ADDRESS BY MALLAM ABDULRAHMAN ABDULRAZAQ, GOVERNOR OF KWARA STATE, ON THE SWEARING-IN CEREMONY OF THE NEWLY APPOINTED STATE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEMBERS AND MEMBERS OF THE STATE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION, AT THE BANQUET HALL, ILORIN, ON FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2019.

Courtesies:

I begin this address in the name of God the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful. I congratulate all of you commissioner-designates, special advisers, and members of the civil service commission who are being sworn in this morning to serve our people.

Although it is one of the first generation states in Nigeria, Kwara has one of the most troubling developmental indices today and is in fact without any solid foundation in basic infrastructure. But the people have elected our party to change this narrative for good.

Let me remind all of you that we are not the best of the 3.5m people in this state. However, providence has placed on our shoulders the historic responsibility to take our people out of Egypt and safely into the Canaan land. This task requires focus, patience, sacrifice, tact, speed, and constant supplication to God Almighty to guide us every step of the way. We must engage, listen, and relate well with our people whose mandate has brought us here. In doing so, we must see the whole of Kwara as our constituency.

Fellow compatriots, let us relate as a broom, stronger together, each watching the back of the other. The recent retreat has offered you a clearer picture of where Kwara stands today and where we are headed as a team. Whatever assignment given to you must be done with all sincerity. Think always about what you want to be remembered for when you leave this office.

Ladies and gentlemen, our team is faced on the one hand by high expectations of a populace long deprived of good governance and on the other by detractors who may never see anything good in whatever we do or stand for. But rest assured that the only obligation before us as a team is to prove the naysayers wrong and deliver on our mandate to the people of Kwara State.

We are to build a state that is viable, accountable, inclusive, responsive to the basic yearnings of its people, and is equipped with the necessary infrastructure and institutions to meet the challenges of the 21st century, while also welcoming constructive criticism to make us better at what we do. #Iseya