In his maiden media chat to mark his first 100 days in office Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq of kwara state shared his experiences in government, the challenges and prospects ahead. UMAR BAYO ABDULWAHAB was there.
It’s been 100 days since you assumed office as Governor, sir. Can you please share your experiences with us? Have you been overwhelmed or had cause to think you did not how rosy it is that you wouldn’t have bothered yourself?
Business is different from governance. It is a total different ball game but in terms of government, there’s governance, there is politics. Politics is the difficult part. Running a state is very simple and not difficult at all.
We met a lot of rots which are daunting and one will think where do we start from, there’s no money to do it. But we just have to be ingenious in the way we do our things and luckily for us, the day we got in, we got N4.8bn. This is a PAYE tax from the federal government which was paid on the 28th of May, 2019.
The previous administration tried to spend that money, thanks to EFCC and others that fund was blocked. We’re glad it was blocked. That’s the sort of money we are going to use to fund our education and pay counterpart funding for UBEC and build infrastructure. The money we got is still in the bank, we have not touched it. We will invest it wisely in the state.
Is it daunting? Yes, it is daunting but it surmountable. We’re up to the task and we will resolve the issues. Once you don’t put personal interest on public interest, your job is easy.
You mentioned that the proper work will start when you have your commissioners in place. Can you tell us when you will have your cabinet in place? Is it true that the crisis in the APC is affecting the constitution of the cabinet?
There is no crisis within the APC. We’re diligently working towards putting a team together. The team comprising the advisers, commissioners and that is what is taken us a bit of time because of the consultation going on. But hopefully by next week some announcements will be made and be sent to the state assembly.
You inherited the 2019 budget. What do you find as the challenges to implement the budget? How are you tackling these challenges?
The budget we inherited is a difficult and tough one and it did not fit into our programmes. It is something we could have continued with but what they appropriated money for and where they appropriated money to is quite different from what we are doing.
We could not build on the foundation they had laid. For example, in their budget, there is a provision for the renovation of schools and when we came in we found that those schools had to be renovated be rebuilt completely. So, that’s not in their budget.
The issue of health sector is the same thing. There is nothing in their budget to fix our hospitals. So, we have review the budget to find money to put in to those projects. For example, we want to build roads in our towns – local government capital and major towns. There is no provision for that in the budget. That’s why we have to review the budget, to be practical and put money where we want to.
Recently, in a peculiar manner, you held the 2019 budget review session at the special needs school, can we have an inkling of the outcome? On the issue of SUBEB/UBEC, can you highlight your priorities in this sector?
When we set out to review the budget, we spoke with the permanent secretary, Ministry of Planning and Economic Development and he said I will need to be at the opening session and I asked for the venue and said at the government offices. But a week earlier, I was at the school for special needs and needless to say, the situation there is appalling. There is no water, the infrastructure is extremely unpalatable. That’s why I said we should go to the school for special needs to hold special budget session there.
The idea is that for those that draft the budget and shape our future to come to the institution and while they are preparing the budget they will see what others are going through in that school. That’s the whole idea. The good thing is that all the parastatals came in to defend their budgets and make proposals. For me, if the ministry of sports comes in they should think of making provisions for the disabled sports.
If the ministry of Works comes in they will see the need for infrastructure and see everything that’s lacking in our society in just one institution. One good take away from that was that a day after it went viral online and a company from Lagos came to the school and promised to help us fix the school.
What are those things, projects, you’ll like to prioritise in your first major budget in 2020?
Priorities of the budget for 2020 will be water supply, healthcare, education, infrastructure, job creation and agro-processing. We’ll build capacity with private sector on Social Investment Programmes, create jobs and empowering more people.
Can you share with us the highlights of the report of the Senator Ajadi committee that probed the sales of government properties?
The committee did a very good job. They submitted two reports and we’re waiting for the final report. It is unfortunate that from my little reading of it so far, people just shared government property as if it was fiefdom. They did not even think for one second that it was government property. For example, you give property to Harmony Holdings to invest on behalf of the state as trust and those in Harmony Holdings just shared among themselves, even selling below the valuation of prices. Even government did the same thing.
There is a new layout called New GRA, none of them went there to build new houses because it was cheaper to pick government houses for next to nothing rather than build their own houses. We will look at the recommendations.
In fact, some of them just live in those houses without paying anything while most of them only started paying after the election was won and lost to the extent that the state government does not have accommodation to dignitaries and traditional rulers from other states to host them rather than putting them in the hotel. That’s how they shared the property and we are looking at more than 90 property which they carved out for themselves. We’ll go back to the report of the panel and make sure the proper thing is done.
You have the next three years and nine months, what is your message to the people as you begin this journey, sir?
During the campaign, there was message of hope and since we came in people have seen our intention on the little things we have been able to do. We urge them to be a little patient with us while we begin the proper implementation of our policies which begins with the passage of the revised budget, putting cabinet in place and delivering services to the people.
Hopefully, In Sha Allah, by the time we pass the budget, cabinet in place, you will feel the real impact. So, I urge the people to be patient with us and work with us because it is our government and it is going to be our success. We don’t want to go back to what was happening before, that’s not our future. We need to build together collectively and take decisions collectively.
