Date: 2020-05-30

Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State yesterday hit back at members of his party who criticised him for not sharing government money with them like previous administrations insisting that he would rather continue to share projects across the nooks and crannies of the state.

The governor while briefing journalists at the Government House, Ilorin on his administration’s achievements in the last one year also said that his government inherited moribund sectors and a state with huge water scarcity, unfunded education system, uncompleted and abandoned projects, moribund health care system, agriculture and infrastructure.

On clamour for sharing government money, the governor said, "Our people have been complaining that we are not sharing government money since we came but I'm not going to do that. I will rather continue to share projects to every part of the state like I'm doing. It was the past administration's penchant for sharing money that put them into trouble in last year's general elections."

As parts of measures to ensure the spread of development to every part of the state, AbdulRazaq said that his administration would soon roll out new state master plans in economy, energy and agricultural sectors.

He recalled that when he took over one year ago, the state was below zero level saying "everything was moribund when we came in, the education system and other sectors were in disarray"

He explained that the situation in the education sector of the state was worsened by the fact that the previous administrations did not invest in it and other sectors.

He said in the last one year his administration has revamped the state education sector and Kwara has become one of the best four states in heath care delivery because of its approach and handling of the COVID 19 issue.

READ ALSO: ASUU to FG: Raise funds for education like you did for COVID-19 “We have renovated over 1,000 schools across the 16 local government areas of the state, distributed books, paid students WAEC fees and renovated and equipped our health facilities for sustainable health delivery”, the governor said.

He added that "N8bn was in UBEB waiting for Kwara to pick up but because no investment had been made on education in the state for many years, students and pupils were just sitting in classrooms looking at the blackboards without exercise books.

"We realized there were challenges we needed to catch up with because there were no chairs, laboratories and furniture in our schools and ghost workers in the sector was also a major challenge. WAEC had to impose a fine of N20m on us because our teachers colluded with students. All these challenges we have been able to overcome" he said.