I write this as a concerned citizen of Kano who genuinely wants your administration and our state to succeed.
First, I must acknowledge the progress your administration has made. The visible investment in road construction, rehabilitation and urban infrastructure across Kano deserves recognition. Your government has also intervened in education, healthcare, agriculture, and other sectors. These efforts should be sustained regardless of political differences.
However, Your Excellency, I believe Kano can do even more.
The recently concluded mass wedding involving 1,500 couples, reportedly gulping the state more than ₦1.5 billion, has made me reflect on our priorities.
I am a Muslim, and I respect marriage and the Sunnah of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (SAW). I therefore do not oppose helping genuinely vulnerable people to marry.
My concern is sustainability and priority.
Marriage does not end at the wedding. After the ceremony come food, rent, healthcare, children’s education and other responsibilities. If someone lacks the economic capacity to establish a household, helping him marry does not necessarily solve the problem that made marriage difficult.
We should not only help people get married; we should help them build families that can stand on their own.
This is why I respectfully urge your administration to place greater emphasis on the following:
Education: Kano’s children are our greatest investment. We need stronger public schools, better teacher development, learning materials, technical education, girls’ education and serious programmes to return out-of-school children to classrooms. Questions have already been raised about the relatively small allocation to some out-of-school-girl programmes compared with the mass-wedding expenditure.
Youth employment and skills: Our young people need sustainable opportunities, not only temporary grants. Vocational training, agriculture, ICT, manufacturing, apprenticeships, and affordable business financing can help young people earn and eventually support their own families.
Healthcare and water: Functional primary healthcare, maternal care, essential medicines, clean water and sanitation must reach ordinary citizens, particularly in rural communities.
Agriculture: Kano has enormous agricultural potential. The government should strengthen irrigation, storage, processing and market access so that farming becomes a profitable industry and a source of employment.
There is also the important issue of monitoring government assistance.
I recently saw a large number of mattresses being distributed under the mass-wedding programme, which raised questions for me about what happens to them after distribution. I cannot confirm whether what I observed involved legitimate transfer, resale or something else, and I do not wish to accuse anyone without evidence.
But it highlights an important question:
What mechanism monitors government assistance after it reaches beneficiaries?
I respectfully suggest post-distribution verification, proper documentation and follow-up assessments. The government should know who received assistance, whether they received the full allocation, and whether the intervention actually improved their lives.
Public money deserves public accountability.
Your Excellency, you have shown that your government can build roads.
Please build people too.
You have shown that government can support marriages.
Please build the economic foundation upon which those marriages can stand.
Let us measure Kano’s progress not only by kilometres of roads constructed, but by how many children are in school, how many young people have sustainable jobs, how many families escape poverty, and how many empowerment beneficiaries remain economically active years later.
I do not want a Kano where people continually wait for government assistance.
I want a prosperous Kano where the government creates the opportunities that allow people to become self-reliant.
That is the Kano many of us want.
Umar Abdullahi Huguma writes from Kano State and can be reached at umarhuguma2023@gmail.com.