As the governor of Kwara State, Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq, clocks 60, a close look at his person and his humble nature is rubbing off on his administration, Adedayo Adejobi reports
He just clocked 60. And since he became the executive governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq, has seen the other side of politics. Whatever he saw when he was aspirant and later the candidate of his party, would be compared nothing to what he has seen since he mounted the saddle on May 29 last year.
Unassuming and extremely humble individual, those who are close to him say he still drives himself with a couple of security aides around him. Not only this, some of his aides say he has not allowed the glamour of office to affect him and change the person he was before he became the governor of the state.
“Governor AbdulRasaq was a self-made man before he became governor. I do not need to tell you about his parentage and his upbringing nor do I need to tell you who his father was. But he has not allowed this to affect the way he comports himself in public office since he became governor. He is humble and unassuming. I don’t know if he is playing politics with this but if he is, I think he is playing good politics,” a Lagos-based chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, but a native of Kwara State, who did not want to be quoted said anonymously.
According to him, it was this mindset that made him believe that his strides would speak for him until the fall-out over the ‘Ile Arugbo’ of the late titan of Kwara politics, late Dr. Olusola Saraki. While facts have emerged lately that there might have been some misrepresentations as per what really transpired between the state government and the Sarakis, the fact remains that the governor has vowed that he won’t allow the issue of the ‘Ile Arugbo’ to define his first one year in office.
To him, the ‘Ile Arugbo’ imbroglio was a distraction that should not have come up in the first place. According to sources, the place in question was not actually an old people’s home as was made to believe in the media. According to some aides of the governor, the place in question was built to accommodate those who were waiting to see the old patriarch of the Saraki political dynasty, Dr. Olusola Saraki, and not for any purpose of housing old people.
One of the aides told THISDAY that the land was originally meant to build an annex of the state secretariat. According to him, the state government wanted the Saraki family to provide the certificate of occupancy, CofO, for the land which they could not.
While the distraction created by the demolition of the ‘Ile Arugbo’ has died down. AbdulRasaq has decided to face governance in full force; especially in the area of education and health. Another area where AbdulRasaq is determined to make a mark in the area of ending graft and impunity in the state. According to him, people appropriated government property with reckless abandon.
Recently, the governor inaugurated a 15-member committee to “undertake a comprehensive assessment of the Kwara State Social Assessment Vulnerable Indicator”.
During the inauguration of the committee, AbdulRazaq said that more than 90 properties built with public funds were unlawfully appropriated by some officials of the past administration.
AbdulRazaq condemned the illegal acquisition of government properties, adding that the development underpinned the impunity with which the state was almost run aground.
According to a report monitored by the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, the committee was chaired by a former Chief Judge of the state, Justice Raliat Elelu, with Shuaib AbdulGaniyu, an assistant director in the Governor’s Office, as Secretary.
AbdulRasaq lamented on “the damning revelations” on the illegal sale of government property came from the report of the Senator Sulaiman Ajadi Committee, which he had set up to probe the handling of public assets since 1999.
The former businessman decried how the development had denied the state of necessary accommodation to host dignitaries officially visiting the state.
“The Ajadi committee did a very good job. It submitted two reports and we are waiting for the final report,” the governor stated.
“It is unfortunate that from my little reading of it so far, people just shared government property as if they were their fiefdom. They did not even think, for one second, that they were government property,” he added.
Sources told THISDAY that part of the buildings allegedly sold off was the residence of the deputy governor. Presently, the state is paying almost N8m per annum in rent so as to have a befitting accommodation for the state deputy governor.
It was also learnt that even where some of the properties were paid for, ridiculous amounts of money were paid. Figures as low as between N2 million and N5 million were paid for properties whose market values were in tens of millions. These, the sources said, had been going on for so long in the state. The source also informed THISDAY that those who took over some of the properties have started paying for them after it became obvious that the governor was serious about recovering the said properties.
Beyond recovery of wrongly appropriated properties is the determination of the governor to improve the state’s educational and health sectors.
According to statistics, the state is not really faring well in the area of education and he is determined to arrest this. His aides informed this reporter that even if new schools could not be built, there is a need to properly equip and fund existing ones.
In the health sector, the governor said the aim was to overhaul the state health care delivery system. He added that the aim was to develop practical and innovative solutions to improve the current system. In October last year, the governor announced the release of about N232 million in counterpart funding to address maternal and child health and medical outreaches for the poor and vulnerable in the state.
As AbdulRasaq clocks 60, perhaps the time has come to take stock. Though his political odyssey might just be starting having spent most of his adult life in the private sector, but he seems to be bringing the same traits that brought him success in the private sector to his public life. He is an entrepreneur, a deep thinker and philanthropist who has done so much for those who came across him. His simplicity is a break away from the arrogant pomposity of the past administrations.
As he runs his race as governor for one of the oldest states in the country, it remains to be seen how his humble mien will take him. And if indications are anything to go by, it seems it will take him far.
Irrespective of distractions.
