By S. O. Boladale
Governor of Kwara State, His Excellency AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, accompanied by the distinguished Honourable Yakubu Danladi Salihu, Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, graced the Kwarans in Diaspora Virtual Town Hall event, on Friday 3rd July, organised by the office of the Kwara State Diaspora Focal Person, headed by Prof. Wale Sulaiman, the Kwara State Diaspora Focal Person, NiDCOM,
The virtual event featured Hon. Abike Dabiri Erewa, Chairman /CEO NiDCOM who was the distinguished Guest Speaker. The Diaspora Ambassador and Amazon engaged Kwarans in Diaspora on the efforts of the Federal Government in integrating Nigerians in Diaspora for national development. She reiterated President Muhammadu Buhari’s diaspora friendly policies and programmes. Mama Diaspora further urged Kwarans abroad to invest in the homeland to help boost the State economy.
The virtual event also featured a significant number of Kwarans in Diaspora who collectively came up with brilliant resolutions to move the state forward.
Stating the objectives of the virtual event, Prof. Wale Sulaiman, the Kwara Diaspora Focal person stated that the event was organised to familiarise Kwarans abroad with the developmental blueprint of H. E Gov AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, which was summarized by Honorable Commissioner for finance, Mrs Sumbo Oyeyemi. She emphasized the willingness of her ministry to support Kwarans in Diaspora if they decide to invest in kwara state. Consequently, several contributions were made by participants at the virtual meeting.
In his address, Governor of Kwara State, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazak noted that:
‘Here in Kwara we are still battling with Covid-19, but I am happy to state that we have been improving, despite issues on ground. We are happy to have Professor Wale Sulaiman who have been giving us sound advise on how to battle the surging pandemic. We have not flattened the curve yet, the number of cases is still on the increase due to failure of some of our people to take adequate precautions. To avoid more issues, we have mandated people to keep observing social distance, use face masks and sanitize from time to time.’
However, the Governor noted that what is now most important is life after Covid-19. To this ends, adequate steps have been taken in line with Federal Government directives, particularly for schools to resume and for business to get back on its feet.
Expressing concerns about food security, the Governor stated that:
‘The major task is to make sure our farmers get to the farm because if the right things are not done on time, there will be issues of food security early next year. In order to avoid this, measures are in place to combat any threat to food security. For instance, we have plans on ground to engage the private sectors. Although, like any other state in the federation, our allocation from the federation is just enough to pay salaries, we have plans to leverage on IGR and invest in projects that will bring the needed capital’
The Governor further pointed out level of successes recorded in social investment programmes. According to him, Kwara State have adapted Social Investment Programmes (SIP) similar to the Federal Government schemes such as N-Power and Trader Money. In the Kwara model, there is Owo Arugbo for the elderly and Owo Ishowo for the traders. There are also provisions for Okada riders in the state, who were also given an interest free loan ranging from five to ten thousand Naira. The loan was introduced so as to help them sustain themselves and their family through the pandemic. They are to pay the loan as soon as businesses return to normal.
Talking about Health Challenges in Kwara, the Governor commended Professor. Wale Sulaiman for being a worthy and excellent expert. According to the Governor:
‘Having Professor Wale Sulaiman on our side is a great honour. We are so lucky to have him. Professor Wale have helped us to design a road map for investments. His contributions were examplary in the resurrection of our oxygen plant which has not worked for about 10 years, and it has been working well to the point that neighbouring states now depend on Kwara for oxygen supplies.’
The Governor went further to commend the efforts of the SA Health Matters, Professor Wale Suleiman towards revamping healthcare infrastructures in the state. A landmark achievement so far has been the revamping of the moribund Sobi Specialist hospital which is now indeed a Specialist hospital. Aside from the Sobi project, the state government acquired more than 10 new ambulances to respond to health needs of the people, and also have additional ambulances donated to the State. The ambulances have been spread across the state.
The Governor updated participants on the state of education in Kwara. According to His Excellency, the education sector was in a sorry state when his administration took over. Classrooms across schools in the states were in porous and dilapidated states. Pupils and students had no access to hygienic facilities and a bulk of those enrolled in state schools had no exercise books to write with. Therefore, the state was mainly confronted with the challenge of supplying books across all schools and stationeries. With regards to infrastructure, classrooms were renovated and furniture and other essential facilities were provided to make the learning environment conducive.
Aside infrastructural restructuring, the state government has also restored the dignity and image of Kwara State initially sanctioned by WAEC. The governor stated that, the state had to pay 30 million not to remain black listed by WAEC. A huge sum of 450 million had to be paid to UBEC as well to remove Kwara from black list.
According to the Governor, Kwara State had been blacklisted since 2013 with no attempt to correct the wrong. However, with the bold step taken by His Excellency, Kwara can now begin to benefit what it has lost in terms of education since the last 7 years.
By and large, the Governor assured participants at the zoom meeting that although the challenge is great, nevertheless, in the next few years, more achievements will be made and things will change for the better.
The honourable speaker, Kwara State House of Assembly, Rt. Honourable Yakubu Danladi Salihu, in his brief remarks, the Speaker rendered his appreciation to Almighty God for what has been done in Kwara so far. The Speaker recognised the giant strides taken so far by the Governor to address the situation of things in Kwara, and pleaded for more support for the Governor to take Kwara to greater heights.
Hon. Olasumbo Oyeyemi, the Kwara State Commissioner for Finance and Planning, informed Kwarans in diaspora of the State government pioneering investment plan which comprise diaspora investment policy that is underway. She further assured them of His excellency, commitment to diaspora Public Private Partnership.
Kwarans in diaspora organisations leaders namely Alhaja Adanlawo, KSANG, Mr. Sikiru Aliu, KWASANG. Dr. Gboyega Abdulkadri, ODUNA, and Alh. Nurudeen Adeyemi, Igbommina Association North America all commended the efforts of the state government in transforming the state and recommend ways of improving the state economy through public private partnership. The leaders expressed their support for the government and readiness to partner with the state government on mutual beneficial investment and community development project.
Talking about manpower in the health sector, Professor Wale Sulaiman, who doubles as the SA to the Kwara State Government on Health Matters, noted that there have been significant improvements so far. Speaking to participants at the virtual meeting, Prof. Sulaiman mentioned that:
‘We recruited over a hundred health workers. Two weeks ago, we just recruited some consultants for the General Hospital Ilorin to be able to beef up our flag ship hospital in terms of being able to take care of more complex cases. At the General Hospital Ilorin, we are also building a state of the heart 12 bed ICU, with 2 operating rooms.’
Professor Wale Sulaiman further noted that
‘Considering where we started, we can say this is a significant improvement. In respect to what we did at Sobi and the way we have been managing the Covid-19 pandemic. Kwara was recently ranked third in emergency preparedness and responsiveness. We are one of the first states in Nigeria to be able to say we have an isolation centre before other states. That takes a lot of work and excellent Team. I am proud of the team that we have here.
Recruitment is ongoing to upscale a lot of healthcare facilities in the State. This cuts across all the constituencies in Kwara.’
Professor Sulaiman observed that with the above developments and others, the health care sector in Kwara State has moved from subzero level and is really undergoing remarkable progress. Yet, Professor Sulaiman noted that more work needs to be done.
Commenting on his decision to return home to serve Nigeria and Kwara State in particular, Professor Sulaiman who had spent about 30 years abroad said that it was a tough choice to set aside everything and come back. He said he came back to serve our people because he believes in the huge potentials and opportuinities for improvements available here.
In his own words, Professor Sulaiman observed that:
‘I was very satisfied and was doing very well abroad. But I don't think I have ever had a job that provides satisfaction to my heart than what I am doing now because we are making significant impact. The question that kept coming to my mind when I was abroad was - If I wasn't doing what I was doing in US could some else have been able to do it. The answer was Yes. But if I stopped what I am doing here could someone step into my shoes, probably yes. but it might be harder.’
Conclusively, Professor Wale Sulaiman urged everyone to see the goals and aspirations of the platform as a task that must be accomplished for the betterment of Kwara State and Nigeria as a whole. He reiterated his joy for the calibre of people that graced the virtual town hall meeting and assured them that the platform is open to suggestions that will take Kwara State and Nigeria forward.
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