Interests of Populace will Be Considered First, Says Kaduna Gov

Returning Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir el-Rufa’i, said
on Wednesday that in trying to improve the livelihood of the
people, his administration would consider the interests of the
populace first and leave no one behind.

El-Rufa’i, who made the pledge in his inaugural speech shortly
after he was sworn in as the Governor of Kaduna State for the
second time, added that his administration would in the next four
years work towards putting smiles on people’s faces.

He said that the effective way to fight poverty was to ensure
financial independence among the people, adding that his government
would continue to attract foreign investments and improve the
business climate in the state.

According to him, the goal is to provide job opportunities for
the people and improve revenue generation for the state to execute
people-oriented projects that will impact on the people.

The governor said: “My administration will continue to put
people first by providing access to quality services in education,
health, and other basic social services to ensure that our people
live quality lives.

“We will continue to strengthen primary healthcare services,
provide drugs and routine immunisation, as well as provide free
healthcare services to five-year-old children in all our
hospitals.”

He also announced the extension of maternity leave for working
class mothers in the state from three months to six months to
promote exclusive breastfeeding, considered crucial to children’s
healthy growth and development.

He explained that the move would ensure that children are
adequately cared for, well-fed and received all the nutrients they
would need within the first six months of their lives.

El-Rufai said that the aforementioned steps would help reduce
the prevalence of malnutrition among children in the state under
the age of five years.

The governor noted the protracted security challenges affecting
the state, but said that huge resources were being spent to
strengthen internal security.

“These resources ought to have been invested in uplifting the
standard of living of the people.

“Therefore, it is time we put our differences aside and work
together to promote unity in our diversity, to improve the lives
and security of everyone in Kaduna State.

“We must work together for the urgent need of human progress,”
he said.

El-Rufa’i expressed appreciation to the immediate past members
of the state’s executive council for their support in the past four
years, which he said, helped to deliver the dividends of democracy
to the people.

He called on the people of the state to give his administration
the needed support for the next four years to move the area to
greater heights.

El-Rufa’i was sworn in along with Dr. Hadiza Balarabe as deputy
governor, the first woman to be democratically elected in the
state.

Balarabe joins Paulen Tallen (Plateau), former Minister of State
for Science and Technology in former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s
cabinet, and Mrs Aisha Pamela Sadauki (Kaduna – 1990 to 1992) as
the first three Northern Nigerian women to have been deputy
governors. (NAN)

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