REFRAMING THE KWARA DEBATE

Who did more with less? asks ABDULYEKEEN MOHD BASHIR 

Did you also see it? No way! Ajakaye was clutching at straws and picking offense where there was none. Is there a cause for alarm or worry in Kwara over Saraki’s interview? Well, Ajakaye answered that question via puffery and vain glory of his principal. I guess, other than Ajakaye, the rest of Kwarans will also be relieved that he will soon disappear from our space, like some before him, only to exist in memory.

There are two sides of the street, one for those who are referred to as “Omo Ope,” and the other for those who are referred to as “Omo Ijoba.” Omo Ijoba in this sense isn’t literal, the label is for irrational actors and unrestrained voices. Perhaps, the CPS will need to clarify which part of the street he is referring to. Street is general market, you can pick two!

Believe me, no different reviews have trailed Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki’s interview on Channels TV, except that of Rafiu Ajakaye, who sat to cherry pick and find malice where there was none. The respectable CPS to Kwara State Government is a polemicist and excitable propagandist. He is a child always seeking party rice, so he doesn’t fear dancing in the public for it.

There is no controversy here, Senator Saraki led between 2003 and 2011, and the allocation and resources that come to Kwara today under the Abdulrahman government would have been unimaginable in those years. Yet, it is from those resources that can be described as ‘limited’ today, that we are having a comparison of 6,098 basic teachers employed under Dr. Saraki and 8,912 basic teachers under Mr. AA.

If we factor in the magnitude of resources that now come into the state, who actually got more done between the two administrations? Allocation from FAAC in Kwara in 2003 to 2011 would be roughly 5-14bn per year.

The administration Rafiu Ajakaye serves receives allocations comparable to what Governors Lawal, Saraki, and Abdulfatah combined received. Kwara is averaging 120-150bn yearly. That is more than 10x, if not 15x more than what the administration of Dr. Bukola Saraki received during his tenure as Governor of the state. The APC government led by Mr. AA is an administration that has witnessed never seen before allocations in the history of the state since 1999.

It is remarkable to see Ajakaye reference KWASU’s recent medical accreditation. He once notoriously attempted to credit the creation of KWASU to another individual out of spite for Dr. Saraki. Yet, it is an institution inspired by Saraki that he is referencing. If Ajakaye is not on the other side of the street, did he not see that the principles that guided the establishment of KWASU were grand? Such that it could grow on its own and become a model institution in Nigeria. That is the legacy Saraki left during his stint in Kwara.

Maigida, with all his shortcomings, institutionalized tax collection via the creation of KWIRS. Whatever AA is doing today, the foundation was already laid. In Ajakay’s divorced from logic argument, administrations that received far less than theirs, but built over 398.73 kilometers, including the 120km federal funded, did nothing.

Bear in mind, the tax credit scheme was introduced in 2019, it did not exist between 2003 and 2018 when both Saraki and Maigida led the state. Otoge, which has received more in allocation than Lawal, Saraki, and Abdulfatai, including IGR, built 588.77km. The amount Governor AA receives today is greater than what three former governors received throughout their tenure. The IGR follows a similar pattern and is not even part of the conversation yet.

You do not need a fortune teller to tell you that one of the most visible interventions of the Saraki-led administration was in health. In 2007, he piloted the community health insurance scheme to provide healthcare access to rural areas. The Dutch Health Insurance Fund was a notable donor, along with government subsidy.

In fact, his administration strengthened primary and secondary healthcare delivery and upgraded health facilities. His administration was also one of the earliest to embrace PPP in the health sector at the state level to drive expertise for service delivery improvements. What about the polio eradication campaign, among others?

Again, the administration of Abdulfatah Ahmed faced far more severe economic headwinds than the present government. During that period, over 28 states across the federation struggled to pay salaries. That crisis did not even occur under Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, yet the lines between different administrations are now being casually blurred. What kind of comparative framework does that rely on?

It is also worth noting that many of those states have since recovered and are no longer burdened by salary arrears. In that context, regular salary payments today should be seen as the baseline expectation, not an exceptional achievement. The real question is how performance is assessed across fundamentally different economic realities.

If the administration of Maigida did not aspire to do anything good for the people of Kwara, why did it enact the health insurance law that the AA-led administration activated? You cannot simply appropriate credit for the scheme to the administration you serve, the administration that laid the framework for health insurance scheme laid it as art work? Has there been any similar landmark blueprint from the State Assembly or cabinet since 2019 under present regime?

If we assess the health sector under the incumbent, especially at the General Hospital in Surulere, the reality raises serious questions. It is difficult to describe as progress a situation where a single doctor attends to emergencies, and pregnant women queue for delivery only to be referred to private facilities. Is this the standard being presented as achievement? Rafiu Ajakaye may also wish to verify that, under Bukola Saraki, doctors in Kwara at a time earned more than their counterparts in federal institutions. That context matters when discussing healthcare performance.

It is equally important to note that Dr. Saraki met debts on assumption of office. Yet, at no point during his tenure did routine salary payments become a talking point or a badge of honour. Governance requires meeting obligations; it is not, in itself, a measure of exceptional performance.

The claim that one would get lost in Kwara today deserves scrutiny. Is that not an overstatement? Two bridges in the capital and resurfacing of existing roads, while notable, hardly amount to a transformation so profound that it disorients long-time residents.

Conclusively, Ajakaye struggled to defend the AA administration’s failure on security. He told the story like a rich man who throws money at every problem. When his beloved Principal governed away from home, failed to convene security council meetings, and did not conduct LG elections to rally local communities, what were they expecting to happen regarding security in the state? Has he forgotten some traditional rulers from Kwara South raised early alarm on the insecurity ravaging the state?

Did he think those who governed the state before Mr. AA did so on cruise, isolation, or that the security the state enjoyed was built on hope and passive action?

Abdulyekeen, a Kwara-born political analyst, writes from Ibadan