Kwara Assembly: The Kwara State House of Assembly had many dotted lines on pages of several history books last year and rightly so. For the records, the 8th legislature under Speaker (Dr) Ali Ahmad made history on March 16, 2017, when it finally passed the first Private Bill, a Bill for a Law to Establish Kwara State Health Insurance Agency and Kwara State Health Insurance Scheme, sponsored by a member representing Kaiama/Kemanji/Wajibe Constituency, Hon. Ahmed Ibn Mohammed. Following that feat, the lawmakers further created another record when it was the first State House of Assembly in the country to pass the Not-too-Young-to- Run-Bill, which was ironically initiated by the Bukola Saraki-led Senate and followed that up with an icing on the cake with the regularisation of the state budget calendar to run from January to December. The Speaker described the budget process reform as historical in the annals of the state and one of the highest points of the House last year.
Mike Omotosho: Mike Omotosho is former governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) for the 2015 election in the state. But the billions expended on campaigns and media advertisement was not enough to get him the top seat. He went “under” for a while and busied himself later with social messages urging the people to collect their Permanent Voters Card until recently when he made history with his emergences as the first Kwaran to merge National Chairman of LP late 2017.
KWASU: The National University Commission last year accredited the Aeronautical and Astronomical Engineering course for the Sola Saraki University formerly called KWASU. It made history as the first university in the country to achieve such feat. Coupled with the International Aviation School already thriving in the state, the university is expected to partner the aviation college in producing world class aeronautics and astronauts that will make the state first destination points for such highly technical education with very high demand market in the world.
Raji Khalid Olatunji: 19-year-old Raji Khalid Olatunji from the Department of Sociology, got everyone in the auditorium talking during the 33rd convocation ceremony of the University of Ilorin in October 2017, as he was announced a first class graduate, a feat that is yet to be achieved in the 42 years of existence of the department in the institution.
While presenting his graduands at the event, the Dean of the Faculty of Social Science, Prof Bashiru Salawu described the young Olatunji as a jinx and record breaker and subsequently recommended him for a warm handshake with the Vice Chancellor, Prof Sulyman Abdulkareem Age.
Ministry of Education and Human Capital Devt: Kwara State broke the jinx of failure in the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination otherwise known as WAEC as it recorded 64 per cent last year.
The performance of candidates presented by the state for the external examination was a marked improvement over previous years. It was said to be the best in the history of the state.
