 Let me first thank very much the governor of Kano State for very kindly hosting me yet again. I have come just as I think it was yes as you mentioned aside from Lagos State where I live and local state where I'm from. Kano State is possibly the state that I've visited the most in this country so I think I have the right to claim citizenship of Kano. So I am at the moment arranging all formalities with these actions with the governor to appropriately situate myself as a citizen of this great state. I bring you very warm greetings from his Excellency the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Mohamed Ubuheri who as you know also regards Kano not just as home but as his strongest political base and I am happy to say that he's extremely excited about the developments going on in Kano some of which I'm here to see and also to commission. Earlier on today I have been at a few places to commission some of the landmark infrastructural projects that are going on in the state. I earlier commissioned the Alaji Ahasan Dantata Bridge which I'm told is the longest fly over. It's actually the longest fly over in Nigeria at the moment. 2.5 kilometers of the fly over. I will note that it's not the longest bridge yet. The longest bridge being in Lagos but that bridge was built by the federal government so this is the longest fly over by any state government. 2.5 kilometers and this is really excellent. I've also been to see the I've also commissioned the underpass the Tijani Hashim underpass which is also another incredible architectural piece and I think it's worthy of celebration. We're there physically to see it and I think that is one of those very important landmarks. I will stand out as an infrastructural achievement here in Kano. We're also commissioned, sorry, the foundation stone of the Karibula Naseo Kabara Bridge which is the one right in front of the Muritala Mohamed Hospital. We hope that that will be completed soon as Madofaq were told it will be completed in three months from now and every one of the promises that has been made by his Excellency the governor about completion of projects I find that he always is very accurate about his timing so I expect that it will be so and very shortly we'll be commissioning as his Excellency has said the Cancer Center which I'm told is also an iconic infrastructure in Kano. So I think that with all of what we're seeing in Kano State and it's fair to say that Kano State stands out as one of those states that is keen into the infrastructural agenda of the federal government. It's important and it's important to point this out because perhaps the most important one of our projects one of our programs is infrastructure is the development of infrastructure. In a few short years as Madofaq in two budget cycles we've invested almost 2.7 trillion Naira on capital alone which is the highest in the history of the country just by the fact that we're earning almost 60% less than previous governments. So there's no question at all that for President Muhammad Uwari infrastructure is key and of course you know one of our signature projects is the Lagos Kano Rail which has gone as far now as Abekuta and we're hoping I will be able to complete that Lagos Kano Rail in the shortest possible time. We expect that the infrastructure projects of the federal government including the Manbila Hydro project, the Second Niger Bridge and several others will be completed in our own term in this second term of our administration. We hope that we'll be able to complete as many of them as possible. Infrastructure is key to everything that we intend to do. It's key to resolving most of the major issues that confront our country especially the economic issues. We need to be able to connect the economic zones of Nigeria. We need to be able to connect the south, the southwest, the southeast, the south-south to the north and all other areas, all the zones of this country have to be connected in order to be able to realize the economic objectives that we set out for ourselves. But I want to say also that the Kano State government has also set the pace in achieving the educational objectives that the federal government under President Buhari has set for us on June 12th sorry June 20th while inaugurating the National Economic Council the president announced that the federal government would enforce the free and compulsory education for the first nine years of the school life of a child and almost immediately we found that Kano State under the leadership of the governor launched the free primary education in Kano State. I was here to launch that, I was here specifically to launch that and to be Mr. President's witness at the launching. Since then the governor has also shown that there is a need for us to be innovative and there's a need for us to be focused on education of children. That is the future of our country is a future of our nation and I think the governor has done exceedingly well especially with the integration of the Quranic schools with ensuring that the Quranic schools also have the benefit of education and maths and English and in some of the other important subjects along with Quranic education. I think that that's a very important is very important strategically for us very important strategically for us as a country and I'm very pleased to see that this is going on here in Kano State. The figures about the number of out of school children going down is important. It's a very significant development, very significant development and we must not overlook it. Sometimes when we hear about out of school children, it is the federal government that is blamed for out of school children but the truth of the matter is that primary education belongs to the states and there it is the states that ensure that children go to school and so I'm extremely pleased to see that the governor of Kano State again has blazed the trail and has shown the example excellent example of educating our very young people. Poverty remains as the governor pointed out that one of the major issues that confronts our country and the president again on June 12th 2019 made the declaration that it is the intention of our government to take 10 million people every year out of poverty in the next decade such that in the next 10 years would have taken a minimum of 100 people a hundred million people out of poverty. Now that may sound ambitious but I must say to you that we are extremely committed to that and we're extremely focused. This explains why it is that we launched the social investment program. I'm sure that most of us are familiar with the social investment program. Every country the size of Nigeria any country of our size that does not have a social investment program or establish a social safety net for its people will be acting irresponsibly and that's the reason why we launched our social investment program. Under that social investment program today we're feeding 9.5 million children every single day as part of our homegrown school feeding. That of course has a multiply effect for agriculture has a multiply effect for those who cook the food and others who are connected one way or the other aside from the children who are benefiting from it. We've also given out loans in excess of two million two in excess of two million individuals petty traders under government enterprises a government enterprise and empowerment scheme Jeep so that's the trader money or market money we've given out over two million separate loans this is being done by the Bank of Industry. We've also given conditional cash transfers to the poorest of the poor this is assisted by the World Bank and we are now reaching about a million such people. Aside from that we engage 500,000 in fact is 520,000 young people under our end power program so that in every local government of Nigeria we have an M we have MPAR beneficiaries in every local government and these individuals this young men and women serve all across the country they serve in the schools some of them are extension workers in the farms etc. This social investment program is only at its beginning it is it is it we're not able to do as much as we want to do now but we must ramp it up and we are doing so we cannot have a situation where so many in our country are poor and this is one of the major concerns of Mr. President that we must take as many people out of poverty as possible that's why we give up we say giving out the loans to the petty traders the loans to farmers under our anchor boroughs program almost a million farmers have now benefited and we intend in this next cycle to give even more farmers so that we're able to create and we're able to create another economy around agriculture a major economy around agriculture and the entire cultural value chain so it's important for us that Nigerians are taken out of poverty and I'm really pleased to find that again the government of Kano State has always keyed in to the social investment programs and also does several of its own empowerment programs for many of our people who require the assistance of government at this level I'd like to say again that Kano State remains the one of the very best examples of what is going on but in particular I want to commend you for the peace that has reigned in Kano State very it's very important that we see and that we experience peace and I'm glad to see that you have also been able to deal with all of the issues that we find here and there banditry kidnapping etc the federal government as you know is again committed to ensuring that there is peace and security in Nigeria and one of the ways is by the is by our community policing strategies we expect that when the community policing strategy is fully rolled out we will be able to experience even greater peace in our country because really policing must be local it's the most it's the most fundamental attribute of policing and it is local so that local people local individuals are able to see to the security of their own localities their villages and their homesteads so again I want to thank you your excellency very much for your warm hospitality and to thank you all very much for making the time to come and to say that we believe very strongly that this that this state will continue to do even better and better and that there will be greater progress for this state and greater progress for our country thank you very much