The Kwara State Governor, Dr. Abdulfatah Ahmed, has hinted that the state will soon commence the process of reviewing its laws to meet with current realities considering that the last law review was carried out in 2006.
The Governor, who also promised that contractors handling the ongoing Ilorin metropolis water project will soon be mobilized to site, stated these in Ilorin while receiving the Forum of All Progressives Congress members of the Kwara State House of Assembly.
According to Governor Ahmed, the state government is now financially stable to jump start its major infrastructural projects, while fulfilling its obligations to workers in the State.
“The major areas where we have constraints are some higher institutions of learning as a result of ongoing efforts at reforming how their incomes are appropriated,” he said.
Governor Ahmed said the delay in announcing necessary appointments and constituting boards of parastatals and commissions is mainly a function of current economic challenges.
He promised that another set of appointments will soon be announced.
Earlier, Hon. Wole Oke, who spoke on behalf of the former House of Assembly members, acknowledged Ahmed’s “administration’s efforts to sustain regular payments of salaries to state workers and pensioners despite financial constraints facing your administration and happy that you are one of the three governors designated by the NLC as labour friendly governors”.
On the diversification of the State’s economy, the forum recommended that the administration should synergise with local government councils in the state towards mobilizing the people across board to engage in massive commercial agriculture through cooperative groups.
While commending the governor’s foresight in re-energising the process and methods of tax collection in the state, the forum called for repositioning of various tourist centres in the state through a public private partnership as one of the many alternatives to the dwindling federal allocation.
The forum called for establishment of a Department of Tourism at the Kwara State University to help “proper intellectual background to boost potentials in these untapped areas”.