Maigida’s unfolding legacies in Kwara

This is not the best of times for Nigerian Governors. The salaries and pensions debacle has ensured that many chief executives of states will not win a popularity contest.

As he marked his 53rd birthday, typically without any fanfare, last Thursday,  the Governor of Kwara State, Dr.  Abdulfatah Ahmed (a.k.a Maigida) and his team were reflecting  deeply on the workers’ challenge and his unfolding legacy.

Gov.  Ahmed shunned birthday merry-making to present his 2017 budget to the state House of Assembly. That’s a clear indication that he  understands what his budget performance next year holds for his legacy.

To be sure,  over the past five and a half years,  Maigida has shown that he is the true first political son of Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki( CON), the Senate President and the new Grandmaster of Kwara politics.

Gov.  Ahmed learnt the art of governance directly from the master. He was Saraki’s influential Honourable Commissioner for Finance for 7 years. The godfather later moved him, in the twilight of his 8 years, two-term tenure in office,  to the then novel Ministry of Planning and Economic Development to learn the practicals of governance.

As a government of continuity (Legacy Continues), Gov. Ahmed’s priority in his first term was completing the projects inherited from his predecessor.  Maigida delivered, clinically,  on that.

The governor has devoted his second and final term to his own legacy projects and landmarks including road projects, the Ilorin underpass, the International vocational Center, Ajase-ipo, the campuses of the state-owned university ( KWASU) in southern and northern senatorial districts, among others.

The second-term has not been exactly smooth-sailing because of the nation’s financial meltdown. But the financial expertise and exemplary creativity of Gov. Ahmed has seen his administration forging ahead with its programmes and projects.

From the new internal revenue initiative to the infrastructure fund; the new Alsphat plant to the workers’ salaries clean up at state and local government levels, you can see a genius at work.

Maigida got into office as a decent,  humble and competent technocratic.  He has sustained that reputation.

But in my view,  Maigida’s legacies are still unfolding. He will be judged by his Administration’s enthronement of transparency,  competency and equity in public service as much as the key projects with his footprints.

The creation of Kwara State Revenue Service (KWRS) is a masterstroke in the public service arena. With quality leadership and competent staff,  the Dr. Murtala Awodun-led agency has been a good thing to happen to Kwara.

Kwrs wears a humane face and it’s working partnership with the paying public is a testament to the vision of it’s creator.

Hopefully,  the revenue agency will continue to be insulated from politics so that it does not become a politicised, integrity-challenged public outfit.

Although the benefits will roll in more after the current governor has exited, kwrs will be remembered as a legacy of Maigida›s administration.

The Harmony Holdings Ltd follows in the same footstep.  It is a conglomerate driven by vision, knowledge and uncanny business sense. Kudos to Maigida. The once-bankrupt public companies are now doing well under the Harmony management.

The Kwara infrastructural development fund(IF-K) is like a wonder from the Mars.  It’s creation is a stroke of ingenuity as it sidetracks the impotent conventional funding channels  and seeks funding of capital projects through public private partnership (PPP).

IF-K  is already a Maigida legacy,  having secured the nod of the state House of Assembly to become a legal reality.

Legacy projects are a little difficult to assess now.  Obviously,  the International Vocational Centre,  Ajassepo,  is the flagship. It is such a delight that the project many had written off as, at best, doubtful, has been completed and handed over by the contractor to the government.

The IVC will not just be a Kwara heritage, it is a great gift to the people of Kwara South senatorial District where Gov.  Ahmed comes from. It’s leadership, staffing and student enrolment must however, visibly benefit the catchment area.

The N2b Ilorin Underpass project and N6b Operation Light Up Kwara (to be funded by KWSG over 10 Years) could easily become Maigida’s legacy projects if they pass the scrutiny of the state House of Assembly in the 2017 budget appropriation bill.

It is a burden of leadership that every one holds the state chief executive liable for the failings of others. Gov. Ahmed pays mainstream civil servants regularly but he is still held responsible for salary default affecting local government staff,  primary school teachers and workers in quasi- government agencies.

The state government has devoted over 45 percent of the N5b Paris refund it received from the federal government( nearly 50 percent above the 25 percent advised by President Muhammadu Buhari) to pay accumulated salaries.  But the ex-councillors, council workers, pensioners and others outside the mainstream are still baying for some blood.  The governor must find a lasting solution to their plight.

Maigida has no known political aspirations but there is no gainsaying the fact that his political future rests on how well he is able to resolve the salaries/pension quagmire as much as the key projects that define his tenure.

Gov. Ahmed is ever unfazed by challenges and has shown a capacity to think outside the box in governing the state.  Those are good attributes for success.

Best wishes and Happy Birthday to the People’s Governor,  MaigidaNkwara.

Adedoyin sent this piece from Ilorin.