a favour, but will be doing themselves a favour. It was a
most moving statement of confidence, and has over the years served as added
motivation for our focused approach to governance.
4. We have done all we can to keep faith with our
manifesto commitments. We are trying to make Kaduna State great again. We are
working hard to restore it to the dreams of its founders and all those
personalities whose hard work and vision have laid the foundations on which we
are building. We have waited patiently for Mr. President to visit Kaduna to see
and hear and decide if we are on the right track.
5. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, we spent the
first four years changing the governance direction of the state, reforming
public administration and investing in basic education, healthcare, agriculture
and rural infrastructure. We completed inherited water supply and other
infrastructure projects that had remained uncompleted for decades. We ramped up
tax collections, quadrupling it from N13bn in 2015 to N50.7bn in 2020. We made
efforts to restore peace and justice amongst erstwhile hostile communities in
the central and southern parts of the state. We developed plans for the
economic development, industrialisation and physical development of the State,
making it the premier investment destination in Nigeria by 2018.
6. We then launched the Urban Renewal Programme in
June 2019 to provide the organised framework for the most extensive
infrastructure investment in the history of Kaduna State. The projects of our
urban renewal programme are designed to improve the competitiveness of Kaduna
State, support economic dynamism and promote the well-being of our people. The
Urban Renewal Programme seeks to make the three major cities of Kaduna State
friendly homes to their residents, pleasant places to live in that are equipped
with the facilities to support and promote the livelihoods of our citizens.
7. The Urban Renewal Programme responds to the
accelerated urbanisation of Kaduna State. For instance, the metropolitan limits
of the state capital, Kaduna, now straddles four local government areas: Kaduna
North, Kaduna South, Chikun and Igabi. This metropolitan area is projected to
be home to more than half of the state's population by 2050.
8. Kaduna, Kafanchan and Zaria have grown tremendously
in recent decades. But public infrastructure in these cities has not kept pace
with the vast increase in their populations nor has it accompanied its
expansion into new districts. In our view, it was not enough to acknowledge
that the existing infrastructure is not robust enough to support the current
population, let alone cater for the projected population. We identified a
problem and have tried to do something to make things better by conceiving,
developing, and implementing the Kaduna State Urban Renewal Programme.
9. The Kaduna State Urban Renewal Programme was
conceived with 14 components, including:
i. Roads with covered drains,
ii. Mass Transit - BRT and LRT,
iii. Social Housing by Government and High-Income by
private developers,
iv. Modernised Urban Planning and Improved Land Use,
v. Solar Streetlights,
vi. Parks, Sporting & Recreational Centres,
vii. Markets, Shopping Malls & Neighbourhood
Centres, and
viii. Enhanced Waste Management.
10. The roads captured in the Kaduna State Urban
Renewal Programme represent a significant investment in the present and the
future of our cities. Constructed with markings, solar lighting, covered
drainage and shoulders, these roads open up our cities, connect communities,
create alternative roads, reduce travel time and enhance security of lives and
property. Road upgrades often have a multiplier effect on property values,
housing, business and social development. The programme is also expected to
promote integration across communities and enhance unity.
11. Mr. President, Kaduna Capital Territory was
established by Lord Frederick Lugard as a planned city in 1917. I am happy to
report that all the roads selected for expansion, upgrade or fresh construction
within Kaduna City are based on the Max Lock Masterplan, as published in 1967
and reviewed by the Governor Namadi Sambo Administration in 2010. This explains
why we are building new roads and bridges across River Kaduna to connect Kabala
Costain in Kaduna North LGA to Aliyu Makama Road in Barnawa, Kaduna South LGA,
and the Main Campus of the Kaduna State University in Rigachikun to link Igabi
and Chikun Local Governments.
12. To further connect the fast-growing Millennium
City (Eastern Sector) to the Rigasa Area (Western Sector) of the city, a new
9.65km road is under construction to connect the now dualised Rabah Road to
Nnamdi Azikiwe Way, with a link to the Rigasa train station. The required
flyover from Rabah Road, over Ali Akilu Road, has been built and the project is
going well, going through an undeveloped part of the old NDA site. A new road
from Malali to College Road in Ungwan Dosa has also been built and completed
and will be extended with a bridge across River Kaduna to connect to the
Eastern Bye-Pass being constructed by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing.
13. The Nnamdi Azikiwe Way (the old Western bye-Pass)
is being reconstructed into a six-lane concrete highway by the Dangote Group
under the President's innovative Tax Credit scheme. We appeal to Mr. President
to direct the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing to end the two-year delay
suffered by this project and give Dangote the go-ahead to start the
construction and completion of the earthworks before the onset of the rainy
season. Vital projects to reconstruct the Kaduna-Birnin Gwari road up to the boundary
with Niger State and the Birnin Gwari-Dansadau road which passes through
Katsina State and terminates in Zamfara State are also stalled at the Ministry
of Works, despite the expressed readiness of the Dangote Group to work on them.
14. With the rapid progress in the construction of the
Eastern Bye-Pass by the Federal Government, our government has completed plans
to begin the construction of a new Western Bye-Pass to link with the Eastern
Bye-Pass to create the Third Ring Road of Kaduna from the Abuja-Kaduna
Expressway behind the Rigasa Train Station and the Kaduna International Airport
and terminating at the Kaduna-Zaria highway. We need the commitment of the
Federal Government to support this laudable project that will further expand
economic opportunities for the people of Kaduna State and Nigeria at large.
15. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, many of the
road projects of the urban renewal programme have been completed and have
already been made available for the use of our people and the businesses that
have made our state home. Others are billed for completion within the life of
this administration by the special Grace of Almighty God, and the continuous
support of Mr. President and his ministers.
16. Mr. President, you are a long-term resident of
Kaduna State, and we most delighted and grateful that you have commissioned
many projects designed to regenerate Kaduna, Kafanchan and Zaria.
17. We have built strong partnerships with the private
sector in our state over the years as part of our determined quest for job
creation, economic progress and social development. In recognition of the vital
contributions of investors in our state, we look forward to inviting Mr.
President soon to commission the new vehicle assembly plant of Dangote-Peugeot,
a joint venture in which the Kaduna State Government and the Kebbi State
Government are minority but committed shareholders. This is going to be the
largest vehicle assembly in plant in Nigeria that will produce trucks, SUVs,
saloon cars, trailers, pick-ups and the like, along the Kaduna-Abuja Road.
18. We recall with gratitude that in September 2017
you personally commissioned the Olam feed mill and poultry project, an
investment that signalled that our determined efforts to market the prospects
of Kaduna State were being taken seriously by businesses and investors.
19. Several other projects of the Urban Renewal
Programme are at various stages of completion. This includes the Galaxy Mall,
the Rabah Road to the Western Byepass and onto the Rigasa train station, the
Kabala Costain to Barnawa Road and the Shehu Laminu to Ramat Road in Ungwan
Rimi, among others. We intend to complete the projects of our Urban Renewal
Programme as a concrete legacy and monument to serious governance. We hope Mr.
President will be able to return once more to Kaduna State to commission more of
these projects before May 29, 2023 by the Grace of God.
20. As stated earlier, the Urban Renewal Programme
builds on the investments in infrastructure during the first term of office.
Between 2015 and 2018, the Kaduna State Government built 443km of township
roads, 414km of intercity roads,172km of rural feeder roads and over 60km of
solar streetlights in our urban and rural areas of the State.
21. Physical infrastructure complements the sustained
focus on human capital development and governance reforms that we began right
from our first week in office back in 2015. We implemented the migration to the
Treasury Single Account (TSA) in September 2015 to infuse greater control of
public finances. We declared a state of emergency in the education sector to
enable us to begin to reverse the decades of neglect that had left most of the
4,250 public primary schools in a state of dilapidation. We began to renovate
schools and build new classrooms where necessary, and to provide water and
sanitation facilities in many schools. We also mobilised Kaduna-based
furniture makers to help address the acute shortage of school furniture. We
have made education free from Primary One to the completion of senior secondary
schools. At the tertiary level, we are providing local and international
scholarships, and instituted a student loan scheme for those not qualified for
merit or need-based scholarships.
22. We have renovated and equipped 290 primary health
centres - at least one in each of the 255 wards in the state to help promote
safer delivery and reduce infant and maternal mortality. We are faithfully
implementing a contributory health insurance scheme and a contributory pension
scheme. Shortly after we began paying the new national minimum wage in
September 2019, we also increased the minimum pension for retirees on the old
defined benefits scheme to at least N30,000 monthly from as low as N1,000 for
the oldest retirees.
23. The concrete investments in making life better for
our people are being made in an atmosphere made difficult by evolving security
challenges. We have pressed on because it is neither prudent nor responsible to
stop work in sectors where there is much scope to improve and better lives just
because there are significant challenges in other spheres. Throughout history,
rational human beings have always responded to challenges and difficulties, not
by a feckless and unimaginative resort to paralysis, but by pressing forward
with a pragmatic approach. Those who say that no problem should be solved until
all problems disappear are only betraying a lack of capacity or an absence of
resolve, or possibly both. That is not our way in Kaduna State, although a few
of our politician-residents consistently exercise their democratic right to
brazenly advertise their limitations.
24. We have spent considerable sums to support federal
security agencies in our state in order to promote the safety and wellbeing of
our people. We are implementing a Safe City project, created a Vigilance
Service to provide community level security services and established a Ministry
of Internal Security and Home Affairs to improve coordination among security
agencies and intelligence sharing. We believe that further military action and
more boots on the ground are needed to stop the terrorists that menace our
people. But as we tackle security, we must also move forward with the things
that our resources and planning enable us to do to make life better for our
people.
25. We have heard some people making specious
contrasts between urban renewal and rural development as if they are
mutually-exclusive. Every public works project in Kaduna State is for the
benefit of everyone, including schools, health centres and roads. This
government is improving schools with better quality teachers everywhere. Its
successes in attracting investors in the agriculture sector is helping to
expand prosperity by enabling farmers to vastly increase their yields and
incomes in key crops. For instance, the Tomato Jos has supported farmers in the
Kangimi area to produce tomato at seven times the national average per hectare.
The development of our major cities provides a template for the modernisation
of infrastructure in all our local government areas.
26. Mr. President, Kaduna State has ambitions to
become a knowledge-based economy. We are taking action to expand access to the
internet by laying fibre optics, which will also be used for the Safe City
project. Telecom infrastructure partners like IHS and BCN are helping us
provide statewide telecom coverage and capacity for high-speed internet. We are
working with some of the successful figures from the tech ecosystem in the
Lagos area to build a Kaduna campus for innovation, in addition to ongoing
programmes in the Kaduna ICT Hub, KADA Hive and Click-on Kaduna. We want to
nurture and support talent in these new growth areas.
27. The investments in urban infrastructure in Kaduna,
Kafanchan and Zaria have demonstrated conclusively that our major cities have
to be managed as organic, integrated cities. Kaduna metropolis straddles four
local government areas: Kaduna North, Kaduna South, Chikun and Igabi. Zaria
embraces Sabon-Gari and Zaria, and parts of Giwa and Soba Local Governments.
Kafanchan includes parts of Jema’a, Kaura and Zangon-Kataf LGAs. That has
created a situation wherein no specific authority was directly responsible for
these cities. We have tried to remedy the situation by creating metropolitan
authorities to manage and sustain each of these cities. The Kaduna State House
of Assembly has passed the laws establishing the Kaduna Capital Territory
Authority, the Kafanchan Municipal Authority and the Zaria Metropolitan
Authority. As governor, I have assented to these laws and appointed the pioneer
set of administrators for the three metropolitan authorities: Hafiz Bayero for
Kaduna, Phoebe Sukai Yayi for Kafanchan and Balaraba Aliyu-Inuwa for Zaria.
28. Mr. President, this is the first time that any
state in Nigeria is approaching development from a city perspective.
Contemporary thinking recognises cities as the hubs of modern prosperity. There
is also a growing understanding that cities achieve more for their residents
when their services are coordinated. The Federal Government had been unique and
successful in creating, developing and managing our federal capital, Abuja, as
one organic city. My personal experience as one-time Minister of the FCT and as
governor of Kaduna State has convinced me that our cities are too critical and
vital for the human experience to be treated like abandoned orphans with no single
authority in charge. As the magnets for large swathes of our population, our
cities must be managed to enhance opportunity, life chances and prospects for
their residents.
29. Mr. President, I wish to acknowledge your support
and that of the Federal Government on many fronts, not least of which is
securing the financing for these projects. Without your intervention and the
support of the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, we would be
struggling to do anything more than pay staff salaries! Our Minister of
Agriculture, Dr. Mahmoud Abubakar has been exceptional in supporting our
environmental and agricultural initiatives since his appointment. But like
Oliver Twist, we ask you and everyone to continue to do more for our State.
30. We are also working with the Minister Suleiman
Adamu and his team in the Federal Ministry of Water Resources on the Greater
Kaduna Water Supply Project which aims to develop new water sources to meet the
growing needs of Kaduna metropolis and its immediate neighbours. We delivered
Zaria Water Supply project which you graciously commissioned, and we are
confident that with your support, we can lay the grounds for our successors to
deliver the Greater Kaduna Water Supply Project.
31. Mr. President, I wish to express our gratitude to
the people of Kaduna State for supporting the delivery of the urban renewal
projects for the benefit of the entire state. Many of our people have borne the
inconveniences of construction, including longer commuting times, the removal
of some buildings, adjustment of fence lines and other attachments in the
public interest. Several have been constructive in their attitude to matters of
compensation and in reporting saboteurs.
32. The people of Kaduna State have provided a bulwark
of support for our governance efforts. They have rejected lies and resisted
repeated attempts at incitement to cause ethnic and religious problems. We
appreciate our people for this approach which has helped ensure that whenever
problems have arisen since 2015, they have been contained and limited. We
have had to take difficult decisions, and most of our people have often
understood that those steps were taken to uphold the common good. We are
immensely grateful to the residents of our state.
33. I also wish to acknowledge the consultants and
contractors working round the clock with our team of dedicated professionals to
deliver these projects. The very first Memorandum of Understanding for Urban
Renewal was signed with CCECC in Beijing, China, when we escorted Mr. President
to the China-Africa Summit in 2019, and they have been exceptional. Companies
like Mothercat, Ronchess, Farmtrac, Chamberlayne, Julius Berger, RCF, R&M,
Rafali, Habibu Engineeirng, Dantata & Sawoe, COEC, SKY Construction and
numerous others that are daily helping us to realise the restoration of our
state.
34. Mr. President, I wish to thank the current Kaduna
State contingent of elected senators and members of the House of
Representatives for the bipartisan cohesion and commitment to the interest of
Kaduna State. We appreciate the Kaduna State House of Assembly for upholding a
productive partnership with the executive branch in the service of our people.
35. Permit me to conclude by paying tribute to the
extraordinary work of our team in the Kaduna State Government. The Deputy
Governor, our commissioners, special advisers, assistants and other officials
have displayed imagination and demonstrated commitment to help the Kaduna State
Government to achieve set objectives, and I applaud them for living up to their
oaths of office. I challenge our team to remain focused and ensure that we
finish as strongly as we started. Our traditional rulers and religious leaders
have been partners in mobilising the populace to understand our policies and
efforts. Our partners in civil society have been critical in enabling the
government to appreciate the concerns of citizens without a voice. We will not
not have gone this far without their commitment and trust in our government. We
are grateful to them all.
36. Thank you for listening. God Bless Kaduna State.
God Bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
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