Abdulrazaq: Creating Opportunities in Kwara.

By Babatunde Opoola.

The saying that if wishes were horses, beggars would ride,aptly captures the urgency with which the Kwara State Government applies itself to providing the dividends of democracy for the people. Unfortunately, wishes are no horses. Just as horses do not come cheap, so also the government needs the political will, a lot of it, to translate vision to reality.

The major dilemma that confronted Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq at the inception of his administration was how to match words with action, given the meagre revenue from the Federation Account and a monthly internally generated revenue,IGR, that was a mere pitiance.

So the first challenge the governor had to address was how to shore up the state’s finances to be able to achieve his set objectives. With a sense of mission and clear vision, Abdulrazaq rose to the occasion, blocking all leakages in the system and leveraging on other sources of revenue which had hitherto not been tapped or blacklisted because of impropriety.

It was with huge task at hand that Abdulrazaq assumed the office of the governor and drove himself to his inauguration. His political outlook was forged from the streets, setting to bring back government to the people. He did not ride in tinted cars, 14 months after assumption of office, the Kwara State Governor still drives his personal vehicles.

He wanted his people to see his face as he rode by and he wanted to be able to look at their faces and remember that they were the reason d’être for his being in office.

Earlier in the month, Kwara ranked 4th Economic Viable State Behind Lagos, Ogun and Rivers states. The Economic Confidential released the Annual States Viability Index (ASVI) which showed that seven States are insolvent as their Internally Generated Revenues (IGR) in 2019 were far below 10% of their receipts from the Federation Account Allocations (FAA) in the same year. This index further showed that only three states in the entire Northern region have IGR above 20% in comparison to their respective allocations from the Federation Account. They are Kwara, Kaduna and Kano States in that order. The index which was carefully and painstakingly computed proved that without the monthly disbursement from the Federation Account Allocation Committee ,FAAC, many states remain unviable, and cannot survive without the federally collected revenue, mostly from the oil sector.

Interestingly also, the employment indices rolled out by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, for the second quarter of 2020 (April-June) on Friday, August 14th, postulate that Kwara’s unemployment rate slowed from 21.1% to 13.8%, showcasing the state with one of the lowest indices of unemployment in the whole of Nigeria. These recent statistics from the NBS emphasize Governor Abdulrazaq’s enduring legacies of creating employment opportunities for Kwarans.

In 14 months of his administration, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq has done a lot to create more jobs for the people of the state while also re-engineering their social, environmental and psychological mindset. One other area the government is creating opportunities is in partnership with the Dangote Foundation for micro grants to the rural women. The Government says it has met all the requirements governing the disbursement of the Foundation’s Micro-Grants for 16,000 rural women across the State, ultimately attracting N160m grants for the rural women.

Towards creating a virile, dynamic and results oriented civil service, the AbdulRazaq’s administration has approved promotion exercise for Kwara civil servants. The State Governor approved 2019 promotion exercise for all state government workers, including serving deputy directors. This exercise, for which the Governor has approved funding, is part of the Governor’s efforts to restoring the glory and pride of the civil service. It is an exercise geared towards motivating the civil servants to be at their best at all time.

These achievements recorded in the two months of his second year are by no means exhaustive, but the best is yet to come in Abdulrazaq’s pursuit of the greatest happiness for the greater number of people. With sustained political will and popularity to sustain the gains made in the first year, Abdulrazaq will continue to break new grounds.

Therefore, the second year running will definitely usher in greater advances to make kwara State better, building on the progress of the last one year for a better today towards a greater tomorrow for ourselves and our children.