AYO ESAN, Abuja
The President and Permanent Representative of Centre for Convention on Democratic Integrity to the United Nations, Olufemi Aduwo, has applauded Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el – Rufai’s allocations to the social sector in the state’s 2020 budget.
Aduwo, who is currently attending the World Bank/IMF Boards of Governors Meetings in Washington DC, United States, was full of praises for Governor el-Rufai for such “bold vision, sacrifice, resilience and toughness” in taking such pro – active and people- oriented initiative, saying his action was unprecedented.
He said it was only during the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s period as Premier of Western Region that education received the largest share of government’s budget.
“Free education up to senior secondary level was previously enjoyed only by female students in Kaduna State, while boys had theirs guaranteed only up to junior secondary level. From 2020 however, every child in Kaduna State is required to have 12 years of free, compulsory primary and secondary education. The total budgetary allocation for Education is N64.64 billion (25.07%); Health N39.61bn (15.36%) and Infrastructure N66.34bn (25.72%).
“We call on the World Bank and other development partners, which l know have incentives assistance for education and health provision, to extended hands of cooperation to Kaduna State in achieving this laudable project. Some few states in the past had benefited from such generous assistance.
“Education in every sense is one of the fundamental factors of development. Infact, the second side of democracy is development and for the country to achieve sustainable economy, it requires substantial education.”
He said el – Rufai had proved pundits wrong that governors were self-centred and lacked capacity to initiate people-focused programme.
Aduwo, therefore, called on other state governors to give priority to social sector in their states’ 2020 budget.