By Suleiman Olatunji Buhari

It is exactly two years that the Government of Mr. Abdulfatah Ahmed berthed in Kwara state. Like play like play, what looked like eternity is gradually coming to a close. Indisputably, two years is huge and impactful in the life of a public administration. Political history across ages has it that whatever is achieved in the first two years of a public administrator is what is original to him. The rest, as the saying goes, is a mess! Whether this will be true in the life of the Abdulfatah Ahmed-led administration is just a matter of time. And this is partly why I have considered it expedient to make a thorough analysis of the life of an administration that heralded so cautious a hope at inception but which hope and passion enthused then by the public has sadly given way to cynicism and hopelessness.

Mr. Abdulfatah Ahmed made a host of promises in his election manifestoes in 2011, including the promise to restore the agricultural sector to its full capacity. He committed himself to ensuring decent standards of life through, amongst other means, job creation, reasonable salaries and the participation of women and young people in the political cum economic activities of the state. He promised, too, to adhere to the principles of good governance, transparency and accountability and to stamp out violence as a means of winning elections.

But, instead of sticking to the core business of governance, Mr Ahmed and his retinue of political bootlickers saw the government as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to feather their own nests. With their hands in the till, issues of transparency and accountability have taken the backseat. Not only has his government failed to propose a coherent plan for reform or to prepare the public for it, Mr Ahmed and his party have tried to muscle opposition views and public spirited critics, using much the same methods as did his predecessor.

The PDP-led government's performance score-card on the economy, security, education, youth employment, health care delivery and infrastructural development reveals an overall dismal failure that is second to none in the forty six years history of the state. Never before has the state been heavily knocked under negative media spotlight as now, not to talk of the damning reports on the dire state of the Kwara state liquidity rating by relevant government agencies. It will therefore not be out of place to analyze a few of the growth parameters vis-à-vis the assessment of the government in the year under review.   

On the economy, the state has had to be riddled under the yoke of debt, both domestic and foreign, leading inevitably to the unsavory rating of the Kwara debt portfolio by relevant supervisory agencies. In the year under review, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) blacklisted the Kwara State Government from further enjoying credit facilities from financial institutions in the country, due largely to its inability to liquidate its debt to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigerian (AMCON). And as if that was not damaging enough, the Debt Management Office, a statutory body that oversees the debt portfolio of the country, in its Annual Debt Sustainability Report (2012), categorized the Kwara State debt sustainability ratio in the YELLOW category, indicating that the state is tottering dangerously around the insolvency bar. But inspite of all these timely alarms, the government of Messrs Abdulfatah Ahmed still went ahead to guarantee yet another multi-billion Naira foreign loan with the EXIM Bank of China and India ostensibly to procure fifteen additional aircraft for the elitist Aviation College! Sources in the Presidency made me understand that the proposal for the loan is already on the verge of being granted by the creditor multinational Bank in active connivance of Vice-President Namadi Sambo, who incidentally is the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the DMO that raised the latest alert on Kwara financial records! This is without prejudice to the over ten Billion Naira facility earlier sought by the same government from commercial banks in the country. It will therefore not be surprising if the state, in the coming years, graduate from the yellow to the pink category, which is an indication of outright unsustainability.

On security, the ugly incidence of this week, where an innocent student of Kwara State Polytechnic was shot by a trigger happy policeman is one in a long line of senseless but avoidable security breaches that the state has experienced in the years under review. Yesterday's is definitely a perfect birthday gift for a government that has failed woefully in its primary responsibility of securing lives and property of its citizens. The rate at which precious lives are lost in the state under the watch of Messrs Abdulfatah Ahmed is second to none in the history of the state. From senseless cult clashes to armed robbery, from ritual killing to alarming rate of gangsterism, and now horrendous communal clashes that clearly bears the imprimatur of the ruling elite, the state has never had it so bad!

The government has not faired better in education, health care delivery and infrastructure development. It is saddening to note that after more than ten years of PDP leadership of the state, Kwara state is still rated as one of the 'educationally less advantaged states' by relevant supervisory agencies of government. This is not unexpected in a state where there is acute paucity of qualified teachers, and where the few engaged are still being employed not on merit, but on partisan basis! Where contract for classrooms construction or renovation are still hardly awarded except almost half of the contract sum is given back as 'thank you'. Is anybody surprised about the very shoddy job being done in the schools? How the Governor moves around commissioning these classrooms, without raising questions on their quality really leaves much to be desired. A 21st century Governor?

The state health care system is the worst hit. With a ratio of one doctor to one hundred and twenty patients according to a recent independent analysis, the capacity of the medical personnel in government owned health institutions have been stretched beyond the acceptable. And instead of the government to recruit more competent hands to breach this gap, it has strangely been retrenching its medical workforce, thereby compounding the already festering situation. 

When Messrs Abdulfatah Ahmed mouthed the 'legacy continues' mantra towards the build-up to the last general elections, little did we know that it was going to be a continuation of more unsustainable debts, bloated cabinet, priority misplacement, insecurity, rent-seeking political patronage and a Public-Private-Partnership arrangement that places zero premium on the interest of the poor masses, while fraudulently empowering a few entrenched interest. Kwarans have, albeit in the hard way, finally learnt the shocking truth about the duplicity, thievery and moral bankruptcy that is another name for the Abdulfatah Ahmed-led administration of the state in the last two years.

From a vantage viewpoint, I believe that there are a few reasons connected to this woeful failure by the Abdulfatah Ahmed-led government to deliver. Firstly, Mr. Abdulfatah Ahmed stumbled on his coveted position on the crest of a self-serving godfather, with virtually no expertise in governance. This dreadful failure to deliver on his election promises has not just disappointed his own party supporters but has also caused the people's trust and confidence in government affairs generally to evaporate.

The source of Kwarans' cynicism is not hard to find; they despise the inauthentic, the remote-controlled and the zombie that their governor has sadly come to symbolize. And this is because most Kwarans believe very rightly that their Governor is a simple pretense; that rather than being an institution dependent on the People, the governor has developed a pathological dependence on his predecessor in office who also arrogates to himself the toga of the godfather of the PDP politics in the state. This dependency has inevitably blocked reform of any kind original to Mr. Abdulfatah Ahmed. Since reform is always a change in the status quo, and it is the perpetuation of the status quo that the Abdulfatah administration is out to achieve, it is not surprising that Mr. Abdulfatah's government has been more of the same uninspiring and utterly clueless administration of his predecessor and godfather. It is almost difficult to discountenance insinuations from certain political interest in Mr. Abdulfatah own primary constituency, the Kwara South Senatorial District, that the imposition of his government is a deliberate plot by Senator Bukola Saraki to perpetuate himself in government, through an 'invalid', that is sure not the best the constituency can offer, from its arrays of its quality human resources, to fill the Kwara South gubernatorial slot!   

Abdulfatah Ahmed's problem is likeable to an alcoholic. He may be losing his family, his job and his liver. These are all serious problems. Indeed, they are among the worst problems anyone could face. But what we all understand about the dependency of alcoholism is that however awful these problems, the alcoholic cannot begin to solve them until he solves his first problem--alcoholism. In other words, irrespective of the other personal or group challenge that the 'Abdulfatah brand' may be bedeviled with, he has to first and foremost overcome his major stumbling block - the overbearing and undermining yoke of godfatherism. For if the wobbling and fumbling of the last two years that is passing as governance in the state is an indication of the best of  Mr. Abdulfatah Ahmed's political adventurism, it will be no brainer to conclude, albeit sadly, that it is but another opportunity missed for the good people of Kwara state. 

But he has a choice; a choice to rewrite his name in gold, and this will require him to take the bull by its horn. He must have the strength of character and the fortitude to change his government's ways of thinking, to be open and receptive to new ways of doing things. He will need to have the moral fibre to admit to his government mistakes, and the courage to make the adjustments when necessary.

In many crucial areas, tinkering will no longer suffice: he needs an overhaul to regain control over his own government, reduce lobbying, restore public planning and ensure the adequate financing of skilled public managers, and align public management systems with holistic strategies. The government has to make life easier for people to do business. There are too many roadblocks that hinder people. What is happening is that they are being taxed to death and chased from their places of business in the dubious claim of 'urban renewal', without providing viable alternatives. A lot of the small and medium-size entrepreneurs are suffering, and the earlier the government realizes this, the better for every one!

If he however decides to stick to his gun, decides to continue to pay the puppet in the hand of his political benefactor (manipulator?), then, he would have succeeded in writing his name in the infamous book of infamy. The joy for the people though, is that like those before him, his too shall pass, and the public epitaph on the 'tomb' of his government after its 'demise' shall then boldly reads; here lies the soul of a government where audacity fits nothing on its governance menu!

Suleiman Olatunji Buhari is the Chairman Kwara CPC