Date: 2014-08-10

Anyone that has been following the unusual government in the state of Osun would not be surprised that the Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola won his re-election bid convincingly. Here in the state of Kwara, an undiscerning observer would be forgiven if he or she thinks Aregbesola has been in power for more than one term; yet, the Ogbeni is in his first term just like Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara state.

The difference lies is in the way both men have approached their jobs. While Abdulfatah Ahmed has been sleeping on the job, doing the biddings of his godfather - Senator Bukola Saraki and practically been on sabbatical from governance since May 29, 2011, Ogbeni has been feeding school children, upgrading basic education and opening new frontiers.

Besides the glaring fact that the Peoples' Democratic Party in Osun fielded a weak candidate in Otunba Iyiola Omisore, the party lost the election gallantly. With his character defects and moral questions hanging on his head, the PDP machinery gave a good account of themselves. Lest we forget, in Ekiti, despite being a sitting Governor, Kayode Fayemi was trashed by the PDP challenger.

Back to Kwara, AbdulFatah Ahmed like Bukola Saraki before him is a wolf in sheep's clothing. In collaboration with his godfather, AbdulFatah Ahmed and crew are allegedly stealing Kwara blind over the last three and half years.

His signature projects are KWABES, International Vocation Centre in Ajasse Ipo and QuickWin. <>Kwara Bridge Employment Scheme:
This is a bridge employment scheme designed to give temporary succor to thousands of unemployed Kwarans but in AbdulFatah Ahmed and Bukola Saraki's grand way of deceit; this otherwise laudable initiative was sabotaged in-house by the duo.

First, the recruitment process into KWABES is not transparent. The young people that ends up been accepted are not given any productive schedule. They are largely idle and in some cases serve as messengers for the permanent staff members. The stipend at N10,000 is too meagre to make any tangible impact on the lives of the recipients

The scheme is characterized by fraud as exemplified by too many ghost employees on the payroll of KWABES. In all, about N50,000,000 is allegedly misappropriated through this scheme every month which brings the total to N600,000,000 yearly. In the last three years of the AbdulFatah Ahmed administration, about 2 billion Naira have been allegedly misappropriated through this fraudulent scheme.

International Vocational Centre:
Another laudable initiative hampered by the kleptomaniac behaviour of AbdulFatah Ahmed and his crew. This is a multi–billion Naira project that has been going on for years with no visible completion date. Another drawback of the project is that the idea of building one gigantic vocational centre was ill conceived. The administration would have done better by providing 16 smaller, well equipped facilities for each local government area. This would have been a better use of the billions of Naira expended and will bring vocational education to the door step of the intended beneficiaries quickly and efficiently.

In any case, we should also be vigilant hence this international vocational centre is priced out of the reach of young Kwarans.

Like Bukola Saraki before him, any project embarked upon by this group of rent seekers have been primarily designed to profit them and their allies while leaving Kwarans with the bill. Think, Aviation College, Ilorin; Kwara state University, Malete; Harmony Diagnostic, Ilorin and of course, the cash draining - Shonga Farms - that is yet to give a single kobo back into the coffers of the Kwara state government after close to ten years of investing Kwara funds into the farm.

QuickWin:
The QuickWin initiative is another scandalous idea that emanated from the office of the Senior Special Assistant on Youth Empowerment. It was designed to be an upgraded version of KWABES with a new vocational training twist. Because of the duplicitous ways of the AbdulFatah Ahmed administration, this new initiative is bogged down in bureaucracy and also sabotaged in-house.

Lack of transparency in the selection process. The young people that were chosen to be trained in various vocational skills have been betrayed by their own government - the N50,000 per head that was earmarked and released by the Kwara state government for each trainee have been allegedly slashed by the office of the SSG, the SSA-Youth Empowerment and other vested interests in the AbdulFatah Ahmed administration.

Because the training fees were slashed by the aforementioned, the participating institutions (Kwara State University and Kwara State Polytechnic) are threatening not to give their best effort into this project. The N50,000 per trainee was meant to be paid into the coffers of the institutions but the kleptomaniacs in the AbdulFatah Ahmed government have slashed it to N12,500 per trainee.

As it is, the QuickWin is another elaborate scheme from the stables of the Kwara state government.

In all, both AbdulFatah Ahmed and Bukola Saraki before him are conceited; corrupt individuals that will be rejected by the majority of Kwarans come February 2015. If anything, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola's resounding victory has demonstrated that the people have the ability to recognize good governance when presented with one. What we have had in Kwara in the last eleven years is a corrupt contraption that has shown scant regard to the aspirations of Kwara citizens and in 2015, Kwarans will reclaim their state from the hands of these dubious characters. You heard it here first, in 2015, here in the state of Kwara, the election would not be close. The people of Kwara are ready and will by the grace of God take back their state. I congratulate Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and I bring glad tidings to Kwarans 'ni tile toko'... Persevere because the end of the corrupt hegemony is in sight.

Abdullahi Imam Abdullahi writes from Ilorin