The Katsina State governor-elect, Dikko Radda, has explained why he would not want to be addressed as “His Excellency” after his inauguration as governor on 29 May.
He said he would rather be addressed simply as “Mr Governor” or “Mallam Dikko Radda” and not “His Excellency” until after he leaves power.
Radda stated this on Saturday during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja.
WITHIN NIGERIA recalls that Radda of the All Progressives Congress (APC) polled 859,892 votes to defeat Yakubu Lado of the PDP, who got 486,620 votes.
“I don’t like the word Excellency because one can only be called an Excellency after the administration has ended. At that time people will determine whether I am Excellent or not. So I think it’s better for people to call me Mr Governor than to call me His Excellency. I will prefer that and that will not put my head somewhere.
“I want to be as normal as anybody because I don’t want that thing (Excellency) to get into my head. That is why I don’t want the word Excellency attached to my name now but I will prefer if people can call me Mr Governor or my name Mallam Dikko Radda,” he said.
Speaking on his agenda for the state, Radda said security will be the top priority of his administration, noting that no development can take place without security.
“Our focus area is insecurity. We Want to tackle the issue of security in Katsina State. This is our major area of concern,” he said.
Katsina State is one of the states most affected by banditry in the country. Over the past couple of years, bandits operating in the area have killed several and even engaged in mass adoption for ransom.
“I want to also establish an agency like SMEDAN which will be under the office of the governor so that I can handle it seriously and ensure that it is effective down to the people. And then we also want to look at the internally generated revenue.
“We don’t want a situation whereby the state will continue to rely on the federal allocation for its activities. We also want to look at the internally generated revenue (IGR) and land reforms.
“We want to review our land and also review our master plan so that we can have a state of our dream, a capital of our dream, and this is the policy direction of our administration,” Radda said.
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