How El-rufai Stopped N2.1 Billion Spent on Juice, Sweets Annually – Planning Commissioner
By ALEX UANGBAOJE, Kaduna
Kaduna State Government has revealed that before coming on board over 2.1 billion naira was been spent on juice and sweet annually.
The revelation was made by the state Commissioner of Budget and Planning, Muhammed Sani Abdullahi at a Roundtable Discussion on the Kaduna State draft budget with newsmen and stakeholders, organised by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Kaduna Council on Saturday, adding that government was not only appalled but had to stop the expenditure immediately to redirect funds for developmental projects.
He also said, N500million was used for purchase of newspapers and that N40 million was spent to feed staff and visitors to Sir Kashim Ibrahim house, the seat of power in 2014 alone.
He said the budget is the most important object that any government will put out. Because you can use the budget to hold government accountable for its promise during the campaign, revealing that projects, like streetlights and road projects carried out are as a result of the supplementary budget that was sent to the state House of Assembly on assumption of office.
Also speaking, Commissioner for Education Professor Andrew Nok said there is going to be a retraining of teachers because of certain experiences witnessed in some schools.
According to him, he met a teacher who has NCE in Geography but cannot spell geography. He explained that putting one’s children in the hands of such a teacher is like putting them in the hands of terrorist.
“We’re not going to send such teachers away, but to send them for retraining but where they cannot cope we will send them to other area where they will be useful to the government,” he said.
In his own response, Commissioner for Works, Alhaji Hassan Usman said all roads awarded by the previous administration were not designed, a situation which slowed down construction works. He further said that contracts for 30 intercity roads have been awarded and works on some of them are already in advance stages.
In his opening remarks, Senior special Adviser on media and communication to Governor Nasir El-Rufai, Muyiwa Adekeye said, the Roundtable is an opportunity to inform our people about what government is doing and for them to proffer development ideas that our people really needs.
He said the engagement “offers us opportunity for accurate reportage of the process of Budget and other development agenda.”
Muyiwa harps on the need for purveyors of news items to verify any issue they are not clear about before dissemination to the public.
He thanked the Commissioners for their effort and urge all to come together in the quest to Make Kaduna State great again.
Comrade Yusuf Idris, vice president North-West zone of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Charge newsmen on the need to bridge the gap between the people and government.
He said it is very imperative to make objective analysis of government policies and projects, adding that government and journalists meeting to chat the way forward is a noble gesture.
“This is the beginning of good things to come from government and journalists for the people towards making Kaduna State great again.”
