By Bashir Bello
AS Governor Aminu Bello Masari takes his oath of office for his second term today, security, education and healthcare are top priorities of residents of the state.
He is also expected to boost agriculture, improve internally-generated revenue, provide healthcare and ensure good governance.
Insecurity is a major issue particularly in the nine frontline local government areas sharing borders with Zamfara and Rugu forest with high cases of armed banditry, kidnapping and killings in the state. Although the governor has approved death sentence for armed banditry and cattle rustling, without adequate security, the government’s efforts will not be felt as people are currently living in palpable fear of kidnappers in almost all the local government areas of the state.
Katsina State is blessed with many retired security personnel cutting across the military, police and other security services. The government is expected to seek and tap their expertise to fix the security situation in the state.
He is expected to provide conducive atmosphere for learning, de-congest classrooms and provide infrastructure such as chairs to ensure the students don’t sit on bare floor. Another thing is engaging qualified teachers because without qualified teachers, whatever investment the government makes in the education sector will come to naught because we will not see the impact on the pupils.
Also, there is need for better healthcare services. Provision of at least one functional Primary Healthcare Centre in a ward with manpower to make health care more accessible and available will go a long way.