The Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq has said his
first priority is to get things back to normal and restore confidence
in the state, such as fixing bad roads, getting water running and
getting moribund institutions back to work.
Abdulrazaq made this known Monday night when he visited the Kwara
State College of Education (Technical) Lafiagi where he assured
workers who have long been on strike that they would be paid as soon
as possible.
He had earlier visited Bacita, a town in Kwara North that once housed
Nigeria’s biggest sugar factory, where he said that discussions are
ongoing with investors to revive the industry with domino effects on
employment and wealth creation.
The governor also visited the Lafiagi General Hospital where he
bemoaned the lack of basic amenities like water supply, electricity
and refrigeration for medical supplies like anti-snake bite serum.
He, however, commended the Federal Ministry of Health for its
interventionist programmes such as free malaria drugs.
On Tuesday, the Governor visited the Duku Lade Irrigation Scheme in
Patigi local government as part of efforts to ensure all-year farming.
The governor has since embarked on extensive tours of facilities
across the state, especially water works, hospitals, schools and the
comatose media houses that have stopped working.
The tours have led to release of funds for quick measures that have
seen water running in some parts of the state, road rehabilitation and
ongoing efforts to bring Radio Kwara back on air after many months of
inactivity.
โThings are not just bad here. I have seen your hospital and your
water works. They are in a bad state. But that is the way things are
all over the state. What we are trying to do is to get things
gradually working the way they used to be,โ Abdulrazaq told workers of
the College of Education.
โWe will clear whatever have to be cleared. But as I said, it is a
difficult task. I will give you an example. There’s no money but we
will manage our resources. For May, we received N3.2bn and salary
alone gulped N2.2bn. So only one billion is left to run institutions
like this and fix hospitals and water works. We just have to manage
our resources by putting the little resources in the right place.”
He said the administration would later embark on capital projects that
would transform the state.
