Upon assumption of office as the Executive Governor of Kwara State on May 29, 2011, Alhaji Abdilfatah Ahmed told the mammoth crowd at the Metropolitan Square, Ilorin that his administration would ensure the full completion of ongoing projects put up by his predecessor in office, Dr. Bukola Saraki.
He further pledged to initiate new projects that would go a long way to add values to the socio economic growth of the State of Harmony, called Kwara.
Ahmed also said that his administration would make sure that, projects capable of bringing new lease of life to the people of the state would be embarked on, as this would improve the development of the people of the state.
Some projects met on ground upon assumption of office by Governor Ahmed and completed, cut across roads construction, construction of classrooms, installations of transformers, all of which have added to the growth of the state.

Health is Wealth
However, as part of contributing more to the growth of the state and to ensure more delivery of dividends of democracy to the people of the state, the administration took upon itself to embark on new projects especially on health sector with the award of renovation of five existing General Hospitals in the state so as to improve the health care delivery among the people.
The five affected General Hospitals include, Ilorin General Hospital, Offa General Hospital, Omu-Aran General Hospital, Share General Hospital, and Kaiama General Hospital.

For Ilorin General Hospital, which was abandoned by UITH when it moved to its permanent site, it is being remodelled at a cost of N2 billion. At the 250-bed capacity Ilorin General Hospital with an Accident and Emergency Ward, Consulting rooms, the out-patient department, Diagnostic Units, state-of-the-art laboratories and modern equipment Offa General Hospital, also a 250-bed facility, which last witnessed a major rehabilitation in the eighties is being remodelled at the cost of N200 million for the physical structures.

All five hospitals currently being rehabilitated in the state will be equipped with modern equipment worth N357m, according to the state commissioner for health, Alhaji Kayode Issa.
New Roads

The new roads awarded by the present state government include, the 18.6 kilometre Arandun-Rore-Aran Orin-Ipetu road at the cost of over N1.5 billion with a 12 month completion period, beginning from this month; 1.8 kilometre Umar Audi road which was awarded at the cost of N434 million with a 6-month completion schedule.
There is an additional contract on the Dangote-Offa Garage road project to cover the remodelling of the bridge on the road in order to avert possible danger that the present state of the bridge portends and the construction of the collapsed bridge on pipeline road at the cost of over N200 million.

Other road projects awarded by the present administration and visited by governor Ahmed when he went to see the level of work done include, Afon-Eiyenkorin road, Obbo-ile-Oru-Aiyetoro road, Ejiu-Obbo Aiyegunle road and Oko-Idofin –Odo-Ashe road
“The administration also planned to ensure that all the federal roads in the state are well rehabilitated and reconstructed so as to meet the yearnings and aspirations of the governed.  For instance, the Kaiama/Kishi road is already being awarded. The administration also planned to start the first phase of the road between Kishi and Kaiama. It is a three phase road which is almost an N8 billion road project.
“The Rore-Ipetu-Aran-Orin road which has also been awarded at the cost of over N1.2billion will start very soon in the state.”

Capacity Building
According to Issa, education is not left out as over 200 classrooms would soon be renovated at the basic and secondary levels to create additional infrastructure for the students. Additional textbooks and laboratory equipment would also be supplied to schools and mega schools will be constructed.
“These schools will create platforms to accommodate neighbouring schools in terms of infrastructure like laboratories and other training equipment for students", he said.

Potable Water
Water supply to the doorsteps of Kwarans also remained a priority as the governor visited some of the ongoing water schemes in the state. Such water schemes include Obbo Ayegunle water scheme, Rore water scheme, and Ilorin pipeline network distribution scheme, among others.

Electricity Supply
On power generation, the administration has embarked on the supply of modern transformers for the people of the state while those communities that are yet to be connected to national grid were also connected, so as to boost electricity supply; thereby improving the economic development of the people.
The government also embarked on the provision of street lighting so as to illuminate all the dark areas in the state. This, the government believed, would prevent miscreants and hoodlums to hide in any place to do their nefarious activities.
Also of note is the International Vocational Centre, Ajasse Ipo which seeks to empower youths with world-acclaimed qualifications like City and Guilds of London and fill the middle manpower gap in the Nigerian labour market.

Official Oversight
Inspecting the on-going works, Governor Ahmed commended the contractor for the pace of work at the site and expressed confidence that the centre will be completed in time for the enrolment of the first set of students in September, 2013.
However, in order to ensure all these ongoing projects meet the yearnings and aspirations of the people of the state, the state governor recently embarked on projects tours so as to see how the contractors handling the projects had been able to do their work.
The development also assisted the governor to know the various kinds of challenges being encountered by these contractors so as to ensure the projects are completed on time, moreso, since the rainy season has started.

During the tour, which commenced with the visit of the governor to the Ilorin General hospital currently under renovation, governor Ahmed expressed happiness over the level of work put up by the contractors handling the renovation of the hospital and appealed to them to hurry up so as to complete the project on time.

Also, at the Offa, Omu-Aran General hospitals, the governor was happy with the level of development on the renovation of the affected hospitals, and called on the contractors handling the projects to hasten the process, saying the delivery of good health care to the people of the state remained a major goal and the government cannot afford to fail on this gesture.
Ahmed, who expressed concern on other places visited to assess the level of work on the projects, threatened to revoke some of the contracts if the contractors fail to improve.

He said it was disheartening that, the contractors handling the projects were working behind schedule despite the state government’s financial commitment to them.
He therefore advised contractors who are unable to meet timeframe for completion of projects in relations to funds released to either be more proactive or have such contracts revoked.
Governor Ahmed assured the people of Ajasse-Ipo in Irepodun local government area that with the completion of Amberi water booster station, water challenges in the town will soon become a thing of the past.

However, to buttress his desire for delivery of dividends of democracy to the people of the state, the governor, during his recent monthly interactive session with media tagged, ‘Governor Explains’ in Ilorin, vowed to continue to pay unscheduled visit to some of the ongoing projects in the state so as to assist the state to move forward.

He said, “At the beginning of every financial year we have a budget which is an articulation of programmes that we intend to spend the people’s money on. Once these projects have been given out to contractors, they need to be taken to completion”. According to him, “We want to be sure that works are carried on the way they have been idealised for implementation”.
He said, “On the strength of that, once projects are going, there is a strong project monitoring team, a special adviser on infrastructure who also doubles as check and balance on developmental projects and we also need to see for ourselves to ensure that we get value for money.”

The governor added, “That is what informed our recent visits to various projects that are on-going to ensure that we get value for money. Anywhere we go to we expect that contractors should have got the job to the level to which we have funded them”.
Ahmed therefore said, “So far, we are happy with what we have seen. Our contractors are working accordingly and anywhere we expect to see things and they fall below our expectations, the contractor will be given a marching order and that is as clear as crystal”.

In his own comment too, the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Ahmed on Media and Communications, Dr. Muideen Akorede, said, “Governor Ahmed is a fervent believer in timely delivery of budgeted projects and programmes”.

“Although the government has several layers of project monitoring from which he receives regular progress reports, he wanted to verify progress through on-the-spot assessment as well as gauge the pulse of the people in terms of the expected impact of the projects as well as additional areas of need”, he said.
Akorede therefore said, “the project tour has taken the Governor to all parts of the state so as to know the feelings of the people; thereby making them feel the dividends of democracy.