The elected Governor of Katsina State, Dikko RaddaHe has said that he would not want to be addressed as “Your Excellency” after his inauguration as governor on May 29.
He said he would prefer to be called simply “Mr. Governor” or “Mallam Dikko Radda” and not “Your Excellency” until after he leaves power.
Mr. Radda, who was elected governor on March 18, made this point on Saturday during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja.
He was elected governor on March 18 on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He polled 859,892 votes to defeat Yakubu Lado of the PDP, which polled 486,620 votes.
“I don’t like the word Excellence because one can only call themselves Excellence after the administration has ended. At that time people will determine if I am Excellent or not. So I think it’s better that people call me Mr. Governor than call me His Excellency. I’ll prefer that and that won’t put my head anywhere.
“I want to be as normal as anyone because I don’t want that (Excellency) to get into my head. That is why I do not want the word Excellency attached to my name now, but I will prefer that people can call me Mr. Governor or my name Mallam Dikko Radda,” he said.
Radda joins other Governors who chose not to use Your Excellency as a prefix.
In 2019, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State also dropped the prefix after becoming governor.
A former governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola, who was in power between 2010 and 2018, used “Ogbeni”, while the current governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, often used “Arakunrin”, a Yoruba word for lord. .
safety is priority
Speaking about his agenda for the state, Radda said security will be his administration’s top priority. He pointed out that no development can take place without security.
“Our area of focus is insecurity. We want to address the security issue in Katsina State. This is our main area of concern,” she said.
Katsina State is one of the states most affected by banditry in the country. In the past two years, bandits operating in the area have killed several and even engaged in mass adoption for ransom.
PREMIUM TIMES in an editorial rated the current administration low in the fight against banditry in the northwest, especially in Katsina state.
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The former chief executive of the Small and Medium Business Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), said he will work with the state assembly to build a similar agency SMEDAN to tackle unemployment in the state.
He said the agency will be domiciled in the governor’s office.
“I also want to establish an agency like SMEDAN that will be under the governor’s office so that he can seriously handle it and ensure that it is effective for the people. And then we also want to look at revenue generated internally.
“We don’t want a situation where the state continues to rely on federal allocation for its activities. We also want to look at internally generated income (IGR) and agrarian reforms.
“We want to review our land and also review our master plan so that we can have our dream state, our dream capital, and this is the political direction of our administration,” Radda said.
On the controversial withdrawal of the corruption case against former governor Ibrahim Shema before the elections, he said he was not aware of the details.
“I am not in a position to answer that question because I was not in the government (and) I am not in the government. I will be in government on May 29, I don’t know the details of that. I have read it in the pages of the newspaper. I’m not a part of that,” he said.
Last month, the Katsina state government withdrew the N11 billion corruption case against Shema. There are indications that the decision to drop the case against Mr. Shema is part of a political settlement in the state.