By Abba Anwar
If you really want to know whether a government cares about its people, don’t go and count the number of garden per school. Go to a Primary Health Centre in Shanono by 1am. Watch what happens when a woman in labour is brought in with no money in her pocket. That is where government is tested.
When Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf took oath on 29th May, 2023, that test was almost nothing to write home about. Because of cumulative experiences of administrations before him. I remember following the transition committee reports. I also went round myself. The Drugs and Medical Consumables Supply Agency at Sharada had empty shelves. I am not exaggerating. Drug availability was about 30 percent. Suppliers had blacklisted Kano because we were owing them over N1.2 billion. Many General Hospitals – Wudil, Bichi, Gaya – looked tired. Paint peeling, beds broken, no running water. The health insurance agency, Kano State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency (KSCHMA), had less than 500,000 people enrolled in a state of over 15 million. Doctors were leaving. Nurses were leaving. People used to say, “asibiti ba magani.”
What happened in the last three years is not magic. It is work. Quiet, amazing work. This is where Abba Gida-Gida’s feeling for his people takes the lead. In responsive and responsible leadership.
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First, the money.
You see, in 2001, African Heads of State gathered in Abuja and said, let us give at least 15% of our budgets to health. Since then, Nigeria as a country has never met it. Kano before this administration was doing 6%, 7%. Even Lagos today does about 8%. Ghana as a country does 6.32%. Senegal less than 4%.
But Abba did it. In 2024, he gave health N77 billion, that was 16.46% of the entire state budget. In 2025, he gave N90.6 billion, 16.5%. Two years, back to back, above Abuja Declaration. No Kano governor has ever done it. Now the 2026 budget proposal has taken it to N214.8 billion for health repositioning, including N500m for a Cancer Centre at Giginyu, N1.5bn for free hernia surgeries across all zones, and N473.5m for ICUs in Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital and Wase Teaching Hospital.
And the money was not just on paper. He paid the N1.2bn debt. Once he paid, suppliers returned. Today, drug availability in Kano public hospitals is over 90%. Go to Hasiya Bayero Paediatric Hospital today, you will see drugs. Go to Murtala Muhammad, you will see drugs. That singular move has reduced the habit of patients being given prescription to go and buy drugs outside.
Second, the hospitals themselves.
The government did not try to build new ones everywhere. He said, let us fix the ones we have. Over 20 General Hospitals were fully rehabilitated – Hasiya Bayero, Murtala Muhammad, Wase, Wudil, Dambatta, Gaya, Bichi and others. New theatres, new wards, new labs.
For the grassroots, more than 200 PHCs across the 44 LGAs were upgraded. Solar light, borehole, staff quarters, delivery beds. Then he did something I personally like. He gave one ambulance to each of the 44 LGAs, and 484 mini-ambulances, one for each ward. So if there is an emergency in any ward in Kano today, you can move a patient. Before, people died on the way because there was nothing to carry them.
He also created what we never had before – the Kano Centre for Disease Control, KNCDC. And on 3rd August, 2026, he commissioned the Sickle Cell Centre that now offers free diagnosis, free hydroxyurea, free blood transfusion and counselling for thousands of families.
Third, and most important, the people to work in these hospitals.
You can buy equipment, but if there is no doctor or midwife, it is useless. The biggest challenge was human resource. Many left because of poor pay. The governor first restored dignity. He reinstated 926 health workers on full CONHESS salary structure, reviewed hazard allowance, and deployed 65 residency doctors to secondary hospitals. That is why NMA gave him their National Award for Service Excellence. They don’t give that award for nothing.
Then he recruited. Massively. And in phases, not audio.
Phase 1, which we just witnessed, was the distribution of appointment letters to 2,367 health personnel. Officially, core clinical is 2,037, but total with other cadres is 2,367. Let me break it down as announced at Government House: 250 medical doctors, 40 pharmacists, 250 nurses, 250 midwives, 150 Senior Community Health Extension Workers, 50 Junior CHEWs and 50 epidemiologists, plus hundreds of other cadres. All permanent and pensionable. The Commissioner for Health, Dr Abubakar Labaran Yusuf, was clear that it was on merit, not for sale.
In a separate special effort, which many people mix up, the government also employed 250 Doctors, 150 Nurses, 75 Midwives and 50 Pharmacists to immediately close gaps in our secondary hospitals. This separate effort has already improved the doctor-patient ratio, especially in places like Dambatta and Gwarzo.
What is coming next is bigger. Phase 2 is being prepared where 1,600 additional health workers will be employed for state hospitals. And in a very creative way, Local Governments will be allowed to employ 3,900 health workers for PHCs. This is key. It means LGAs will employ their own sons and daughters to stay in their communities. By the time that is done, no ward in Kano will say we have a PHC without staff. That is how you solve retention.
Fourth, insurance for the poorest. This is where the governor’s philosophy shows.
Before he came, KSCHMA had 497,262 people enrolled. Mostly civil servants. As of February this year, it is 910,862. That is 413,600 additional people, an 83% increase in less than two years. And within that, 231,293 are vulnerable – children under five, pregnant women, persons with disabilities, people living with HIV, and retirees.
The flagship is ABBACare. You remember ObamaCare. This is AbbaCare. Over 300,000 vulnerable people – pregnant women, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, inmates and people living with sickle cell – were given completely free health insurance, paid by the state. Today, 39,000 people living with sickle cell are receiving free care at Murtala Muhammad, Hasiya Bayero and Wase under this.
For mothers, delivery and CS are free in over 30 hospitals. Government spends over N60m monthly on that. That is why maternal mortality, according to ministry records, dropped from over 1,300 in 2023 to about 300 in 2026. Free eye camps, free cataract surgery, free hernia surgery for thousands have become routine.
Now, when you compare Kano with many other states, you understand why people are talking.
Look around. A national report on PHC delivery by ONE Campaign ranked Zamfara as the worst performing state in PHC, followed by Sokoto, Taraba, Kebbi, Katsina, Borno, Yobe and others as weak performers. In some of those places, capital performance for PHC was as low as 0 to 6.5%. There are documented cases of multimillion naira hospitals lying abandoned while people travel kilometres for paracetamol.
While some states are still struggling to put cotton wool and gloves in their clinics, Kano has moved to Cancer Centre, ICUs, Disease Control Centre, Sickle Cell Centre, 90% drug availability, and close to one million people on insurance.
That is not by accident. It is because of 16.5% budget to health.
I was in Wudil last week. A nurse named Aisha came forward and said in Hausa, “Abba ya kawo mana rayuwa, a harkar lafiya.” She was one of those reinstated on CONHESS. Before, she wanted to leave for Federal. Now she wants to stay.
In Takai, a PHC that used to close by 2pm now runs 24 hours because there is staff and solar. This is what governance looks like.
Governor Yusuf did not bring a new textbook theory. He just did the basics that others refused to do: give health money, clear its debt, bring back its workers, and pay for the poorest to get care.
With 1,600 coming in Phase 2 and 3,900 PHC workers to be employed by LGAs, Kano is walking practically towards universal health coverage, not on PowerPoint, but on ground.
If you want to show a state that is doing well in health today in Nigeria, you will show Kano. Not because everything is perfect. But because it is moving, and it is moving in the right direction for the talakawa.
And history will record it.
Anwar writes from Kano
Saturday, 10th October, 2026
