The President and Permanent Representative of Centre for Convention on Democratic Integrity CCDI to United Nations, Olufemi Aduwo, has commended Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir Elrufai for making a provision for the social sector in the 2020 budget.
Aduwo, who spoke from Washington DC, where he is currently attending the World Bank/IMF Boards of Governors Meetings, hailed the governor’s ”bold vision, selfless sacrifice, resilience and toughness” in taking such a proactive and people-oriented initiative. Aduwo stated that the governor’s action was unprecedented, noting that the only time such development occurred was during late Obafemi Awolowo’s period as Premier of the defunct Western Region where he said the education sector received the largest share of the government budget.
”Free education up to senior secondary level was previously enjoyed only by female students, in Kaduna State, while boys had theirs guaranteed only up to junior secondary level. From 2020, every child in Kaduna State is required to have 12 years of free, compulsory primary and secondary education. The total budgetary allocation for Education N64.64 (25.07%), Health N39.61bn (15.36%) and Infrastructure N66.34bn (25.72%)”, Aduwo notes while he called on the World Bank and other development partners that have incentive assistance for education and health provision to extend hands of cooperation to Kaduna State in order to achieve the laudable project initiated by Governor El-Rufai, a gesture he affirmed had been enjoyed by some Nigerian states in the past.
”Education in every sense is one of the fundamental factors of development. As a matter of fact, the core tenet of democracy is development and for the country to achieve sustainable economic development, it requires substantial investments in education”, Aduwo noted.
He added that Governor El-Rufai has proved pundits wrong that governors are self-centred and lacking in capacity to initiate programmes that are people-focused, while he called on other governors to give priority to the social sector in their 2020 budget.
-Folorunsho Hamsat
