Chief of Staff to the former APC National Chairman and former Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs in Kano State, Muhammad Garba, has strongly criticised the NNPP-led administration over what he described as an embarrassingly poor and unacceptable budget performance in the first three quarters of 2025.
Garba’s remarks came in response to a recent budget review published by SolaceBase, an online news platform which revealed that key sectors such as water resources, health, and education recorded less than 40 percent capital budget performance between January and September 2025.
According to the report, the Ministry of Water Resources, crucial given Kano’s longstanding water challenges, utilised only 13 percent of its N21.1 billion capital allocation, spending just N2.7 billion.
The Kano State Water Board, which received N5.6 billion, did not spend any portion of its budget during the same period. Garba described this as “a shocking dereliction of duty,” pointing out that residents continue to suffer severe water scarcity across many local government areas.
He criticised the government for abandoning previously completed projects, including the Tiga Hydropower Project, while continuing to pay millions of naira monthly to KEDCO for electricity—arrangements he suggested may benefit certain individuals personally rather than the public.
In the education sector, Garba said the results were equally disappointing despite the state government declaring a state of emergency and allocating a large portion of the budget to education.
The Ministry of Education achieved just 32.2 percent capital performance, while the Ministry of Higher Education recorded 7.7 percent.
He argued that the focus on sending select students abroad appeared more like political patronage than a genuine effort to strengthen the education system, leaving local schools underfunded, overcrowded, and poorly equipped.
The former commissioner also expressed concern over the health sector, noting that only N7.9 billion of the N65.7 billion capital budget was spent by September 2025.
“Failure to fund primary healthcare and water infrastructure is costing lives,” Garba said, highlighting recurring cholera outbreaks and high infant and maternal mortality rates in the state.
He further faulted the quality of road projects executed by the NNPP government, describing many works as hurried, poorly coordinated, and causing traffic disruptions.
Garba warned that the administration’s budget performance raises serious doubts about its capacity to manage the recently proposed N1 trillion 2025 budget.
“When a government cannot implement even half of its approved budget, proposing a trillion-naira budget becomes nothing more than a political performance. Kano deserves better than governance driven by slogans without substance,” he said.
He urged the state government to prioritise transparency, discipline, and responsible project execution for the remaining months of the fiscal year.
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