The frantic efforts of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara state towards improving the lots of his people and make the state far better among its peers in the country have continued to attract accolades from stakeholders from far and near.

Hence, Kwara state last weekend came up for national applause again, as it emerged the state with the highest number of points in the September edition of the Progressive Strides, the monthly bulletin tracking the performance of the 21 APC states in the country. Kwara ticked 26 points to top the table, followed by Lagos (21) and Jigawa and Kebbi which had 16 strides apiece for the month under review.

Director General of the Forum, Salihu Mohammed Lukman, wrote in the preface to the 63rd edition of the report that,”the entries for the edition witnessed more improvements as regards developmental strides collated from the (Progressive Governors’) Forum States in 2021. In general, there is an all-round increase in the pattern of initiatives introduced by the states with Kwara state recording most initiatives for this month having twenty six (26) development strides. These cut across economic development, education, science and technology, health and nutrition, agriculture and rural development, infrastructure, security and sensitisation, empowerment and innovation, environment and hygiene, transportation and finally sports and youths development.

“Lagos State follows with 21 strides while Jigawa and Kebbi trail with 16 each. Gombe and Kaduna recorded 15 strides each; Nasarawa and Ogun 14 each; Ekiti and Niger 13 each; Kano and Katsina 10 each; while Ebonyi got 9 strides. Kogi recorded 8 strides; Cross River, Osun and Yobe got six 6 each, as Borno and Ondo had four each. Finally, 3 strides were recorded in Imo and Zamfara States each. Kwara had repeatedly topped the table of the Forum’s Strides since it was introduced.”The statement concluded. This is not the only feat of Governor AbdulRahman, whose success story inspired many, being a dependable wealth creator, effective manager of human and material resources, and philanthropist. A large number of the state residents were unanimous that the strides of the current administration should be replicated in other parts of the state, particularly among the three senatorial districts.

Pharmacist (Mrs) Sakariyahu Popoola Temitope Hafsat said she took note of efforts of the current administration in the area of health, education and infrastructure development which she adjudged commendable. She however said that the Social Investment Programme of the government which has been strictly restricted to the aged and the people of Ilorin, the state capital should be extended to other parts of the state.

She said,”The resources of the government is meant of everyone irrespective of where you reside, it’s just a mere privilege that some people are based in Ilorin. And besides, what’s the percentage of people who live in Ilorin compared to others outside the state? It’s so insignificant. I’m from Offa, there are also aged people who need Owo-Isowo of the state government to up their business, same thing with people in Kwara North, it shouldn’t be for people in Ilorin alone, the government should seriously look into that.”

In his own view, the Youths advocate and convener of Kwara Rebuilders, a pro-democracy group in Kwara, Ibraheem Abdullateef said Governor AbdulRazaq is positively putting Kwara in the national consciousness. “It is a reversal from the old order”, he said. Ibraheem Abdulateef eulogised the Kwara State Governor for being a pro-youths and women, and good ambassador Governor to the state.

Reacting to Governor AbdulRazaq’s latest feat emerging with the highest number of points in the September edition of the Progressive Strides, Ibraheem said the news validated the wise decision of the Kwara people to change leadership in the 2019 elections.

“The news that Governor AbdulRazaq has again topped his colleagues in the September edition of Progressives Strides is cheery. It is significant because it further validates the righteousness of Kwara people to settle for him in the last elections. Before his emergence, Kwara was hitting the news for negative purposes. It was either usually for one corruption case or the other or senate gangsterism or something as negative as owing workers seven months salaries.

“Awards and recognitions from the party amongst others from the national and international bodies reflect his strides in education, agriculture and rural development, infrastructure, security, enterprise, and especially youths development.

“It is enough joy that we don’t wake up in the morning to see our foremost leader soiling the name of the state he swore to protect. This optimism is shared largely by Kwarans, especially the young people who have found in the land again the belief that their dreams can thrive. This was not the Kwara picture. Only that there was no national award for bad leadership, Kwara could have been undisputed champions for many years. It is beautiful that the world is noticing the upturn in the fortunes of the state in the last two years. Verily, the reward of goodness is goodness.”

Ibraheem therefore urged the Kwara governor not to be distracted in the discharge of his constitutional duties, noting that history would be kind to him.

A legal practitioner based in Ilorin, Mr Sunday Olaitan Oyedepo scored the current administration high in health, education and infrastructure development among others but strongly urged the government to look beyond Ilorin, the state capital in the limited time before the current tenure expires in order to complement his efforts and earn the governor second term.

He said,”To be very honest, the present administration has contributed greatly in the area of education, I can categorically say that the number of teachers injected into the education system has really helped. It has helped the education system to be able to get good feedback. If you look at the results that were released this year, it reflected the positive impact of the new teachers that were injected. Even the SUBEB projects that its chairman has been carrying out, Quality Assurance is his priority and that is the replica of what the governor intended doing, “

In the area of health, Mr Oyedepo said,”To be very fair,in the area of health there are some Primary health centres that need to be upgraded,not that probably they have been abandoned. I have visited the General hospital in Ilorin owned by the state government and there is a great improvement there. The environment is neat and I was able to witness a particular delivery. I was there on that fateful morning and I noticed this improvement of a former place that used to be stinking. It shows that the government is working, to be very honest that’s what I can see. So,there are lots of improvements in the health sector.

“On infrastructure, he said,”But when we are talking about infrastructure development, I expected that by now all the ministries would have been allocated their own offices at the new secretariat, so I don’t expect much people outside the Secretariat. They still need to work on that so that all the parastatals and ministries would be in a particular place and help with the feedback which the governor needs because when you are talking about the ministries you are talking about the manpower (I’m not referring to the building per se )but when they are together there won’t be much communication gap.

“I believe government should be able to do something about that. Talking about the roads,when you look at the structure and even road maintenance, they are of high class but I want to strongly advise that these should not be centralised in Ilorin metropolis alone. I want to observe that from Ilorin to Idofian is a very good road, to Jimba Oja, very good roads though they are federal roads but I know the state government had some inputs .So,the good roads should be extended to Omu-Aran area.

“The state government should do more by extending their developmental strides to remote areas of the state and not limiting them to Ilorin, the state capital alone. So,by and large I can also perceive some very good developments in infrastructure. “I pray that the governor will be able to achieve more within a limited time which will complement his opportunity to return for second term.”