Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman Abdulrazaq on Tuesday visited the state’s Special Needs School where he donated audio books for the use of the visually impaired students and congratulated the students on Nigeria’s 59th Independence Anniversary.

The governor’s visit came after the students returned from the independence parade at the Metropolitan Square in Ilorin, the state capital.

AbdulRazaq, who had gone to identify with the children, also inspected the ongoing renovation of two blocks of five classrooms in the school.

The renovation works came following AbdulRazaq’s maiden visit to the school in July, during which he lamented the neglect of the school and pledged to ensure the facilities are upgraded.

Mrs Faoziyah Aroyehun, the principal of the school, commended the Governor for the audio books which she said would be very useful for the pupils.

“These audio books are particularly useful for the visually impaired students and we appreciate His Excellency for the kind gesture. We also commend him for the ongoing interventions in the school which he had facilitated,” she said.

In a message that targeted the interest of the less privileged, AbdulRazaq had earlier in his Independence Day message called on Nigerians to “build a country that works for all and not just for the privileged few. This requires that we look at the bigger picture each time we take decisions in our areas of influence. That bigger picture is national unity, national development and collective prosperity where no one is left behind.”

Rafiu Ajakaye
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor
1 October, 2019.

Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has approved N60m counterpart funds to key into the World Bank-funded Community and Social Development Projects (CSDP) that would help attract development to rural areas.

The payment, which is a requirement for any state to be considered for the initiative, would enable the Kwara State Community and Social Development Agency (KWCDA) access over N1bn to implement micro-projects in various communities that express interest and pay 10% of whatever project to be sited there.

Each community can benefit up to N10m project in the areas of health, education, water supply, environment, infrastructure, and gender/vulnerable group project empowerment, according to a statement on Sunday by the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Planning and Economic Development AbdulAzeez Tayo Oyelowo.

“In addition, vulnerable and physically challenged are to benefit from micro-projects to be implemented through access to funds. This will help through skills acquisitions and support with tools for operation,” the statement added.

The CSDP is different from the multi billion naira Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP) for which the Governor had paid the first tranche of N200m counterpart fund earlier in his administration. Under RAAMP, several rural roads would be constructed to facilitate access to agricultural produce.

The state government, meanwhile, has reopened the Moro-Bailey Bridge for traffic following prompt rehabilitation of the bridge by the Kwara State Road Maintenance Agency (KWARMA).

The agency has also commenced rehabilitation works on the damaged portions of Ilorin-Ogbomosho old federal road at Otte to ease free flow of traffic in the area.

Rafiu Ajakaye
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor
6 October, 2019

The Nigerian Canadian Association of Calgary (NCAC) at the weekend conferred the distinguished citizen award on the Special Adviser to the Kwara State Governor on Health Matters, Prof Wale Sulaiman.

Nigerian High Commissioner to Canada Adeyinka Asekun said the award was to recognise Prof Wale Sulaiman’s philanthropic spirit and commitment to help strengthen healthcare delivery back home in Nigeria.

Prof Sulaiman thanked NCAC for the honour, pledging to continue to give back to the society as a citizen and a professional.

“We were overjoyed to return to Calgary where our journey in North America started 22 years ago! We are very excited to continue our mission to transform healthcare in Nigeria, especially in my role as Special Adviser on health matters to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State,” the Special Adviser said in a post on Wednesday.

Kwara State Government will spend at least N100m to renovate the State Library Complex and use it as a launchpad for e-learning and temporary headquarters for the state’s innovation hub, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq said late Wednesday.

He said the renovation work would begin very soon as part of his efforts to reposition the education sector in the state and prepare the youths for a brighter future built on innovative skills and opportunities to be among the best in the country.

“We are going to have an innovation hub here. I have recently visited the state library and it is in a bad situation. The books are not up to-date and the roof is leaking. The whole place is decrepit,” AbdulRazaq said during a meeting with the Kwara State chapter of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).

“So, we are going to spend N100 million to fix it. Once it is fixed, we will begin our innovation hub there as temporary site. We will get some space there for e-learning process with free internet access so that people can go and do what they need to do.”

The students leaders were led to the meeting by President Comrade Adebayo Saheed Olosasa of the NANS in the state.

AbdulRazaq also said his administration has jerked up bursary for students from N100m inherited from the last administration to N200m in the revised budget just passed by the Kwara State House of Assembly.

He added however that payments would be made directly to individual beneficiaries based on an online data base already being generated by the Ministry of Education.

“Now, we are insisting on disbursement of bursary directly to the students . The reason for that is that when I looked at the Social Investment Programme of the federal government —money market, N-Power and trader money — I noticed that every beneficiary was getting their money because it was direct alert to them. But the federal government’s other intervention project like rice and cassava hardly got anywhere because some people were just diverting it. So I don’t want students money being diverted,” he said.

“And I am also surprised that we don’t have a data base for students. There should be a database which the ministry of education is now doing. It is on the basis of having database that they can disburse to the students directly. That database, once it is robust and interactive, will be shared with the students and unions across all institutions. With this, students unions can even hold elections online. That is e-governance, that is where we are going to. We are not going to wait for the world to leave us behind.”

AbdulRazaq also promised to ensure that students are carried along on issues affecting them, urging them to shun hard drugs and other habits that could be inimical to their future.

Olosasa, for his part, commended the Governor for his giant strides in the education sector and other areas since his inauguration.

He however called on the administration to pay more premium to the needs of the students across the state. He appealed to AbdulRazaq to revive the practice of giving subvention and operational buses to the students’ bodies as were done by the late former Governor Mohammed Lawal.

Olosasa commended AbdulRazaq for the nomination of Miss Joanna Kolo, calling on him to consider appointing one of the students’ leaders “who understand our situation” as Special Assistant on Student Matters.

Rafiu Ajakaye
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor
17 October, 2019.

The approved 2019 budget is online at the Kwara State Government website for verification by anybody.

As far as the 2019 Appropriation Law is concerned, there is no illegality or misappropriation in the implementation of the 2019 budget by the present administration.

The Governor, on his part, is cautious and properly guided in the approval and release of funds granted to all the projects, programmes and activities in accordance with the expenditure line items as contained in the approved 2019 budget.

We wish to clearly state that all counterpart funds released so far by the government for its activities are contained in the approved 2019 budget which are domiciled in the capital budget of Ministry of Planning and Economic Development for proper coordination, monitoring and control of the counterpart fund released by the government.

The cited examples of the expenditures can be found as follows:

1. UBEC Fund was sourced from servicewide vote (Ministry of Finance) with code 0220001, subcode 220206, subsubcode 22020606.
2. N100m Basic Healthcare Provision Fund: Code 0521001, subcode 230301, sub-sub code 23030105. It was released on 3 July, 2019 with Reference No: MoH/KW/113/530.
3. N82m Global Fund Support on Malaria and HIV/AIDS: Code 0521001, subcode 230502, sub-subcode 23050234. It was released on 5 July, 2019 with Reference No: MoH/KW/113/116
4. N50m for ANRIN: Code 0238001, subcode 230502, sub-subcode 23050231. Sourced from Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, it was released on 2 August, 2019 with Reference No: MoH/KW/1131/998.

Meanwhile the claim of over-expenditure does not exist in the 2019 Appropriation implementation.

We observe that the writer is bereft of the knowledge of reading the present budget format which is according to the International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS) adopted by the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development since 2014. This is the global best practice.

All the releases were used for the budget intended purpose with routine monitoring from implementing agencies and the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development. Hence, the claim of misappropriation is unjustifiable and in bad faith.