By Hafiz Garba PhD,

In the long and complicated history of Nigerian governance, awards have too often been the currency of flattery rather than the fruit of performance. They have been given to the powerful because they are powerful, to the wealthy because they are wealthy, and to the politically connected because connection is its own reward in a system where accountability is frequently optional and excellence is rarely demanded. It is against that deeply ingrained culture of performative recognition that the awards record accumulated by Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State across three years in office must be understood, because what distinguishes his recognition from the routine distribution of honorary plaques that passes for institutional commendation in too many Nigerian contexts is something specific, something verifiable, and something that the evidence of his governance record makes impossible to dismiss: these awards were earned.
They were earned in classrooms across 44 local government areas where children are learning in renovated buildings for the first time in years. They were earned in hospitals where emergency response vehicles now arrive at night when they previously did not exist. They were earned on roads that connect communities that were previously isolated, in boreholes that draw clean water from ground that was previously untapped, in solar streetlights that illuminate neighbourhoods that were previously dark, and in the accounts of 6,680 women entrepreneurs who received monthly empowerment stipends that changed the material conditions of their lives and the lives of their families. The awards are not the story. They are the world’s response to the story. And the story is three years of governance that has genuinely, measurably, and consistently put the people of Kano State first.
The awards began arriving early and have not stopped. Vanguard Newspaper named Governor Yusuf its Governor of the Year 2024 for Good Governance, citing the administration’s comprehensive approach to development and its demonstrated commitment to transparency and service delivery. Leadership Newspaper, one of Nigeria’s most respected national dailies, named him Governor of the Year 2024 for Education, specifically recognising the historic declaration of a state of emergency in the education sector and the extraordinary commitment of 30 percent of the state’s annual budget, the highest education budget share of any state in Nigeria, to the transformation of a system that had been in visible decline for years. The Nigerian Medical Association presented him with the Best Governor of the Year award, citing his administration’s substantial investments in primary healthcare, hospital renovation, drug supply, and the Abba Care health insurance scheme. The Daily News Agency named him Authentic Humanitarian Governor 2024, recognising the human dimension of a governance philosophy that has consistently prioritised the welfare of the most vulnerable members of Kano’s society over every other consideration.
The Africa Housing Awards presented Governor Yusuf with the Housing and Infrastructure-Friendly Governor of the Year recognition, with organisers describing him as the people’s governor and specifically citing his commitment to inclusive housing, urban renewal, and openness to innovative construction solutions that make quality housing accessible to ordinary citizens rather than merely to the economically privileged. The CREED Magazine Governor of the Year 2025 on Infrastructure and Good Governance added continental weight to a domestic recognition record that was already remarkable, acknowledging the scope and the ambition of an infrastructure investment programme that has reshaped Kano’s physical landscape across three years with a comprehensiveness that few Nigerian state administrations have matched.
And then came Casablanca. At the 14th African Leadership Magazine Persons of the Year Awards ceremony in Morocco, Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf was named African Governor of the Year for Good Governance, an honour bestowed at a gathering of distinguished African leaders, statesmen, and institutional figures, at which he was recognised alongside Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, and other continental luminaries whose careers have shaped the governance and development landscape of Africa. The award was presented by the President of Ghana, one of West Africa’s most respected democratic leaders, in a moment that placed Kano State’s governance record on an explicitly continental platform and communicated to an international audience that what Governor Yusuf has been building in the ancient commercial city of northern Nigeria is not merely of local or national significance but of the kind of quality and consequence that the African continent recognises and celebrates.
That moment in Casablanca deserves to be understood in its full historical context. Kano State has a five-century history as one of Africa’s great commercial and intellectual centres, a history that includes its role as the terminal point of trans-Saharan trade routes connecting sub-Saharan Africa to the Mediterranean world, its tradition of Islamic scholarship, and its position as the commercial capital of Northern Nigeria. For its governor to be recognised as the African Governor of the Year for Good Governance at a continental awards ceremony in Morocco is, in one sense, the most modern expression of a very old truth: that Kano’s significance extends beyond Nigeria, that its leaders carry responsibilities not merely to their immediate constituents but to a broader story of northern Nigerian achievement that the continent watches and respects. Governor Yusuf’s Casablanca recognition is not an anomaly in Kano’s history. It is a continuation of it.
What makes the awards record particularly significant from a governance analysis perspective is not merely its volume but its diversity. The recognitions have come from national newspapers, medical associations, housing organisations, infrastructure monitoring bodies, and continental leadership platforms. They have been granted by institutions with different mandates, different evaluation criteria, different political affiliations, and different institutional interests. None of them had any obligation to recognise Governor Yusuf. None of them had anything to gain from doing so beyond the credibility of having identified genuine excellence when it was present. The fact that institutions as different as the Nigerian Medical Association, the Africa Housing Awards, and the African Leadership Magazine have independently arrived at the same conclusion, namely that Abba Kabir Yusuf is governing Kano State with an unusual quality and commitment, is not a coincidence. It is a convergent verdict produced by the consistent application of different assessment criteria to the same governance reality.
As Kano marks its third anniversary on May 29, 2026, those awards line the walls of achievement not as decorations but as a documented, independently verified, and institutionally diverse record of a performance that has been seen, assessed, and recognised by the world beyond Kano’s borders. They are the external confirmation of what the people inside those borders already know from their daily experience: that they have a governor who came to office with a genuine commitment to their welfare, invested in it consistently across three difficult and turbulent years, and delivered outcomes that the most demanding and the most credible evaluators in Nigeria and across Africa have found worthy of the highest recognition available to them.
The world has applauded. And Kano, on its third anniversary, has every reason to stand and join in.

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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