How Uba Sani Finally Closed Three Painful Chapters of Kaduna History

By Nasir Dambatta

From a repealed 66-year-old Mental Health law to a beoken 20-year road jinx and a 10 years-long electricity blackout, Governor Uba Sani is quietly closing painful chapters many thought would never end.

For years, Kaduna lived with problems that had become so old they were almost accepted as fate. Health laws written in colonial times continued to shape modern lives. Key roads were left to rot for two decades, cutting off communities and choking local economies. Entire areas endured years without electricity, forcing businesses to shut down early and families to live in darkness. These were not just inherited policy failures; they were open wounds in Kaduna’s history.

Let us examine how Governor Uba Sani has chosen to confront them head-on.

The first breakthrough came with the repeal of a 66-year-old mental health law that belonged to another era entirely. The outdated legislation treated mental health more as a crime than a medical condition, offering punishment where care was needed. By pushing through a new, humane legal framework, the Uba Sani administration sent a clear message: dignity matters, and governance must reflect modern realities. It was a bold move that corrected decades of neglect and placed Kaduna on the side of compassion and global best practice.

Then came the road many residents had given up on. For 20 years, it remained a symbol of abandonment—promised, postponed, and politicised. Businesses struggled, farmers lost access to markets, and entire communities felt forgotten. Uba Sani’s decision to break that jinx and deliver the road was beyond an infrastructure project; it was a restoration of trust. Movement returned, commerce picked up, and people saw proof that long-standing problems could still be solved.

Perhaps the most dramatic relief came with the end of a 10-year power blackout in affected communities. For a decade, darkness dictated daily life—schools, hospitals, traders, and artisans all paid the price. By restoring electricity, the government did more than flip a switch. It revived small businesses, improved security, extended productive hours, and returned a sense of normalcy to thousands of households.

The people of Kaduna will never forget this major leap in its clean energy drive from the very moment he commissioned a 100-kilowatt Solar Mini-Grid Project in Damau community, Kubau Local Government Area, ending over a decade of electricity deprivation in the area.

What makes these interventions stand out is not just their impact, but their symbolism. They show a pattern of leadership that refuses to manage decay and instead confronts it. Uba Sani’s approach is simple but powerful: identify what has lingered too long, and end it decisively.

In closing these three painful chapters, Governor Uba Sani has demonstrated that no problem is too old to be fixed, no neglect too deep to be reversed. Kaduna’s story is changing—not through noise, but through action. And for a state long burdened by unresolved issues, that change is nothing short of historic.

*Dambatta is Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Print Media