By Mohammed Babagana Abubakar
The Unifier Project Coordinator Kano State

Political analyst Larry Sabato once observed that politics is a good deal like religion in that everyone should have some, but it should be the right kind. For many years in Nigeria’s most populous commercial nerve center, the dominant style of politics was deeply transactional defined by entrenched godfatherism, conditional patronage, and a persistent gulf between campaign promises and governmental action.

However, as the administration of marks its third anniversary, Kano State is witnessing a profound philosophical shift in governance. The celebrations currently unfolding across the state’s 44 Local Government Areas are not merely acknowledgments of completed infrastructure projects, they are endorsements of a distinct people-centered leadership model that prioritizes human development over political theatrics.

To analyze the politics of promises kept under Governor Yusuf is to understand how deliberate populist policies, fiscal discipline, and strategic political courage can converge to redefine the relationship between government and the governed.

At the heart of people centered governance lies a simple principle, public resources must produce maximum public value. In a state as demographically significant and economically dynamic as Kano, governance cannot remain an elite driven exercise detached from grassroots realities.

Governor Yusuf’s governing philosophy popularly known as the Gida Gida administration has gained traction because it redirected state priorities from prestige driven spending toward human capital development. When a government consistently aligns public expenditure with the immediate concerns of ordinary citizens, political legitimacy is no longer enforced through patronage, it is naturally earned through trust and visible impact.

One defining characteristic of visionary leadership is the willingness to adequately fund public commitments. Nowhere is this more evident than in Kano’s education sector. By declaring a State of Emergency on education and allocating approximately 31 percent of the state budget to the sector surpassing the UNESCO benchmark the administration transformed education policy from campaign rhetoric into measurable institutional action.

Comprehensive renovation and upgrading of public primary and secondary school classrooms across the state.

Recruitment, regularization, and strategic deployment of qualified teachers to improve classroom to teacher ratios.

Revival of foreign postgraduate scholarship schemes for outstanding graduates, opening global academic opportunities for talented but vulnerable students.

These interventions reflect a long term investment strategy aimed at repositioning education as the foundation of sustainable economic and social advancement

In healthcare delivery, the administration abandoned the traditional overconcentration on metropolitan tertiary facilities. Instead, it prioritized the revitalization and equipping of Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) in rural and underserved communities.

This decentralized healthcare strategy directly addresses maternal and infant mortality rates at the grassroots level, where healthcare vulnerability is often most severe.

Beyond healthcare, the administration has also extended its reform agenda into the justice sector. Through legal and institutional reforms, the government has sought to expand access to legal aid services, strengthen pro bono legal networks, and accelerate the handling of prolonged detention cases. These reforms reinforce a broader philosophy that justice should not be determined by wealth, social status, or political influence.

A critical examination of Governor Yusuf’s leadership style reveals a government that is both adaptive and politically independent. Over the last three years, the Governor has consistently demonstrated that he views his electoral mandate as one entrusted directly by the people not as a proxy arrangement controlled by political godfathers.

His administrative choices have frequently emphasized competence, institutional effectiveness, and public accountability over narrow political loyalty.

Equally significant is the administration’s pragmatic approach to national political engagement. Strategic collaboration with federal institutions and broader national governance structures reflects a sophisticated understanding of Kano’s economic and geopolitical importance within Nigeria and the wider West African sub region.

As the Governor himself has repeatedly emphasized, Kano is too strategically important to isolate itself from national opportunities. By maintaining constructive engagement with the center, the administration has created a more stable environment for commerce, infrastructure development, investment attraction, and security coordination.

Ultimately, leadership is validated not by political slogans but by the economic realities experienced by ordinary citizens.

Under Governor Yusuf’s administration, Kano State’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) reportedly rose from earlier baselines of approximately ₦37 to ₦40 billion to over ₦100 billion by the close of the 2025 fiscal year. Significantly, this growth was achieved not through excessive taxation of petty traders and small-scale market operators, but through tighter fiscal controls, improved revenue administration, and the systematic elimination of financial leakages.

The expansion in state revenue has directly supported a welfare centered governance agenda:

The administration has maintained consistent and uninterrupted salary payments, helping to sustain purchasing power and stabilize household incomes across the state.

Thousands of retirees have benefited from aggressive interventions aimed at clearing long-standing pension and gratuity backlogs. For many households, these payments have represented both economic relief and the restoration of dignity after years of uncertainty.

In the final analysis, the politics of promises kept represents one of the highest forms of democratic legitimacy. Political power becomes meaningful only when it is deliberately used to confront the fundamental realities of human existence poverty, illiteracy, disease, unemployment, and structural exclusion.

As the third-anniversary activities continue to showcase the administration’s achievements, the celebrations across Kano are not merely orchestrated political ceremonies. They reflect the sentiments of a population that increasingly feels recognized, included, and valued within the governance process.

Through a combination of fiscal courage, administrative humility, strategic foresight, and grassroots engagement, Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf has demonstrated that when leaders protect the mandate of the people, the people, in turn, protect the legacy of leadership.

Kano State appears firmly positioned on a path toward sustainable development, and its future remains exceptionally promising.

Sufyan Lawal Kabo (Sefjamil)
sefjamil3@gmail.com

Some governments build roads, renovate schools and commission projects. Others go beyond physical development to rebuild public confidence, restore institutional trust and reconnect governance with ordinary citizens.

That is the deeper story gradually unfolding in Kano under Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf.

Three years ago, many expected another routine administration. What emerged instead was a government whose speed, visibility and emotional connection with the people have continued to redefine political expectations across Kano.

Today, the discussion is no longer whether Abba Kabir Yusuf is working. The real conversation is how far Kano may go if this pace continues beyond 2027.

Because beyond roads and contracts, Kano is witnessing something deeper. The state is gradually witnessing the return of public belief in governance.

Before 2023, many citizens had psychologically disconnected from governance. Pensioners protested repeatedly over unpaid entitlements. Foreign scholarship students cried publicly over abandonment. Young people increasingly believed politics only served a privileged few. But gradually, the atmosphere changed.

Governance stopped being something citizens merely heard on radio. It became something physically visible.

The administration aggressively launched major road and urban renewal projects including interventions around Tal’udu, Dan Agundi, Lodge Road, Court Road and several township roads across Kano metropolis.

Yet politically, the most important thing was not merely the projects themselves. It was the speed, visibility and energy behind them.

For many citizens, the government projected urgency and seriousness from the very beginning.

The foreign scholarship programme became one of the strongest emotional symbols of the administration. Under the previous administrations, Kano foreign students in countries including India and Uganda repeatedly cried out over unpaid tuition fees and near academic collapse. Several parents and advocacy groups publicly accused the government of neglecting the students.

Upon assumption of office, Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf approved billions of naira to settle outstanding liabilities and restore over 1000 Kano students back to classrooms abroad.

For many affected families, the intervention was not merely educational. It was emotional rescue.

In interviews aired by Freedom Radio Kano and other local stations between late 2023 and early 2024, several students narrated how they had nearly abandoned their academic dreams before the intervention arrived. One beneficiary in India reportedly described the intervention as “the difference between disgrace and dignity.”

Politically, the move projected the administration as a government willing to confront inherited crises directly instead of merely offering excuses.

Abba’s administration also declared a state of emergency in education and initiated massive school renovation exercises across the state.

Thousands of students benefited from NECO registration support, while recruitment processes for teachers and investments in learning infrastructure expanded. But beyond statistics, the interventions carried deeper political meaning.The government projected education as a pathway for poor children to compete again.

Within public discussions, many citizens increasingly interpreted the reforms as attempts to restore Kano’s historic educational reputation in Northern Nigeria.

Perhaps the most emotionally sensitive intervention involved pensioners. For years before 2023, retired civil servants repeatedly protested over unpaid gratuities and pension arrears. Elderly pensioners were frequently seen struggling through verification exercises while many openly lamented hardship and neglect. Several pensioners reportedly died while waiting for entitlements.

The issue became more than an administrative problem. It became a moral issue. Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf’s administration later announced multiple releases running into tens of billions of naira for settlement of pension backlogs and gratuities inherited from previous administrations. Thousands of retirees reportedly benefited through various payment phases coordinated by the Kano State Pension Trustees.

What changed public perception most were the emotional reactions from beneficiaries themselves. Elderly pensioners openly praised the governor in interviews across Kano media platforms after receiving payments many had lost hope of ever seeing.

The Kano Internal Revenue Service also intensified reforms around revenue collection, compliance and digital restructuring.

Economic observers increasingly linked improved revenue confidence not only to enforcement, but to growing public belief that government activities were becoming visible again. The logic became simple: Visibility created confidence. Confidence encouraged cooperation.

Citizens are more willing to support government financially when they believe governance itself is functioning.

Another remarkable development is Kano’s gradually changing political atmosphere. For years, Kano politics was dominated by rivalries and factional tensions involving major actors such as Senator Barau I. Jibrin, Senator Kawu Sumaila, Hon. Kabiru Alhassan Rurum and others across APC and NNPP blocs. Yet recent years increasingly witnessed conversations around reconciliation, engagement and political coexistence.

The growing understanding between Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and some APC interests attracted national attention because many observers previously considered such political softening impossible. That perception of political maturity carries major implications for stability, governance and investor confidence in Kano.

Because Kano is not just another state politically. It is one of the major political nerve centres in Northern Nigeria.

Beyond the emotional and political dimensions of the administration, the scale of physical and institutional development witnessed across Kano within the last three years has equally remained difficult to ignore.

From massive road construction and urban renewal projects to aggressive interventions in education, healthcare, agriculture, water resources, youth empowerment, transportation, sanitation, civil service reform, pension settlement, housing, security support and revenue generation, the administration projected unusual speed and visibility across virtually all sectors of governance.

In education alone, foreign scholarship restoration, school rehabilitation, teacher recruitment and examination support programmes changed public conversations around learning and opportunity. In healthcare, general hospitals, primary healthcare centres and medical support services witnessed renewed government attention. In agriculture, farmers benefited from inputs, support initiatives and renewed emphasis on food production across rural communities.

In infrastructure, major roads, drainage systems and metropolitan renewal projects transformed several strategic parts of Kano. In social welfare, pension payments and salary interventions restored confidence among retired and serving workers. In governance and revenue administration, institutional reforms and digital restructuring strengthened public confidence in government functionality.

Even in political management, Kano began gradually witnessing a calmer atmosphere after years of intense rivalries and factional conflicts. Altogether, the administration created the impression of a government determined not merely to govern Kano, but to aggressively reposition the state socially, politically, economically and psychologically for a much bigger future.

Perhaps the most powerful thing about the present administration is this:
√ Kano has started believing again.
√ Young people increasingly believe government can still respond to ordinary citizens.
√ Pensioners increasingly believe retirement may no longer mean abandonment.
√ Students increasingly believe poverty may not permanently destroy educational dreams.
√ All sectors are properly working again after long period of neglect by previous administration.
√ And politically, that may become the administration’s greatest legacy.

Because roads may eventually deteriorate and buildings may require reconstruction. But once a government restores public belief in governance itself, it changes the psychology of society permanently.

That is why Kano today appears to be witnessing something bigger than physical development alone. It is witnessing political reawakening, emotional reconstruction and the gradual return of civic confidence. That is why the real question in Kano today is no longer whether Abba Kabir Yusuf is working. The real question is this: if three years could produce this level of political energy, visibility and public confidence, what exactly may Kano become if this momentum continues into the future?

Sufyan writes from Abuja

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By Abdu Saidu

The third anniversary of the administration of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf provides an opportunity to reflect on a period that has been marked by deliberate efforts to accelerate development and improve the welfare of the people of Kano State. Since assuming office in May 2023, the administration has pursued policies and projects aimed at addressing critical needs across multiple sectors while laying the foundation for sustainable growth and prosperity.

Over the past three years, governance in Kano has been largely defined by investments in education, healthcare, agriculture, infrastructure, transportation, water resources, youth empowerment, and economic development. These sectors have remained at the center of the administration’s agenda, reflecting a commitment to improving public service delivery and expanding opportunities for citizens.

Among the sectors that have received significant attention is education. Recognizing that the future of any society depends on the quality of its human capital, the government has continued to prioritize educational development through interventions designed to improve learning conditions and increase access to educational opportunities. The emphasis on education reflects a broader understanding that long-term progress can only be achieved through sustained investment in knowledge and human development.

The healthcare sector has also occupied a strategic place within the administration’s development framework. Access to quality healthcare remains one of the most important expectations of citizens, and efforts to strengthen healthcare delivery have become an important component of the government’s vision. Through initiatives aimed at improving medical services and enhancing healthcare infrastructure, the administration has sought to ensure that communities across the state benefit from better healthcare outcomes.

Agriculture, the backbone of livelihood for many households in Kano, has equally remained a priority. As one of Nigeria’s leading agricultural states, Kano occupies a unique position in food production and agribusiness. The administration’s commitment to supporting farmers and promoting agricultural development underscores the importance of the sector in driving economic growth, enhancing food security, and creating employment opportunities for thousands of residents.

Infrastructure development has emerged as one of the most visible aspects of the administration’s achievements. Road construction and rehabilitation projects undertaken across different parts of the state have improved connectivity and facilitated movement within communities. Beyond their physical appearance, these projects serve as critical enablers of economic activity by connecting people to markets, businesses, schools, and healthcare facilities.

Closely linked to infrastructure development is the transportation sector, which has witnessed continued government attention. Efficient transportation systems play a vital role in supporting economic activities and improving the quality of life of citizens. By investing in transportation infrastructure and services, the administration has contributed to efforts aimed at creating a more accessible and productive environment for residents and businesses alike.

Water supply remains another area where government intervention has had considerable significance. Access to clean and reliable water is essential for public health, sanitation, and overall well-being. Through initiatives designed to improve water infrastructure and expand access to potable water, the administration has demonstrated its commitment to addressing one of the most fundamental needs of communities across the state.

The administration’s focus on human capital development extends beyond education to include youth and women empowerment. Across Kano State, efforts aimed at creating opportunities for young people and women have formed part of a broader strategy to encourage economic participation and self-reliance. By supporting initiatives that enhance skills, entrepreneurship, and economic inclusion, the government continues to invest in the potential of its people as drivers of development.

Economic growth and commercial development have also remained central to the administration’s vision. Kano has historically been recognized as one of Nigeria’s foremost commercial centers, and government policies have sought to strengthen that position through measures designed to support businesses, stimulate investment, and encourage economic activities. These efforts reflect an understanding that sustainable development requires a vibrant economy capable of creating opportunities and improving living standards.

Beyond individual projects and sectoral interventions, the administration’s approach to governance has emphasized responsiveness, public engagement, and a strong focus on service delivery. The various initiatives implemented over the past three years collectively represent an effort to improve the lives of citizens while building institutions and infrastructure that can support future generations.

As Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf marks three years in office, the story of his administration is closely tied to a vision of development that places people at the center of governance. The investments recorded across education, healthcare, agriculture, infrastructure, transportation, water resources, and economic empowerment have contributed to shaping a new narrative of progress in Kano State.

The third anniversary of the administration is therefore not merely a celebration of time spent in office. It is a reflection of a development journey driven by a commitment to public service, social investment, and the pursuit of a more prosperous future. For many residents, the progress recorded across key sectors represents a renewed sense of hope and confidence in the possibilities of governance when development remains the central objective.

As Kano continues its march toward greater growth and modernization, the achievements of the past three years stand as important milestones in the ongoing effort to build a stronger, more inclusive, and economically vibrant state for present and future generations.