End banditry through negotiation and amnesty — Aminu Bello Masari

Security

End banditry through negotiation and amnesty

Broken

The promise

Promised to end Katsina's escalating banditry crisis, experimenting with negotiation and amnesty rather than purely military approaches.

Assessment

Armed groups repeatedly reneged on negotiated agreements, regrouped and returned to the forests with renewed violence, and banditry remained a severe security crisis in the state through the end of the tenure.

Security

Secure the release of kidnapped Kankara schoolboys

Kept

The promise

Committed to securing the safe release of the more than 300 schoolboys abducted from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, in December 2020.

Assessment

Over 344 schoolboys were released and handed over to the Katsina State government by December 2020, following negotiations.

Infrastructure

Improve health and education infrastructure

Kept

The promise

Promised renovation of hospitals and schools and improved educational quality.

Assessment

Multiple hospitals were renovated and upgraded, and schools were built and repositioned for quality education, drawing praise from President Buhari for the administration's emphasis on education.

Governance

Transparent, budget-compliant contracting

Broken

The promise

Campaigned on accountable, budget-compliant use of state funds.

Assessment

A petition to the EFCC alleged over ₦300 billion in financial misappropriation between 2015 and 2018, citing a ₦2.8 billion fertiliser-procurement contract awarded in June 2015 without budgetary provision or executive council approval, ₦589 million in unlawful Ramadan-feeding withdrawals, ₦150 million diverted from local government accounts, and over ₦3 billion unlawfully withdrawn from SURE-P accounts.

Security

Accountable use of the state's security vote

Broken

The promise

Promised transparent use of security-vote funds amid the state's banditry crisis.

Assessment

A separate petition asked the EFCC to investigate alleged misappropriation and misapplication of over ₦52 billion spent as security vote between June 2015 and April 2020.