Date: 2014-11-03

In this interview with SUCCESS NWOGU, Senior Special Assistant to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed on Media and Communication, Dr. Muyideen Akorede, defends the N2bn loan being sought by the state government, among sundry issues

The Kwara State House of Assembly recently granted Governor Ahmed's request for the approval to source N2bn loan from the Micro Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund of the Central Bank of Nigeria. But some Kwara stakeholders say that Ahmed would channel the funds to electioneering campaign instead of the original purpose of the loan?

That is completely untrue. This is one of the antics of the opposition to diminish the good initiatives of this administration but they will fail. This loan is backed by the intervention that the CBN had extended to several states in the country. In order for us to access that intervention, we need to raise counterpart funds. The loan is to enable the state government to raise counterpart funds so that it can access the larger bulk of the funds needed for this intervention.

It is a very transparent process. It was publicised when state governments, including our own, went to Abuja to have a meeting with the CBN in the last couple of months. Also, when the government went to the House to seek approval for the loan, it was well publicised. That is not a sign of someone that wants to take money and appropriate it to other purposes.

Everybody is aware that the Ahmed administration has strengthened cooperative societies in the state. It has disbursed about N700m to cooperative societies in the state and it has boosted 41,000 small businesses across the state. Each of the beneficiaries is an employer of about five employees on the average. So, you talk about 200,000 jobs that had been created informally and indirectly by this administration. And the government believes that entrepreneurship and the informal sector hold the key to empowering the greatest number of our people.

There is a limit to the number of civil service jobs that could be created and the number of jobs currently available in the public sector. The governor feels that the way to go is to strengthen the informal sector and provide our youths with opportunities to training and access to funds so that they can become self-employed rather than job seekers and even employ others. So, it is completely untrue that the money will be appropriated to other purposes. The Ahmed administration will deploy that N2bn for the stated and publicly-announced objective.

The leadership of the All Progressives Congress in Kwara State has thrown its weight behind the state governor with the endorsement by the leader of the party, Dr. Bukola Saraki.

He has collected the form of intent. He will formally declare his intention to run for a second term in office on November 5. For Governor Ahmed, the APC stakeholders' endorsement is welcome. It demonstrates the fact that he has shown loyalty to the leadership and system completely. His works speak for him. Everybody can vouch that all the projects he inherited, most of them have been completed; he has also started new ones. He has empowered thousands of youths and more businesses; our health system is probably one of the best in the country right now; more communities have been electrified and more people have access to quality water.

So, basically, the people can point to tangible things. They know what this governor has done which qualifies him in their estimation for a second term. I also believe that the people of Kwara State would also unite with the APC stakeholders and endorse Ahmed for a second term in office. This is very obvious from the reception he receives wherever he goes and the support that comes from all sectors. The governor is pleased about the endorsement of his performance. But he also knows that that there is a lot of work to be done and that is why he needs a second term to complete the good work.

Ahmed's rival in the 2011 governorship election, Mr. Dele Belgore (SAN), who contested on the platform of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, has insisted that Kwara is hugely underdeveloped?

With respect to him, I think that statement clearly shows that he is completely out of touch with Kwara State. He is one of our respected SANs and we respect him for that. But what his comment continued to demonstrate is that the learned SAN is not in touch with development in the state. How can Kwara State be described as underdeveloped when we have probably one of the best road networks in the country in Ilorin and other parts of the state? How can you describe as underdeveloped one of the states that has one of the best health systems in this country? This has been acknowledged by the United Nations, Bill Gates Foundation and others. How can you describe as underdeveloped a state that has connected a significant proportion of its communities to the national grid through the provision of power infrastructure and people have access to quality water within every 100-meter radius across the state? How can you describe a state that had taken the lead in planned agriculture, a state which is empowering its people to create a new generation of commercial farmers as underdeveloped?

This is an administration that has provided 400 boreholes across the state and rehabilitated 17 waterworks and is about to complete the Ilorin reticulation water project that would take water into all homes in Ilorin and its environs. Look at the cross-sector endorsement that the governor has got within three years in office.

Belgore and his fellow travellers in the Peoples Democratic Party are intimidated by Ahmed's achievements in office and they feel that the approach to it is to try to diminish it. Unfortunately, the people of Kwara have seen through that and they can see the evidence themselves and only somebody who is playing the ostrich can say that the state is underdeveloped. So, we completely disagree with Belgore's perception.

He also said that Ahmed's administration is a monumental failure...

(Cuts in) Ahmed's administration is one of the most successful administrations this state has ever had. This governor came into office and continued with the projects he inherited from his predecessor. Also, he started new ones.

He has earned the people's trust as a result of the integrity, which the administration brings to bear on issues and projects. When he promises, he fulfills them. The projects are nearing 90 per cent completion. The water project, the power project, the Harmony Advanced Diagnostic Centre are now fully functional, the aviation college is functional, we have an ongoing N800m engineering complex project at the Kwara State University.

Generally, the governor has broken the jinx of abandoned projects and he has shown that it can be done. Therefore, he has ensured that the people get the benefits of these projects. Imagine if he had not done these projects, a lot of money would have been lost. We are talking of billions of naira because somebody is being egoistic and wants to start his own project.

Also he has started new projects - the five general hospitals in the state are now one of the most modern in North-Central Nigeria, if not Nigeria. There are effective general hospitals in Ilorin, Kaiama, Share, Omu-Aran and Offa. People should go and see them and not to sit in their comfortable offices in Ikoyi and start making comments about things they have no knowledge of. All these achievements have come at a time of serious reduction in the federal allocation to the state. We have it on record that Kwara State has dropped from 33 to 35 on the federal allocation list for inexplicable reasons. So, the state government that is losing about N1bn monthly in federal allocation has been able to do this much. Let Belgore name how many PDP states that can conveniently pay their workers' salaries.

Only four states, including Kwara, were able to pay their salaries on time in the last six months. Salaries are paid on 25th of each month in Kwara State and that is because of the ingenuity and the financial wizardry of the governor who has ensured optimal allocation of resources. I do not know what the learned gentleman's conception of failure is but that is not something that you can justifiable apply to Ahmed's administration.

But there is a feeling that Ahmed's 'continuity' mantra is a cover-up for Saraki's alleged financial misdeeds as people say that a lot of money had been invested in those inherited projects?

It is completely untrue. How can anybody say there is financial misdeed in the Kwara State University? You never finish building a university. How can anybody question the Harmony Advanced Diagnostic Centre and the Aviation College, Ilorin? How can anybody look at the beautiful Ganmo-Afo Road that was started by the previous administration and completed by this one and say there is financial misdeed? How can anybody look at Offa-Ira Road and say it is because someone is trying to cover something?

People's concept of development is to ask how many projects that were started and completed by an administration. Go round the country, there are several projects that are uncompleted because the succeeding administrations did not agree with their predecessors. What this administration has done is to break the jinx of abandoned projects in this country and Governor Ahmed should be applauded for that rather than being vilified by the opposition.

Ahmed said that because people are happy with Saraki's administration, he decided to complete the ongoing projects. Also contracts can be funded gradually. Senator Saraki funded those contracts to a certain level. By the time he was leaving office, they had not been fully funded and this administration took over and funded them to completion. So where is the lack of transparency?