By Prof Ibrahim Bello-Kano
On May 29, 20025, Abba Yusuf would mark two years as the elected Governor of Kano State.
After an eventful judicial turn and twists, and eventually victory at the Supreme Court, Governor Abba Yusuf has rapidly, and with swift agility, consolidated his position as the Governor of Kano State on the platform of the NNPP, the party led by Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
Clearly, Yusuf is closely following in the footsteps of Senator Kwankwaso, himself a remarkably high-achieving Governor of Kano State between 1999 and 2003 and then again in 2011 and 2015.
However, Yusuf is proving to be a remarkable phenomenon in his role and performance as the governor of Kano State.
One always sees him, in an impressively charismatic manner, strolling, driving, trekking, and walking to or from project sites. Abba Yusuf is, without a doubt, a Governor on an urgent mission: transforming the fortunes of Kano State, now and in the future.
The great German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famously says power makes the stupid. He is right in many ways and contexts, but in the case of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf.
He is a man in power, wielding power but using it to uplift his people, and he has the highest sense of responsibility in Kano State’s recent history.
Here is a man, a leader, and a Governor whose political and personal mission is to excel in his elected role, lead the way by example, and win the trust of the people of Kano State through public propriety, public performance, the advancement of the will of the people, and building up his political party, the NNPP.
First, the man has boundless physical energy: he is always up and running, supervising projects, holding long meetings, or devising new ways of executing his mandate.
He also has abundant emotional and intellectual energy: he never tires of explaining his programmes to the populace, soliciting advice from all and sundry, and showing, in equal measure, his boundless passion for the development of Kano State.
Second, his achievements in office within just two years is astounding: his declaration of a state of emergency in Education, which is now seeing a massive improvement in school and teaching infrastructure, the provision of new and better uniforms for pupils and students alike, and much improved teaching and learning outcomes, recruitment of qualified teachers, and a much better sanitary environment around the schools. Consider the massive, gigantic, and universal street lighting across the state.
Now, many urban and rural towns, villages, and cities look so lighted up at night that a pilot, who hadn’t flown into Kano before 2023, would have trouble recognising the once dark and dim town of Kano.
Gov Yusuf is building new roads, repaving and re-asphalting old yet viable ones, and providing new infrastructure to the state’s growing tertiary education sector.
He has massively improved the salaries of the tertiary education staff, both teaching and non-teaching, paid off their earned academic allowances in a timely manner, and inaugurated the governing councils of the two state-owned universities and the lone Polytechnic.
Third, Gov Yusuf has set a new standard of public accountability: He is prudent with public funds and has established the Treasury Single Account for the first time in Kano since the tenure of the former Governor Kwankwaso. This is all in an effort to safeguard public funds and instil fiscal responsibility in the running of the state government at all levels.
Fourth, Gov Yusuf has, within just a few months, transformed the state’s health care system and health-related provisioning systems, recruited new doctors, and expanded the state’s foremost hospital and zone hospitals. The zone hospitals have been appropriately and physically developed, new infrastructure has been built, vital and needed medicines have been provided, and maternal health care has seen a revolution. There have been other innovative strategies, too numerous to mention.
With Gov Yusuf, the old public criticism of the failings of the public health sector has now ceased.
Fifth, Gov Abba Yusuf’s outstanding achievements within two years are just too long to enumerate precisely. From education and road building to urban planning strategies, and public accountability, Gov Yusuf walks the earth like a colossus, ever eager, willing, and committed to the advancement of his state and the rooting of his party, the NNPP, as the party of government and responsible politics.
Sixth, since May 2023, the month Abba Yusuf became the governor of Kano State, public sector wages have been not only raised twice but also promptly and regularly paid some five days before the month’s end.
This has raised the workforce’s morale and commitment to efficient work and professional conduct. Once again, Staff training courses are germane in the Kano State civil service and other sectors.
Seventh, Gov Yusuf’s exemplary conduct in office is simply epochal. He doesn’t give in to innuendo, speaks with stately decorum, conducts himself according to the ethics of his religion, and has never resorted to vindictive measures, physical or verbal.
In all his actions, he is restrained, culturally sensitive, humane, and empathetic while dealing with people. His remarkable patience with provocations over the ongoing emirship collusion is simply noteworthy.
His generosity of spirit, stoic patience, and indefatigable vision stand out against the grey politicians on the other side.
Gov Yusuf’s native intelligence and deeply thought-out instincts on this issue have made him realise that the oppositional, conspiratorial, and scheming elements in the state desperately want him to make a mistake, a mistake that would give them the opportunity to subvert the state government.
Fortunately and graciously, the good and politically savvy people of Kano State have made a wise choice by voting for the NNPP candidates, particularly.
Gov Yusuf’s exemplary record in office, in just two years, one can confidently say that the best is yet to come for Kano State.
The following two years would be interesting, and we hope that he gets four more years in office, if only for him and his party to consolidate his epoch-making, momentous, and outstanding achievements.
*Prof Ibrahim Bello-Kano is of Bayero University, Kano
