The Kaduna model: Why governor Uba Sani leads Nigeria’s performance rankings

By Adamu Lawal Toro

When Phillips Consulting recently rated Governor Uba Sani as the best-performing governor in Nigeria, many outside Kaduna State asked: on what basis? The answer lies not in flashy ceremonies or self-congratulatory press releases, but in a quiet, methodical reinvention of how governance actually works, particularly in infrastructure, agriculture, transport, and security. Across these four pillars, Kaduna has moved from episodic project execution to a continuous, inclusive system of development that other states would do well to study.

Consider infrastructure first. Before his administration, twelve of Kaduna’s twenty-three Local Government Areas had not seen a single completed kilometre of road. Not one. Today, all twenty-three LGAs are experiencing road development either through completed projects or ongoing construction. That is not an accident of politics; it is a deliberate structural rebalancing.

In less than three years, the governor has initiated approximately 150 new road projects spanning 1,345 kilometres. But the numbers alone miss the point. The completed 35km Gadar Gayan to Kujama road which links Igabi and Chikun LGAs, the 22KM Kauru to Pambegua road that links Kauru and Kubau LGAs in Zone 3 and Zone 2 of the State which is also completed, the completed 23-KM Kafanchan – Madakiya – Madauchi road which links Jema’a and Zangon Kataf LGAs and the ongoing 36.5KM Bagoma to Gagumi road in Birnin Gwari has transformed rural mobility for agrarian communities. In Makarfi, the Durum to Kuruntumawa road has resolved seasonal access challenges that plagued residents for decades. And crucially, long-abandoned projects, some neglected for fourteen years by previous administrations have been reactivated, completed, or brought to advanced stages.

What distinguishes this approach is its sequencing: address immediate needs first, then expand outward. Roads serving markets, hospitals, universities, and industrial clusters have been prioritised. Notably, the state government reconstructed internal roads at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and built access to the Federal University of Applied Sciences Kachia, federal institutions that directly improve citizens’ lives. This is pragmatism over partisanship.

On agriculture, the administration has moved beyond annual fertiliser distributions, though those have been substantial and free to structural transformation. The creation of agricultural processing zones designed for export signals a shift from subsistence to value-chain agriculture. Farmers are not just receiving inputs; they are being integrated into a system that connects rural production to urban markets and ultimately to international buyers. This is how food security transitions from slogan to strategy.

Transportation tells an equally compelling story. The deployment of 100 CNG buses is not merely an environmental gesture; it is a cost-of-living intervention. Public transport fares directly affect what families can spend on food, healthcare, and education. By introducing compressed natural gas technology, the state has reduced operational costs, kept fares manageable, and begun retiring the old, polluting fleet that choked urban centres. But the governor’s vision extends further: Bus Rapid Transit and light rail corridors are being developed, laying the groundwork for a mass transit system that can absorb the mobility demands of a rapidly urbanising population. This is not quick-fix governance; this is infrastructure as a long-term asset.

Perhaps the most innovative pillar, however, is security rethought not as a military problem but as an economic one. Governor Uba Sani has established three new modern skills acquisition centres, one in each senatorial zone, producing nearly 50,000 skilled young graduates annually. The logic is as simple as it is powerful: idle hands are recruited into banditry; busy hands build the state. A young man who can weld, install solar panels, or repair CNG engines is far less likely to accept a rifle from criminals. This is counter-insurgency through empowerment, and it addresses the root causes of northern Nigeria’s security challenges rather than merely their symptoms.

Taken together, what emerges is a governance philosophy that rejects the usual Nigerian trade-off between equity and efficiency. Kaduna is demonstrating that a state can be both inclusive, reaching previously neglected local governments and ambitious, pursuing light rail corridors and export processing zones simultaneously. It can invest in federal university roads while building rural feeder roads. It can complete 31-kilometre rural corridors while dualising urban carriageways.

Critics might argue that 1,345 kilometres across three years is modest compared to some oil-producing states. But the relevant comparison is not raw length; it is distribution and sustainability. Many states commission roads that are never completed, or complete roads in only the governor’s hometown. Kaduna has chosen the harder path: continuous, visible progress in every corner of the state, with completed projects standing alongside ongoing ones to demonstrate momentum, not just promises.

Phillips Consulting’s rating, therefore, reflects something deeper than a spreadsheet of achievements. It reflects a governance system that has restored predictability, the sense that when a project is announced, it will be built; when fertiliser is promised, it will arrive; when a young person enters a skills centre, they will emerge employable. In a country where governance is often characterised by grand announcements and silent abandonment, that predictability is revolutionary.

The Kaduna model will not work everywhere, context matters. But its principles are portable: continuous rather than episodic delivery, inclusive rather than selective distribution, and integration across sectors so that roads, agriculture, transport, and security reinforce one another. Governor Uba Sani has not reinvented the wheel. He has simply done what Nigerians have always wanted: taken the work seriously, done it steadily, and let the results speak for themselves.

And the results, as Phillips Consulting confirmed, are speaking.

Toro writes from Bauchi