In Jigawa, Badaru showed some sparkles but poverty is still endemic

When Governor Muhammad Badaru took office in 2015, he said he was horrified by the details of the huge debts and uncompleted capital projects that his administration was inheritting.

“The first day I went through the handover note submitted to me by the then People Democratic Party (PDP) administration, I felt like running away because of the gravity of problems contained in the document,” he said.

However, he said he overcame the challenges and put the state back on the path to recovery.

“Before my swearing-in, the opposition PDP dug a hole for the incoming administration to fall. They left only N16 million in the treasury thinking that we can’t even pay salary. However, with prudence and God willing, Jigawa is among the states paying workers’ salaries unfailingly on the 25th of every month and now paying leave grants,” Mr Badaru said while appraising his performance on May 2018, three years after becoming governor.

In 2015, he promised that his administration would pay particular attention to “security of lives and property, education and human capital development, water and sanitation and primary healthcare, youth employment, women empowerment, and poverty alleviation through agriculture and agro-allied processing.”

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In this report, PREMIUM TIMES examines key socio-economic and health indicators to check if Mr Badaru achieved the goals he set out to achieve when he was sworn in eight years ago.

Inherited financial burden

As of 29 May 2015, the volume of financial liabilities and contractual commitments on ongoing and new capital projects amounted to over N110 billion – which at that time, was more than the annual budget of the Jigawa state government. That was compounded with the inherited financial liquidation position of the state government which was about N16 million when the new administration took over, a financial record obtained by PREMIUM TIMES revealed.

The inherited liabilities and contractual commitments from 2015 include Capital Expenditure Liabilities (unpaid capital payment voucher with the treasury) – N13.64 billion. Contractual commitments on ongoing projects at various stages of completion were N91.6 billion – breaking down – projects yet to commence N10.6 billion; projects between 1 per cent to 30 per cent progress amounted to N52.2 billion; projects between 31 per cent to 50 per cent of progress was N3.9 billion; projects above 50 per cent progress amounted to N24.9 billion.

Carried-forward liabilities from the previous administration -1997 to 2007 – were N1.57 billion. Out of the inherited debts, N65 billion was for contractual commitments in respect of infrastructure projects primarily for road construction.

The state’s governor-elect, Umar Namadi, who was the state’s commissioner for finance from 2015 to 2019 as well as the incumbent deputy governor, said under Mr Badaru, the state settled all the construction liabilities and completed projects inherited from the previous administration and commissioned them before the 2019 election.

“Going by the record when we took over from the opposition government, we inherited projects worth over N90 billion. We are proud to say those projects have been completed and commissioned, Mr Namadi told reporters after he received reports from various sub-committees of the transition committee in his office on 9th May.

Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)

When Mr Badaru assumed duty, the internally generated revenue (IGR) of Jigawa State was rated among the poorest in the country. The state generated just over N5 billion in 2015, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In Mr Badaru’s first year as governor, the state’s financial woes worsened. Its IGR plunged in 2016 to N3.5 billion from N5 billion in 2015 and N6.2 billion in 2014. However, in 2017 it rose to N6.6 billion. In 2018 the IGR was over N9.2 billion and in 2019 it rose to N12.9 billion. In 2020 amid the global health challenge, (COVID-19) the IGR reduces to N8.6 billion.

Jigawa was ranked 23rd in the federation in BudgiT’s 2022 fiscal performance index, having climbed two places from its previous ranking of 25th position.

“Jigawa has performed satisfactorily on its total revenue growth, the state was able to move from N112.72 billion in 2020 to N124.27 billion in 2021. Comparing IGR to total revenue for 2021, it was observed that the state is at 33.80%; which is just above one-third of the state’s total revenue and the fifth in the federation.

“The IGR grew by 33.34 billion between 2020 (8.67 billion) and 2021 (N42.01 billion): an increase of 384.98 per cent. Among the states of the federation, Jigawa had the seventh highest IGR and the second highest revenue among the seven states in the Northwest.

“Looking at the total expenditure, Jigawa moved from N112.12 billion in 2020 to N132.96 billion in 2021: a growth of 18.58 per cent and the 24th in the federation. Of these total expenditures, N59.19 billion was spent on capital expenditure, a move up from N41.92 billion in 2020.

“In terms of Jigawa’s debt position, the state has a total debt of N43.52 billion and debt service of N4.9 billion. This total debt places the state as the least indebted state in the federation as of 2021. Jigawa’s total domestic debt is N31.36 billion while its foreign total debts are $29.46 million,” BudgiT reported.

Ease of Doing Business Ranking

Jigawa was ranked third on the subnational ranking in the ease of doing business report in 2021. In the 2023 ranking published in April, Jigawa rose a step to second position with a score of 6.88 as against the 2021 score of 6.79.

The 2023 ranking report addresses the ease of doing business across six indicators and 16 sub-indicators. The six indicators include infrastructure, transparency and accessibility of information, skills and labour, secure and stable environment, regulatory environment and economic opportunity.

Jigawa State Investment and Promotion Agency (IvestJigawa) said between 2015 and to date, it attracted 22 multi-million dollar investments in the state, which include GCC Vanguard Limited, granite companies, Vinylon Footwears, Dangote Rice Mills and Jigawa Rice Mills among others investments.

Water and Sanitation

Jigawa witnessed an increase in access to safe water from the level of about 83 per cent in 2016 to 92 per cent in 2021, according to data from the National Outcome Routine Mapping of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Level in Nigeria (WASH NORM) 2021.

According to the data, Jigawa is first in Northern Nigeria and second in the country in terms of access to water supply.

Meanwhile, under Mr Badaru’s administration, the 27 local government areas of the state attained open defecation-free ranking – first in the country as validated by the National Task Group on Sanitation (NTDS).

A transition committee report seen by PREMIUM TIMES said the state achieved its feat in access to safe water and good hygiene and sanitation after Mr Badaru rigorously addresses the problems of water immediately after he assumed office in 2015

“We increased the volume of potable water produced from 144.01 million litres in 2015 to 293.5 million litres in 2021. In 2015 Jigawa water board had two water treatment plants, the state now has three.”

The Small Town Water Supply Agency (STOWA) in 2015 had only 300 water supply schemes but the number increases to 1,037, out of which 707 are solar powered while 330 are motorised, according to the annual sector performance report seen by this newspaper.

Rural water supply has 13,000 hand pumps in 2015 and now has 28,508 in 2023, the report added.

Healthcare

Before Mr Badaru assumed office, the under-five mortality rate was 192 per 1000 live births in Jigawa, but it reduces to 174. Neonatal mortality rate was 82 deaths per 1000 live births in 2015 which has reduced to 53; and the infant mortality rate was 99 deaths per 1000 live births in 2015, but there was a slim reduction in 2023 to 95 deaths, according to MICS in 2021.

Also, the percentage reduction of malaria prevalence among children under five in 2015 was 24.1, in 2023 it increased to 33.8 per cent, stunting rate was 63.4 in 2015, but has reduced to 60 per cent in 2023, according to the National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) 2018.

On maternal health, the percentage of women who delivered at health facilities rose from 6.8 per cent in 2015 to 18.2 per cent in 2023 and delivery assisted by a skilled attendant in 2015 was 14.8 per cent but in 2023 it grew to 22.2 per cent, according to the MICS survey last updated in 2021.

The total fertility rate of Jigawa dropped to about 7.6 in 2023 from about 8.6 in 2015, and the modern contraceptive prevalence rate was above one per cent in 2015 but reached 3.5 per cent in 2023, according to the MICS survey 2021. This means that the availability of a wide range of family planning commodities all the years are accessible in the health facilities and girls finished at least secondary school before getting married under the Badaru administration.

Jigawa emerged as the North-west champion in the Primary Health Care Leadership Challenge Fund (PHC-LCF) 2023. The challenge co-sponsored by the Dangote Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Nigeria Governor’s Forum and UNICEF aims to address leadership gaps in developing the country’s primary healthcare system and improving the delivery of essential health services.

The PHC-LCF also seeks to support the implementation of the Seattle Declaration and commitments through healthy competition, peer review, and cross-learning among states.

The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health, Salisu Mu’azu, said Jigawa has reached the target of one functional primary health care per political ward. He said in 2015 the state had 154 health posts but reached 201 after building an additional 45.

“Primary healthcare centres were 71 in 2015 now 280, secondary healthcare facilities were 12 in 2015 now 30, there was one tertiary healthcare facility in 2015, now in 2023 it reached four. Health training institutions in 2015 were two it reached four in 2023, there was no family health centre and infectious disease hospital before 2015 now we have them,” Mr Mu’azu said.

Poverty rate

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its multidimensional poverty report 2022 placed Jigawa as the third poorest state in Nigeria. Nationally, the report put Nigeria’s poverty index at 0.257, with about 133 million people being multi-dimensionally poor.

Jigawa continues to remain among Nigeria’s poorest states over the years, though after Mr Badaru assumed office in 2015 the state witnessed little improvement in its poverty headcount ratio of 84.3 per cent, making it the third poorest state in the country from the initial second position.

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Factors such as healthcare, food insecurity, education, nutrition, and access to cooking fuel contributed the most to the national poverty index. According to the NBS, over half of the Nigerian population are multi-dimensional poor deprived of cooking fuel.

Earlier, Mr Badaru, while responding to the poverty report index, said the investment his administration has made in the agricultural sector, and its empowerment in the last eight years, will address poverty in the state in the future.