By Joachim Aduku
So the Enugu State Government unveiled Enugu Air, it did more than launch a regional airline: it launched a philosophy. A philosophy of governance defined not by flamboyance or slogans, but by a deep, moral conviction that public leadership is duty-bound to deliver dignity, development, and direction. In many ways, Enugu Air is both metaphor and method: a lift-off from years of regional inertia and a symbol of the high-altitude ethical leadership that has defined Governor Peter Mbah’s administration since its inception.
So, President Bola Tinubu recently visited Kaduna on the invitation of Governor Uba Sani, to commission a bumper of projects. Among the projects were a 300-bed specialist hospital, three state of the art vocational institutes, 100 CNG buses under the Presidential CNG initiative and the upgraded Panteka Market which would house about 38, 000 qualified artisans. Others included roads, of which the Sani administration has delivered 780 kilometres.
As Tinubu praised Sani and described Kaduna as “a rising star in Nigeria’s development journey,” he announced the icing on the cake – an allocation of N100 billion in the 2025 federal budget for the proposed Kaduna Light Rail project.
Sadly, not all that should be happy with this development are happy. Notoriously, one of them is the former Kaduna governor, Nasir El Rufai. While Sani is busy restoring Kaduna to its former glory, El Rufai is hobnobbing with a coalition with one lousy focus – oust Tinubu. But it is gladdening to know that many Nigerians are seeing through this desperate contraption of strange bedfellows, including Sani, the shining northern star.
The coalition is composed of bitter politicians like former governors – Rotimi Amaechi, Nasir El-Rufai, John Oyegun, Rauf Aregbesola, Peter Obi – former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and former Senate President David Mark. While they initially feigned to sponsor the registration of a new political party, All Democratic Alliance (ADA), it later emerged that they are carrying out their nefarious coalition via the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
However, in an interview on Channels Television the day after Tinubu’s visit, Sani dismissed the coalition as impotent and posing no threat to the Tinubu presidency. He spoke of how many elected representatives have decamped to the All Progressives Congress (APC) because of its inclusivity.
“Go and write it down and remember this day, Asiwaju has no threat,” Sani said. “Most of the people speaking today, where were they when we were in the trenches fighting for democracy, for justice, good governance, rule of law.”
Were the Tinubu administration not succeeding, the coalition may have been taken seriously. However, given the successes of the Tinubu presidency, it is easier to see the coalition for what they truly are: Jokers. Some achievements of the Tinubu administration include blocking of leaks in the form of oil and foreign exchange subsidies. His administration also introduced laudable schemes such as Local Government Autonomy, Three million Tech Talent (3MTT), student loans for tertiary students (NELFUND), consumer credit, and tax reforms.
And just as Tinubu is steering Nigeria right, so is Sani doing in Kaduna. When he became governor in May 2023, he inherited a legacy of economic imbalances, security challenges, and educational shortfalls. Yet in a remarkably short span, he has begun reshaping Kaduna’s trajectory through a bold, multifaceted agenda rooted in infrastructure and human-capital empowerment.
Speaking on his passion for skill-based education, Sani beamed as he reported the commissioning of a state-of-the-art vocational institute in the three senatorial zones of the state. According to him, Professor Idris Bugaje, Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education lauded the quality of the schools.
“NBTE oversees all the polytechnics and some colleges of technology in Nigeria,” said Sani. “He (Bugaje) made it clear that the equipment he saw in our institutes are bigger and more than any polytechnics or university of technology in Nigeria. That is the level we are in Kaduna. And he made it clear that we are leading in the whole of Nigeria in skill-based education.”
The governor revealed that these schools would admit and train 36, 000 students in fields such as AI, ICT, solar tech, automotive mechatronics and welding, a development which would reduce unemployment as well as divert youths from being idle and potential tools to perpetuate insecurity.
Sani who also chairs the Skill-Based Education Board shared his overall vision. “If you look at many countries around the world, they are even exporting skills,” he said.
“The AKK pipelines that are passing Kaduna. We did our analysis. In that project alone, we have about a 7,000 deficit in welders alone. Many of our youths have graduated, they have degrees but they cannot get employment. And the only thing we can do to be able to address the problem is to focus on skill-based education.”
Declaring another bold vision, Sani said: “Give us the next two years, you would hardly see any youth littering the streets of Kaduna doing nothing.”
In all, Sani has done well in education. One of the first things he did upon assuming office was to reduce the fees in the state-owned higher institutions. Also, while he met 533 schools closed because of insecurity, in the last two years, all those schools have been reopened and the government has renovated 727 classrooms and built 62 new secondary schools as well as primary schools. The end goal is to reduce the number of out-of-school children in the state.
In the area of healthcare, the governor also said “we have also remodelled, equipped 16 secondary health care hospitals within the state.” He shared how the Kaduna Model, a community-based initiative, has ensured insecurity is no longer a big talking point in the state. But, perhaps the most visible achievement of Sani’s administration is road infrastructure overhaul across Kaduna. The major beneficiaries of this development are farmers who now have an easier access to their farms and the markets. One of such roads is the 18 km link from Sanga to Jema’a which now connect farmers to essential markets, reducing post-harvest losses and enhancing livelihoods.
And concerning agriculture, Sani said that three months ago, his government distributed 600 trucks of fertilisers free of charge to smallholder farmers. This is in addition to earlier interventions. Kaduna’s budget for agriculture also increased form a paltry ₦1.4billio in 2023 to ₦23.4billion in 2024 and ₦74.2billion in 2025, a move which endeared the AfDB to site the Special Agro Industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ) in the state.
And to assuage the feelings of people who might be suffering developmental deficit, the Sani administration took projects there.
“Go to Southern Kaduna today, we are building some of the biggest infrastructures just as I’m also doing in some parts of Northern Kaduna that were having issues of infrastructure,” Sani said. “When I came in, 13 local governments in Kaduna did not have two kilometres of road completed in the last 10 years.”
But in the last two years, the Sani administration has constructed over 780 kilometres of roads, generously including hitherto neglected local governments like Sanga and Zango Kataf.
During the interview, Sani particularly thanked President Tinubu for supporting the state from its inherited debt being deducted from its FAAC allocation. It should be noted that repayment of the debt which was incurred by the Nasir El Rufai administration was scheduled to start in June 2023.
Two years of Sani’s administration has clearly demonstrated that it is better to have a working relationship between all levels of government for meaningful development to exist. Without deep pockets but just creative thinking and loving actions for his people, Sani has succeeded in steering Kaduna on the path of envy of other states. He deserves his flowers.
