Date: 2016-12-24

In this interview, Kwara State Executive Governor, Alhaji Abdufatah Ahmed shed more light on his relationship with the Senate President, Saraki's immeasurable contributions to the growth of Kwara and the nation at large, his giant stride to ensure the civil service is well remunerated and other issues of governance in the state. Excerpts:

Your Excellency, what's the relationship between you and the Senate President?

What else could it have been? Very cordial. More or less, a family-like relationship. Don't forget, this is a relationship that sprang over a number of years. First, as a boss in the Societe Generale Bank, later as a benefactor in the GTBank and again a boss, mentor and role model in politics.

I remain eternally grateful for the opportunities I had, through the instrumentality of the Senate President, first as a Commissioner for Finance and later Commissioner for Planning, to serve under his administration. It was that singular exposure that God used to prepare me for where I am today.

Dr Saraki is my leader, in all ramifications because the political structure that brought all of us to wherever we are today is the Saraki structure or maybe you can call it a movement. And it is such a strong structure and veritable movement that precedes his own entry into the political sphere of the state and now Nigeria. It is thus a structure that he himself inherited but which he has so wonderfully transformed and solidified. It is a structure built over years of political toiling and commitment by our late father, the Waziri Ngeri, late Dr. Olusola Saraki.

This structure has one notable hallmark which the Senate President has continued to nurture. That hallmark is the total dedication and commitment to the welfare of the people.

You cannot lay claim to a genuine membership of the Saraki political family if you have no feeling for the wellbeing of the people; if the plight of the masses does not touch your heart. I'm sure you are aware that this has been a common trace in the public communications of the Senate President, even in his interactions with the executive arm of the government. For instance, you will recall that the highlight of his speech at the presentation of the 2017 budget was to tell President Muhammad Buhari that the masses are hungry. If anyone thinks that was a means to scoring cheap political gain, such thinking would be wrong and would be mainly because such people are not familiar with the basic principle that guides the Saraki political philosophy.

The fate of the common man lies in the hands of those of us who are leaders today and we must not fail to do whatever we can to ensure their welfare; that was one major assignment that our late father gave us and which under the leadership of the Senate President we are privileged to sustain. That is why you see the Senate President coming home all the time; spending time with the people, unlike those who come home during elections.

How would Your Excellency describe the Senate President?

This is like asking me to deliver a paper on the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki. Given what he's to me, personally, and what he has become for Kwara State; it will always be a great honour for me to take up such an assignment. Saraki is a man of the people, with the people. He loves the people "to the moon and back."

I remember the day he was leaving Ilorin after I was sworn-in as the governor in 2011. It was an emotional day for the two families. At the Ilorin International Airport, he held my hand and whispered to me "please take good care of my people. Please tolerate their idiosyncracies. Reward their loyalty and commitment." That was a time I felt the enormity of the task ahead.

Another notable feature of the Senate President, which is also a carry-over of the Saraki political philosophy, is what I call community leadership and decision making process. Contrary to what many critics say, the process of decision making within the Saraki political structure is one of community consultation and review, until everyone is convinced the right thing has been done. Even before a councillorship candidate is chosen for election, the process would go through the ward elders, local government elders, state elders, senatorial elders before finally coming to the centre. As such, unless where there is a problem, the final choice is always the first and original choice from the people and that has heen responsible for the electoral victories you have seen us garner over the years. It is this style of leadership which has given various men and women who ordinarily would not have been opportuned because of their poor backgrounds, opportunities to come to limelight.

In terms of his personal characteristics that I have come to know and admire over the years, I can say that first and foremost, Dr. Saraki loves doing whatever can help the people. He is not a dictator but a consummate democrat who loves to brainstorm a lot. He doesn't enjoy sychophancy and sloppiness. He has a progressive mind and would want to leave a positive, solid mark behind anywhere he goes. He sees far ahead of the time; I think he has this ability to understand many of the things that could play out in the far future and he prepares himself to be in the right frame to make the best use of such opportunities and events.

He is bold and does not take no for an answer because he believes that there is always a way out for every challenge. Indeed I would say that the Senate President is someone who loves to take up challenges. And you can see the evidence of this everywhere he has been since coming to public service in the days of former President Olusegun Obasanjo whom he served as Special Adviser on Budget and you can also see the various progressive reforms he has brought to the National Assembly since assuming the position of chairman of the legislative body. He is a fast thinker, very fast and at home with figures, of course that should not surprise us given his rich background of experience as a banker of great astute.

What's your perception of an ideal civil service? When we came in 2011, we had a clear understanding of where we were and where we wanted to be, having carefully studied the system and processes over the previous eight years when I served as Commissioners for Finance and later that of Economic Planning. Those years exposed me to the critical challenges that we had in the public sector and which must be tackled if our dream of having a state that can compare favourably with her peers in the region and across the country were to be realised.

So, from day one, we realised the importance of setting achievable targets and then ensuring effective mechanism for monitoring and evaluation. We also place premium on inputs, outputs and impacts. This enables us assess the effects of our actions vis-a-vis the inputs.

But to achieve the desire results, the civil servants must be adequately remunerated and motivated based on available resources. So far, we ensure timely payment of salaries to all categories of civil servants, until we experienced unexpected recession in the country occasioned by the activities of militants in the Niger Delta region. Even at that we were still able to pay core state civil servants. Thank God and the perseverance of our people, the bad days are over. We also ensure that civil servants get their bonuses, apart from our training programme towards making sure that they are twenty first century compliant. The Kwara State Internal Revenue Service is a baby of such a continuous monitoring and evaluation of our programmes and policies.

How does the Senate President contribute to the day to day running of your government?

(Laughs) If you truly understand governance you'll agree with me that it's a serious business. Sustainable success can only be achieved through an inclusive decision making process. This means relating with stakeholders and experienced leaders and elders. Therefore, tapping into the Senate President's huge intellectual capital is completely -consonant with our ideas of inclusive governance.

It will be foolhardy to assume that you want to beg -to reinvent the will in our kind of economic situation where resources are also dwindling. Rather, you inclusively take decisions that would bring optimal benefits to the people in the short medium and long terms. These ideals are achieved through the instrumentalities of the executive, legislative and the judicial arms of government, which is exactly what we are doing in Kwara State.