Speech by His Excellency, The Executive Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed during his declaration for second term in office in Ilorin on Wednesday, 5th November 2014

Courtesies

I want to start on a note of gratitude. I am thankful to Almighty Allah for sparing our lives to witness today’s event. I am grateful to our stakeholders and supporters for standing by us, and appreciate the backing of the good people of Kwara State. I stand here full of humility, touched by your solidarity and hopeful for more. I thank you all.

Thousands of you have come from everywhere to be part of this historical occasion. I know I am not the only reason you came here. In my heart, I believe you journeyed here because of your faith in a greater Kwara and in our proven capacity.

Brothers and sisters, forty months have passed since I became your Governor. On that day, at this place, before thousands of you, I swore to protect you and to promote your welfare. On that day, I committed to continuity in programmes and projects, to ground break new ones, to elevate our state and, critically, to empower our youths through targeted employment.

I pay homage to my predecessors for laying the foundation for a flourishing Kwara State that we upscaled through Shared Prosperity. Our state is much better than we met it and is growing everyday. Today, before all of you, I make bold to say we have essentially fulfilled our covenant and in the process strengthened your faith in governance.

We have rekindled hope in our youths by creating jobs. Thanks to our intervention programmes, 10, 200 youths now have jobs. Our informal sector is now bustling with the injection of N700m in micro credit to 48, 000 small business owners.

In the education sector, we have expanded access, as tuition is now free up to senior secondary school level where students also receive 10 free notebooks per session. Recognizing the need to create an atmosphere conducive to learning, we have rehabilitated hundreds of classrooms in primary and secondary schools across the state.

I am pleased to say we have overcome resource challenges to create one of the best health systems in this zone of our country. We have remodeled, modernized, and equipped the general hospitals at Ilorin, Offa, Share, Omu-Aran, and Kaiama, turning them into first class health facilities.

Eighty-Five Thousand rural dwellers now have access to subsidized health care thanks to our innovative Community Health Insurance Scheme that has received wide global recognition, including an OECD Prize in Paris, France recently.

We have significantly boosted physical infrastructure in our state. Four hundred of our communities are now connected to the national grid following the supply and installation of transformers. From an inherited distance of 1500 meters, everyone in Kwara State now has access to portable water within an 800-meter radius following our revamping of 17 waterworks and installation of about 400 boreholes across the state.

In the road sector, we have not only physically developed the state by starting new infrastructure projects, we have also broken the jinx of abandoned projects by completing most of the projects inherited from the previous administration.

We have completed key inherited roads in all three senatorial districts. New interventions within and outside the metropolis have been completed or at various stages of completion.

In line with our commitment to continuity, we have leveraged on the Shonga Farm experience and created a new generation of farmers, provided more food to our people, and enhanced livelihoods through agribusiness with the provision of N215 million in revolving micro credit to 170 Outgrower farmers across the state.

I make these points not because I want to impress you. Neither do I seek praise for doing my job. However, I am encouraged by the story of a graduate whose dry cleaning business is now growing thanks to the injection of funds from our entrepreneurship scheme.

I remember the story of villagers in Alapa who now access subsidized healthcare, and the case of a single mother who now works in the state civil service and can now feed her children. These stories demonstrate how far we have come, underline what we are capable of and, more importantly, the fact that we can do more.

On that note, I humbly and formally declare my intention to run for a second term in office so that I can do more for our state and its people. By the grace of God and with your mandate, we intend to accelerate the development of our state when re-elected for a second term in office.

I will boost local economy through the establishment of an Independent Power Projects (IPP) that will power industrial clusters across the state, stimulate jobs and improve power supply to our communities.

By the grace of God, we will upscale our Education Reforms with the complete overhaul and modernization of 120 secondary schools across the state as we start the process of benchmarking our schools against global best practice.

In terms of physical infrastructure, we will connect more of our communities with urban and rural roads, including roads designated as Federal, thus opening up our state for greater development.

By the first quarter of next year, we will take another bold step towards providing our youth with functional skills when the City and Guilds-affiliated International Vocational Center, Ajasse Ipo takes in its first set of students. This school will connect with our Quickwin initiative, under which a new crop of youth entrepreneurs is currently receiving vocational and entrepreneurship training, to fill middle level manpower gaps.

In sports, we intend to completely overhaul and modernize the indoor sports hall of the Ilorin Township Stadium in line with high standards of Main Bowl and in order to promote sports development, especially among our youths.

In 2015, we intend to get piped-water to all homes in Ilorin Metropolis through primary reticulation of the on-going Ilorin Reticulation Project.  Outside the capital, new water projects will bring piped water to a greater number of our people.

Distinguished guests, let there be no doubt about it. My belief in a greater Kwara State matched only by my determination to it with your support and by the grace of the Almighty.

Let me also thank APC stakeholders, including our Leader, Distinguished Senator Bukola Saraki for their support. I remain appreciative of your unequivocal endorsement for a second term and your faith in my capacity to get the work done.

I reaffirm my belief in our political structure. A structure that has given hope to the hopeless; that has made governance inclusive in Kwara State. This structure gives hope that you can be anything you want subject only to the limit of your abilities.

It is only this structure that could have enabled Abdulfatah Ahmed, the son of a middle-level policeman, to become Governor. So, whether you are the son of a carpenter, tailor, farmer, taxi driver, or trader, YOU TOO CAN BE GOVERNOR.

You too can be President. You too can be a minister. You too can be a Senator. You too can aspire to the House of Representatives. So, tell those who offer you false freedom, those who are bitter that we have democratized access to political power regardless of social background, that you already have freedom to dream, to aspire and to achieve through this structure.

In the run up to today’s event, several groups and individuals openly commended our performance and asked me to contest for a second term in office. To you and the thousands of others who expressed their support privately, I make this solemn pledge: I will make your life much better, our state more prosperous and our communities safer when you give me a chance to serve you for a second term. These I commit to. These I will deliver to you, my people, by the grace of Almighty Allah.

Thank you all. God bless our State and our Country, Nigeria.