I’m Ready To Hit The Ground Running, Says Katsina Gov-Elect

Katsina Governor-elect Dikko Umaru Radda has vowed to hit the ground running from day one of the assumptions of office.

Radda gave the assurance during an interactive session with newsmen in Abuja on Sunday.

He also unveiled the policy thrust of his administration which was tagged “Building a future”.

The former Director General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) said priority attention would be given to the Internally Generated Revenues (IGRs) and a land reform policy will be pushed to reposition the state.

According to him: ”A year before I aspired to become a Governor, I already had my blueprint. We call it “Building a Future” and we have a strategic policy to back the package this strategic policy has some focus areas and that is why I take this strategic policy so dear to my heart because it’s something that we’ve conceived. It’s something that we analyzed, it is something that we produced and this is part of what we put.

“Our focus area is security. We Want to tackle the issue of insecurity in Katsina state. This is our major area of concern.

“Secondly, we want to also reform the public service. Public Service needs to be reformed. We need to digitalize it. We need to provide training and retraining for our public servants because they are the bridge through which you can be able to carry out your policies. 

“If you don’t reform the public service, you cannot be able to carry your policy down to the local level. So we need to reform the public service in terms of training and re-training, digitalizing the system, and making them very knowledgeable and skillful, so that they can achieve the policy direction of our administration. 

“We also want to look at education which is also a cardinal part of any development in any nation. Healthcare is also our major concern because when you look at the social aspect of our society, because of this insurgency, there are so many people who are displaced from their houses, and there are so many old men who cannot carter for themselves. They need the help of the government. So we want to also establish public care scheme and this public care scheme will need at least 15 Public Social Care Centers that will cater for those categories of people in Katsina State.”

On the economy, the Governor-elect said he was set to boost the local economy of the state through the development of small and medium enterprises in the state, which he said would help provide the job opportunity for our teeming youths of the State.

Hear him: “This is where I will bring my experience as the DG of the Small and Medium Scale Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDA) to bear in the lives of the people of Kastina State. I want to also establish an agency like SMEDA which will be under the office of the governor so that I can handle it seriously and ensure that it’s effective down to the people. 

”We shall also want to look at the internally generated revenue. We don’t want a situation whereby the state will continue to rely on the federal allocation for its activities. We also want to look at the internally generated revenue and land reforms. We want to review our land and also review our master plan so that we can have a state of our dream, a capital of our dream, and this is the policy direction of our administration.”

To actualize the blueprint, Radda said a strategic budgetary policy would be put in place, adding that his administration would engage a round peg in a round economic hole.

According to him: ”That personnel that is going to carry the policy must be forced to know to do it at the right time. So capacity is very important. You need to have the organization carry down these policies. If you have these organizations in existence, you have to see how you will review those organizations so that we meet your needs and you need to have laws where they are lacking. So you need to formulate laws through the state assembly so that you can achieve what you want to achieve in security because without security you cannot do anything and then you also need to have the community.

“Our approach is going to be the community-based approach. We will do it from the bottom to the top. We will not stay at our offices under the comfort of ACs and design policies for our people, we must carry the policy down and that was the only thing that informed my decision to go down to every ward in the state during my campaign so that I can have firsthand information from the people.”