ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL:
By: Ibrahim Kaula Mohammed
“A man is not judged by the loudness of his entry, but by what he leaves behind when he walks out of the room,”—so I borrowed a leave from an ancient wisdom. Then, when Malam Dikko Umaru Radda, walked into the popular Muhammadu Buhari House, Katsina, on May 29, 2023, he came with a simple but weighty promise — to build the future of Katsina's people. To build a Katsina where every sons and daughters of the state can be proud of. Three years later, the room Dikko Radda has been working in tells its own story. Delivering where it matters means doing the difficult thing in the right place, for the right people, at the right time. By that measure, Dikko Radda has been delivering.
Security: the First Foundation
No building stands without a foundation, and no development agenda survives in the middle of gunfire. Governor Radda took this lesson from day one. Katsina, for years, had been a theatre of sorrow. Bandits terrorising communities, farmers abandoning their lands, families sleeping with one eye open or no sleep at all. It was a State that needed healing before it could be built.
The administration moved on two fronts simultaneously. On one side, kinetic security operations pushed back criminal elements with force. On the other, non-kinetic approaches — community engagement, rehabilitation of willing ex-criminals, and economic inclusion — addressed the conditions that made crime attractive in the first place. The results, while not yet perfect, are undeniable. Banditry and kidnapping have de-escalated considerably. Farmers had returned to their fields. Trade is taking place in some communities already deserted. That alone created the atmosphere in which every other achievement on this list became possible.
Education:A Generation Rescued
If security is the foundation, education is the structure built upon it. And on this front, Governor Radda has not just built — he has rebuilt, expanded, and reimagined what education in Katsina looks like.
Since 2023, the administration has committed not less than N120 billion to education. A figure staggering not just in size but in what it has produced on the ground. One hundred and seventy junior secondary schools have been constructed in underserved communities where children previously had nowhere to go after primary school. Three hundred schools have been rehabilitated. One hundred and fifty primary schools have been renovated. ICT and Computer-Based Test centres have been established in both rural and urban areas — because the administration believes that a child in a remote village deserves to know what a keyboard feels like.
But the crown jewel of this educational revolution is the Model and Smart Secondary Schools, commissioned across all three senatorial zones — in Radda, Jikamshi, and Dumurkul. These are not ordinary schools. They carry robotics laboratories, artificial intelligence facilities, 24-hour electricity, and internet connectivity. They were built exclusively for brilliant children from poor and rural homes — children whose only sin was being born without privilege. The schools have drawn admiration from European Union diplomats and international education observers. They represent what happens when a government dares to dream big for its most vulnerable.
Beyond bricks and mortar, the administration has sent students abroad on government scholarships, increased student allowances, ensured prompt payment of bursary allocations, and consistently paid teachers on time — because a teacher who is worried about school fees cannot focus on teaching your child. Development partnerships with AGILE, BESDA, and TESS have reinforced the emphasis on STEM education, digital literacy, and skills development, ensuring that Katsina's children are not just educated — they are prepared.
Health: Where Lives are Literally Saved
There is nothing more personal than health. When a hospital has no equipment, it is not a statistic — it is a mother who lost a child, a man who died of a treatable condition, a family broken by something that should have been fixable. Governor Radda approached the health sector with the most humane understanding.
Primary health centres across the State have been massively rehabilitated and upgraded to General Hospital standards — closing the yawning gap between what rural communities were getting and what they deserve. At General Amadi Rimi Hospital, the Katsina State Dialysis Centre now runs around the clock, seven days a week, serving patients who previously had to make the long and expensive journey out of State for kidney dialysis. That centre is not a ribbon-cutting photo opportunity. It is a lifeline for hundreds of families.
The operating theatres of the State's flagship specialist hospitals — General Amadi Rimi Specialist Hospital (GARSH), Turai Umar Yar'Adua Maternal, and Children Hospital (TUTMCH), and General Hospital Katsina— have all been upgraded with modern equipment and improved facilities. Advanced medical equipment has been procured to enhance service delivery at every level of care.
And nearing completion is the Imaging Centre— described by health experts as the most advanced diagnostic facility in Northern Nigeria. When it opens, Katsina's people will have access to world-class medical diagnostics without leaving their State. That is what delivering where it matters looks like in the health sector.
Infrastructure: Roads, Lights and Urban Renewal
A government's commitment to its people is written on its roads. Katsina's roads, under this administration, are telling a fascinating story. The 24-kilometre Eastern Bypass has transformed movement in and around the State capital, easing traffic and opening new economic corridors. The Kofar-Soro to Kofar-Guga road and other township roads are actively serving residents, reducing the daily frustrations of commuting in a growing city.
Across the metropolis, solar street lights have been deployed massively — brightening communities, deterring crime, and restoring dignity to neighbourhoods that had learned to dread the night. Beyond the capital, Urban Renewal Plans have been activated across all three senatorial zones — channelling development to communities that governance had historically ignored. Under this administration, development is not a capital city affair. It is a statewide obligation.
Agriculture: Feeding a Nation, Training a Generation
Katsina has always fed Nigeria. What this administration has done is give that calling the respect and investment it deserves. From the outset, Governor Radda treated agriculture not as a traditional pastime but as an economic engine — and committed N2.5 billion to back that conviction.
A multi-million naira Katsina State Agriculture Mechanisation Centre was built and commissioned, empowering over 1,000 youths with mechanical and agribusiness skills that will outlast any political term. Thirty-four additional mechanisation centres were established across local government areas, ensuring that no farmer in Katsina is too far from support and modern equipment.
Through the Katsina State Sustainable Platform for Agriculture (KASPA), the administration has deployed over 400 tractors, 10 combine harvesters, and thousands of planters. In a move that was as smart as it was strategic, the machinery was not simply purchased whole and handed out. It was imported in parts and assembled locally at the Central Mechanisation Hub in Tashar Bala, Batagarawa— creating employment, building mechanical skills among local youth, and establishing an in-house repair team that ensures the investment remains functional long after the commissioning ceremony.
Dry season farming, wet season farming, farm input distribution — the administration has intervened at every point in the agricultural calendar. The Federal Government has continued to recognise Katsina as a frontline contributor to national food security. That recognition is no longer just historical. It is being earned again, season by season, under this administration.
Powering the Future with the Sun
In a country where power supply remains a chronic national headache, Katsina has chosen not to wait. The administration launched a N19.89 billion renewable energy programme delivering 20.1 megawatts peak of Solar PV capacity and 10.1 megawatt-hours of Battery Energy Storage Systems— clean, reliable power built to last.
Eleven critical public institutions — hospitals, waterworks, and universities — have been connected to this solar infrastructure, ensuring that the lights stay on where they matter most. Solar installations of 1 megawatt each have been deployed at the Danja, Ajiwa, Zobe, and Funtua dams. The State has also deployed 50 Compressed Natural Gas hybrid vehicles and established an electric vehicle charging hub with 100 charging points — a quiet but significant signal that Katsina is thinking about the energy future, not just the energy present.
Digital Governance: How Katsina Grew Its Revenue Sevenfold
Numbers do not lie — and the numbers coming out of Katsina's treasury are among the most compelling evidence of this administration's effectiveness. When Governor Radda assumed office, the State was reportedly generating N400 million monthly in internally generated revenue. Today, that figure stands at N3 billion per month. That is not inflation. That is transformation.
The engine behind this growth is the Katsina Directorate of Information and Communications Technology (KATDICT)— established in 2023. Through KATDICT, the administration has digitised 118 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, deployed digital public infrastructure across government, and implemented the Treasury Single Account— blocking the leakages through which public money historically disappeared before reaching public purposes.
The result is a government that is leaner, more transparent, and significantly more productive. When you close the holes in a bucket, the water level rises. Katsina's IGR is proof of that simple truth.
The Verdict of Independent Eyes
Governments are naturally inclined to praise themselves. Which is precisely why the most significant endorsement of the Radda administration's record did not come from Government House. It came from BudgIT— one of Nigeria's most respected independent civic organisations.
A BudgIT-backed Tracka report on project delivery across 30 Nigerian states placed Katsina first with an 85.84 per cent project completion rate in the federal capital budget cycle. Of 114 projects worth N26.79 billion reviewed, 89 were fully completed and 17 remain ongoing. Not a single project was abandoned.
First place. Out of thirty states. With no abandoned projects. In three years.
That is the kind of report card that requires no spin and needs no press secretary to explain. It speaks — clearly, completely, and on its own.
Dikko Radda and His Mission
Delivering where it matters is not a slogan. It is a choice — made every morning when a governor decides whether to spend public resources on the visible or the vital, the glamorous or the genuine, the project that photographs well or the one that saves lives.
For three years, Dikko Radda has consistently chosen the people. Not always the loudest choice. Not always the most celebrated. But always the right one — in the hospitals that now run through the night, in the schools that now reach the rural child, in the farms that now have tractors, in the streets that now have light, and in a treasury that now has money because someone finally decided to manage it with discipline and technology.
Three years on, the foundation is solid. The structure is rising. And Katsina — once bruised, now building — is beginning to look very much like its future. Indeed, Dikko Radda is delivering where it matters.
Ibrahim Kaula Mohammed is the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Katsina.
