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For years, the distance between Kaduna’s urban centres and its rural communities was measured not only in kilometres but also in opportunities lost. A farmer could harvest a good crop and still struggle to get it to market because of a bad road.
A child could live only a few kilometres from school, while a patient could be separated from medical care by a difficult journey. This is why Governor Uba Sani’s decision to make roads a major pillar of his administration’s development agenda deserves more than passing attention.
There is something uniquely powerful about roads because their impact is difficult to hide. Unlike promises contained in policy documents, a completed road is visible, usable and immediately connected to people’s daily lives.
It reduces travel time, eases transportation, opens access to markets and allows communities that once felt forgotten to experience the physical presence of government. In Kaduna, that transformation is now taking place across the state on a scale that is difficult to ignore.
The numbers tell an important part of the story. Dr Abdullahi Baba-Ahmed, Managing Director of the Kaduna State Roads Agency, recently disclosed that the administration had initiated 160 road projects covering 1,355 kilometres across the state, with about 60 per cent either completed or under construction.
The projects extend across all 23 local government areas, taking road construction beyond Kaduna metropolis, Zaria and other major urban centres into communities where poor accessibility has constrained economic and social development for years.
But 1,355 kilometres should not be treated merely as an impressive statistic. Behind every kilometre is a community, a farmer, a trader, a student, a patient or a family whose daily life can become easier when the road connecting them to the rest of the state improves.
This is the real significance of the programme. It is an attempt to bring Kaduna’s hinterland closer to the state’s economic mainstream and ensure that development is not concentrated only around the major cities. The agricultural benefits are particularly important.
Kaduna has some of the country’s most productive farming communities, but production means little if farmers cannot move their harvest to buyers and markets efficiently. Poor roads increase transportation costs, discourage buyers and expose farmers to losses when produce takes too long to reach consumers.
Better roads, therefore, create a chain of benefits that extends from the farm to the transporter, trader, processor and, ultimately, the consumer. That is why projects around Maigana, Ikara, Kudan, Kubau, Giwa, Sanga, Birnin Gwari and parts of Southern Kaduna matter.
They are not simply stretches of asphalt scattered across a map but links between communities and the economic opportunities that poor roads have kept beyond their reach. When a road becomes accessible, the benefits can spread to farmers, traders, transporters, artisans, schools, health facilities and local businesses.
The Gadan Gayan-Gwaraji-Kujama corridor provides one of the clearest examples. The 35-kilometre road includes a major bridge across the River Kaduna and connects dozens of farming communities. It demonstrates what becomes possible when government looks beyond the traditional urban centres and invests in communities whose economic importance is often greater than their visibility. The road, which spans Igabi, Kajuru and Chikun local government areas, includes a 130-metre bridge and links more than 76 farming communities.
The objective is not to beautify Kaduna but to open up communities and allow their productive potential to connect with the wider economy. I am also struck by the geographical spread of the projects. For too long, rural communities in many parts of Nigeria have watched government development concentrate around capitals and major commercial centres.
Governor Uba Sani’s approach has been different in Kaduna, with projects extending into areas where residents have spent years living with difficult roads. That gives the road programme a significance beyond construction because it reinforces the simple idea that government should be felt wherever citizens live and work.
There is another aspect of the programme that deserves recognition. According to Dr Baba-Ahmed, he has not experienced interference from Governor Sani or members of the state cabinet, with the governor giving KADRA the freedom to concentrate on delivering projects.
The governor’s recurring concern, he said, is whether projects reach ordinary residents, farmers and less privileged communities. That kind of hands-off approach gives technical managers the room to concentrate on engineering requirements, accessibility and the practical benefits of infrastructure.
The importance of that approach becomes clearer in places such as Birnin Gwari, where insecurity previously made movement and development extremely difficult. Improved security has opened previously inaccessible areas to construction, with a 36-kilometre road now being constructed in remote parts of the local government. KADRA has identified the Bagoma-Gagumi road as a 36-kilometre project in Birnin Gwari.
A road cannot be built effectively where contractors cannot safely reach the site, so improved security is doing more than protecting lives and property. It is creating the conditions for government to physically return to communities that had become isolated.
In turn, roads can reinforce that return. They can support the movement of farmers, traders, teachers, health workers and security personnel while helping economic activity regain ground in communities that once struggled with insecurity.
The administration’s decision to continue inherited road projects is also important because a road does not become useful because of the administration that initiated it; it becomes useful when people can drive on it.
Completing such projects protects public resources already committed to infrastructure and prevents unfinished contracts from becoming permanent monuments to political transitions. Recent reports say KADRA has also recorded substantial progress in completing inherited projects.
Kaduna’s road programme is also benefiting from cooperation with the Federal Government.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration has supported major federal infrastructure in the state, including the Mando-Birnin Gwari corridor, while Governor Uba Sani has repeatedly described the President as an important development partner.
The governor has also credited the Federal Government with supporting major infrastructure projects across Kaduna, including the 11 roads flagged off in Zaria and Sabon Gari in July. This state-federal relationship gives the road programme an even broader significance.
A rural road becomes more valuable when it connects farmers and communities to a major highway, just as a federal highway becomes more useful when local roads allow residents to reach it. Kaduna, therefore, stands to gain when state and federal infrastructure complement rather than compete with one another.
For an administration seeking to demonstrate the value of cooperation between Kaduna and Abuja, the roads provide visible evidence of what that relationship can produce. And this is where the 2027 question naturally enters the conversation.
The scale of the road projects is likely to become part of the political debate ahead of the 2027 governorship election. KADRA’s managing director has previously said the projects could strengthen Governor Sani’s chances of re-election.
That argument reflects the broader political significance of infrastructure. Elections are ultimately influenced by how citizens perceive government performance, including what they see, experience and believe about the direction of their communities.
A completed road cannot vote, but it can become part of the daily experience of the people who use it. This is why Kaduna’s 1,355-kilometre road programme is likely to remain an important part of discussions about Governor Uba Sani’s record ahead of 2027.
The farmer who can now move produce more easily, the trader whose vehicle spends less time negotiating damaged roads, the student who can travel more safely and the patient who can reach a health facility without unnecessary delay all provide a human face to the statistics.
If the projects are further expanded, the administration’s infrastructure record will become an even more prominent part of the debate over continuity. Kaduna’s hinterland is being brought closer to its cities, farms are being connected to markets and communities that once felt distant from government are becoming part of a wider development network.
The roads, therefore, are more than an infrastructure programme. They are becoming a defining feature of Governor Sani’s administration and a physical record that citizens can see, use and assess for themselves.
With 1,355 kilometres spread across the state, improved access to previously insecure communities, a roads agency leadership that says it has been given room to work, and cooperation with the Federal Government, the administration has built a development narrative that is likely to feature prominently in the political conversation ahead of 2027.
If Kaduna’s political journey towards 2027 is ultimately measured by what has changed on the ground, these roads will form an important part of the assessment of Governor Uba Sani’s administration and its bid for another term at Sir Kashim Ibrahim House.
Mr Abdul is public affairs analyst. He writes from Kaduna.
