Governor Uba Sani has accepted the bid to host the 2026 Nigeria Public Relations Week, pledging that the event would be one of the best ever held.

Mr Sani made the commitment when he received the president of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, Ike Neliaku, and his delegation on a courtesy visit to Sir Kashim Ibrahim House.

The governor said Kaduna would nominate two government officials to serve on the national planning committee and three others to join the local organising committee.

He stated that the event’s theme, ‘Food Security: From Policy Paper to Public Plates: The Public Relations Imperatives’, aligned with the Kaduna Peace Model, which focuses on non-kinetic approaches to addressing insecurity.

Mr Sani said insecurity in the state was linked to economic hardship, food insecurity, and lack of hope, which his administration tackled through strategic investments in agriculture and social infrastructure.

He recalled that when he took office, agriculture received less than one per cent of the state’s budget.

Mr Sani said, “However, the current administration had increased the allocation to 12 per cent, surpassing the 10 per cent benchmark set by the Malabo Declaration.”

According to him, agriculture contributes 43 per cent of Kaduna State’s GDP and employs about 60 per cent of the population.

“Over 500,000 hectares of land have been reclaimed, and farmers have returned to their farms,” he said.

Mr Sani added that Kaduna was the first sub-national in Nigeria to launch a Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone aimed at transforming agriculture into a high-value sector and generating jobs.

The governor also disclosed that the state was partnering Afreximbank to establish an Agricultural Quality Assurance Centre to improve post-harvest handling and market access. He said that 192 primary healthcare centres and all schools that were previously shut due to insecurity had been reopened in the last two years.

Mr Sani said that peace had returned to formerly volatile areas like Birnin Gwari and Giwa, where economic activities had resumed.

He added that the UK government had recently upgraded Kaduna’s security status from “red” to “amber”, lifting travel restrictions initially imposed in 2022.

“While our citizens and development partners are celebrating peace, conflict entrepreneurs are clearly uncomfortable with these gains,” he said.

Earlier, Mr Neliaku said Kaduna was selected to host the 2026 Public Relations Week after a rigorous evaluation, with Kano on standby as an alternative.

He said the PR Week, which started in Abeokuta and moved to Uyo for its second edition, would be foundational to Nigeria’s hosting of the World Public Relations Forum in November 2026.

“This will be the second time the World Forum is coming to Africa and the first time to Nigeria,” he said.

Mr Neliaku also revealed that Nigeria was working with the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication to establish the world’s first university of public relations and leadership.

(NAN)