OPINION: I Bring Glad Tidings To The People Of Kwara. A Rejoinder By Muyideen ‘Femi Akorede

Date: 2014-08-11

One thing stands out from Abdullahi Imam Abdullahi’s panicky response to the outcome of Osun’s gubernatorial elections. Alarm. Followed by desperation. An obvious PDP sympathizer, Abdullahi is clearly agitated by the APC’s recovery and petrified that the feat

will be repeated in Kwara in 2015. His futile solution is to rubbish some of the accomplishments that stand the APC-led administration of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed in good stead with the people of Kwara.

In an article published on www.ilorin.info and titled “Osun Election Post Mortem: I Bring Glad Tidings To Kwara PDP”, Abdullahi labored in vain to label Governor Ahmed with inertia. Only someone flustered by the Ahmed administration’s rising profile and the APC’s resurgence could have concocted such fabrication.

A more credible opposition will offer constructive alternatives to government policies instead wishing them away with falsehood. Rather, Abdullahi makes unfounded allegations against the government for which he offers no shred of evidence other than to pursue a minority agenda of maligning former governor of the State, Senator Bukola Saraki (CON), the architect of modern Kwara and his successor, Governor Ahmed, who has been applauded for up scaling the vision of a greater and more prosperous Kwara.

How can a governor who has engaged 10, 200 youths, empowered 41, 000 small business owners, provided 100 taxis to transporters, reduced fees at the state university, abolished tuition fees at Senior Secondary schools level, supplied free notebooks to senior secondary students, modernized five general hospitals, equipped 13 General Hospitals and 42 primary health centers, constructed and rehabilitated several hundred kilometers of urban and rural roads be on sabbatical? Can you retreat from governance and still significantly improve school infrastructure, expand water supply, create a new generation of commercial farmers, connect 400 communities to the electricity grid and extend a globally-applauded Community Health Insurance Scheme to cover about 80, 000 Kwarans? I doubt that very much.

Everyone recognizes Governor Ahmed as the most youth-friendly and focused. He started earning those credentials within weeks of taking office with the engagement of 2000 youths through Kwara Bridge Empowerment Scheme (KWABES).

Not only did the government engage 5000 youths under the scheme in three years, 2000 of them now hold pensionable permanent employment in the state civil service. And it is on record that the state government has never defaulted in payment to KWABES beneficiaries since its inception.

I cannot think of any other state with similar resources to Kwara State that has achieved a comparable feat.

However, in his desperation to diminish this scheme, the writer dismisses the N10, 000 monthly stipend paid the KWABES beneficiaries and accuses the label of lack of transparency.

Ten thousand naira might be a smidgeon to him but that monthly remuneration gives our youths hope and keeps them productively engaged. Clearly, it is better to provide youths a living and valuable experience that could lead to permanent employment than leave them idle and open to all sorts of unhealthy vices.

I also point Abdullahi to SURE-P Public Works Jobs, a similar scheme operated by the Federal Government, which reportedly struggles to pay its payees a N10, 000 stipend. In any case, why hasn’t the PDP controlled-Federal Government, with all its resources, fully employed the SURE-P beneficiaries if it was that easy to provide pensionable permanent employment?

Abdullahi and his co-travellers in the PDP may play ostrich but the APC administration has earned kudos by not only promptly paying KWABES beneficiaries but for also ensuring that civil servants in Kwara State are paid promptly on the 25th of every month.

That feat eludes several other state governments, including those controlled by the PDP and receiving higher monthly allocations than Kwara.

The most unfounded of Abdullahi’s claims is that there are ghost beneficiaries on the KWABES payroll and that N50m is misappropriated from the scheme monthly.

Again, we reject this claim as untrue, mischievous and baseless. Until the flag-off of Quickwin, the government’s expanded youth empowerment scheme in May, KWABES had about 2000 beneficiaries receiving N10, 000 monthly. That translates to N20 million per month. So how can N50m be misappropriated monthly from a scheme that costs N20m per month? Again, where is the proof?

On the question of transparency, a strong Monitoring and Evaluation team that pays unscheduled visits to beneficiaries’ places of assignment to check attendance and monitor progress monitors KWABES and Quickwin. In addition, recruitment into KWABES is through a transparent process open to all resident youths. Furthermore, beneficiaries’ names were published in The Herald and their formal engagement took place publicly at Metro Square, Ilorin. It is therefore totally untrue that the recruitment process into KWABES was not transparent or that the beneficiaries are idle.

In retrospect, Abdullahi’s panicky response to Quickwin is understandable. Quickwin is the jewel in the Ahmed administration’s crown.

It is one of several life-transforming schemes that will guarantee an APC victory in Kwara State come 2015.

To remind, Quickwin is a rapid empowerment scheme designed to engage more youths, improve public works and promote entrepreneurship. Apart from direct jobs, majority of its beneficiaries are undergoing entrepreneurship training after which they will be clustered into cooperatives and provided access to cheap micro-credit.

In his article, Abdullahi makes the fallacious claim that the institutions providing the training are not committed to the scheme due to dissatisfaction with what the government pays. For the record, Kwara State University, Malete and Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin each receives N2.5m per tranche of 200 trainees. Indeed, I was in a meeting where the Rector of Kwara Poly willingly accepted the state government’s offer while KWASU conveyed acceptance in writing.

So I am bemused by the writers’ claim that the institutions are unhappy with the sum. Quickwin Implementation Committee headed by the SSG, of which I am a member, is yet to receive any complaint from either institution. Both continue to train Quickwin beneficiaries with enthusiasm.

The writer also makes a feeble attempt to dismiss the International Vocational Center, Ajasse-Ipo as a white elephant project. Again, Abdullahi needs some education.

Nigeria suffers from a middle-level manpower gap. Also, most of our youths are either unemployable or cannot find white-collar jobs.

In response, the Ahmed administration established the City and Guilds-affiliated center to fill these gaps and equip our youths with globally recognized skills moderated by City and Guilds of London. It must be stressed that the curriculum is market-relevant having designed in partnership with the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA).

Graduates of the school will also be clustered into cooperatives and provided access to affordable micro credit to start their businesses. Again, this life-transforming project worries the anti-development writer who is quick to dismiss it on the altar of partisanship even when the case for the centre remains strong.

I see a similar motivation in the writers’ attempt to diminish the APC administration’s strides in the health sector. It is on record that the remodeled and re-equipped General Hospitals at Omu-Aran, Share, Kaiama, Offa and Ilorin will rival any within the zone and indeed Nigeria in terms of physical structure, equipment and service. It is therefore disappointing that the author will wrongfully criticize any of the hospitals in a desperate attempt to belittle what the whole world has applauded.

For Abdullahi’s information, The International Aviation College, the Harmony Advanced Medical Diagnostic Centre, and Shonga Farms Holdings are products of former Governor Bukola Saraki’s forward thinking. They are driven by a quest to create platforms in growth areas that will empower the people with jobs, develop the state and grow its finances in the medium and long run.

Besides, commercial farming ventures such as Shonga Farms have long gestation. In the short run, the uninformed will mistake the venture as unproductive and ill advised. But in the long run the benefits to the economy and to the local environment will far outweigh the initial investment.

And for the record, Shonga Farms has signed an MOU to supply 500 metric tons of cassava chips to a Hong Kong Company while the diary arm supplies 10 per cent of WAMCOs milk needs in addition to supply agreements with Promasidor and Nutricima. Senator Saraki’s thoughtful vision of agro-led prosperity is gradually unfolding, thanks to continuity.

Besides, no one can argue with the fact that Harmony Advanced Medical Diagnostic Centre, the International Aviation College and Shonga Farms have collectively enhanced the state’s standing locally and internationally. That is bound to have a profound effect on investment inflow.

In conclusion, let me advise Abdullahi and his co-travellers in the PDP to provide credible opposition backed by facts and superior argument against government programmes rather than rely on disinformation and misinformation.

Our leader, distinguished Senator Bukola Saraki, and Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed have the best interest of our state at heart. They are working to elevate Kwara State to higher levels. Those who cannot understand why Saraki structure continues to deliver for Kwara State should seek explanations rather than attempt to demonize the impactful leadership that continues to deliver people-oriented dividends to the people of Kwara State.

Dr. Muyideen Akorede is Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communication to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed.