How Governor AbdulRazaq Is Changing Kwara’s Development Paradigm

BY CAMI EZENWA

Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State has only been on the saddle for about two years now, but his Chief Press Secretary, Rafiu Ajakaye has given strong indications how His Excellency has quietly been changing the development paradigm in the state.

An obvious reaction to opposing insinuation that Kwara was better when Senator Bola Saraki held sway as governor there, Ajakaye said nothing could be further from the truth.

He described as an unforgiveable crimes against the people of Kwara who had experienced the ironfisted rule of the Sarakis in their time, that they had a better administration than now, adding that  for one, nobody got anything in Kwara in that dispensation, except through and from the Sarakis along.

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The response, titled “A note on the Kwara journey”, notes rather disappointingly that “there is a group feeling among the Sarakites — with perhaps a few exceptions — that they were never wrong and that they cannot be wrong”, and that this pushes them to deny what everyone knew about the Kwara story.

  Latching unto data to back his argument, Ajakaye informed that As Sarakites bade public office farewell in 2019, data from the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) DHIS2 platform showed that maternal mortality ratio in Kwara was 1,404.4 per 100,000 deaths, the second highest in the country, but that this came down to 20.7 per 100, 000 live births, the second lowest in the county after Ekiti, at the end of 2020.

How Governor AbdulRazaq Is Changing Kwara’s Development Paradigm

The Governor flagging off free exercise book distribution initiative for Kwara schools

He added also, that pre-May 2019, the situation had got bad the UNICEF and other development agencies had to leave Kwara even as  supplemental immunisation had dropped drastically due to non-payment of counterpart funds by the state and healthcare facilities had collapsed statewide, with the Kwara Primary Health Care Development Agency having just a nurse to itself making attendance in public primary hospitals to hit a record low of just 43,936.

From one nurse in 2019, he said, the Primary Health Care Development Agency now had 44 nurses, a 4,300% raise.

Also, “Supplemental immunisation is back. Rollback malaria programme is active. At least 27 primary healthcare facilities have been fixed across the state.

To date, attendance in primary healthcare has risen to 306,328, representing 597.2% increase in public confidence in the system.

Gwanara Road Barutin Local Government, Kwara State, June 2020

“Infant mortality is down from 2.6 in 2019 to 0.4 per 1000 live births at the close of 2020, while under-five deaths slowed to 0.4, down from 4.8 per 1000 births in 2019.

According to the CPS, in 2019 just before the incumbent assumed office, Kwara came a woeful 36th  in the National Lot Quality Assurance Survey (LQAS), which determined the level of coverage for immunisation in each state, all of its 16 local government areas failing the survey; by 2020, however, it had moved to the18th position in the survey authored by the NPHCDA.

How Governor AbdulRazaq Is Changing Kwara’s Development Paradigm

He also recalled that Kwara had not a single life-saving modern gadget like ventilator and defibrillators, among others in its health infrastructure, putting a strong pressure on facilities at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital , but that the current administration had changed the narrative.

Not only is the General Hospital Ilorin fixed with modern lifesaving medical gadgets and a detached intensive care unit that is the largest and best of its kind in the region, the hosptal had won new accredetations.

“From the abysmal 79,408 attendance in public secondary facilities in 2019, the state recorded 1,181,776, or 1,388.23% increase, attendance by the end of 2020.

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“To date, no fewer than 14 secondary facilities have been worked on across the state.

“More than four decades after, the Otoge administration is fixing the Oro General Hospital, easing the decades of suffering in that corridor.

“Lafiagi General Hospital is seeing a historic transformation.  Number of doctors rose 28.6% between 2019 and 2021, owing to new recruitments.

“Efforts have now been activated to stop the attrition in the sector with significant pay raise for doctors and other health workers, and a commitment to do a lot more.

How Governor AbdulRazaq Is Changing Kwara’s Development Paradigm

“In 2019, only 6,725 households were connected to public water sources in Kwara State. However, none of these households was getting water since the waterworks were either non-active, inoperative even as water corporation workers were on strike for lack of salary payment.

“Public water supply was not active in 2019, leaving the people at the mercy of politicians who moved round with water tankers in exchange for votes.

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“This has changed. To date, the administration has increased the number of households connected to public water supply to 10,426, or 55%, with defined access to potable water.

“Number of public water stand pipes has risen by 1,107 more, or 72.31%.

“Measured against the population of the state, the figure is low but it represents a significant turnaround in the system.

“The administration has not only revived many of the moribund waterworks, including the one in Oyun, it is also building two new ones in Jebba (Moro) and Dumagi (Edu)”.

Rehabilitated road

Ajakaye recalled that before now,  “ Most schools in the Kwara hinterlands were without teachers, worsening the out-of-school children syndrome and drastically reducing the quality of education. In Isin and Oke Ero local governments, for instance, less than 50% of their senior secondary school teachers’ needs were met.

“Kaiama had just 68 teachers, falling below 45 percent of its needs, across its vast communities. Patigi had just 121, while Ekiti boasted just 135.

How Governor AbdulRazaq Is Changing Kwara’s Development Paradigm

“Apart from fixing access roads and making sure that the basic healthcare facilities are modestly functional in the far-flung Kwara countryside, the Otoge administration has done so much to bridge their teaching requirements, including employing 2000 teachers for the Teaching Service Commission. It hired 120 new senior secondary school teachers in various subjects for Isin local government alone, representing 109% more than what it met.

“For Ekiti, 123 more teachers were engaged, representing 91.1% increase. Additional 80 teachers, representing 66.1% increase, were hired for Patigi.

“50 new competent teachers (73.5% increase) were employed in Kaiama. At the basic schools, 2,701 more teachers were engaged to fill vacancies across the state, while various renovation or remodelling works are ongoing in 2,185 classrooms.

“ Compared with the 2,379 dilapidated classrooms inherited in 2019, that is 91.85% less in the 2019 needs assessment. The icing on the cake is that Kwara is now a proud member of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) family in Nigeria.

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“Kwara recently bested the whole of Nigeria at the President’s school debates. Some three years ago, the state was a pariah as it battled with an official blacklist provoked by its unlawful diversion of money meant for renovation of schools.

“This year, Kwara is joining Edo and Lagos to drive phenomenal change in basic education by introducing cutting-edge technology in public schools. It is called KwaraLEARN”, the CPS said

-Editor’s Note: watch out for the full text of the CPS reaction