The administration of Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed took off on May 29, 2011, as a successor to the very impactful government of Dr. Bukola Saraki, incumbent President of the Nigerian Senate but then Senator-elect for Kwara central senatorial district.

Kwarans expected, and rightly so, much from the Ahmed regime having been exposed to possibilities of high wired, result oriented and target setting administration of his immediate predecessor and having been privileged to be a part of that success story.

And indeed, Ahmed hit the ground running, literarily, supported by the benefits of his role in the previous regime and his commitment to the continued development of Kwara as a land of shared prosperity. The slogan 'shared prosperity' was coined to indicate the direction of thought of the administration as one committed to the wellbeing of all Kwarans irrespective of their political, ethnic or religious persuasions. Kwara must be a land where all men and women enjoy the benefits derivable from collective contributions of all residents. As we mark the first year of his second term, it is apposite to review what the administration accomplished in its first outing as the second term started at a time Nigeria is confronted with one of its most challenging times in history as a nation, National economic downturn.

As an accomplished financial manager, within the first three years of that first term of his administration, Governor Ahmed demonstrated the strength of the 'shared prosperity' slogan with unimaginable success stories in almost every sphere of human and capital development. The establishment of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency to bring Primary Health Care under one roof in the state and make its mandate more functional defined Ahmed's resolve to bring affordable health services to the doorsteps of every one. The government succeeded in executing a comprehensive rehabilitation of five General Hospitals spread across the three Senatorial Districts of the State. Today the hospitals are functional and residents of the state are enjoying the benefits.

Again, because health is wealth, the Ahmed administration also completed the State- of- the- art Kwara Advanced Diagnostic Centre, Ilorin to boost diagnosis leading to prompt treatment and carrying out specialized medical investigations. Today, patients come to the Centre from across the north central zone and other neighboring states on referral by specialists for diagnosis.

Other feats recorded within the health srctor include the cconstruction/upgrading of 15 Cottage Hospitals/Comprehensive Health Centres spread across the three Senatorial Districts of the State, establishment of full scale tuberculosis and other chest- related disease centre in Sobi Specialist Hospital such that the state now has 97 centers for Direct Observation Therapy (DOTs) spread across the 16 LGs in the state for tuberculosis patients thereby making treatment for tuberculosis more accessible.

During the period, the administration also approved the extension of its award-winning Community-Based Health insurance scheme to cover the three senatorial districts of Kwara state. Over 80,000 rural people, especially women and children have enrolled on this programme and Ahmed, while speaking at the inauguration of the scheme in his hometown, Share, in Ifelodun council area of the state, said his administration intends to push the figure to some 600,000 by 2018.

Some 15 clinics and hospitals, all of which have been upgraded to acceptable standards, are participating in the programme. Over one million rural people have visited the clinics under the scheme since it became operation. Still in the area of sharing the prosperity of health all round, the Ahmed administration had in conjunction with some health organisations conducted more than 160 free surgeries of various forms of Vesico Vaginal Fistulae (VVF) and carried out various Medical Missions where free surgical operations and treatment of various ailments were performed.

The government also organizes maternal neonatal and child health week twice in a year towards improving children's health. During the period, children are de-wormed, administered with food supplements and most importantly mothers are educated on nutritional values to aid in growth and development of children. Today, the state health insurance scheme remains a trailblazer in the delivery of affordable health services to the people.

The situation of water supplies at the inception of the administration in 2011 can be best described to be on the path of recovery from an epileptic situation pre-2003 but by 2011, a considerable achievement had been attained by the government. The quality of supplies had improved, and accessibility gap had been reduced from about 3000m to 1500m.

Between 2011 to date the government has been able to also improve the quality of production to meet with the WHO standard. Daily production has also improved. For example, Asa Dam water work's production increased from 4mgpd to 25.5mgpd, and has continued to be sustained since expansion. Presently, government is striving to attain WHO standard of 120litres per person per day. The accessibility gap has also been further reduced to about 700m and gradually closing down towards the state government policy target of 500m.

A robust and strategic approach was adopted in the sector to bring about a steady supply system. In the face of dwindling revenue and a geometrical increase in domestic, commercial and industrial demand, occasioned by increasing population, the government tried to adopt a phasing approach to rehabilitation of its existing 94 waterworks under its supervision. Today about 65 waterworks are being fed through the underground water systems. These waterworks are also being attended to through the rehabilitation system mentioned above. Between 2011 till date, a total of 367 boreholes in the motorised and hand pump category have been drilled. The distribution across the three senatorial districts is carefully done to achieve equitable spread, except of course where the dry aquifers predominates.

In spite of the initial hiccups in Ilorin metropolis water reticulation as a result of drastic but unexpected fall from allocation from the federation account, the project has commenced in earnest. Kwara state is, indeed, leveraging of on its resourcefulness and the ingenuity of Governor Ahmed to consolidate development and deliver the necessary benefits to our people. Oba is Chief Press Secretary to the Kwara State Governor.