The Kaduna State government made adequate provision to directly fund our security activities, because security is the most important aspect. For education, in addition to what the Kaduna state government is doing, we have a partnership programme under the UBE scheme where the Federal Government is in partnership with us.

Funding education is a joint venture. We also have another supporting programme, the State Basic Education Programme which the World Bank and DFID are supporting. Just recently the Japanese government expended about five million dollars in putting over 3000 classrooms all over the state. So, education is a continuous thing.

As you can see, we put 27 percent of our budget on education. Also private institutions and banks are also bringing in their support. There are other aspects like the four new science secondary schools for which we have approached the Islamic Bank which has shown interest in supporting us financially in their construction.  The water treatment plant in Zaria.
 

We located a place where a new dam can be constructed, new treatment plant, new pipeline, new storage tank at a total preliminary cost of $300 million and we have been working with the World Bank on this and they have shown interest in financing it. The answer to your question is that some of the projects will be financed directly by the state government and some will be financed by financial institutions.

For example, the housing projects for civil servants in the state; the civil servants themselves are contributing money monthly to the mortgage bank. So, they have the right to acquire fund to build their houses because they are already paying for the houses. So, we have money with the mortgage bank to access and build the houses for them which they will pay for within 20-25 years. This is how these projects will be financed. We are developing a situation where there will be a day when we will no longer need oil money and that is our target.

We cannot depend on oil forever. Today, the Northfield oil in UK is no more and that should be a good example for us.  That there will be a day we wake up and there will be no oil. So, what we are doing in this administration is to try and develop our people so that we are not going to depend on oil. We cannot depend on oil because oil is not a reliable sustainable social economic avenue for a sustainable economy. That is my answer to you.

The issue of  alamajiri system is a serious problem as children are seen begging everywhere in the state from morning till night daily. Is the government doing anything to curb this social problem?

We have looked at that seriously and it is a big problem. As I talk to you, we are looking for a site in Zaria to start a pilot scheme. What we have decided is that we have to take those children out of the streets. We will construct boarding primary schools. We will put them in Western education and Islamic education. The Mallams who are teaching them will also be employed by Government. We believe that we will be able to do that.

We will start with a pilot scheme of one primary school in Zaria and then, we will spread that policy. There are a lot of ideas of integration here and there. Our conviction is that the best solution is to put a boarding primary school and take all of them to a school, train them, give them all the amenities, give them clothing, books and with that, we believe that with time… this is not an easy matter. It is a very serious matter and a very expensive one. We are also supported by other avenues on grants. There are a lot of grants we can get that will support us financially in order to achieve that objective.

You are talking of developing new cities. Is not better for the government to expand existing cities by providing amenities instead of embarking on projects that will take a lot of money at this period of economic depression?

Unfortunately, the situation we found ourselves in Kaduna is that there is no land in the existing cities. There is just no way you have to expand. It is normal with all cities in the world. The last master plan that was produced for Kaduna was in 1967. So, we find ourselves in a situation where, since 1967, the city has been growing without any plan.

That is why, of recent, you find out that there were even riots because, people on there own are building cities without any plan for infrastructure. Everyday, we are bombarded in this town with requests for transformers. That is because nobody knows what they are doing and there has been no control. If you go round Kaduna now, you find out that all beautiful setups have been carved out. People are building shops on the roads because they are hungry for space. You have to go out somewhere and give people a space to grow.

That is what we are doing by growing the new city . The issue of cost, I am pleased to inform you that we already have proposals from about 20 companies. There is one company that is interested in building 20,000 houses. There is a company that has submitted a proposal to build a golf course with hotels and other facilities.

There is another company that wants to build 5000 houses. There are so many interests. There is another company that wants to build a shopping complex. So, the city is hungry for development. This is the situation since we came into this administration. We do not have land to give anybody, but I stopped carved outs.

Already, we have applications for land from thousands of people. The issue is that we have opportunity to be able to give people what they are hungry for in the interest of growth and development.

This is a new city and we have opportunity to plan it. In addition to the planning we are doing for the new city, we have called back the company that did the master plan in 1967 and appointed them to reproduce the expanded master plan for the old Kaduna. What is going to happen is that all those areas that have been developed without plan will now be planned and we will now provide the proper services, know what is required and plan it properly. This is what we are doing.

Kaduna state is known to have witnessed sectarian and ethnic crises that took their tolls on both human beings and property. How have been able to maintain this lasting peace?

The first thing that we have done and we are doing is fairness. We  are ensuring fairness to all the indigenes of the state as the main objective of having peace. As I said earlier whether you are called a Kaduna state indigene or you come from any other part of this country or any other part of the world, you will be welcome and you will be considered as an indigene of Kaduna state.

I think that is the most important aspect of peace. Everybody will get a fair share of the government activities. Everybody will have a fair share of considerations and what we have done and what we are going to be doing is that the people of Kaduna state are our priority. Our first priority in every action that we do is the people of Kaduna state. Every other thing comes second. With that, I believe we will increase peace and understanding among our people.

The problem of alamajiri will not end by providing boarding primary schools for them because in this country, emphasis is not placed on skill acquisition but on theory. How will the alamajiris acquire the skill to be on their own and stop begging and what are the other tiers doing to solve this problem?

I have noted the contribution which is good particularly on those that have out grown the age of going to primary school; I think we should consider what to do with them and give them skills. We have BATCS. Of course you may have the problem of their understanding the English Language. I think we will find solutions to that. I am also pleased to inform you that some of the programmes we are doing like the security, the local governments are contributing towards that.

There are so many other areas like on water supply. We take certain portion and the local governments execute certain portion of the work. Like in the primary school, the responsibility of maintaining primary schools; is constitutionally that of the local government but we had to enact a law as Kaduna State government to be able to have the mandate to inject funds to support the local governments.

All what I have mentioned regarding primary education is a deliberate effort to support the local government because if the local governments are left alone it is clear that they can never achieve the objective of giving good primary education.

So, it is a joint venture between the local governments and the state. We   are all putting in our efforts. It is the same in primary health services. The local governments cannot provide good primary health care to the local people. So, we had to enact another law so that we can now inject money.
Like the N100million we are putting and the N60million for materials are all supportive programme to what actually is the responsibility of the local governments.

The local governments cannot provide and equip the entire primary health care centres that are required. So, the state governments has to enact a law to enable it inject money in that direction. So, most of the activities are done jointly with the local governments and the Kaduna state government decided to deliberately do that in order to support the local governments because they don’t have the capacity to give the level of services that are required of them. Likewise, the environment.

The local governments are supposed to take care of the environment. In Kaduna North for example it is impossible and the local governments cannot clean the environment, provide street lights. I had to come in, rehabilitate the old street lights; award contracts to 20 contractors to clean the town.

In all these things, we are complementing each other in doing so. But one policy we have put in place is that we do not direct local governments to do whatever they did not plan to do. We call their attention; agree on a programme, and sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and all finances of the local governments are directly released to them.

You said that 450 graduates are involved in collating data in the state and there are thousands of them who are unemployed. What are you doing to reduce graduate unemployment?

Maybe you did not get the data correctly. The Kaduna state government, in pursuance of our objective to drive away poverty and provide jobs; in order to be able to do that scientifically, we have to get data. Like you said, thousands of unemployed graduates, how do we know those thousands and their needs?

So, what we are doing is that these ones we have employed to collect the data will now go and bring us the dates of those who have graduated and have no jobs. We will know from the data what they have learnt, what they want to do. This applies to graduates of universities, polytechnics and even those who have no education, but want to do certain trades. Even married women in their houses who want to start selling groundnuts or start knitting.

I want to have the data of everybody in Kaduna state that needs assistance to do certain commercial activities to develop themselves or to be able to get them employed. From that data, we will even know your level of intelligence, where shall we use you. I am telling you, we want to scientifically develop the state. Insha Allah (by God’s grace), we will assist everybody.

That is the purpose of the data collection. I have met with the managing directors of several banks who said they cannot give fund to support anybody who has no job and wants to do any trade because he is of no address.

What that means today in Nigeria since we don’t have national ID cards, you can be Garba today and tomorrow, you are Emanuel. The only way we can get the data of somebody and have an address is for us to go personally and ensure that we identify you, we know where you live and we know that if are Garba, you are Garba forever, and that banks will have to trust in our ability to use that data to acquire funds to assist our people in Kaduna state. That is the purpose of the data.

Prior to 2007 there was said to be an MOU that power will shift to southern Kaduna and suddenly you emerged from the north. Could you use this medium to tell us what happened to that MOU and whether power is likely to shift to southern Kaduna after your tenure? Again, there are complaints from the people of Southern Kaduna that amenities are not being shared evenly. They also complain that PDP which is the ruling party has a northerner as governor, other northerners as Speaker of the House of Assembly, chairman of party and deputy chairman while the southern part has to do with their deputies and that these do not show fairness?

This type of your comment is the comment that brings problems in the state. The reason I said that is because your observation is one sided. You didn’t mention from where our minister comes from, where the Secretary to Government comes from, the deputy governor and so many others appointments. So, the policy of this government is stop mentioning anything that has to do with previous upheavals in Kaduna State.

You will remember that after the First World War, the Japanese had to be stopped from printing or teaching their children in the schools anything that has to do with their ambition of taking over the past. The reason is that once you start giving long stories, they will continue to be in the mind of the people. We want to forget completely the issue of what happened. Today Kaduna is the most growing city in this country. So, please I will advice us not to be going towards avenues that will deliberately create misunderstanding.      
 

Since you came into office a year ago, you have not awarded any road project but rather executing those awarded by your predecessor. When will you start awarding your own?
 

We said during our campaign that this is a government of continuity. Over the years in this country, with due apologies to the military, we found ourselves with so many abandoned projects. If a project is beneficial to the society, I cannot see reason why I should stop it. For example, the roads that have been awarded worth about N13billion; these are roads that are good for the people of Kaduna State and for the economy.

I do not see any reason why I should stop the construction of the roads. At the end of the day, I will be left with abandoned projects and I will have to come back as government, either myself or some other governments to build that same road. By constructing it today, I have made a savings for tomorrow.

But consequently as you have observed, we are putting our projects right. The major ones we inherited that are still going on are road projects. All others are our own programmes. Of course, the market; the new cities were there before we came. It was when we came that we put them on the drawing board. So, this is a government of continuity. We are happy to continue with the programmes as long as they are programmes that will improve the socio-economic standards of the people of Kaduna State.