SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY, THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR OF KADUNA STATE, ARC. MOHAMMED NAMADI SAMBO, fnia, AT THE OCCASION OF DISTRIBUTION OF POVERTY ALLEVIATION MATERIALS AND WELCOMING RETURNEES/DECAMPEES TO PDP AT THE MURTALA MOHAMMED SQUARE, KADUNA ON SATURDAY 14th  NOVEMBER, 2009

Protocol

Today is a day of joy to all members of the PDP family wherever you are particularly the Kaduna State Chapter for the glad tidings that adherents of the Party in the State are about to witness.

As part of our efforts to reposition the Party to meet the challenges of the times we had embarked on populist programmes and projects that will enhance the integrity and image of the party statewide. Our mandate goes along with some electoral promises which we had strived hard to fulfill. Part of our dream for the good people of the State was sold to the electorate which was accepted by them as our action plan. The birth of the 11-Point Agenda through the expansion of Mr. President’s 7-Point Agenda was a manifestation of the will of the electorates to embrace peace, freedom, shelter and development.

It will interest you to note Mr. Chairman that in Kaduna State you have a house that you can truly call your own as we can proudly say that we have been the home of the People’s Democratic Party and we shall continue to be.

To make you more proud Mr. Chairman, we invited you to come to the Commissioning Ceremony of our Multi-Billion Naira projects in February this year at that occasion you were ably represented by your Deputy who saw things for himself of the giant strides we embarked upon in both our Educational, Maternal Health & Childcare, Security, Infrastructural Development, Staff Welfare and Development, Youth & Women Empowerment and Poverty Eradication Initiatives.

At various fora, I have indicated the resolve of this administration to eliminate poverty in our land due to its prevalence in our society which is unacceptable, that is why we introduced measures to ensure that we fight it to finish. As a show of commitment to this cause, we carried out a Data Survey of all un-employed citizens and petty traders of the State in 2008. The survey identified 800,000 individuals as requiring our assistance to engage in small-scale businesses to arrest poverty. This data is available in the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation. I am happy to inform you that in continuation of our efforts at addressing this cankerworm known as poverty, today, we shall be presenting the following items:-

1.          Interest free Micro-Credit loans to the first batch of petty traders registered in our Database through 18 Micro-Finance Banks spread across the State;

2.          Various items such as welding, grinding, vulcanizing machines, irrigation pumps, hairdressing and barbing equipments etc.;

3.          Photographic equipment to the first  batch of our youths trained in photography;

4.          Brand new Peugeot Taxi-cabs to be sold to the public on lease through the Kaduna State Leasing Company;

5.          Cash and material donations to the various NGOs and stakeholders that need assistance in the State.

In addition to the items listed above and in order to improve  mechanized farming towards agricultural production this administration has widened its Ministry to ensure that our farmers through cooperatives enjoy  the benefit of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Tractorization Programme of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resource under the Commercial Agriculture Development Programme through vendors assigned who will provide the States with required tractors after the payment of 15%  State contribution, 25% Federal Ministry of Agriculture contribution and the beneficiaries paying 60% of the cost of the tractors. The total number of tractors to be distributed to our farmers in the first phase of the prgramme today is 216 tractors and their implements.

Mr. Chairman, Distinguished PDP faithfuls, while we address the aspects of Poverty Alleviation, we are equally happy to welcome back our erstwhile Party members who left for Action Congress (AC). Please join me in welcoming back Engr. Bawa Magaji, Dr. Baba Usman and thousands of Action Congress (AC), ANPP, PPP and other political party members that have willingly and gloriously returned or decamped to the PDP. We shall continue to receive many into the PDP family elaborately from time to time.

Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Party faithfuls, I wish to once more express my profound gratitude to all those that have spared their valuable time to grace this occasion. We are highly appreciative. We wish you journey mercies back to your various destinations.

Thank you and God bless.

Assalamu Alaikum

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