#2015Kwankwaso
A standing ovation for our President-in-waiting: Rabiu Kwankwaso, Mr. Capital Projects and Mr. Compassion
Some sycophantic ignoramuses are working assiduously to portray our wonderful President Jonathan as the Christian President who is representing Christians and their interests. But nothing could be further from the truth.
One of the ten commandments is “‘Thou shall not steal.” Unfortunately our dear “‘gentle” President and his campaign team are fond of stealing pictures of Governor Kwankwaso’s (alias, Mr. Capital Projects) monumental achievements in Kano State and passing it off as his own projects. Like they did with pictures of the temporary site of the Northwest University established by Mr. Capital Projects as well as a picture of the ICT institute which is just one among 21 other institutes and 44 skill acquisition centers established by Mr. Capital Projects. See. https://www.facebook.com/2015Kwankwaso/photos_stream and https://www.facebook.com/2015Kwankwaso/timeline They have also taken pictures of a bridge he built in Kano and passed it off as one of President Jonathan’s projects. They have been consistent and unrelenting in passing off Federal roads resurfaced by state governors as roads fixed by President Jonathan under his fake transformation agenda that I have renamed “TANsfromation” or “Deformation” agenda. Nigerians should take all pictures posted by President Jonathan and his campaign team with a pinch of salt because most of those pictures are stolen from the achievements of state governors who have fixed federal roads with state resources without getting any refund of their expenditure from the Federal government. For instance the Lagos state government has expended over N50b on dilapidated Federal Roads in Lagos state and has received no refunds whatsoever for its expenditure.
Our so called ‘gentle’ President has demonstrated that there is nothing gentle about him when he ordered the raid of the APC office in Lagos and allowed his hooded snipers to raid and steal court documents from a law firm that had sued him and challenged his eligibility to contest in the February 2015 Presidential election, having been sworn in twice as President. There is no real gentility in a President who ordered the Inspector General of Police to seal the gates leading into the hallowed chambers of the House of Representatives which then necessitated the climbing of the gates by our elected representatives to prevent the impending impeachment of the speaker and the declaration of his seat as vacant along with the seat of his fellow former PDP members who left the PDP’s sinking ship for the APC.
President Jonathan and his campaign team are afraid of a Presidential contest in which Rabiu Kwankwaso will be the APC flag bearer because of his colossal achievements as Kano state governor. President Jonathan had no choice other than to steal from Mr. Capital projects’ achievements becasue he has turned Kano state into a mini-London and mini-Dubai in just 3 years. President Jonathan has nothing but a long list of failures as President. When you score him on Security & Defence, Power, Water Resources, Job creation and youth empowerment, Health, Education etc, he scores F in each of these areas. The only area where he has a passmark is in Agriculture where he scores a B.
As of December 2013, Mr. Capital Projects achieved 60 health development milestones in just 30 months in the Kano State Health Sector. He purchased and distributed 120 ambulances among the state hospitals and equipped the hospitals with world class medical equipment and hired experienced medical personnel to run the hospitals. When he was sworn in, he met a medical sector in a state of comatose.
He sent over 5,000 Kano residents (Christians and Muslims) who are degree holders on full scholarship including feeding and accommodation abroad. Out of this a significant number are women and they were chosen 100% on merit, not based on “man know man.”‘ You need a 1st class or 2nd class upper in your first degree to qualify.
He took beggars off Kano streets by putting them through the skill acquisition centers and paying them N10,000 per month and mobilizing them with between N65k and N150k upon graduation plus equipment relevant to the kind of businesses they have been trained to engage in. He equipped jobless youths with 250 tear rubber or brand new Toyota Corollas which cost the state government over N1.1b with 750 more to be distributed before May 29, 2015. These youths are to use the cars for Luxury Taxi Services in Kano state.
He bought 120 buses and distributed them among the 44 Local Governments for the purposes of his “Girl Child Education” initiative. This was done to encourage the girl child to attend school instead of being married off at a very young age and to stem the spread of VVF, a disease which affects the excretory system of young girls who are married off too early.
He served as Defence Minister under former President Obasanjo for 4 years and under him there was no insurgency because of his leadership skills at the Ministry of Defence. President Obasanjo brought him on board to replace Gen. T.Y. Danjuma Rtd. who resigned as Defence Minister for personal reasons. He ensured the proper equipping of the armed forces, the DMI and DSS even though he ran the ministry on a budget that is just 10% of the N4 trillion budget of President Jonathan of the last 4 years. When you factor in the $1b loan that is about to be accessed for Defence, the Defence budget in the last 4 years will be much more than N4 trillion.
A summary of a fraction of his achievements include the following:
– prudence in the management of resources
– Visionary leadership
-Man of integrity
-Man of the people
-Detribalized leader
– He is number 1 in education among the Governors in Nigeria- free education at all levels including university education.
-Provided scholarships to more than 2500 Kano indigenes for their 1st degree in private universities in Nigeria and equipped them with free laptops. He pays N1m per year per student to take care of their tuition, accommodation and feeding.
-Transparent leadership by publishing the minutes of all the state executive council meetings.
-Training 100 Kano graduates sponsored to become pilots in Jordan- they are all set to graduate in 2015. It costs around $10m to train such huge number of pilots in most highly reputable aviation schools.
-300 graduates sponsored to different areas of advanced degree specialization in medicine
-100 graduates sponsored for their Masters’ degree in Pharmacy.
-24 graduates sponsored for their Masters’ degree in various fields of Engineering
-Pays the school fees (N17m per year) of all the Kano law graduates at the 5 campuses of the Nigerian law school.
-Abolished office of 1st Lady
-Abolished security vote that runs into billions of naira and is a typical corruption conduit
-Stopped sponsoring religious pilgrimages thereby saving billions of naira.
-Spends 75% of annual budget on capital projects that benefits the people directly instead of the typical 30% spent by President Jonathan and most state governments on capital projects
– Stopped ram buying for civil servants and saved billions of naira from this and other areas of waste which has been channeled into making education free from Primary school to University level.
– Invested N1.1b in the purchase of 250 brand new cars and handed it over to unemployed graduates for them to run a luxury taxi business.
-Met empty treasury, a debt burden of N77 billion and an additional $203 million in foreign loans on assumption of office, he has through prudent management of resources put Kano State on the path of accelerated development. This total debt burden of over N120b has been reduced drastically to a mere N20b which will be paid off before May 29, 2015.
-Thousands of classrooms and hundreds of teachers offices have been constructed in primary schools across the state
-Free breakfast and lunch in primary and secondary schools during school hours. “A child whose parents cannot give him three square meals can now go to school because he knows that there would be food for him to eat in school.” – Kano State Commissioner for Education.
-Free uniforms and free books have encouraged children of the less privileged in the state to go to school.
-In order to provide access roads for the rural communities, started and has almost completed the construction of a five- kilometre road in the headquarters of each of the 44 local government areas of the state. This will bring it to a total of 220 kms of roads.
-Numerous road and flyover projects across the entire state that makes Kano state look like Dubai.
– A 2km underpass, the 1st of its kind in Nigeria is nearing completion.
– Over 2000 health technology graduates and pharmacists have been trained & given free N50,000 & a non interest loan of N100,000 to operate pharmacies under the LAFIYA JARI PROG.
-Water supply to the people of Kano state rose from the meager 40 million litres per day that was being pumped into the city to 500 million litres per day as of June 2014.
-Unprecedented Upgrade and proper equipping of primary health care centers and government hospitals across Kano state.
– He built three new cities namely: kwankwasiyya city, Amana city, and Bandarawo citiy. These are cities not housing estates. They are cities in the true sense of the word.
-1700 youths trained in the use of modern farm equipment and each mobilized with the sum of N140k each.
-To ensure transparency no commissioner can approve an amount above N200k for any project, if above N200k it must be approved by the state executive council. This measure has cut off wastage and has freed up capital for the capital projects being carried out.
-All medical students who are Kano residents get a level 9 civil service level salary per month from their 1st year of medical school to their housemanship – the 1st of its kind in Nigeria.
-Built two universities and several academic institutions within three years and offered the Kano residents who attend 100% free education at all levels in Kano State.
-Trained 1120 unemployed youths as vulcanizers and mechanics and gave each of them between N53k and N63k and a tool box and machines to set up their own businesses.
-Spends N3.3b annually to feed primary and secondary school students!
– Creating construction, developing and funding of Kano University of Science and Technology with 7 faculties and 29 departments
– Creating, constructing and funding Northwest University with 4 faculties and 16 departments
– Established and funded School of Nursing and midwifery madobi
– Established and funded School of nursing Gezawa
– Established and funded School of health Technology Bebeji
– Established and funded School of Informatics Studies Kura
– Started degree awarding programs at College of Education Kano
-NCE and degree program at School of Legal Studies Kano
-Skills Acquisition Schools in all 44 LGAs of the state
– Over 27 crafts, technical, security, sport and entrepreneurial schools were built all over the state.
Looking at this capital expenditure with the little allocation from Abuja and the meager Internally Generated Revenue of the state which is half of that of Lagos, Rivers and Akwa-Ibom states and the transformation that we have seen in all sectors of the Kano economy, especially transportation (road construction) education and health sectors, it is clear that we have in Engr (Dr.) Rabiu Kwankwaso a leader that can govern Nigeria efficiently.
Let all Nigerians stand up and give Mr. Capital Projects and our next President, a standing ovation. Stand up and clap for the man of the people, the lover of the down trodden, the liberator of the women folk, the friend of the physically challenged, the elderly, the pensioner and the forgotten. Let us stand up for this lover of education, lover of the youth and a man of integrity. With Kwankwaso what you have seen him do in Kano state is what he will do in greater proportion when he becomes President. Kindly share this on all your walls on social media and traditional media platforms including facebook, twitter, blackberry, whatsup etc. The time for change is now. Nigeria cannot afford to bungle this opportunity to elect someone who has the best governance scorecard in Nigeria today. That person is none other than Mr. Capital Projects, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the founder of the red cap revolution ideology!!
Written by Bunmi Awoyemi, Ph.D.
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