By Ibraheem Abdullateef
The month of July/August of 2024 would go down as a huge one in the democratic and socio-economic development of Nigeria. Two major chains of events would particularly remain notable. On the one hand is the new minimum wage and local government autonomy, two new major achievements of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration that would grant relief to workers and redesign governance at the grassroots level. On the other hand is the beginning of a 10-day nationwide protest #endbadgovernance to encourage the government to do more to make life easier and better for citizens across the country.
During this period, the nation took clear notice of peace and unity in Kwara State at a time it was elusive in other places. The people shunned violent protests to ventilate their reservations, opted for dialogue, and expressed faith in the President to turn the economy around for better in no distant time following a multi-sectoral engagement with the Kwara State Government. This is said by many stakeholders to be timely, broad, and incisive. As a dutiful leader, the Governor has severally commended the people for their understanding, shared patriotism, belief, and support for the government, especially at the state level where it is popular for people-driven policies and projects in the last five years.
For context, a lot of remarkable events happened on the governance front in Kwara State these past weeks. Between July 14th and August 10, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq made at least twelve (12) key impactful interventions and decisions in food security, workers’ welfare, human capital development, health, among others.
First, on the 13th of July, Kwara began the conduct of the first-ever exercise for the computation and compilation of the State’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) since it was created in 1967. The exercise, handled by the state Bureau of Statistics alongside the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), is being done to have an accurate database for proper planning, and evidence-based economic projections, among other benefits to drive socio-economic growth in Kwara. According to NBS, it was a huge step the state was taking to join the structured states in Nigeria after years of neglect by successive administrations in the state.
Inheriting a tradition of scant regard for workers’ welfare, where civil servants were not paid for months, their promotions stagnated and in
many instances were not cash-backed, and pensions were owed recklessly, Governor AbdulRazaq has cleared the Augean stables. On the 22nd of July, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq approved the cash backing of the year 2022 promotion for the staff of Kwara State Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) to improve the welfare of teachers in the State. He has now cash backed the promotion for the years 2015, 2016, 2017 up to 2022, the most any Governor has done in over a decade in Kwara.
Barely three days after, Governor AbdulRazaq also approved 1.4bn to defray the total pension arrears it inherited from the past administration since 2015 — after previously bringing it down from 3.3bn. Consequently, Kwara joins one of the few states in Nigeria that owes no pension. The administration has remained up to date in its payments of pensions to all categories of workers, including local government pensioners since 2019.
Here comes the fourth point. The Governor approved cash-backing for the 2024 promotion exercise for eligible senior and junior Local Government staff and the 2023 promotion exercise for SUBEB staff, underscoring a new era of timely promotion of civil servants in the state.
The fifth development was the payment of ₦230,209,389.31 to settle outstanding furniture allowance arrears for former councillors from 1999-2002, 2004-2007, 2007-2010, and 2013-2016. This brings to an end a 24-year wait by the affected persons and sets the course for stronger leadership inclusion at the local level, especially during a period of nationwide clamour for local government autonomy.
On July 29, Governor AbdulRazaq flagged off the residents’ registration exercise under the Kwara State Residents’ Registration Agency (KWASRRA) to capture relevant data of every resident of the state. The agency, a brainchild of the Governor, was created in 2021 to aid planning, development, and safety in the state. The beginning of the registration programme has been described as timely and visionary by temperate analysts as it will provide the state with a real-time, bankable database to aid its efforts on security, social protection schemes, revenue and economic projections, among other uses in line with the ideal of governance in the 21st century. There, you have the sixth programme.
Leading by example, AbdulRazaq presented himself for registration and urged other residents to do the same. “When you do that, you are contributing your own quota to sustainable growth and development,” he remarked.
On 31st July, the State Fire Service received a new round of support, as the Governor presented a brand new high-level fire truck to boost their operations and strengthen public safety. Previously, Governor AbdulRazaq drew applause for procuring different trucks and operational vehicles, and renovating the office for the service met in a decrepit state. During the presentation, the Governor disclosed that additional three firetrucks were also secured from the federal government to be distributed each to the three senatorial districts. This, ladies and gentlemen, was the seventh intervention on governance within the month, which will curtail fire disasters in the state – protecting the lives and properties of Kwarans from fire accidents.
When he presented the state 2024 budget to the parliament in December 2023, Governor AbdulRazaq indicated that Kwara would pay the then (under-negotiation) new minimum wage when finalised. Recall that he implemented the N30,000 minimum wage and the consequential adjustment whereas his predecessor failed to fully implement N18,000 for all the categories of workers in the state. This is why I, like the majority of Kwarans, struggle to understand the recent posturing of some opposition PDP apparatchiks, who have turned themselves to advocates of the new minimum wage. Do they think Kwarans have short memories?
So, this brings me to the eighth point. On 2nd of August, Governor AbdulRazaq inaugurated the consequential adjustment committee on the new minimum wage, becoming virtually the first Governor to do so following the assent by President Bola Tinubu. It was a step in the fulfillment of the commitment he made earlier in the year. At the event, Governor AbdulRazaq averred that the new minimum wage law means more than just paying N70,000 to the lowest ranking worker, as it equally involves working out the maths on how it affects the take home of workers on other cadres. The committee, a multi-stakeholder one comprising top bureaucrats, labour leaders and representatives of the private sector, has been charged to come up with decent salary adjustments that consider the important need to have funds left for development and other segments of the state.
Food security remains a top priority for the Kwara State Government. The Governor reiterated this when he visited the Malete Youth Farm, where 1,500 hectares of land are being cultivated for soybean production this farming season, and another 1,500 hectares to be farmed in the coming seasons.
This highlights the thoughtfulness in giving necessary support to the farmers in a period of nationwide food crisis. Following the flagoff by the Governor earlier, the state ministry of agriculture and rural development is currently distributing seedlings, fertilisers and other farm inputs to no less than 10,000 farmers across the 16 local government areas. This was the ninth intervention within the period under review.
To ensure that impact is being made with the support, the state government is making assessment tours to beneficiary farms across local governments. Edu, Patigi, Kaiama and others have been visited so far, with satisfactory reports recorded.
Also on food security, the Governor presented operational vehicles to the Kwara State Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) to ease the implementation of the project which focuses on climate change, sustainable environment and food security. ACReSAL is a World Bank assisted project that is being implemented in the 19 states of Northern Nigeria and the FCT. In a recent report by the Federal Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Kwara emerged one of the top ten subnationals in Nigeria on climate governance. With the state government’s commitment to a special project like ACReSAL, Kwara is poised to do better in the coming years.
Water, they say, is life – and it is the tenth of the pick between July-August. You can therefore imagine the joy written on the faces of the people of Joromo Osin in Ilorin South Local Government Area, when the state government completed the Joromo Osin Waterworks. This joins a long list of waterworks that have either been rehabilitated or built under Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, to ensure potable water supply across the nooks and crannies of Kwara.
On health, the government launched a free Obstetrics Fistula repair surgeries (VVF and RVF) for women. The exercise ran between August 5 and August 9 at the Aisha Buhari Mother and Child Hospital, Eiyenkorin in Asa Local Government Area, providing aid to the less privileged, especially from the remotest of the state. The Obstetrics Fistula ailment causes obstructed, prevents them from getting Caesarean Section when needed, and worsens the case of maternal mortality. It is the eleventh programme or intervention.
Lastly, tech is the new oil. And the Kwara State Government is investing heavily in this sector to support the young demographic. Apart from introducing a tech-based basic education through KwaraLEARN, the AbdulRazaq-led administration is establishing facilities that support the tech drive of the youth, including the Innovation Hub, Visual Arts Centre, Sugar Films Studio. However, the state government has also commenced a free summer digital coding class for students of public secondary schools across the state. The coding class will equip our young brothers and sisters with relevant digital skills that enable them to compete fairly with their global counterparts. The free class, organised by the Office of the Special Assistant to the Governor on Digital Innovation, will run for six weeks across six centres in the three senatorial districts of the state.
The July-August interventions are a portrait of how Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq runs governance here in Kwara. He’s never laid-back. The Governor is always concerned with strides and decisions that serve the people week in week out. He will continue on this course for a #GreaterKwara.
- Abdullateef is the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Communications
