When Malam Musa retired from the Katsina State civil service nearly a decade ago, he thought he would finally rest after years of loyal service. But instead of rest, he was met with frustration and despair. His gratuity—money he had worked for—never came. To survive, he borrowed from friends and neighbors, sold his goats, and watched helplessly as two of his children dropped out of school because he could no longer pay their fees.
Medical bills were the hardest. Musa is diabetic, and there were months he had to choose between buying insulin and feeding his family. In his words: “I felt abandoned by the very system I served. My children would say, ‘Baba, what did you gain from government work?’ and I had no answer.”
This year, his story changed. Governor Dikko Umaru Radda’s administration cleared ₦24 billion in outstanding gratuity liabilities, including local government retirees. Musa received his payment in full. Not only that, he was enrolled in a free health insurance scheme for retirees, an unprecedented policy in Katsina. Today, Musa pays his grandson’s school fees proudly, keeps up with his medical checkups, and no longer feels like a forgotten man.
Musa’s story is not an isolated case—it is one of thousands. And it gives a human face to the truth: the removal of fuel subsidy is not benefiting governors alone; it is directly changing lives in Katsina State.
For years, fuel subsidy was described as “help for the masses.” In reality, the system was riddled with fraud. Trillions of naira went into the scheme, but ordinary Nigerians like Musa hardly saw any benefit. Smugglers, middlemen, and a handful of oil marketers cornered the bulk of it. Meanwhile, states like Katsina survived on allocations that could barely pay salaries. Schools decayed, hospitals lacked medicine, and retirees died waiting for their benefits.
That was subsidy Nigeria: a promise on paper, but poverty in practice.
With subsidy gone, resources now reach the states directly. In Katsina, Governor Radda has shown what leadership can do with these new resources. Instead of disappearing into waste or corruption, the funds are being invested back into people.
The results speak for themselves:
Workers and Retirees: ₦15,000 monthly wage awards cushion the effect of inflation. Over ₦24 billion in gratuities owed by past administrations have been cleared. Retirees also enjoy free health insurance, restoring dignity to their old age.
Food on the Table: The Ramadan feeding programme touched thousands of households.
Take Aisha, a widow in Kofar Sauri. With five children to care for after her husband’s death, feeding her family was a daily struggle. During last Ramadan, she received free meals from the state’s feeding programme and later a direct cash gift to help sustain her home. “For the first time in years,” she said, “my children broke fast without me worrying about tomorrow’s meal.”
Her relief was made possible because resources that once vanished into fuel subsidy fraud are now reaching families like hers.
Faith and Culture: Pilgrims performing Hajj had their 600 Saudi Riyals (about ₦240,000) hadaya paid by the government, plus 300 Saudi Riyals (about ₦120,000) each as a special Sallah gift.
Education and Opportunity: WAEC and NECO exam fees are now covered by the state, saving parents huge costs. Brilliant children from poor homes have been sent abroad to study medicine and other key courses.
Among them is Fatima, the daughter of a roadside tailor in Malumfashi. She had always dreamed of becoming a doctor but assumed it was impossible. Today, she is studying medicine in Egypt on a full scholarship from the Katsina State government. Her father recalls the day she left: “I never thought my daughter would even leave Katsina, let alone Nigeria. Now she calls me in English and tells me about her hospital rotations. It feels like a dream.”
But not all opportunities require leaving Nigeria. The government is also constructing three special model secondary schools—one in each senatorial district—for gifted children of the poor who attend public schools. These schools will provide advanced learning environments, ensuring that the children of farmers, tailors, and petty traders get the same chance at excellence as anyone else. For Katsina’s poorest families, this is nothing short of revolutionary.
Affordable Transport: Subsidized transport ensures workers, traders, and students can still move around without unbearable costs.
And beyond immediate relief, the administration is building for the future: rehabilitating and expanding roads, upgrading hospitals, modernizing schools, and supporting agriculture with investments that will secure food and jobs for the next generation.
What makes this transformation more striking is the balance between short-term relief and long-term investment. It would have been easy for the government to focus only on quick fixes—cash gifts and feeding programmes. But Governor Radda has gone further, laying foundations for a stronger Katsina.
The infrastructure projects, agricultural programmes, and bold education initiatives—like Fatima’s scholarship and the construction of the three special schools—mean that the next generation will inherit a state with better schools, better hospitals, better roads, and more opportunities. These are the kinds of projects that were impossible under the old subsidy regime, when states could barely fund the basics.
So when critics say, “fuel subsidy removal benefits only governors,” Katsina offers a clear rebuttal. Who now goes to the hospital with free health insurance? Who eats from Ramadan feeding? Who collects gratuities after waiting 10 years? Who studies abroad on government scholarships? Who will attend brand-new schools built specifically for gifted children of the poor?
It is not governors. It is the people.
Fuel subsidy removal was painful, but in Katsina, that pain has been turned into progress. From cleared gratuities and free health insurance, to scholarships, special schools, feeding programmes, and capital projects, the difference is clear.
Take Musa the retiree, who finally received his long-delayed gratuity and now enjoys free health insurance. Take Aisha the widow, who can feed her children with dignity during Ramadan. Take Fatima the student, who is now studying medicine abroad—while back home, new special schools are rising for children like her.
These are not governors. These are ordinary people.
The narrative that “only governors benefit” may sound catchy, but it collapses in the face of Musa’s, Aisha’s, and Fatima’s stories—and those of thousands like them. In the right hands, subsidy removal is not a curse. It is the beginning of a better future for the people of Katsina State.
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