By Rafiu Ajakaye

Too many strange things do happen in Kwara State. And they happen without the critical actors (often time the government) batting an eyelid about what embarrassment such events/happenings cause the people. Sometimes so glaring a lie is told about state of things and so on.

On February 18, I read the full text of an interview Governor Abdulfattah Ahmed granted some journalists. The interview came under different headings in different dailies. Of all these headings, however, I considered the one in The Punch most catchy and, perhaps innocently, most indicting. It reads: "We'll hand over Aviation College to investors." Having earlier read the interview under a different heading ("We'll make Kwara Nigeria's agric hub") in The Nation of same date, I did not bother to read the interview again. The content is the same.

Now I quote a statement from the interview, as published in The Nation. "For now, the school is fully owned by the state but don't forget that the state government is not in the business of running aviation. So ultimately we will sell off 70 per cent of that business to those who know how to do it and then the school will run on its own internationally". Something is very clear from this statement and that is that the Kwara State government owns the Aviation College wholesale! On Monday January 14, the governor's spokesman, Femi Akorede, made the following statement on twitter: "Kwara will eventually sell 70 per cent of its stake in Aviation College." Today, after reading the governor's interview, I asked my 12-year-old younger sister to tell me what Akorede's statement meant. And without much ado, she said it means the government is selling 70 per cent of its own shares in the business. Prodded further, she said the statement meant the state does not appear to own it 100 per cent. That was the exact interpretation I had in my mind. Instructively too, I recall somebody on twitter asking Akorede whether somebody else owns some shares in the college. He has remained mute ever since. Now the governor just told us Kwara owns the college wholesale. The "its" in Akorede's statement clearly is ambiguous and I remember somebody had alleged it was a sign of very terrible things to come on this project, citing the Shonga Farm as an example. The governor of course made some false claims about the Shonga Farm such as declaring it a huge success when Mr Irvine Reid, one of the remaining Zimbabwean farmers, said in an interview with Financial Times of London (November 1, 2012, titled 'Nigeria seeks to beef up farming industry') that "our farming experience has passed its sell-by date". Recall that 13 white farmers were there initially. The governor did not disclose that five of the white farmers had since left the farm, much less explain why they left. He did not also say that Kwara State government is having its funds being deducted at source on account of unpaid debt of the "thriving" Shonga Farm which the government says now belongs to "private concern". An article titled 'Operation Fool the People of Kwara', published by Newswatch of March 09, 2012 in the wake of 70m Euro rice farming agreement the state government signed with one Valsolar Consortium of Spain, had far-reaching revelations about this. Why is Kwara shouldering a burden of a venture now belonging to a private concern or where it has a paltry 25 per cent?

Now to the Aviation College. I do not know of any decent government that spends public fund to put a project in place and then hands same to some "investors"? Where were these investors when public fund was being committed to the same project? Here I repeat a question one terrified Olabisi Ogunwale asked Akorede about this issue: is the aim solely based on future divestiture? And worst still, the governor said in the interview that government has no business in doing/running business! Is this statement an afterthought or the governor had always known this? If he knew this, why commit government fund to a business when government has no business being in business? These clearly defy common sense. Also, we do not know precisely how much of public fund has gone into putting the college (including the facilities and man power) in place. If we do not know these and the government is not the type to give such fact, how do we know it is not being dashed out at giveaway price to so-called private investors?

I have further worries. It is my prayer that the Aviation College does succeed. Else, Kwara will pay dearly – as it is doing for Shonga Farm. The Governor, clearly attempting to douse public anger at the news of Kwara's plans to purchase additional 10 aircraft for the college in a state with legendary dearth of basic infrastructure, used the interview to explain that the money is not from the public coffers. He said the college is benefiting from the new EXIM loan that the Federal Government has signed with the Chinese and India governments. The aircrafts are to be purchased from the loan, the governor added, to be paid back by the college over a period of 10 years. Good deal. But the governor clearly was holding back some facts about the loan: who is standing surety for this loan just in case of default? What happens, God forbid, in the event that the college is not able to pay pack? Head or tail, Kwara people would be made to pay.

But the bad news does not end there. The Aviation College was built from the N17b bond accessed sometime in 2009 from the capital market. Last year, additional N10b loan was taken to, in the words of the government, complete projects, including the same Aviation College! That money (N17b) is due for payment next year. With the college far from yielding any profit and the hope of it doing so remaining dim as at this minute, it is fair to say that the ISPO (Irrevocable Standing Payment Order) – which the state government signed in the event of the businesses for which the bond was taken defaulting from paying – would take effect from 2014, further depleting the meagre resources of the state. Yet Kwara people will soon lose ownership of this venture whose debt would be deducted from the treasury!

Clearly too many things are not right here. The government will hit back on this, rather than explain itself. But definitely Kwara's investment model is quite strange. And one would be forgiven to call it an outright fraud. This is the only state I know of where public fund is used to float an enterprise and the government will wake up one morning and auction it out. If my information is right, the multibillion naira Kwara Diagnostic Centre, also built from the N17b bond, is also gone. Kwara is no estate agent.

• Ajakaye writes from Ilorin