Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has signed the N216.55 billion “budget of consolidation” for 2018 into law.

He said his Government was shedding weight to ensure public resources are fully devoted to providing public goods to benefit the people.

The governor said N131.1 billion is for Capital Expenditure, representing 60.54 per cent of the budget, while N85.44 billion is voted for Recurrent Expenditure. This, according to him, reflects the government’s commitment to discharging its obligations to workers.

His words: “The 2018 budget size is N216.55 billion, of which N131.1 billion is Capital Expenditure. This is 60.54 per cent of the budget and is consistent with our agenda to spend more on the people than on running government. But the Recurrent Expenditure is also substantial, at N85.44 billion, reflecting our commitment to discharge our obligations to current personnel in the public service and new workers being recruited by our agencies

“We have deliberately tagged the budget as the “Budget of Consolidation”; it is the last full annual budget before the 2019 elections, and it is designed to complete the many projects we are doing in the service of our people.

Reacting to the outcry that greeted his planned sack of 21,780 Primary School teachers, El-Rufai said: “the radical actions in the education sector considers the future of two million primary school pupils as being above whatever sentiments 22,000 unqualified teachers may mobilise.

“Our public service reform programme recognises that effective service delivery needs a dynamic, highly-skilled, IT-savvy and youthful public service. As important as the public service is, all those who work there represent less than 1 per cent of the state’s population. “We must take care of the public service, but we cannot do this by neglecting the other 99 per cent that does not work for the government. In a democracy, the government cannot exist to serve only those who lead and work for it. The government must shed weight so that public resources can be more fully devoted to providing public goods, benefitting the people.”