…scores Kaduna Gov’s performance very low

A socio-political organisation, Kaduna Central Integrity Group (KCIG) has berated Governor Uba Sani over his alleged media attacks on the Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Senator Lawal Adamu Usman.

KCIG said it’s laughable that Governor Sani whose administration in the state since its inauguration on May 29, 2023, had yet to make any meaningful impact on the lives of the electorate in the state and “failed woefully”, would turn around to hide under a “faceless” body to accuse Senator Usman, popular amongst his constituents for his various “unprecedented achievements,” of non-performance.

KCIG wondered how the Uba Sani government in Kaduna State that had been enmeshed in one crisis or the other to the extent of being distracted, would resort to covering its incompetence and inadequacies by going for a Senator whose constituents believe has brought them a big relief from the harrowing experience of the four years when the incumbent Governor Sani represented them in the same Senate without any impact on their lives throughout his four-year tenure.

The KCIG stated this in a statement on Wednesday in reaction to claims by a group, Kaduna Good Governance Monitoring Group (KGGMG) that Senator Usman had failed to adequately represent Kaduna Central Senatorial District and had not delivered on his campaign promises.

But the KCIG, which claimed in a statement jointly signed by its President, Mallam Mohammed Kaulawa-Chikun and Secretary General, Dr Yohanna Matthew Ibrahim, that KGGMG was being used by Governor Sani to attack Senator Usman in the media, added that the “myriads of unprecedented achievements” already recorded by Senator LA in less than two years in the Senate had exposed the incumbent Kaduna governor, who earlier represented them for four years in the National Assembly as a “monumental failure”, given his lackluster performance in his current position as the Governor of Kaduna State.

According to the group, Governor Sani, having failed to record and showcase his achievements while he served as the Senator for Kaduna Central during the 9th Senate, lacks the moral right to call to account the incumbent Senator LA, who they said has been effectively representing them and supplying the dividends of democracy to the people of his constituency in abundance.

Recounting the achievements of Senator Usman in the almost two years of being in the Senate for Kaduna Central, the group said the lawmaker’s achievements in the areas of education, infrastructure, youth and women empowerment have been unprecedented.

The KCIG statement partly read, “Since taking charge as the lawmaker representing the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Senator LA has been positively touching the lives of his constituents. Of course, according to analysts and watchers of Kaduna politics, with the failure of the “flawed strategies” of his predecessors, particularly Governor Uba Sani, and the meteoric successes Senator LA has recorded within his first 18 months in the National Assembly, it’s easier to concur that he’s been delivering regarding his responsibilities to his constituents in Kaduna Central Senatorial District.

“Moreover, Senator LA, who doubles as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary), and Vice Chairman of, the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance, and Other Financial Institutions, has also, in the past 18 months in the Senate, done so much in raising standards and improving services as well as integrity in these two very important sectors. He alongside his committee had established a robust relationship with the CBN working to stabilize as well as mobilize the fiscal and monetary policies of the apex bank.

“Similarly, in the area of engaging and empowering the people, Senator LA can also raise his shoulders high amongst the lawmakers who have been meeting the expectations of their constituents in this regard.

“So far, he has doled a whopping over N500million to empower no fewer youths and women across his constituency, in fulfillment of his campaign promises to empower the youths and the vulnerable. The beneficiaries who got the sum of N500,000 each as start-up capital were selected from the seven local government areas constituting the Kaduna Central Senatorial District. The Senator has also donated other valuables, including food items and hundreds of sewing and knitting machines, worth over N500million to many widows to assist them in fending for themselves and tackling their financial problems. Senator LA has continued to sponsor people to perform the lesser Hajj in Saudi Arabia to offer prayers for the peace, progress, and unity of Nigeria.

“In continuation of his gesture of payment of tuition fees of indigent students across the state, Senator LA also fulfilled his promise by giving the sum of between N100,000 and N150,000 bursary allowances to over 200 students in the Humanities and Sciences, respectively, across his Senatorial District, having announced the setting aside of N500 million for settling tuition fees for hundreds of students of tertiary institutions in his constituency. Of course, the scholarship given by Senator LA will go a long way in relieving many parents of the financial burden of funding their children’s education.”

The group however noted that rather than Governor Sani sitting down in his office in the state capital to do his duty as the Governor of Kaduna State, he had allegedly become fond of running to Abuja, where he lived permanently in hotel suites, and state officials, including commissioners, were being compelled to take the risk of traveling from Kaduna to Abuja with files to get the governor’s approval for “the smallest thing”.

Bemoaning the fate of Kaduna State, the KCIG rated the performance of Governor Sani as far below the expectations of the people of the state.

The group stated, “Conversely, Governor Uba Sani cannot boast of a fraction of Senator LA’s unparalleled achievements. We, the people of Kaduna Central have weighed Senator LA and the failing Governor Uba Sani, who was our immediate past representative, in the 9th Senate, and we now know the two are parallel lines. We now know Senator LA is far better even within his less than two years, compared to Governor Sani, who represented us for four years but we cannot pinpoint any of his achievements. Governor Uba Sani himself knows he cannot boldly and proudly flaunt any record of achievements while he represented us in the Senate. We, the people of Kaduna Central know that Governor Uba Sani is unnecessarily jealous of Senator LA’s unprecedented achievements within less than two years in the Senate; hence the Governor’s hysteria and sponsored media attacks on the more popular and well-loved Senator.

“Governor Uba Sani, for all we care, is a disaster foisted on Kaduna State. He has no moral right and even the record to accuse someone assiduously working and delivering the dividends of democracy to better the lives of the good people of Kaduna Central, of non-performance, while the Governor himself is known to be carousing in hotels in Abuja with women of easy virtues. Between a working lawmaker and a non-performing and failing Governor, we the people of Kaduna know who is better and desirable.

“Kaduna has been unfortunate to be saddled with a non-performer as Governor Uba Sani. We challenge Governor Sani to flaunt his records of achievements while he represented us in the Senate, if he has any he can be proud and boast of. He’s an unmitigated failure and disaster, even as the incumbent Governor of Kaduna State. This is a Governor who has not deemed it fit to call a State Executive Council meeting since his inauguration in 2023. Ours is a Governor who hardly stays in his office in Kaduna for two full days before running to Abuja. This is a Governor who has the penchant for signing State contracts in his Abuja hotel rooms while carousing with his numerous girlfriends. This is a Governor whose commissioners are forced to carry every file to in his Abuja hotel rooms to get approval for the smallest thing. If anyone is looking for the most incompetent Governor in Nigeria, Governor Uba Sani perfectly fits the bill. It’s a great pity Kaduna State is entrusted in the hands of such a misfit as governor.

“Anyway, now the people of Kaduna State know better and we’re sure they will guide against making the same mistake they made in the 2023 governorship election in 2027. “

Below is the full text of the statement of the KCIG:

FAILING GOVERNOR VERSUS PERFORMING SENATOR: GOV UBA SANI AND HIS ‘PAPALOLO’ COMEDIC ANTICS, A STATEMENT BY THE KADUNA CENTRAL INTEGRITY GROUP (KCIG) ISSUED ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2025

Our attention has been drawn to the acerbic attacks and malicious barefaced lies being sponsored in the media by the failing Governor of Kaduna State, Uba Sani, against our performing Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the 10th National Assembly, Distinguished Senator Lawal Adamu Usman, under the guise of a faceless Kaduna Good Governance Monitoring Group (KGGMG).

Contrary to the malicious lies being peddled by Governor Sani and his hirelings in the KGGMG, it’s a common knowledge, an indisputable, widely accepted and acknowledged fact that Senator Lawal Adamu Usman, popularly and fondly called Senator LA by us, his constituents and teeming supporters, has brought unprecedented developments to our dear Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the less than two years he has represented us in the National Assembly.

For the information of the unsuspecting members of the public, the grumpy ranting by Governor Sani and his faceless KGGMG should not be taken seriously by anyone, as all they’re doing now is just akin to the comedic antics of the popular 1980s theatre group, ‘Papalolo’ and his jesters international group.

Governor Uba Sani and his media hirelings’ needless attacks on the Distinguished Senator Lawal Adamu Usman is nothing but aimed at ultimately rubbishing and vitiating Senate LA’s unparalleled achievements in his less than two years as the Senator representing Kaduna Central in the National Assembly. Isn’t the governor’s hysterical antics laughable, when he himself has nothing to show, first as our Senator for four years in the National Assembly, and now even worse, for the almost two years he has been in office as the Governor of Kaduna State?

For clarity sake, the same Kaduna Central Senatorial District for which Governor Uba Sani, who is our immediate past Senator, has no record of achievements which he can flaunt now, is the same constituency where the people have continued to hail and acknowledge the unprecedented achievements already recorded by our incumbent Senator LA in less than two years in the Senate.

So, for anyone, including the non-performing Governor Uba Sani, to turn around to falsely accuse Senator LA of non-performance, is, to say the least, futile, unconscionable and a failed attempt to cover up their own gross inadequacies and monumental failure in elective office. For the KGGMG, which we believe is suffering from a collective amnesia and blinded by filthy lucre, Senator LA remains on record as one of the first, if not the first, lawmaker to raise a motion on the floor of the 10th Senate after its inauguration in 2023, when he called urgent attention to the perennial insecurity and kidnappings in Kaduna State as well as their link to the deplorable state of the Kaduna-Abuja highway.

Senator LA didn’t just stop at raising the motion on the floor of the 10th Senate, he took the rare practical step of meeting physically with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the urgency of the matters. It is delightful that Senator LA’s proactive moves resulted in the various actions taken by the Federal Government to to combat the menace of the bandits in Kaduna State and to also renovate the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano highway. Can Governor Uba Sani of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna boast of initiating or even making the same moves as Senator LA, who is representing us, the good people of Kaduna Central on the platform of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)? It’s a capital NO!

We, however, make bold to say that the unconscionable and uninformed outbursts of Governor Sani and his hirelings are nothing but a good testament of their crass ignorance about Senator LA’s germane contributions at the National Assembly and in his Kaduna Central constituency.

The Governor and his men sure need some good tutoring and education to be purged of their crass ignorance. Of course, nothing is unusual about their warped story. It’s still an unfortunate manifestation of the diseased symptom of the bad and rotten politicking that has become the pastime of the Governor and his men.

For emphasis, and for those who have decided to feign to be blind and deaf to the monumental achievements of the Distinguished lawmaker, we want to repeat stridently that Senator LA has, from Day One, made a ‘down payment’ on change with the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District through his campaign manifesto, which convinced the electorate to freely and magnanimously give him their mandate at the polls in 2023.

For the avoidance of doubt, Senator LA believes in serious change rather than a hopeless gimmick. And this real change he has continued to drive. He believes in grip and not drift. Since his election into the National Assembly, he has continuously been doing the hard graft, working his fingers to the bones, so to say, all in the corporate interests of the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District. His chairmanship and vice chairmanship of two very important committees in the Senate leaves no room for frivolities such as Governor Uba Sani and his hirelings have lately made their duty. The leadership of the Senate Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary) and Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions is not for the lily-livered or intellectually lazy due to the seriousness of their businesses and services to the nation’s educational and financial sectors. This is evident in the quantum of work that the Education Committee did on the basic education (Amendment) bill now at the third reading stage before the Senate. Only last December 11 at the Senate plenary, the Bill for an Act to amend the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education Act, Cap N4, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2024 and for other Related Matters 2024, sponsored by Senator LA, passed a Second Reading. The Bill was then referred to the Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary), being chaired by Senator LA, who sponsored the motion for its reading. The bill, when passed into law, will revolutionise and revitalise basic education in Nigeria.

Therefore, only those playing the ostrich, like Governor Uba Sani and his hirelings have proved themselves to be, will deny the obvious and concrete fact that Senator LA’s tenure, in less than two years, has been defined by a strong and unprecedented commitment to Education, infrastructural development, economic empowerment, and delivery of sundry dividends of democracy to his constituents and others. His comprehensive approach to addressing the needs of the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District and even beyond remains unprecedented.

To scour the minds of the doubting Thomases like the Kaduna governor and his men, it is appropriate at this juncture to showcase a bit of Senator LA’s myriad of achievements in the past months that the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District had entrusted him with their mandate, as their representative in the nation’s upper legislature.

This, of course, is to puncture the lies by Governor Sani and his group of meddlesome interlopers, as well as to fully answer their oft-repeated spurious “charges” of non-performance against this conscientious lawmaker.

Senator LA is indeed a new breed politician who has earned the respect and love of his constituents as well as the electorate in the entire Kaduna State. Contrary to the claims by the Governor Uba Sani’s KGGMG, his weekly visits to his constituency and philanthropic gestures towards the people have continued to oil his political structure among the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District. A compassionate and cheerful politician, the Senator through his LA Cares Foundation, has continued to change the lives of many youths, orphans and other vulnerable people in his constituency and beyond. His myriad of democracy dividends delivered to the people of his constituency has continued to endear him to his people and the electorate. Senator LA has continued to shame his detractors and political foes with his unprecedented achievements in the construction and rehabilitation of schools and positively affecting the hitherto moribund educational sector. He can also not be pushed aside when it comes to the provision of basic infrastructure such as water resources, healthcare, power and generally improving the living standards of his constituents through capacity building, empowerment and educational scholarships.

Specifically, Senator LA has recorded unprecedented achievements in less than two years by providing among many others 100 smart primary school buildings which are fully equipped with learning materials and educational aids, scholarships, boreholes for potable water, solar lights, entrepreneurial training for farmers, sponsorship of hundreds of students for WAEC and UTME (JAMB) examinations, N500,000 each as business startup capital given to no fewer than 500 beneficiaries, payment of the registration fee for 1000 tertiary institutions students, training for 100 women in soap making with startup capital and training of 200 beneficiaries in fish farming with startup capital. Interestingly, beneficiaries of all these laudable projects are drawn from all the seven local government areas making up his Kaduna Central Senatorial District constituency. His motion urging the Federal Ministry of Works to expedite the ongoing reconstruction of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano expressway has remained a reference point in the Senate, having secured the unanimous approval of all the lawmakers in the upper legislative chamber. In all, Senator LA has sponsored four very crucial motions and four bills, which are now in their third reading stages and about to be passed into law by the Senate. Infact, it’s crystal clear that if there’s any lawmaker that should be tarred with the brush of non-performance, it can’t be the indefatigable Senator LA, who has been up and doing since his election.

Since taking charge as the lawmaker representing the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Senator LA has been positively touching the lives of his constituents. Of course, according to analysts and watchers of Kaduna politics, with the failure of the “flawed strategies” of his predecessors, particularly Governor Uba Sani, and the meteoric successes Senator LA has recorded within his first 18 months in the National Assembly, it’s easier to concur that he’s been delivering regarding his responsibilities to his constituents in Kaduna Central Senatorial District.

Moreover, Senator LA, who doubles as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary), and Vice Chairman of, the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance, and Other Financial Institutions, has also, in the past 18 months in the Senate, done so much in raising standards and improving services as well as integrity in these two very important sectors. He alongside his committee had established a robust relationship with the CBN working to stabilize as well as mobilize the fiscal and monetary policies of the apex bank.

Similarly, in the area of engaging and empowering the people, Senator LA can also raise his shoulders high amongst the lawmakers who have been meeting the expectations of their constituents in this regard.

So far, he has doled a whopping over N500million to empower no fewer youths and women across his constituency, in fulfillment of his campaign promises to empower the youths and the vulnerable. The beneficiaries who got the sum of N500,000 each as start-up capital were selected from the seven local government areas constituting the Kaduna Central Senatorial District. The Senator has also donated other valuables, including food items and hundreds of sewing and knitting machines, worth over N500million to many widows to assist them in fending for themselves and tackling their financial problems. Senator LA has continued to sponsor people to perform the lesser Hajj in Saudi Arabia to offer prayers for the peace, progress, and unity of Nigeria.

In continuation of his gesture of payment of tuition fees of indigent students across the state, Senator LA also fulfilled his promise by giving the sum of between N100,000 and N150,000 bursary allowances to over 200 students in the Humanities and Sciences, respectively, across his Senatorial District, having announced the setting aside of N500 million for settling tuition fees for hundreds of students of tertiary institutions in his constituency. Of course, the scholarship given by Senator LA will go a long way in relieving many parents of the financial burden of funding their children’s education.

Conversely, Governor Uba Sani cannot boast of a fraction of Senator LA’s unparalleled achievements. We, the people of Kaduna Central have weighed Senator LA and the failing Governor Uba Sani, who was our immediate past representative, in the 9th Senate, and we now know the two are parallel lines. We now know Senator LA is far better even within his less than two years, compared to Governor Sani, who represented us for four years but we cannot pinpoint any of his achievements. Governor Uba Sani himself knows he cannot boldly and proudly flaunt any record of achievements while he represented us in the Senate. We, the people of Kaduna Central know that Governor Uba Sani is unnecessarily jealous of Senator LA’s unprecedented achievements within less than two years in the Senate; hence the Governor’s hysteria and sponsored media attacks on the more popular and well-loved Senator.

Governor Uba Sani, for all we know, is a disaster foisted on Kaduna State. He has no moral right and even the record to accuse someone assiduously working and delivering the dividends of democracy to better the lives of the good people of Kaduna Central, of non-performance, while the Governor himself is known to be carousing in hotels in Abuja with women of easy virtues. Between a working lawmaker and a non-performing and failing Governor, we the people of Kaduna know who is better and desirable.

Kaduna has been unfortunate to be saddled with a non-performer as Governor Uba Sani. We challenge Governor Sani to flaunt his records of achievements while he represented us in the Senate, if he has any he can be proud and boast of. He’s an unmitigated failure and disaster, even as the incumbent Governor of Kaduna State. This is a Governor who has not deemed it fit to call a State Executive Council meeting since his inauguration in 2023. Ours is a Governor who hardly stays in his office in Kaduna for two full days before running to Abuja. This is a Governor who has the penchant for signing State contracts in his Abuja hotel rooms while carousing with his numerous girlfriends. This is a Governor whose commissioners are forced to carry every file to in his Abuja hotel rooms to get approval for the smallest thing. If anyone is looking for the most incompetent Governor in Nigeria, Governor Uba Sani perfectly fits the bill. It’s a great pity Kaduna State is entrusted in the hands of such a misfit as governor.

Anyway, now the people of Kaduna State know better and we’re sure they will guide against making the same mistake they made in the 2023 governorship election in 2027.

Why have those who made Uba Sani governor in 2023 quickly turned against him? Why has Kaduna State refused to move forward since he became governor? Why has the ruling APC been in turmoil since Uba Sani became governor? Governor Uba Sani has a lot of questions to answer rather than hiding under some faceless groups to cover up his non-performance and lack of achievements in office.

The earlier Governor Uba Sani realised the follies in the path of dishonour he chosen with his unleashing of his attack dogs on our performing Senator LA, the better it will be for him to retrace his steps, refocus on the good governance of the State and find his rhythm to deliver.

We want to say here that Governor Uba Sani has woefully failed in his attempt to denigrate the commendable achievements of Senator LA.

Governor Uba Sani should, therefore, help himself by striving to get over the hysteria that has gripped him now. But should he refuse to take this wise counsel and advice, well we wish him what he wishes himself in his needless media war against a lawmaker dutifully doing what the good people of Kaduna Central Senatorial District have elected him to do.

Signed:

Mallam Mohammed Kaulawa-Chikun

President, Kaduna Central Integrity Group (KCIG)

Dr Yohanna Matthew Ibrahim

Secretary General, KCIG