FORMER Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs in Kano State, Muhammad Garba, has sharply criticised the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) led government over what he described as an “embarrassingly poor and unacceptable” execution of the 2025 budget, accusing the administration of prioritising propaganda over governance.
News Point Nigeria reports that Garba, who serves as Chief of Staff to the former APC National Chairman, was reacting on Tuesday to a budget performance review published by Solacebase, which revealed extremely low capital spending across critical ministries between January and September 2025.
According to the report, the Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Higher Education, and Ministry of Health all recorded less than 40 percent capital budget performance across the first three quarters of the year despite public declarations by Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf’s administration about states of emergency in the affected sectors.
The Ministry of Water Resources, which received N21.1 billion for capital projects, spent only N2.7 billion, amounting to a 13 percent performance.
More worrisome, Garba noted, was the revelation that the Kano State Water Board, allocated N5.6 billion, did not spend a single naira within the nine-month period.
He described the figures as “a shocking dereliction of duty” in a state grappling with chronic water shortages across several local government areas.
“It is tragic that a government which declared a state of emergency on water supply has failed to invest even one percent of the Water Board’s allocation,” he said.
Garba argued that the present administration abandoned major water-related infrastructure completed under the previous government, including the Tiga Hydropower Project, designed to power water pumping facilities and street lighting.
He added that after discarding the independent power project (IPP) model, the NNPP government continues to pay millions monthly to KEDCO for electricity, “possibly because such arrangements come with personal benefits for some actors.”
Garba also criticised what he called the “monumental failure” of the administration’s education agenda.
Despite allocating the largest share of the budget to the sector and declaring a state of emergency on education, the Ministry of Education achieved only 32.2 percent capital performance, while the Ministry of Higher Education managed a mere 7.7 percent.
He argued that the government’s focus on sponsoring selected students abroad “appears more like political patronage than a genuine attempt to strengthen the entire education system,” insisting that local schools remain overcrowded, underfunded, and poorly equipped.
Garba particularly lamented the abandonment of completed facilities, including the Mega Secondary School along Court Road, which he said could have eased pressure on existing public schools.
The former commissioner also expressed alarm over the findings in the health sector.
Out of the N65.7 billion approved as capital budget for health, only N7.9 billion representing 12 percent was spent by September 2025.
He described the underinvestment as reckless and dangerous in a state battling recurrent cholera outbreaks and grappling with high infant and maternal mortality rates.
“Failure to fund primary healthcare and water infrastructure is costing lives,” he warned.
Garba accused the NNPP administration of executing low-quality road projects, claiming that many “surface scraping and overlay” works were hurriedly carried out without proper planning or traffic management.
He said the projects have caused unnecessary gridlock due to poorly planned diversions, insisting that such efforts do not reflect a government serious about infrastructure delivery.
The former commissioner said the poor budget performance raises serious doubts about the administration’s ability to manage the newly proposed N1 trillion budget for 2025.
“When a government cannot implement even half of its approved budget, proposing a trillion-naira budget becomes nothing more than a political performance,” he said.
“Kano deserves better than governance driven by slogans without substance.”
Garba urged the state government to prioritise transparency, fiscal discipline, and responsible project execution as the fiscal year draws to a close.
He warned that residents cannot continue paying the price for what he described as administrative negligence and misplaced priorities.