By Israel Bulus, Kaduna
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kaduna State has launched a scathing attack on the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led governments at both federal and state levels, describing their two years in office as a period of “dashed hopes” marked by economic hardship, failed promises, and deteriorating living conditions.
Addressing a world press conference at the PDP Secretariat in Kaduna on Tuesday, the state PDP Chairman, Hon. Edward Percy Masha, said Nigerians, particularly residents of Kaduna State, had experienced “the worst economic crisis in history” since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s declaration of fuel subsidy removal on May 29, 2023.
Masha accused the President of “opening the gates of hell” for Nigerians by removing the subsidy without adequate palliative measures, noting that the resulting inflation, job losses, and insecurity had crippled households and small businesses nationwide.
“In Kaduna State, where citizens were already grappling with hunger, insecurity, and joblessness, the subsidy removal felt like a death sentence,” he said.
Citing a 2025 security report, the PDP chairman said Kaduna remained one of the three most dangerous states for kidnappings in Nigeria, alongside Zamfara and Katsina.
“From July 2023 to June 2024, over 1,100 kidnapping incidents were recorded in Kaduna alone,” he added.
He also faulted the state government’s handling of security, accusing it of pampering bandits under the guise of negotiations.
“The Ministry of Internal Security has become a conduit for siphoning public funds,” he alleged, demanding transparency in the use of funds meant for internal security and IDP resettlement.
On the economic front, Masha accused Governor Uba Sani’s administration of presiding over a growing debt burden and receiving over ₦600 billion in loans, allocations, and grants, without commensurate improvement in citizens’ welfare.
He described the administration’s palliative programs and social intervention schemes as “mere propaganda,” saying most of the promised reliefs, including the ₦5 billion federal palliative loan and ₦11.4 billion state distribution plan, were either poorly executed or unaccounted for.
He also called out the Kaduna State Government’s October 2024 announcement on the procurement of 100 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses for civil servants. “Eight months later, the buses remain unseen, and promises of minimum wage implementation were done without full adjustments across worker cadres,” he said.
Masha painted a grim picture of the state’s health sector, citing poor immunization coverage, maternal and infant mortality, and a general collapse of health infrastructure.
He said the Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital and many general hospitals remained paralyzed due to strikes by resident doctors over poor working conditions and alleged arbitrary terminations.
In the education sector, he said over 768,000 children of school age remained out of school in Kaduna State.
“Despite promising to reintegrate 200,000, the number continues to rise due to lack of clear policy direction, inadequate funding, and teacher shortages,” Masha noted.
At the tertiary level, the PDP chairman said institutions like Kaduna State University (KASU) had been crippled by multiple staff strikes and deteriorating facilities, contributing to delays in academic calendars and a drop in institutional rankings.
On infrastructure, Masha faulted the government’s claims of 79 ongoing road projects, saying less than 10% had seen meaningful progress. He described some completed roads as substandard, citing the Kagarko and Zangon Kataf examples that failed shortly after commissioning.
He also criticized the state government’s poor support for agriculture, saying its 2024 budget allocation to the Kaduna Agricultural Development Agency (KADA) was a “paltry” ₦22 million.
“The promised 400 trucks of fertilizer never reached real farmers but were hijacked by political cronies,” he alleged.
Masha concluded that Nigeria’s economic woes had worsened under the APC, saying “over 130 million Nigerians have fallen into multidimensional poverty, and 13 million are at risk of starvation.
He declared that the PDP would not allow itself to be “shortchanged again” in future elections and vowed to mobilize citizens ahead of the 2027 polls.
“It shall be the people against the APC and its one-party dictatorship attempts. Democracy in Kaduna will prevail, and the people shall have the final say,” he concluded.
