Sha’aban vows to prioritize pension claims, if elected

The Action Democratic Party Governorship Candidate in Kano State, Sha’aban Ibrahim Sharada has vowed to give top priority to the issue of pensioners if elected as governor in the forthcoming election in March.

Sha’aban, made the vow on Saturday during a two-hour debate organised for five governorship candidates in the state by the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) at the Aliko Dangote Business School, Bayero University, Kano (BUK).

The lawmaker who wants to become a governor expressed displeasure over the treatment of the senior citizens, noting that pensioners fund that is used to pay their gratuities will not be diverted or mismanaged.

SOLACEBASE recalls that over 32,600 pensioners are owed N30.9bn arrears of gratuities.

The accumulated unpaid pension arrears are said to be an accumulation of the administrations of Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, and Rabiu Kwankwaso, which was inherited by Abdullahi Ganduje.

Sharada, who is presently, the Chairman, House Committee on National Security and Intelligence and member, House of representatives representing, Kano Municipal, said if elected, adequate attention would be given to pensioners to ensure that they need not to wait endlessly to access their fund which is now a norm in the state.

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He said in addressing security challenges, bedeviling the country which Kano is not an exception, his administration would establish Kano Identification Management Agency, that would be saddled with the responsibility of collating data of residents for proper monitoring and usage for security purposes among others.

The governorship candidate of the ADP, noted that a state of emergency would be declared in the education sector immediately, he comes to power as the state governor so as to take a holistic measure on the sector.

‘’Part of the measure we would adopt to improve the educational sector is to assessment and evaluation of the sector, improve quality of teachers and change of cadre for some of them that are not suppose to be a teacher, but they would not be sacked,‘’ Sha’aban said.

Also, the candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, Abba Kabir Yusuf, who could not wait till end of the program because of other engagement said, the fight against corruption will be utmost in his administration so as to have more funding for development.

Abba Kabir Yusuf, popularly called Abba Gida Gida, said free and compulsory education would be adopted to address out of school children numbers.

‘’We did free education and gave out scholarship for tertiary education to thousands of Kano indigenes during the administration of Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and it was a success. We intend to still replicate it,’’ Abba Gida Gida added.

The other participating governorship candidates, Mohammed Abacha of the PDP, Nasiru Gawuna of the APC and Salihu Tanko Yakasai of the PRP, all pledged to transform both the education and health sectors, if elected on March 11,2023.