Kwankwaso’s Footprints On Human Capital Development

By Abdulmalik Suleiman

A sage once said, “A nation is as developed as the quality of people within its bounds.”
This holds true to the abiding philosophy of Engineer Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso who has been divinely placed by God and providence to lead his people in Kano and by extension, Nigerians whom he is aspiring to lead come 2023.

Himself a beneficiary government’s goodwill in the past, Kwakwanso who today is a qualified water engineer of many years standing believed that any serious government must and should always invest in the development of the people under its care and watch.

As the Governor of the commercial state of Kano, Kwankwaso on December 24, 2013 at the budget presentation to the state House of Assembly announced plans to begin free education programme at all levels in the state.
The news was surprising to residents of the particularly indigent yet brilliant students who the gesture was designed to cater for. The policy now gave them the opportunity to get sponsorships to pursue various degree programmes locally and internationally.

The former governor went further to set up 23 skills acquisition and training institutes across the state.

He did that alongside the establishment of North West University.
It is also to his credit that schools for Islamic studies were set up in all the 44 local government areas making up the state just as 44 technical schools were established at the same time alongside procurement of 15 mobile computing solar powered container boxes and the establishment of another boarding primary school in the state.

These were achieved through sustained improvements in the budgetary allocation to the education sector during his tenure as the governor of the state. This is besides 400 houses he built for teaching staff across the state and to make learning more conducive to students he provided no fewer than188,933 pieces of furniture to 656 schools and 11,020 teachers.

In a bid to address manpower challenges, his administration launched an aggressive programmes of sponsoring brilliant students to pursue various undergraduate and post graduate programmes at home and abroad.
A more elaborate government’s commitment in this regard includes sponsorship of 1,664 students for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees abroad and in private universities in Nigeria expending well over N4.5 billion.

It is now gladdening to hear that some of the postgraduate students have already secured employment with reputable organizations abroad, his administration’s free school pupil feeding and provision of two free sets of uniform engendered tripling of the state’s school enrolment figures.

By the time of leaving office, totaling 2,497,608 pupils.
Kwakwanso established the first model bi-lingual college with 201 students at inception in addition to establishing an e-learning centre at the Governor’s College.

Apart from constructing about 2,000 classrooms and 1000 offices, the government 150 schools were fenced. This is besides the construction of five new mega secondary schools that include Governor’s College, Dangwani, Dan Hajja, Jambaki and First Lady College.

To guarantee steady production of qualified teaching personnel for schools in the state, he set up a College of Education (Technical) in Minijibir. The school has been feeding the state’s 44 technical colleges with the needed manpower.

It is indeed a thing of pride to know that his administration also constructed and equipped 300 computer rooms in 300 schools, 300 modern libraries and 300 state-of-the-art laboratories of physics, chemistry and biology in 100 schools.
During his time, a V SAT facility was installed in all tertiary institutions and 25 secondary schools across the state.

A new vista of hope and opportunity awaits Nigerians in the presidency of Kwankwaso if the people cast their lots with him as their leader next year.