THE administration of the new governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, has a number of tasks at hand. Chief among the tasks that the banking guru and financial expert is contending with is the continuation and consolidation of the achievements of the immediate past administration of Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki, his boss and mentor.

Interestingly, before and during the polls, his campaign slogan among other 15 governorship hopefuls was, “Legacy continues.”

Towards this end, Governor Ahmed recently embarked on the inspection of some uncompleted projects, namely Diagnostic Centre, Metropolitan Centre, and network of uncompleted roads among others to ensure that they are completed.

It would be recalled that as commissioner for Finance and later Planning and Economic Development, Ahmed played key roles in the award of virtually all the contracts, so he has their facts and figures at the back of his palm.

He expressed dismay at the slow pace of work by some of the contractors and directed them to source for funds to complete the projects in good time before they would be reimbursed by the government. He reminded some contractors, who might not be at home with the directive that they were awarded the contracts, above others in the first place, because of their huge financial status and their rich knowledge in the profession.

The newly commissioned International Aviation College and the Cargo Shed Centre of the Ilorin International Airport, which were commissioned by President Goodluck Jonathan at the tail end of Saraki’s administration are all expected to be worked on by the present administration to begin full operations within the next four years and help to revolutionalise the economic landscape of Kwara as envisioned by Dr Saraki.

Kwara State University, which was also commissioned by the president before Dr Bukola Saraki left office is also expected to be fully operational in terms of completion of various road networks, buildings and other infrastructure development and the establishment of more faculties by the new administration.
In the health sector, the community health insurance scheme, a partnership programme of HYGEA with Kwara State Government, which took off in Shonga, is expected to be worked on to go round the state. A family with a pay of N300,000 annually and subsidy from HYGEA and the state government is expected to enjoy medical treatments in some designated government hospitals across the state.

Education also, is expected to be given due attention like the immediate past administration. The last commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Alhaji Bolaji Abdullahi, who was on top of the assignment, had told those who cared to listen that the government had invested heavily in the new ways pupils and students were learning in Kwara based on the new curriculum. So people might not necessarily see its impact on construction and rehabilitation of school buildings which some governments always claim as the progress being made in the sector.

But with the advent of the new government, within the next four years, Kwarans would be waiting to see how the new ways of learning in the education sector would translate to excellent performance of the primary and secondary school students in public examinations compared with their peers from other states.

Relatedly, the commercial agriculture initiative of Dr Bukola Saraki whereby 11 white displaced farmers from Zimbabwe were invited to undertake mechanised farming in the state, is expected to receive a boost. Already, the farming initiative, which started in 2005, is fully operational as evidenced in Shonga, which deals mainly with dairy products, wheat, maize, animal husbandry and poultry among others.

To ensure abundance of agricultural products in the state, the White Zimbabwean farmers were also programmed to transfer the skills to young farmers, through a school in Malete, where hundreds of graduates have been settled with hectares of land and funded to start on their own.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, himself a farmer of international repute, who visited the farm during his administration could not hold back his shock at the wonders performed by the White farmers in Shonga and urged other governors to come to Kwara and learn the tricks. Subsequently two state governments – Nasarawa and Niger, visited Kwara.

Today, in spite of several efforts, the white farmers are not comfortable with their status as they are yearning for loans from banks to consolidate their business and move to the next phase as designed. Governor Ahmed is expected to facilitate the loans and grow the commercial farmers’ initiative in the state.

But as the cabinet list is being compiled and awaited, the people of Kwara South, particularly, the Igbomina extraction, are said to be complaining that the former governor had not given Ahmed free hand to rule, less than a month in office.

The appointments of Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Gold; Chief of Staff (COS), Alhaji Toyin Sanusi and the Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Alhaji Abdulwahab Oba, all Ilorin indigenes are among the classical examples being cited by the aggrieved.

Their argument had always been that they had equal stake in the Kwara project, and that somebody would always be there to help another to become anything, the governor inclusive so the installation of Ahmed as governor by Saraki was not strange.

But the explanation from the camp of Senator Saraki is that the Igbomina seem to have forgotten the fact that they didn’t make Ahmed governor, but Bukola Saraki did with the support of the people. He went against the wish of his father, Dr Olusola Saraki to make one of their own governor.

However, with the emergence of Barrister Abdulrazaq Atunwa as Speaker and other leaders in the state House of Assembly, Senator Saraki seems to have prepared for an eventuality that Governor Ahmed might be swayed by his own people against his own interest particularly when he has stabilised in government and the issue of second term comes into play.

Barrister Atunwa, it would be recalled, similarly held all the portfolios Governor Ahmed held in the last administration and was also a gubernatorial aspirant. He seems to have been strategically positioned as Speaker alongside other lawmakers with the exclusion of two Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) legislators to checkmate excesses of the governor when the time comes