Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara State came into office on May 29, 2019, precisely less than 21 months ago. As at today, February 10, 2021, for every one month he has spent in office since 2019, he has constructed at least five new roads, totalling over 110 new roads. This means that for every six days Abdulrahman has spent in office, he has constructed at least one new road. With this statistics, we can actually project that by the end of his first term in office, he would have constructed at least 300 new roads, one road in every six days.
The roads being built were built without any loan and without owing any contractor. They were built from the meagre allocation of Kwara State and its mild Internally Generated Revenue.
It is also important to note that, from this small income, the state government also paid the counterpart funds for RAAMP, in which almost 200 rural access roads will be built over the next two years. This means that by the end of Abdulrahman’s four years in office, his government would have successfully built over 500 new roads in the state. Five hundred new roads in four years would be 125 roads per year, more than 10 roads per month and more than one road every three days spent in office.
In 21 months in office as Governor of Kwara State, Abdulrahman has constructed or renovated at least 37 schools. That is almost two schools per month or one school every 15 days he has spent in office.
From the meagre allocation of the state and its mild Internally Generated Revenue, the Kwara State Government has equally paid off the Universal Basic Education Commission debt and other counterpart funds to access over N7 billion for education infrastructure. The N7 billion received from this efforts, according to the government, would be used to build 600 new schools in the next two years.
With the 600 new schools the government is planing to build with UBEC funding in the next two years, that would be a total of 637 schools constructed in four years by the Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq’s administration. Literarily, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq’s government would have built almost 160 schools per year. Almost 13 schools every one month and one school in less than every three days in office.
Between 2019 till date, more than 50 primary and secondary medical facilities have been constructed, renovated and equipped. This is about less than three facilities per month and one in every 10 days. There are several ongoing projects in the health sector that we cannot even talk about. All of these projects were done without any loan or debt and doing them has not hindered government from meeting its other obligations such as prompt payment of salary, payment of pension, provision of water infrastructure and so on.
If the government doing all of the above then came forward to say that I need bond to carry out enterprising projects across the state to be able to provide jobs for the teeming population and generate more income for the government, any objective person would agree that the government has really demonstrated capacity to win over members of the Kwara State House of Assembly and the general public. So, when anybody say to me: why are you defending and supporting the government of Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq? I would respond: Why are you not?
. Hamzat is the Convener of Kwara Must Change.