Sunday, 4 October 2026, will be remembered in Katsina as the day the work spoke before anyone opened a mouth. Vice-President Kashim Shettima has visited us before, and more than once. His visits follow a clear pattern: he does not come to cut ribbons on promises, he comes to commission things you can walk, ride and drive on. In October 2025, his programme was built around the newly dualised Central Mosque roundabout road, the launch of the Katsina Sustainable Platform for Agriculture (KASPA), a digital platform linking farmers with experts, markets and suppliers, and the flag-off of the 9th National MSME Clinic. A year later he came back and found that the builder had kept building.
That regularity is no accident. Governor Dikko Umaru Radda has cultivated a working friendship with the Presidency, and it pays Katsina in the only currency that counts, which is projects. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu himself commissioned the Eastern Bypass Road in May 2025, and the Vice-President has made the road to Katsina a familiar one. A friend in need is a friend indeed, and in Radda the Presidency has found a governor who turns goodwill into concrete. On Sunday, Shettima told the gathering that the Federal Government remains committed to supporting this administration.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so the Vice-President began with the roads. He commissioned 11.2 kilometres of them: the dualised 4.80-kilometre Kofar Sauri–Central Mosque Roundabout Road, the dualised 2.40-kilometre Central Police Station Junction–Kofar Kaura Underpass Road, and the newly constructed 4.00-kilometre Filin Polo–Ring Road. Katsina people who have waited out traffic, dust and detours will not need a speech to tell them what that means. Fewer hours lost on the road, safer journeys and easier trade are the dividends of these projects.
Behind the ribbons is a philosophy. The Governor explained that these roads are part of 12 major urban renewal projects in Katsina metropolis, designed as an integrated network, because a road that stands alone is a road half-used. Rome was not built in a day, but Rome was also not built one disconnected street at a time. The same approach is being carried to Daura and Funtua, so that all three senatorial zones share the benefit, and more than 240 kilometres of urban and rural roads have been covered across the state. Those rural roads connect villages to markets, schools and clinics, which is where governance is felt most.
From roads, the Vice-President moved to mobility, launching 30 CNG hybrid buses and 200 Phase I electric tricycles at the Old Ministry of Works. The state intends to deploy 500 electric Keke EVs in total. The buses will serve Katsina, Daura and Funtua. What makes this more than a fleet purchase is the infrastructure behind it: a main terminal and workshop in Katsina, mini-terminals in Daura and Funtua, and 40 modern bus stops fitted with Wi-Fi and solar inverter systems. Radda calls the approach “From Energy Transition to Economic Transformation”. The state is killing two birds with one stone, offering cleaner, cheaper transport to students, workers and traders while opening new work for operators, technicians and young entrepreneurs.
Then came the politics, and here the Vice-President was blunt. At the People’s Square, Government House, he received thousands of new members into the All Progressives Congress from various parties. “Katsina is for Dikko Radda. It is not for anyone,” he declared, adding, “We are proud of you, Governor Radda.” The Governor said the entrants included former APC members, members of the Action Alliance, former Deputy Legal Adviser of the ADC, Sallau Karawa, and serving lawmakers. Former Secretary to the State Government, Dr Mustapha M. Inuwa, called his return a homecoming. No smoke without fire: people do not move in their thousands towards a house that is not warm. They are coming because the work is visible, and the Governor’s acceptability cuts across party lines and old divisions.
The programme ended where good government should always end, with ordinary households. At the Muhammadu Dikko Stadium, the Vice-President flagged off the Community Investment Fund under the Nigeria for Women Programme Scale-Up, with more than 40,000 women set to receive business capital through their Women Affinity Groups. Katsina’s own matching commitment of one dollar for every World Bank dollar helped expand the programme from six Local Government Areas to all 34. The Commissioner for Women Affairs reported more than 2,393 groups formed in Katsina and Daura alone, with over ₦310 million saved. The World Bank described the $540 million national programme as an investment in Nigeria’s growth. The Governor noted that women with hearing impairment now run their own groups, and he assured those not yet funded that disbursement continues in phases. He also pledged to explore similar support for men. Radda is not content with what has been done and keeps asking for more.
The guest list showed how widely this administration is respected. Three former governors stood in the crowd: Ibrahim Shema of Katsina, Brigadier General Ahmed Mohammed Daku (rtd.) of Sokoto, and Colonel Abdulmumini Aminu (rtd.) of Borno. So did Senators Muntari Dandutse and Abdulaziz Yar’Adua, the NIPC Executive Secretary, Hajiya Aisha Rimi, and the Minister of Arts, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, Hajiya Hannatu Musa Musawa. Development partners, women’s groups and business leaders were there too. When the Vice-President left for Abuja that evening, with the Governor and Deputy Governor Faruk Lawal Jobe seeing him off at the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua International Airport and the Nigerian Air Force mounting a quarter guard, he left a state that had shown him results, not rhetoric.
Radda, the Builder has linked federal support to local delivery, and the commissioning plaque is hardly dry before the next project begins. Action speaks louder than words, and this administration has done more speaking through action than any promise could do.
Come 2027, the people of Katsina State will answer in kind. One good turn deserves another, and a people who have watched their roads, transport and women’s businesses transformed will not forget who did the planting. We have sown, and the harvest belongs to those who worked the field. We shall return these massive investments with our votes, for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and for Governor Dikko Umaru Radda, who has proved that he is a BUILDER.
- Ibrahim Kaula Mohammed is the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Katsina State
