Date: 2014-08-30

The current Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, was an established technocrat before he ventured into politics. He was the Commissioner for Finance under the administration of the Dr. Bukola Saraki, whom he eventually succeeded as governor in 2011. In this interview with SANYA ONI and DELE ADEOSUN, he relives his experience in the saddle and bares his mind on other salient issues.

You were a banker before you ventured into politics, can you relate your experience having tasted the two worlds- the private sector and public office?

The two jobs have similarities in the sense that both have set goals and objectives to be attained. In the private sector, the goals are largely driven by profit and optimal return for shareholders. But in the public sector, it is about service delivery. That is why we see a clear cut difference between them. However, in the area of management, that is, utilisation of human materials to obtain desired goals, there are not much differences. All one needs to do is to understand set goals, the pathways that will lead to the set goals. Which means the understanding of your input capacity, strength, weaknesses, and with that framework, formulate a process that will put to optimal use, available resources to meet up with set goals. By and large, I will say that the private sector experience had prepared me for public service.

That is because the private sector is largely run dispassionately but driven by the desire to meet set goals. The discipline of resource utilisation now becomes handy when you come to public sector.

The public sector, like I said earlier, is about service delivery. It is about understanding how resources are harnessed, and how this is made to meet up with areas where people have need for it. Our needs have been broken down to three key areas. Human capital development, economic development and, of course, infrastructural development. Resources to carry on requirement in these areas are critically reviewed, harnessed, put together and optimally allocated through an encapsulated budget which is made available every year.

So in human management, it is not different, but in set goals, it is different. However, it is not everything that comes with political activities. It sometimes may sound paradoxical, in the real sense, it just leads you to meet up with the set goals for the time frame that you are allowed. So by and large, I can say both experiences complement one another in driving and fulfilling the expectations.

The last two years have been most challenging for states across the federation in terms of resource inflow. How have you been able to cope in the face of mounting expectations of governance?

Firstly, I want to let you know clearly that expectations have always been increasing. Not for any other reason than the population is growing. So there is pressure on the available resources. Ordinarily, the resources should be growing along side the population growth. But unfortunately, it has not grown to match. You find out that there has been heavy reliance on the federally allocated funds. For individual states, our capacity to drive the internally generated revenue is also limited. The biggest spender in most states is the state government. Our clear effort is in trying to see how to build a private sector-driven environment. It takes a while before you get there.

Lagos has been able to get there, at least almost there. Getting to create a commercial environment also requires the deployment of resources to create the enabling environment. It has been tough in the last two years because of the reduction in allocation. What has helped us largely is strategic fund management. We have been working on not putting pressure on our people and at the same time being able to drive our revenue in terms of internally generated revenue, which has improved. This has improved significantly. That has helped to augment the reduction in the federal allocated funds.

But most importantly, it has required strategic management which sees us having a sound cash flow management system. The pressure we get, especially with the increasing demands, is huge. Infrastructure has not been managed in the past 15 to 30 years. Not that they have not been built; they have not been managed. That has taken us to the breaking down of infrastructure. Most often than not, we found out that we had to start all over again. Demand for education has been on the increase as more children are born.

Unfortunately, we kept looking back at the ones that we had built. We had to bring them up to the standard that meets up with best practices today. There is huge demand for water. More people are coming in. We are still battling with completing Ilorin metropolis water project. It is a N7billion project, which was funded through the last loan we just paid off to the tune of N5billion. Now, we are looking at getting the additional N2billion to take it to completion level which will allow for full utilisation and availability of water. In the interim, temporary measures have been made through the little support scheme that we were able to come up with, sinking of boreholes here and there and supply of tankers. But the ultimate goal is to put the metropolis water project into proper use so that people can access portable drinking water.

For roads, that has not been a different story. Our roads have not been properly maintained. The lack of maintenance in the last 25 years has put so much pressure on state, federal and even the local governments. The Federal Government has not been able to carry out its own part of the road maintenance and construction on the federal roads. I know that there is a lot of pressure on the Federal Government and the state is also facing a similar challenge. But we have been able to go a little bit ahead of the Federal Government by driving the local governments and ensuring that they also get roles to play in the construction and rehabilitation of road, along side with the state. That give us energy where funds are sourced from both sides and used for roads.

We have been able to do quite a number of roads in Kwara North Central; we have done quite a lot in the South Central District. And we had to do this systematically. That is because there are areas where some of our projects have not been carried out. Not because we do not have intention to carry out projects there, but because we are constrained by resources. But we have been telling our people that those who have not got these projects, will get them. We will take the next level of development to ensure that such people’s needs are encapsulated in our plan and they enjoy these projects when we complete them. But they may not all be carried out at the same time. If government can carry all its projects at the same time, with its available resources, then it would have been very easy. Then anybody can run government. But the main problem is in resource constraints. And then the capacity to utilise these resources to meet the set goals in the face of growing recurrent expenditure. The real sector has not been active in employing people. So, government has had to complement this effort through creating jobs. Ordinarily, government shouldn't be in the business of creating jobs.

That takes us to the area of skills training and acquisition; We have read a lot about the Ajase-Ipo International Vocation Centre. What is the strategy and how does this fit into the larger vision of youth empowerment?

This strategy is in line with what we saw as driving educational development in Kwara. The administration looked beyond education being seen as just primary, secondary and university education. Being able to look at it in the context of how our education can help our youths in applying themselves in our society today. It has served us very little. If you look at it in terms of those who have been able to move from primary to secondary to tertiary levels, quite a huge number are left mid stream at the level of early school leavers. Unfortunately, the system is not designed to help such early school leavers to acquire skills. So, they form unemployable youths. We started by looking at the commonest skills that could be applied in this part of the country even elsewhere to include electrification, refrigeration, air-conditioning, bricklaying, carpeting; we have seen a huge gap in skill knowledge. Why are the Togolese or the Ghanaians better than us in these things? It is because they have a better plan for learning these things. What stops us from having these platforms? And that is what pushed us into setting up an international vocation centre where are youths can go and learn skills. These skills will drive them into becoming entrepreneurs. We have also supported it with a funding window to jumpstart them as entrepreneurs. This is put together under our micro-credit scheme that is managed through micro-finance banks. We didn't stop there. We looked at the current skill acquisition centres across the state where some are learning mechanic and a lot of informal trade. So we decided to register these master trainers. And we designed the curriculum for them across 33 skills. This will standardise knowledge acquisition and service delivery. So, to a large extent, we know that skill acquisition has started to meet an expectation where it is left for them to move on to the next level. So, we got them encapsulated into co-operatives and these can access funds from our micro-finance loans that we have put together.

That will see another cream of entrepreneurs being jumpstarted and driven to a high altitude and will culminate in a bigger picture of what our economic system should be like. This will be structured to suit the strength of the environment in terms of natural resources, the skills of the people, the location of the state in the North Central. We are the gateway between the North and the South of the country. So, what roles can we play there? Our entrepreneurs, what are the services that will be required in civil/mechanical engineering, electrical, refrigeration, air-conditioning, building, welding? All these skills will turned out from Ajase-Ipo centre.

The schools are the next level; for those who will turn out as early school leavers or those who have left school or not gainfully employed or those who desire on their own to want to build certain skills, that school will be readily available. Now, what is the interesting thing about that school? We have structured it to benchmark international standard because we recognise the fact that whatever should make a Ghanaian to come here to deliver service should also make a Nigerian to go there to deliver service. And what will make them marketable internationally is to make them have recognisable certificates. So, we come out with a structure that will make them to be able to write a C&G exam as external candidates, obtain that certificate and be able to become employable outside the shores of Nigeria. They can go as far as the Middle East, Asia, Europe, America and work there. This is one area that we are working on to care for the army of unemployed youths that are being created in this country. No thanks to the fact that not taking care of them can only translate to a menace and a security challenge as we currently see in the north eastern part of the country and other parts of the North. So, in order to nip this thing in the bud, we begin to put up platforms for the youth to see themselves as potential entrepreneurs. In less than six months, you are going to complete your first term. Looking back, you have talked about taking care of unemployed youths and some projects.

What other areas do you consider as the high points of your administration in the last three and half years?

Right from inception, we have systematically broken down the things we would do for the people in key areas that are expressed in human capital. What do we have to do to support human capital development to make the environment better? The two critical areas we looked at there were education and health. I have just spoken to you on how we have been driving education to support the system. In formal education, we have set up the engineering faculty in Kwara State University. The faculty is not only designed to turn out engineers but also to support skill acquisition through short-term entrepreneurship schemes. The school is being taken to completion level. For secondary schools, we have renovated over 400 classrooms to enable our female students have access to education. The classrooms have been allocated furniture accordingly.

We have also decided to look at how to train the trainers by setting an education resource centre. It is a platform where the teachers are made to go through refresher courses and new ways of teaching skills, especially in the sciences. So we set up a first class rescue centre that can serve that purpose. Now, another human capital develop is health. We looked at health and came out with a policy that nobody should move more than 500 metres to have access to primary health care. And the health care we want to deliver is primary, secondary and tertiary. In our understanding, we said let us have one specialist hospital in each of the state’s senatorial districts, which have been established.

The last administration did some work in driving primary health care, driving primary health care centres, basic clinics in every nook and cranny of the senatorial districts. So, when we came, do not forget that we came in with a slogan of continuity, we looked at where the last administration stopped and then picked it from there. The next level of support came in handy in putting the hospitals in proper shape.

Our first idea was to set up new general hospitals. In doing that, what did we really want? We went round, and decided that it will not make any economic sense to phase out the old ones. It wouldn't make social sense for us to begin building new ones when the old ones were at levels not commensurate with the service that they were supposed to deliver. Most of them had not been touched in terms of renovation in the last 20 years. Equipment there were extremely down. So, we felt that we should review the status of the existing general hospitals, bring them to current levels, then look at areas of need for new ones before establishing new ones. And that saw us putting out five general hospitals immediately. We have one each in Shaare, Omu-Aran, Kaima, Offa, and of course, Ilorin.

The Ilorin own is more interesting because when the University of Ilorin came on in 1975, it took over the general hospital Ilorin as their teaching hospital to support the medical school; so that saw Ilorin and its environs not having a general hospital. Unfortunately, the teaching hospital had to be moved to its permanent site. By the time that movement took place, what was left behind was a carcass, an old building that has been there for the last 40 years with nothing. We decided to renovate it to a standard that can compete favourably with a good general hospital across the country. That is why you see that more resources were spent in driving the Ilorin General Hospital. We were lucky that we enjoyed some level of credit, that enabled us to get the equipment here.

Today, it stands out as one of the best general hospitals in Nigeria. When I travelled to Saudi Arabia, my son had a fracture, I insisted that he be taken to the General Hospital, Ilorin, and that was where he was treated. That is to tell you that we have been able to create an environment where I personally believe in. And I have demonstrated it. An important part of health delivery is diagnosis and that has been a huge challenge which has robbed us of a huge foreign exchange with our people travelling to foreign lands to seek for diagnosis and treatment. We have very qualified personnel in Nigeria, but the capacity to drive proper diagnosis is limited because that is finance related. We saw that gap and that led us into setting up the International Diagnosis Centre.

Some people may say that some of the programmes that we have carried out are somehow elitist. It is not elitist per se. They are programmes designed by those who can read between the lines and also think outside the box. We are able to look at the larger picture and see the gaps that are in the system. In the economic system, where are the gaps? In the social system, where are the gaps? Understanding those gaps made us to come out with areas of our advantage and driving areas of strength and that saw us setting up the International Diagnosis Centre.

And I am happy to let you know that it is one of the best in the country today and it has tremendously supported the health care delivery system. It does not only serve Kwara State but the whole country and even West Africa. It has come as a major source of savings of foreign exchange for people who hitherto would have gone abroad for diagnosis.

That is one leg; another leg is the support that we have given to the health sector. Of course, we have done a lot of recruitment of health personnel, ranging from consultants to doctors, nurses, paramedics across the state. And we have improved their environment. In terms of infrastructure, we can look back and be proud of our road construction. We met quite a number of roads as on-going road projects. And in our slogan of continuity, we ensured that these roads were followed up to completion and useable. Typical of such is the road that leads to Offa Garage and quite a lot of other roads like that. We have Lafiaji township roads.

After that, we started work on the ones that we started. Some have been completed, while some are still on-going. It has been slowed down a bit for some reasons. The first reason is because we are in the rainy season, while the second reason is because there has been reduction in our funds. That has slowed down our capacity and arsenal to make road construction and water. Our policy has been no one should go past 500 meters in search of water. We have been working on sources of water, that is, the underground water and surface water. Just like we did in the health sector, we began to rehabilitate old water works.

That was because we found out that the water works well rehabilitated would serve some communities. That gave us priority in driving the supply of water to the people. We rehabilitated over 14 water works across the state and we sank about 800 bore holes in different communities. In pursuit of the policy that nobody moves more than 500 metres to access portable drinking water, I am happy to let you know that we are about 700 metres away from our target. And God willing, we will be able to get to that level with the resources that we have. With the growing army of unemployed youths, it became glaring that we must come up with a skill that will engage our youths. Immediately I came in, we recruited 2,000 youths under the Kwara Bridge Empowerment Scheme. It is designed to get them busy rather than being used as political touts. The intention was to recruit, pay them and post them to public and private sectors with the understanding that within a year or two, most of them will be absorbed.

I am happy to let you know that over a 1,000 of them have been absorbed. Again, we have supported another 4,000 set of youths into different sectors and entrepreneurship. Some of them are learning skills in the polytechnic, while others are the university that I told you about earlier. Some have been posted into the state government in key areas where we found the need to, areas such as traffic management agency. No doubt, we are planning to enlarge that agency. We have a signage agency where we need to make robust our revenue through the signage industry. It requires monitoring. So, quite a number of youths have been sent in there.

In the area of environment, we need a clean environment and it requires compliance. We got some youths trained. Some of them have already been trained in knowledge of cooperatives and the need to access money through our micro-finance schemes which is being managed through micro-finance banks. These have helped all what we have been doing in human capital, infrastructure and the economy. We have been able to put some funding together for our people who require to access funds to drive private businesses, especially co-operatives. I am happy to tell you that we have put together N700 million and today, close to like 42,000 cooperative groups have benefited from the micro-credit scheme. It is a growing thing because the trainer department of the youth scheme that we have is expected to churn out people to fit them into this scheme.

Those in Kwara State University and Kwara State Polytechnic will also be put together into cooperatives and will benefit. So, it is a continuous thing. Also because it is a revolving scheme, it is growing on its own and we are also growing it. That will enable our people to continuously be able to access funds. These are some of the things that we have done with the hope that it will be properly grounded and will out-live us. That is why we want it to be properly grounded and not just a political milestone, that whoever comes in next will continue.

Why is the state government approaching the capital market again?

Thank up very much. You see, in any system of development where you expect to deliver service, you must have access to revenue. If your revenue is recurrently in flowing, it may not be able to meet up with desired expectations within a specified time frame. That is why it is better to be able to access funds in a chunk level. And in Nigeria today, the two key ways to access funds to carry out services within a specified time frame is better to go to the capital market or the money market.

The money market has helped us tremendously in our cash management system, and of course in our financial management system too. But our funding from the commercial banks have their limitations in terms of tenure, in terms of cost of funds, and most especially sometimes in the availability of cash. For developmental purposes, you really need to think medium to long term. That is why the capital market comes handy. We took a bond five years ago to drive certain key projects, part of which we commissioned, the Aviation College, Kwara State University, the International Diagnostic Centre, water projects that are going on which we have to complete.

You see, under the recurrent money market, we would never have been able to carry out these projects within the time frame that we have done it. The reason why we went to the capital market was to build on the successes of the last administration in the area of physical areas of development by improving on the water support scheme, education support scheme, infrastructure support scheme. And these could only be done when we are able to access the right kind of funding.

The capital market is a lot more attractive because the cost of funds are lower, the repayment requirements are not as pressurising as the money market, and most importantly, it gives us a longer tenure where we can do proper planning. The more time you have, the more time you can do planning.

If I have to pay back within a short time, I would have to put all my resources to pay back, which will not allow me to do any other thing. But because it is a bond that does not put pressure on me, I will still have some funds that I can play around with to carry out other smaller projects that are not encapsulated in the bond. The essence of the bond is to bring about low cost of funding to drive economy, infrastructure and human capital in the state.

What about the argument of critics about holding on since your tenure will end in a few months’ time?

It depends on how people view governance. Some of us from the private sector have been used to working with plans; we have been used to working with budgets, with set goals. Under shared understanding, it doesn't matter who takes it to completion. That is a critical thing that we must put in mind. If there is a shared understanding that we need to do more roads or more water or improve on our schools, we can take the bond and if we do not finish the project within our time, somebody else who shares in that vision will take it to completion, the way we shared in the last administration's visions and we took these things to completion levels that are useful today.

People who see government as transactional largely from a political perspective are those people who view things with a myopic perception that you are taking something towards the end of your tenure and would not be able to carry projects outside your tenure. Governance is a continuum; it should be seen as a service delivery to the people. Somebody takes it to a level and another person takes it to another level and the resources that are required to do these are jointly understood to be supporting these programmes.

So because of people’s limitation and understanding, the essence of governance, especially in service delivery, is politicised. As Nigerians, we must begin to move away from that sense of paradigm because it is affecting the ways and manners things are done in this country today. We should be able to say that in the next 20 or 30 years, this is where we want Nigeria to be. And we put resources that will get us there, human and material and then deploy them. The leadership that drives that network doesn’t have to be the same person. They have to look at the shared vision and then carry it to all levels.

That is what we need to incorporate into the body polity of Nigeria today. That programme that must see us with an end in mind. We should be able to say that in the next 15 years, Nigeria should be a big exporter of rice. If we want to be a big exporter of rice, what must we do? What are the critical success factors?

Where are the markets? What are the things we need to do to take us to that level? By the time we are keyed into a programme, onto an actionable plan, then it doesn’t matter who drives it, provided he is keyed into the main vision. And that is how we should start to understand politics, governance and service delivery.

There are reports that most state governments tamper with allocations meant for the local governments under them. What's your take on this?

It is very clear. Where you have elected local government chairmen, which we've always had in Kwara State, the chairmen are chief executives. In areas where there are no chairmen, the state governor would want to ensure optimal use of funds there. We have always allowed the provisions of the constitution to reign and that has seen us at a every point in time, carrying out the local government elections as and when due and the resources are made available to them completely. If there is synergy, it is through voluntary support scheme. That is because, more often than not, they are the beneficiaries of our programmes.

What are your expectations for a second term?

You don't change the wining team in terms of service delivery.

You moved from PDP to APC. How are you going to manage the different tendencies in the party, particularly when the succession battle for 2015 kicks off?

You see, in Kwara, we have been very lucky in that we had Baba Olusola Saraki, of blessed memory, who set up a political machinery built on the principles of inclusiveness. Most people do not understand that what kept the structure going was inclusiveness. If it was a dictatorial structure, it would have collapsed a long time ago. That structure has allowed a lot of people to articulate and achieve their ambitions politically and has made it possible for a lot of people to better their lives.

That has accounted for the success of that structure from the NPN to date. No doubt, a few people go out of the structure from time to time, but the structure still remains. That structure is what has moved from NPN to SDP to CMC to APP to PDP and today to APC. It is the same structure. And what makes it a structure is the way and manner that things are done. It has a leadership that recognises inclusiveness in the establishment of rules, regulations and support that guides good governance. Because the sense of that structure comes from within the people, that has kept it going. That structure has got itself properly positioned within the family of APC. What we have in common among us the APC governors, for instance, is that vision of progressive governance.

For Kwara, the benefits have seen us enjoying activities in human and material support. Infrastructural development has been supported, economic development has been supported too under that structure that has put together a system of government. We are not expecting much more change than what has already happened, except that, like I said earlier, a few individuals may see it differently from the way the system is run, and may want to move out. But the majority of the people benefit from that structure, that is why they are holding unto it. And that is why they will continue to hold unto it. I want to assure you that the structure is intact, and will continue to deliver goods and services to the state.

That is the same structure that is ably led by Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki. You cannot just come in and take over. It is not enough. You must come in and lead. And this he has done and endeared himself to the people because of the ways and manners that he carries out his business. That same structure has seen every governor in this state being supported. Starting from Adamu Attah to myself, the structure has not changed. We will continue to strengthen the structure even beyond this dispensation.

How you reconcile this with the agitation for power shift among the three senatorial districts-North, South and Central?

The choice of power shift is a legitimate demand. Now, how it is viewed vis-a-vis the common interest is the issue now. At the rate of today’s service delivery, we see that there is still some steam that will take us to some set goals. Then we can inclusively sit together and agree on what ways and means to carry on in the over all objectiveness of the system. So for us, asking for power shift is not uncommon, they are legitimate demands. But of course, we have to ask, do they override the collective interest? When we look at it collectively, then we begin to see that government is about service delivery and about the people.

How we articulate this under a platform of shared vision, on how power and service can move from one place to another will be based on understanding. And that is what has kept this structure. This structure has been able to exhibit those values, and that is what has kept the structure potent for use. That is why the strength will continue to wax stronger.

There have been trepidations and apprehensions about the 2015 general elections. In extreme cases, some fear for the possible break-up of the country. Where do you stand?

I am a very good student of history. I like looking back to see how the past had been. We have Nigeria before independence, fought for independence, set up the first republic, went into civil war, seen Nigeria ruled by the military, went back to civil administration, and at each level, this sort of apprehension had always existed. And it came with its own challenges at that time. The worst one was the civil war. It was a complete breakdown of this kind of differences. And we have learnt our lessons that even at war, we still had to come round to the table to discuss our differences! So why go through the course of war? The war was a subtle way of telling us that we needed to restructure the system to accommodate a lot more people so that people will share a sense of belonging, a common vision in Nigeria.

I don't see Nigeria breaking up. I don't see any problem happening politically. With the elections in Ekiti, Osun and Edo, I still see us coming out a strong democracy. I see us shaping Nigeria for a greater height. Those who are clamouring for the separation of Nigeria, we have always had them in the past. It is not new. But ultimately, we all know that our strength is in our number as a country. Anybody interested in Nigeria is because there are over 200 million people in Nigeria today. Which is a huge market for anybody. It is a critical mass that desires anybody's attention who is interested in global politics and global economy. So Nigeria will continue to be interesting to people outside.

Those who think that Nigeria will break are just not students of history. If they go through history, they will know that we have gone through this before and we will overcome it and come out stronger. If you look at our democratic institutions, they are getting stronger. They might be slow, but they are getting stronger. You will agree with me that the way and manner that governance was driven in 1999 is not the same now.

There are things that if you were able to do in 1999, you cannot do again now. The media, the social network are all there, everybody will see you. Things are changing. And these are changing the perception and ways that service is being delivered. So I think we will come out stronger. I see the election coming to be peaceful and Nigerians will come out stronger and the Boko Haram issue will also be overcome, God willing. I see them as specks in history whose last pages are being written.

Now that Ebola is here, what are you doing to safeguard the state against the spread of the virus?

It is an unfortunate situation that is getting close to epidemic level in the country; but for us, there will be no such thing. We have positioned ourselves to manage cases of occurrence and also cases of prevention. We have continued to put our machinery in place to ensure that if there are cases of occurrences, they are earlier detected. We will continue with advocacy, which is the most important thing to do here now so that people will be conscious of how they could contract this and manage it.

We must avoid a sense of panic because panic might have its own negative impact. That is why we must do more advocacy to tutor people to prevent and manage an occurrence. I will continue to put machinery in place and continue to support nationally what could be needed to fight the menace.