Gov. Radda’s Community Development Model

By Dr. Ibrahim Sani Kaita

Following the success recorded after the establishment of the Community Watch Corps for the protection of lives and livelihoods in Katsina State, Governor Dikko Umar Radda’s administration is now set to launch a community development initiative designed to tackle three core developmental areas – infrastructure, social care, and learning when a Bill for the Community Development Programme is finally presented and passed into law.
The governor had never been in doubt right from the day he took over as the executive governor of the north-western state that community development would remain a cornerstone of his administration’s belief in making a better future for the good people of Katsina State by building their communities. It is an initiative that must be supported by all for the success of the state.
Under the arrangement, community development centers will be established in all 361 wards across the state to ensure all the people have access to the benefits of the initiative. If well entrenched, the community centers will become a beacon of socio-economic development and the primary driver of budget implementation in Katsina State.
In preparation for the successful launch of the program, three community development zonal hearings for Funtua, Daura, and Katsina Zones were held in September 2024. This is besides the two-day training workshop organized for local government staff who would eventually participate in ward/local government community development committees. Governor Radda explained while declaring open the workshop that the training was in preparation for the inauguration of community development committees at ward, local, and state levels.
Ably represented by the supervising commissioner of the Ministry for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Bishir Tanimu, the governor also pointed out that the community development committees were meant to introduce a community-driven approach in the development and implementation of strategic policies for the local government areas and the state as a whole. This is in addition to being an “opportunity to utilize the structure to involve the communities in identifying their needs for the intervention of the three tiers of government.”
The beauty of the initiative is that the community approach is designed to be non-partisan, as all members of the communities, irrespective of party affiliation, will participate in the process.
The community approach, as designed in the model, will allow the government to assess the aggregate needs of communities in the state and budget for mega projects to meet those needs.
Interestingly, too, the community approach will allow people to be fully included in governance by providing specific needs that will form part of the annual budgets of the state and local government, and it will ensure fairness, transparency, and effectiveness in the distribution of resources across the state.
Other benefits of the community development model include that the communities will provide valuable data directly to the government through the community centers, which will help design interventions that can work for them. Additionally, it will allow the government to respond quickly to problems it would otherwise not be aware of in the communities.
For his unwavering commitment to the success of the initiative, Governor Dikko Umar Radda will himself lead the community development effort as chair of the Programme Steering Committee, which will comprise various commissioners, key stakeholders, and the program coordinators. The primary function of the Programme Steering Committee is to provide overall guidance on implementing the community development program (CDP) and ensure that it meets its objectives.
Also, the state’s Deputy Governor will chair the CDP’s Joint Planning Committee with some local government chairmen from each senatorial zone as members.
The committee will coordinate state and local government efforts to implement the program. It will also work to include all community projects in the budget of each local government as designed by the community development office.
More importantly, each community will have a community-level committee responsible for overseeing the activities of the community centers, as the program will comprise program officers and community members to ensure transparency and effectiveness.
The program is expected to promote community engagement by arranging town hall discussions and voting on community programs, in addition to working with the traditional head to validate projects before they are forwarded to the Programme Steering Committee for implementation.
The community centers, which will be established in all 34 local government areas of the state, will have three offices to deal with specific interventions. These offices are the community development office, community support office, and community learning office.
While the community development office will deal with infrastructural and economic development, the community support office will deal with social care for the vulnerable, victims and banditry, women, children, disabled persons, and others in need of social support from the government.
The community learning office will promote education and all forms of learning, including moral orientation in the communities.
Equally, the community centers are expected to have two primary functions – project selection and monitoring. Project selection will be through a standardized template that allows communities to list and prioritize all the projects they want to complete for the coming year. Interestingly, the types of projects will include the construction and rehabilitation of roads, hospitals, schools, and WASH facilities.

Dr. Kaita is the Deputy Registrar and Secretary at the Institute of Education, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

They will also include the distribution of farming inputs, including fertilizers, economic empowerment tools such as motorcycles, sewing machines, and processing facilities, and funding will be provided for development.
Furthermore, the community centers will provide cash support and access to medical care, mental health services, food, and other social service, as well as provide communities with learning materials, vocational education, literacy programs, moral classes, and other initiatives.

In a nutshell, Governor Dikko Umar Radda’s community development model is all-embracing, which, in all honesty, needs the support of all for its success in the state and beyond. Like the Community Watch Corps, a security approach that was lauded all over the country, it is the belief of everyone that the community development model will certainly achieve the purpose for which it was initiated.

Dr. Kaita is the Deputy Registrar and Secretary at the Institute of Education, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.