“I wonder, sometimes, whether men and women in fact are capable of learning from history,” said the president of the United States, Barrack Obama, in his book, The Audacity of Hope. Seriously, do people ever learn from the past and how well have they allowed the experiences of the past to shape the future?

These questions have always bothered me any time I think about the politics and governance in my homeland, Nigeria. For over 12 years that I have been in the United Kingdom, the question about Nigerians reminiscing and taking a peep into the past to make informed decisions that will usher in the great future they desire has always popped up in my mind. But each time, I had always rued the missed opportunities the country has had to set things right in terms of development and growth. If you look at the abyss into which successive leaders had been pushing the country towards, you will not but despair and probably want to lose hope.

But out of the determination not to give up and lose hope, I had, about a year ago joined the campaign for change as exemplified by the All Progressives Congress (APC). When I saw the array of credible personalities that the party parades including the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, governor of Lagos State, Mr Babatunde Fasola, my state governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, former Governor Bukola Saraki and Governor Abdufatah Ahmed, among others, I saw that indeed, the party could be the needed alternative for the new Nigeria we crave. I thank God I was not wrong.

Three weeks ago when I said in an interview that General Muhammadu Buhari would win the presidential election, a couple of friends here in London laughed and told me that I was building a castle in the air. And after the General’s victory on Tuesday, one of those friends called and asked me what I thought would happen in Kwara State, my state of residence, as if I were a prophet. With that call, I was jolted to reality about the forthcoming governorship election, in which Ahmed is seeking to continue in office and thereby consolidate on his achievements in the last few years while some have been scheming to unseat him.

It dawned on me why Nigeria has always remained stagnated in terms of growth and progress. The present political situation in Kwara State returned me to the questions on whether Nigerians learn from the past, because rather than learn from the past, most people fall for mere sloganeering. While I have always saluted the resolve of the people of Kwara State in electing credible leaders, the current situation whereby some politicians have resorted to blackmail and deceit to swindle the people has become quite worrisome.

If, indeed, people learn from history, then everyone in the Kwara State would remember how the present government in the state has ensured the prudent management of resources. Governor Ahmed computerised the treasury to reduce leakage of resources, a step that earned state government excellent rating by the Fitch Rating International twice. The current administration also introduced e-budgeting system for efficient and effective preparation process, thus improving fiscal discipline and signalling his competence in development planning with the production of the first ever Medium Term Sector Strategies (MTSS) as a foundation for future sound economic development.

I have read and listened to different lies about Governor Ahmed not having projects of his own and laughed at the mendacity that some politicians couch as politicking. Not only has Kwara remained the emerging hub for agriculture in the country but it has also facilitated tremendous in-flow of foreign direct investment into the sector. The state government under Governor Ahmed, implemented the Operation No Potholes scheme in the state, a scheme he launched in 2011 to ensure roads are in good shape across the state and it is also to the government’s credit that 80 per cent out of the 38 road projects started by the administration has been completed while others are at various levels of completion.

A people that will learn from history will look at the records of achievements and the care and commitment of a government to them before making a decision, this was what Nigerians did well in the presidential election. The commitment of the incumbent government in Kwara State to the people of the state has always struck me as exemplary, with its performance in the health sector one of the ways that showed the government’s care for the people His government has supplied drugs and equipment to 13 general hospitals and 43 primary health centers as well as remodeled and modernized 5 General Hospitals to state-of-the-art hospitals. The employment of 10,200 youths in the last three years as well as the empowerment of  48,000 small business owners who benefitted from the N700m micro-credit under the Kwara Entrepreneurship Scheme also stand the APC-controlled state out among the rest. What about the construction and rehabilitation of 400 classrooms at primary and secondary school levels and Governor Ahmed’s rural and urban electrification project, which has seen 400 communities, connected to the national grid? The present government has also rehabilitated 17 waterworks across the state and sunk about 400 boreholes.

Without a doubt, Kwarans can ill-afford to embrace deceit instead of consolidated development and a people that can learn from history need no telling that only the APC, which has now captured power at the centre, can guarantee the consolidation of the development started by former Governor Saraki and continued by Governor Ahmed in the last four years. So I call on Kwara voters to vote Governor Ahmed in the April; for Maigida, as he is fondly called, deserves a second term. Sai Maigaida!