KWARA STATE: YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW — PART 4
I have been analyzing Kwara State of Yesterday (1999-2019) and Kwara State of Today (2019-date). And this is the fourth episode.
Today
By today we mean the tenure of Mallam AbdulRazak AbdulRahaman who was elected Governor of Kwara State and sworn-in as the governor of Kwara on the 29th day of May, 2019. Of the four governors that had had the privilege of governing Kwara State since 1999 till now, he is the only one not produced by the dynasty of Saraki.
What He Inherited
He inherited water that was not flowing, poor road infrastructure accross the State, poor health and educational system, high rate of unemployment and underemployment, economy that was in bad shape, people that were sharply divided along ethnic and religious lines, unpaid salaries, pension and gratuity, etc.
We shall examine TODAY on how far the governor has solved the above problems since he assumed office in 2019.
Available Resources
To solve the problems above what are the resources made available to the governor?
The governor has access to monthly statutory allocation from Abuja, monthly Internally Generated Revenue, loans or Bonds, grants, human capital resources among over 3million Kwarans from where he could draw appropriate skills, wisdom and knowledge.
Revenue of Government
In this episode, I will only treat the revenue that accrued to the government of Kwara between 2019 till now.
On Monthly Statutory allocation this government has collected roughly about 592.4b Naira.
The Internally generated Income that accrued to the government in the past seven years is the sum of 353.77b Naira.
When the two are added together it is the sum of 944.82b Naira.
That is a little less than one trillion Naira.
Comparison
I said in part one that the total statutory allocations of governments of yesterday (1999-2019) was the sum of N903,450,197,655.73b.
That was what three governments earned in 20years.
When we consider that the governments of yesterday also generated less than one trillion Naira but even less than what government of today earned, it means that in volume, if not in value, the government of today had earned in eight years what the government of yesterday earned in 20 years.
Accountability
Governor ought to be the servant of the people and I want to predict that by the end of the tenure of this administration, Government may have to account for State money of about one and a half trillion Naira.
But the bigger question is; what is Kwara South’s benefits from close to this one trillion Naira?
That will be the next episode.
Germane Issue
The issue is that if yesterday was bad and today is worse, 2027 is an opportunity to create a better future for the people of Kwara South.
Reactions are welcome. Let us discuss with facts and respect.
Akogun, O yàtọ̀.