100 days full of learning and discovery ― Kwara gov

Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara state has described his first 100 days in office as a learning and discovery process, saying that his administration met nothing to build on.

Speaking with journalists on his 100 days in office in Ilorin on Thursday, Governor Abdulrazaq said that he had to jettison his campaign manifesto and redrafted the whole development programme to meet urgent needs in the state, adding that all sectors of the state had collapsed before he came into power.

“We inherited a state with abysmal records on all fronts. People of Baruten often have to visit the neighbouring Benin Republic to access medical care. In Ilorin, the state capital, thousands of troop to the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital for minor health issues. The General Hospital in Ilorin, the state’s premier hospital, didn’t even have water— much fewer drugs or basic facilities to attend to millions of people. The state had spent over N6billion on water without result. Children sit on the floor to learn in schools with thatched roofs. Retirees were not getting paid. Ministries, departments and parastatals of government had nothing to work with. Public facilities were sold out to cronies of the defeated dynasty at ridiculous prices”, the governor said.

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The governor, who said that Colleges of Education in the state are back to work after payment of staff salaries and arrears owed by the last administration, added that N450million debt was paid to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to readmit Kwara state and enable it to benefit about N14 billion loan to improve capacity and infrastructure.

He also said that the state government recently paid N232million counterpart funds to address child and maternal health problems, malnutrition, and malaria adding that the step was to enable it access the Basic Healthcare Provisions Fund to provide subsidised healthcare, especially for the poor and the vulnerable.

“Dozens of roads have been fixed in the state capital to ease the movement of people and goods. The Oke Foma bridge has been fixed, ending years of suffering of communities long cut off from other parts of the state capital. Having paid the first tranche of N200m counterpart funds, Kwara will now benefit from the $60m Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project III of the World Bank. Contractors are now back to site to fix the Gwanara Road, in Baruten. The Coca Cola Road in Ilorin, long abandoned by the previous administration, has now been fixed.

“Two different courts — one in Center Igboro and the other in Sango — have been rehabilitated. Efforts are ongoing to build more courtrooms and renovate the derelict ones.

“Bids have opened for the construction of 13 major roads across the three senatorial districts. Kwara is pitching to benefit from the N200billion Central Bank of Nigeria ‘innovation hub’ fund for investment in textile and creative industries — an initiative specifically targeted at the youth and women.

Holistic equipping of the Ilorin General Hospital is on the cards as we plan to convert it to a tertiary hospital ahead of the expected take-off of medical programmes at the Kwara State University, Malete. When completed, the hospital will be the launchpad for telemedicine in Kwara.

Talks are ongoing with the African Development Bank on the construction of Kosubosu-Lafiagi road, a project certain to reduce travel time within the expansive Kwara North and shore up investments in the axis. Owing to his leg works, the state may also benefit from $200m energy project for National Electrification and transmission lines and a $50m facility to support SMEs, especially women-owned enterprises.