The Speaker of the House of Representatives Rt. Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, Ph.D., GCON, has flagged off the installation of solar systems to power hospitals, schools, security outposts, and other public facilities in Zaria Federal Constituency.
“To the people of Zaria, thank you for trusting me with your mandate. Thank you for keeping faith with me, supporting this work, and holding me to my promises. I do not take your trust for granted. I will keep listening to you, working for you, and bringing our needs before the nation. Together, we will finish what we have started and build a stronger Zaria,” he said.
Speaker Abbas said this in Zaria over the weekend at the unveiling of solar systems as well as commissioning and groundbreaking of constituency projects in the Zaria Federal Constituency of Kaduna State.
The projects included the commissioning of a 110 kVA solar installation at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Kongo Campus, as well as groundbreaking for the Zaria Education Development Association’s International Conference Hall and a modern skills acquisition centre, along with office accommodation for the National Directorate of Employment.
Highlighting the purposes of the projects, the Speaker said, “A hospital cannot pause treatment when the lights go out. A student cannot stop an examination and wait for power. A workshop cannot operate in the dark. That is why we are here today.”
He continued, “Power to keep essential services running. A hall to give learning and public debate a proper home. A centre to turn training into trade. And an office to bring the Federal Government’s employment services closer to the people who need them. Four different needs. One community, made stronger.”
The Speaker explained that the solar systems “will go where they are needed most: our health facilities, our schools, our security posts, our mosques, and our churches.”
He said, “In a clinic, light allows a nurse to treat a patient at midnight. In a classroom, power keeps a lesson going and a lamp burning over a child’s books. At a security post, light is the difference between watching and guessing. These are small machines. They carry large consequences.”
Speaker Abbas noted that the solar installations would be managed by young constituents who have been trained to handle them.
“I am glad that young people from Zaria were trained to install these systems themselves. Panels need care. Batteries need checking. Faults need fixing. When our own youths can install and repair what we commission, the investment lasts longer, and the skill stays here. We are not only buying equipment. We are building capacity,” he said.
Also speaking on the skills acquisition centre, Speaker Abbas stated that “training must lead to trade, and trade must lead to a living.”
He said, “I want young women and men to leave that centre able to solve a problem, serve a customer, and earn an honest wage. Give our artisans tools. Give our learners tutors. Let employers come looking for talent, and let them find it here in Zaria.”
At the Kongo Campus of the Ahmadu Bello University, the Speaker noted that “steady power means staff who can work and students who can study.”
At ZEDA, he said the new hall “gives our teachers, our scholars, and our community associations a room worthy of them. Zaria has been a centre of learning for centuries. Our facilities should match our standing. A good idea should never have to compete with the noise of a generator.”
“A national policy is only as good as the difference it makes on a street where people live. In Zaria, that difference is power for our institutions, space for our learning and skills that lead to work. As your representative, and as Speaker of the House of Representatives, my duty is to turn national ambition into local reality,” he said.
While pointing out that “nobody is pretending the work is finished,” the Speaker stated that “for the first time, we have a way of carrying power to places the old grid never reached.”
He added, “The same thinking guides everything I do across this constituency. Roads carry the farmer to the market. Clinics carry care closer to the family. Schools give a child a stronger start. Skills give a young person a living. And power allows every one of them to function. I want each investment to support the next, so Zaria rises together.”
