Address by HE Alh Abba Kabir Yusuf, The Executive Governo

12th Dhul-Hijjah, 1444 (30th June, 2023) at

Africa House, Government House, Kano
Text of Address by His Excellency Alh. Abba Kabir Yusuf, The Executive
Governor of Kano State on the Occasion of the Sallah Homage by the
Emir of Bichi Alhaji Nasiru Ado Bayero on the Day 13th Dhul-Hijjah,
1444 (1st of July, 2023) at Africa House, Government House, Kano

Protocol,
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Compassionate. All
praises, most beautiful praises, are due to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala,
the Most Merciful and the Ever-Merciful. May peace and the blessings
of Allah (SWT) be upon our beloved Prophet and Messenger, the seal of
all Prophets and the Leader of all Messengers, Sayyidina Muhammad
Sallallahu Alayhi wa Sallam, and upon his Companions and family
members.
Let me begin by welcoming the Emir of Kano and his entourage to the
Government House on this auspicious day and during this year’s
historic celebration of Eidul-Kabir. I want to congratulate and
appreciate the good people of Kano State for a very peaceful and
successful Sallah celebrations. We are particularly happy that the
measures we have taken on assumption of office, some thirty-one days
ago, in respect of security, especially related to armed robbery and
phone snatching, are working very well. Incidences of phone snatching,
bag snatching and other street crimes are almost eliminated as a result
of our coordinated actions against the menace. I want to thank the
Commissioner of Police and the entire Kano Command of the Police,
and indeed all the Law Enforcement Agencies for the cooperation,

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dedication and steadfastness in working with our administration
against all form of crimes.
We are all aware, that the fuel that fan the embers of all criminal
activities are illicit drugs. Our administration, like we have done almost
a decade ago, will not rest on our oars until we route out from our state
all forms of illicit drugs. On this note, I want to place all those involve in
the unholy and criminal act of importation, transportation, distribution,
sale and consumption of illicit drugs, on notice – we will come after
you. Stop and repent. We will not allow any individuals or groups to
destroy our society with illicit drugs because of their selfish pecuniary
interest.
During my second week in office, a Special Joint Taskforce has been put
in place to tackle the menace of illicit drugs. Our Reformatory Institute
in Kiru, where I visited on my first day in office, is being renovated and
upgraded to accommodate and rehabilitate all drug addicts picked from
our streets. They will, in sha Allah, be rehabilitated, trained, and
empowered with skills and grants to come back to the mainstream
society as responsible and more productive citizens. We are working to
conclude arrangement with the Judicial Arm of Government for the
creation of Special Mobile Courts that will prosecute all actors in the
illicit drugs crime-chain. Any importer, transporter, distributor, dealer,
and hawker of illicit drugs will face speedy trial in our Special Mobile
Courts.
Education and human capital development have always been our main
priorities, we have already taken some bold steps to rescue education
and reposition this very important sector for greatness. Screening has
already reached advanced stage for applicants seeking government
scholarship to study abroad. We have advertised and gotten close to a
thousand 1st class graduates seeking for the scholarship. This foreign

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scholarship would be an annual exercise throughout the period of this
administration. I am therefore calling on all our undergraduates of Kano
State extraction in all universities to redouble their efforts, work harder
and ensure that they graduate with 1 st class honour degree, so that we
can send them to the world to continue to excel.
At the basic and post basic levels of education, we have already drawn
out comprehensive renovation time-table of all primary, junior and
senior secondary schools. This work will commence in the next couple
of weeks. We will standardize our schools and make them the pride of
both students and parents.
As part of our commitment to promoting girl-child education, we have
already returned the girl-child school buses back to our streets to
commute female students to and from schools. We have also rescued
the Conditional Cash Transfer Program under the Adolescent Girls
Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) Project. Only last
week, we flagged off the distribution of N917,000,000.00 to about
45,850 secondary school girls in 19 Local Government Councils. The
N20,000.00 being given to each girl in secondary school is to assist
them to sew new uniforms, buy school shoes, buy books and school
bags, etc. We will, in sha Allah, complete the exercise in the coming
week.
We have also gone far in the status-assessment of all our abandoned
Institutes. 26 of them. After their appraisal, we intend to commence
training activities in all of them by September of this year by the special
grace of Allah (SWT). Similarly, our 44 abandoned Technical Colleges
and 44 abandoned Schools of Islamic Studies, (some of which were
sadly given out as gift to individuals by the former administration) have
all been recovered. I have already arranged a meeting with the
contractors of the few ones that are yet to be completed. We will

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complete them and ensure that admission into these secondary schools
is done as early as possible.
Your Royal Highness, our state has suffered so much injustices arising
from greed and maladministration. We are working systematically and
steadily to address these injustices. As part of our determination, we
have started recovering properties, land and assets belonging to
schools, hospitals, graveyards, mosques and city wall that were illegally
and selfishly grabbed by some unpatriotic government officials and sold
to unsuspecting members of the public.
It must be very clear to all and sundry that land inside and around
public places such as schools, hospitals, places of worship, graveyards
and city wall are off-limit. They are no-go-area. They are not for sale
and will never be for sale. Under no circumstance shall anyone attempt
to sell or buy any piece of land in any of the listed places. Government
will invoke the overriding public interest clause to recover all such lands
in sha Allah.
At the healthcare front, we have commenced the renovation of a
number of Hospitals and reclaimed the famous Hasiya Bayero Pediatric
Hospital that was hitherto sold away by the previous administration.
This hospital is being modernized and will be equipped with state-of-
the-art equipment to look after the health and wellbeing of children in
our state. The new Commissioner of Health has also been directed to
work out the details of our policy on free pre-natal, maternity, and
post-natal care for women and children as well as preparing the
welcome pack for new born babies. Our popular ‘Haihuwa Kyauta’
policy is back, and is back for good.
We have also, as part of our efforts to strengthen the social fabric of
our society, directed the new Commandant of Hisbah to advertise and
commence the process of Mass Wedding of Widows and Divorcees

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(popularly known as Auren Zaurawa). I am sure that in the next couple
of days, the process will commence in earnest. We are very positive
that this project will go a long way in making our society a better place
to live.
Let me say that everyone living in the metropolitan Kano has already
witnessed the clear changes in our city. Street lights have been
restored, refuse dumps are being cleared on daily basis, our drainages
are being desilted to avoid water over-flow and flood, and street
cleaners are back to work. Our water works are being overhauled and
pipe borne water has already started coming to many areas of our city.
We will, in sha Allah, continue to work systematically not only to
restore the glory of our dear state, but also to put Kano State on the
fast lane of prosperity and sustainable development.
While thanking the Emir, for continuing with this decades old tradition
of paying homage to the government house as pioneered by Sarkin
Kano Abbas Maje Nasarawa, of blessed memory, I want to urge the
good people of Kano to continue the Sallah celebrations peaceful and
joyfully.
I pray to Allah (SWT) to keep our state safe, peaceful, secured, and
prosperous. I pay to Allah (SWT) to continue to bless our state with rizq
and rahmah, and to spread these rizq and rahmah to all the residents of
our state. May He (SWT) continue to bless us with beneficial rain during
this season and in all seasons to come. I also urge all our citizens to
continue to pray for us as we administer the affairs of the state with
justice, fairness, selflessness and patriotism.
Thank you very much for the visit, and,
Barka da Sallah.