#DemocracyDay: Text of speech given by Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai
My dear people of Kaduna State,
With gratitude to Almighty God for His blessings and protection, I salute you most warmly on the occasion of Democracy Day. This day is a tribute to the people of Nigeria who have sustained our country and its governance by their elected representatives since 1999. Democracy is the achievement of our people.
There have been many challenges and tensions in these past 19 years. Through it all, our people have persevered, firmly rejecting the discredited claims of unelected messiahs. The people have learnt to make their voices heard clearly at the ballot box. In 2015, the democratic defeat of incumbents that had been happening at the sub-national level since 2003 was finally extended to the federal level.
In a democracy, the people are the masters, and no one in Nigeria can doubt that. Citizens have taken active control of choosing who their leaders should be. From those they have chosen, the people expect service and leadership, not the sort of cowardice, policy vacuum, absence of values and intellectual bankruptcy that masquerades as populism. People choose leaders to lead them to a better place, not maroon them in complacent backwardness.
In Kaduna State, our people have this month provided a ringing endorsement of the programmes of our APC government. The local government elections of May 2018 showed that the people of Kaduna State are far ahead of the legion of political contractors that have for so long placed their own interests ahead of the people’s. Their attempt to manipulate the levers of religion and ethnicity keep failing. Their concerted effort to instigate crises around necessary reforms undertaken by the government have got no traction. The politician as middleman is now an endangered specie!
The people of Kaduna State have said loudly that they did not give a mandate for inaction or the preservation of the structures, policies and programmes that have hobbled the state. The people have reaffirmed what they said in 2015 when they gave us a mandate for change. They want their needs to be the priority of government, for public resources to be devoted to sustainable empowerment and human development. They want their children to obtain decent education, their communities to have better hospitals, safe drinking water and roads. They want us to make an effort to create jobs for youths. And they expect us to spend their resources on making life better for them, not pampering the egos of politicians frustrated by our refusal to worship them.
The people are the masters, and we believe that they must always be allowed to express their electoral preferences freely and fairly. Therefore, we introduced electronic voting to promote transparency and election integrity. We thank our people for soundly defeating the false notion that we cannot automate and digitize our entire election process.
With all humility, I state today that our APC Kaduna team will continue to work hard to justify the people’s confidence. Despite the constraints of tight finances, we will continue to do our utmost to complete our projects. Our commitment to promote equality of opportunity will not waver. As diligent custodians of a popular mandate, we have been inspired to do what is necessary, significant and consequential in the interest of our people.
In the last three years, we have reduced the cost of running government. We have placed the interest of the people at the heart of our governance agenda. We introduced the Treasury Single Account, commenced Zero-based budgeting and aligned the fiscal and calendar years. Our budgets consistently allocate at least 60% of revenues for capital projects and we have in each of our two full budgets attained unprecedented levels of capital spending. We introduced a new Contributory Pension Scheme on 1st January 2017. We have recently announced pensioners on the defined benefits scheme will no longer have to face arduous physical verification. Rather, from June 2018, all what they need to do to verify their status is to visit a bank once every 90 days and submit a thumbprint.
We have completed the 150m litres per day water treatment plant of the Zaria Water project and launched the Kaduna State Water Corporation on a significant reform programme. By the grace of God, the reservoirs, transmission and distribution pipework will be completed this year to provide water to all nooks and crannies of Zaria metropolis.
We will advance the project to upgrade the 255 Primary Health Centres, 23 rural hospitals and various general hospitals. We intend to renovate more schools, complete township roads and continue the programme to retrofit waterworks across the state and improve water supply. The cash cover programme for our senior citizens is already operational, enabling them to settle the cost of being treated for diabetes and hypertension. Dialysis continues to be subsidised for the benefit of our citizens dealing with renal challenges. Routine immunisation of our infants remains an overarching priority. Ante-natal and post-natal treatment for pregnant women and children below five years of age is free in our public hospitals.
As you are aware, we have now recruited about 13,000 new primary school teachers. On Saturday, 19th May 2018, another 65,000 applicants for teaching positions wrote aptitude tests in 139 centres across the state. With the response rate, we are confident that we shall soon achieve our target of hiring 25,000 new primary school teachers.
Most of our people came together to insist on the right of everyone to decent public education. Across the lines of partisan affiliation, people rallied to the message of equal opportunity for all our children through the foundation that decent public schools can help lay.
This government is also strengthening the public healthcare system. We have recruited over 500 midwives to improve our institutional capacity to ensure safer pregnancies and to reduce maternal mortality. We are hiring young people to work in KADIRS, KSMC, the Water Corporation and other establishments. We are recruiting professionals like lawyers, engineers and architects to strengthen governance at the local level.
At this point, it is important to commend our people for largely keeping the peace in our communities. We have recently witnessed sad episodes in parts of the state, particularly in Birnin Gwari and the menace of misguided urban gangs. While we are working to address these challenges, I wish to urge every resident of this state to take seriously their obligation to uphold peace and harmony. Let us all do our utmost to project and defend our common humanity. Let us reject the machinations of those whose viability depends on their ability to divide us.
Permit me to conclude this address by paying tribute to the resilience of our people. We do not take this for granted. Rather our team is constantly applying itself to achieve substantive results for the people. As we look forward, we ask for your continued trust and support as we do our best to implement the mandate you have given us.
God bless Kaduna State!
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!
