Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara state, in this interview with journalists speaks on his administration, challenges of local government and sundry issues. UMAR ABDULWAHAB was there
On Kwara at 50
For those who are witnesses to the trajectory of where we were and where we are today. Kwara State has gone through a lot and so we have a cause to celebrate. Looking through a list of past governors that manned the state in the last fifty years, including myself, we have Nineteen. On the average, it means by the turnover a governor does not spend more than two years or maximum, two and a half years on the throne. The turnover has not allowed for consistency or for any governor to involve in any long term plan. However, economic wise, Kwara State has moved from being a civil service driven environment that it was to an economic hub.
Those of us here in early 90s till sometimes 2003/2004, you can count the number of commercial banks in Ilorin, not to talk of other areas. The incursion of commercial banks tells you that there is a significant increase in the level of bankable businesses in this environment. In terms of infrastructure, you will see that a lot of communities are linked up through our new roads or the rehabilitation of old roads. Looking at the education sector, there is a significant increase in number of tertiary institutions in the state. Talking of even secondary schools, there is a significant increase in number of schools far more than we have in those days.
And most importantly, you will see the level that our health care systems have been brought to; in addition to rehabilitating some key ones in strategic locations, we have been able to torch quite a significant number of rural environments where we have either basic or primary health centres. We have built and renovated a lot of schools and lot more are coming. In terms of water supply, so many communities are having access to portable drinking water either through boreholes or surface channels. All in all, I would say Kwara State has appreciated tremendously economically, socially, politically and of course in terms of infrastructure.
The government is celebrating 50 years of creation but nothing on ground shows that Local Governments are carried along in the events?
Currently, local government are heavily reliant on federation allocation and the same allocation has been dwindling monthly as a result of dwindling price of crude oil. So you cannot expect to see much from local government outside Lagos. Lagos is a purely commercial environment and if probably Kwara is also commercial come to places like Isin Local Government, what kind of commercial activities go on there? What resources can you raise from that kind of place? What sort of internal revenue can you raise from that place? And ditto for other local governments in most of the states that are not in commercial environments, so it’s a huge challenge.
And that is why even the payment of salaries which is most critical they are faced with today is not do able 100 percent, because their capacity to raise revenue is weak and they are presently reliant on the dwindling federation allocation account. It is from this allocation that local government workers are serviced from, teacher at basic levels are serviced from it, so also local government pensioners. So it is difficult to see them get hundred percent of their emoluments. Their emoluments is a function of the federal allocation that comes in so between you and me, this is a challenge and it will remain a challenge until there is a reform to address the situation.
It will either increase allocation accruable to the local governments or create a level of flexibility that allows a stronger synergy with the states in such a way and manner that they too can tap into what the states are doing to improve their revenues. This is part of the challenges that local government are faced with, so a place to draw comparism from is not likely Lagos. When you draw comparism with Niger state, Ekiti state and Osun states, then you are talking. Lagos has been a federal capital; every structure is on ground to make things work. The Lagos environment has been made more enabling for those things to thrive.
You just mentioned the issue of water. There has been claims that government spent money on water reticulations projects, yet residents go through hell to get water, because there is no water in Kara state, what is your response sir?
The number of people in Kwara yesterday are not the number today, so meeting the needs of the people in the areas of water is a continuous process we will continue to and we are still on the reticulation, which is about 95 percent completed, so like I will always tell you, the need is growing, what the people need is far bigger than twenty five million gallons that was just completed because more people are coming in and that is what happens everywhere in the world except for populations that are not growing. Except where new children are not born; probably where there is war or something except that population will keep growing and government will continue to work towards expansion, it is a continue process.
The same thing goes for health services and on infrastructures, so government will continue to put machinery in place not only to expand new ones but also to rehabilitate old ones. These are part of the challenge that government business are faced with, so for water as we continue to maintain the old one that are being put under pressure, we would ensure that new ones are also put in place; So I think within the available resources at our disposal, we are able to carry on to certain levels and we still have a lot more that we can get to.
What do we expect from your government in the next two years?
The next two years will see significant improvements in areas of human capital development, increased support for tertiary institutions, secondary institutions and of course primary institutions. We would also see significant rehabilitation of roads to link up communities; don’t forget that we have acquired an asphalt plant and we are working on a funding window that will see to adequate procurement of materials which will aid in construction of new roads and rehabilitation of old ones. We would see significant improvement in areas of health care delivery; we have some hospitals already slated for completion, some for rehabilitation. Among them we have general hospitals; of course quite a number of them will be brought to completion level general and basic primary health care levels.
We would improve more in water supply in addition to the current reticulation currently going on. We would put in more effort so that we can access more water from underground and surface through water works. Of course in terms of energy we would also see a major shift from the current deployment of transformers to link the national grid, you will see us embrace more of the solar options for lighting up our communities because it is becoming increasingly clear that reliance on national grid for energy supply is not likely to give us the power need in the state and it is very unlikely that it will get to the rural communities; now with pockets of solar solutions coming in we would begin to see deployment into our rural environments. God willing, this will soon take shape, we have started with the light up Kwara, this is just the beginning. We would complete the ones in Ilorin and then move to the rural environment.
God willing. Most importantly, in the next two years, the state would have moved into a major agric hub, we are growing at a level that we see our youth truly embracing agriculture and key into an off taker demand driven scheme. Those of you who followed us to Shonga would testify that the Shonga business has moved into a fully integrated agric scheme which has created room for backward integration and it has significantly created a platform for our youth to that train.
What are you doing on the retirees at the local government levels?
We need to understand how federal, state and local governments are run; we had causes to explain this times without number that this is how government is being run. The local government as it were have their allocation sent to them from the federation account and when it gets in it comes into a joint allocation account, jointly owned among the sixteen local governments, so the term joint allocation account it is not joint with states but amongst the sixteen local governments. Let it be clearly understood. It is within this platform of joint allocation committee based on laws put together by the state house of assembly to guide them on how to allocate these resources. This is what the constitution stipulates that their money would enter into a joint allocation account, JAAC, and the money will be disbursed in accordance with the laws of the house of assembly, so each time the issue of shortfall comes in, the ball is thrown back to the state governments. The state government does not share in that joint allocation; it is a joint allocation among the sixteen local governments.
And it is within this platform of the joint allocation committee that they decide what goes into what they jointly fund for example, they jointly fund SUBEB, they jointly fund Traditional rulers, they jointly fund the local government service commission. After all these the funds are now appropriated to local government workers, pensioners and of cause SUBEB. So each time you hear of shortfall in allocation, it will affect what goes into these local governments and that is why in the last one year, it has been difficult to get 100 percent of their salaries because allocation had dropped significantly and local governments as you may know do not have the capacity to increase what comes in as revenue unlike states that have other financial ways and means of increasing their revenue through revenue generating strategies. You all are aware of what we have done with the internally generated revenue of the state increasing it from N500million per month to 1billion, 500 million per month. That is a significant increase for us at the state level; it is not the same at the local government level, local governments do not have the latitude to do such.
It is either the federal government increases the ratios that come to them or create a window where they can access additional money added to what comes into the local government purse. So let us understand where the problems are. Some politicians around are playing politics with the situation as a platform to make the government look bad as if the state is owing local government, we are not owing local governments, we have never owed them.
Who owns Shonga Farms?
On the ownership of Shonga Farms, you all know where to get these facts, the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC is there. There you can see all registered businesses and who owns them and to their level of ownership, it is there in CAC.
Thank you.
We are not owing local governments, we have never owed them
