It was that iconic Nigerian literary giant, Chinua Achebe, that once wrote a book, THERE WAS A COUNTRY. Like all his books, it remains evergreen as it is relevant for all times, especially this time. I borrow this topic from the title of that book. There is the need for this article for some reasons. Firstly, many Kwarans like many other humans, are short of memory, we are too forgetful. The things that happened in the immediate past are often cast out of mind in preference for the now. This creates a situation of unappreciated past. This even becomes more acute as the teaching of history for some years now in this country, are erased from our school curriculum. So, this message is crafted so as to take the people of this state to our past that was glorious, more purposeful and grounded in a focus on the developmental agenda that set the foundation for a prosperous Kwara State. Lack of knowledge of the past commits many of us to celebrate mediocrity over excellence. It enables many of us to celebrate token efforts, stagnation or even backwardness as progress and development. This celebration of absurdity sustains weak, directionless leadership in our public space. It has even created a belief in the people that wrongs are normal. This causes a level of despondency resulting in common expression that: “things can never be better than this”. Therefore, governments come and go, the situation of our people remains unchanged. There is the need to dig into the past of Kwara, if only to refocus the thinking of the people long enmeshed in despair or hopelessness.
I was old enough to know what was happening around me at the time of the creation of this state, in 1967. By the time the first governor of the state spent nine years in office, I had passed from primary to higher institution, where I was prepared for a university degree. I therefore had a very clear understanding of what was going on in government at the formative stage of Kwara State. I lived through all the military regimes which went intermittently with civilian three civilian regimes. I was a participant in what I can call, the diarchy of Babangida and I was indeed in government as a commissioner in two significant Ministries in Kwara State. I have been in politics throughout the period of the fourth republic, and I worked with one of the four governors of the era. I therefore will talk about the thirty-two years of military/civilian era, where I was an observer and a marginal participant. As to the fourth republic, which will be twenty-eighth years in 2027, I have been a major player as legislator, Political party administrator and public affairs commentator. When I write this, I do so as somebody that know and it is better that those that come across this should listen and let us discuss through this paper. When I therefore say that yesterday was better than today, it is how I saw yesterday and my views of today. I write this to create a better future for the people of this state.
The best way to start this discourse is in the areas of recruitments of personnel for operation of the machinery of government whether as political heads or civil servants reputed to be the engine room of any administration. How was this done at the inception of this state? The early civil servants started their service years under colonial administration. They were the first set of educated Kwarans who saw being in government as service. They saw themselves as pathfinders who were conscious of the intertwine of their destinies with that of Kwara State. Even when they were in government, they did not see themselves as mere representatives of where they came from, but rather how they could operate the machinery of government in the interests of the overall development of the state. They laid excellent behaviors in good character and integrity in public office. They were pioneers that saw the state as their own and saw their duties as historical assignments. They were absolutely dedicated to their duties, as master craftsmen in government. The class of civil servants of that time knew the General Order (GO) and were bold enough to appropriately advised the then political heads of government with fidelity and honesty. Though there was acute shortage of developmental resources, they were too adept at resources management that made them to establish a state that started to climb the ladder of development even at creation. They may not be as well read as their successors, they continuously developed themselves not only in the skill of administration but also in human values like integrity and character.
We now have a service of anything goes. Recruitments into the service often abuse processes and procedures, as they are based on nepotism, favoritism, cronyism and other forms of corrupt practices. Mediocre are often at the helms of affairs. Lack of appropriate knowledge and skills do not allow them to have self-confidence. Where they have to give quality opinions and advices to the bosses who are either the governors or commissioners, they often guess the desires of their bosses to frame their opinions.
The service of today does not have secured tenure, and sycophancy guarantees secured terms for public officials. Just because the tenure of those in government is not guaranteed, they succumb to all forms of corruption and malfeasance, to provide for themselves, secured future. Even now, civil servants do not enjoy continuous trainings as consultants are hired to handle the jobs they were trained and employed to do. The civil service of Amuda Gobir, Aderibigbe, Salman Alada, SB Awoniyi, Tunji Oyinloye, Ogunlowo, and a host of others that were once the doyen of Kwara civil service, is now a shadow of the past. It is now a service where juniors are often promoted over their seniors. A service where indiscipline is a norm and praise singing earns plum postings and positions. As far as the civil service and other people that man the machinery of government of Kwara are concerned, yesterday was better than today.
The focus of economic prosperity in the state at inception was built on agriculture. The founding fathers saw large expanse of fertile land that can support all forms of crops throughout the year, rainfall that was adequate to support high yields; a farming population whose asset is the land, they then believed that agriculture should be the mainstay of the economy of Kwara State. The founding fathers had no access to monthly statutory allocations and if they had, it must be too meagre. That was a period of innovative leadership where creative leadership was the hallmark of governance. A large expense of land was acquired for the Ministry of Agriculture.
Peasant farmers were trained by extension officers to increase farm yields with appropriate technology and science. All areas of agriculture like cropping, livestock, animal husbandry were encouraged to flourish. The Ministry of Agriculture had policies like fertilizer and chemical subsidy schemes, there was tractor hiring units, tractor subsidy schemes and land clearing company. All these were designed to boost production of small farm holders. Then the early government went into food processing, especially rice processing. There were government companies like, Kwara Livestock Development Company, Agricultural Development Corporation, Land Clearing Company, etc, put together by early government to promote and sustain agricultural development activities. Who could now imagine that in the 70s, 80s and early 90s, Kwara State used to process milk and rice? There was produced in Kwara State, stone free rice, similar to the one imported from America, India and Thailand. It was called K. Food. In the 80s there was the Agricultural Development Project (ADP) piloted by foreign loan to improve agricultural productivity in Kwara State. The project encouraged productivity in many sectors of agriculture, like supply of improved seedling, cropping, provision of water, rural road infrastructure, etc. There was really no hunger in the land as people were productively engaged. Some people used to think that commercial agriculture started in Kwara State with the Shonga farm, which I continue to describe as, a fraud. There were large scale private commercial farms at Iddo-Oro and Okeya in those days. Many people also set up large poultry farms for livestock breeding.
Kwara State started tipping into poverty and economic backwardness when the occupation of the 70% of our people were completely neglected by those in authority. The sliding started in the middle of 90s and reached its lowest today. Since the beginning of the fourth republic in 1999, I cannot lay my hands on any meaningful agricultural policy of the 1999 to date successive administrations. If there had been any policy, it is one that remains anti local farmers and Kwara people. I still continue to wonder why agriculture cannot even be partially mechanized by providing modern tools like planters, harvesters, tractors, improved seedlings, engagement of appropriate numbers of extension officers, land clearing equipment for our farmers, and irrigation farming for dry season farming. I am still at a loss on the logic behind the establishment of Shonga Farms that drained state resources without meaningful impacts in terms of continuous production of crops or transfer of agricultural knowledge and technology to the locals. When policies like tractor hiring, chemical subsidy, fertilizer subsidy land clearing policy, etc were cancelled, with what have they been replaced? As if agriculture have been deliberately abandoned, the huge land of the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources were parceled out to government political appointees and friends of those in government. A place of agricultural research and farm demonstration; now becomes residential areas for those elected to improve the living conditions of the people. Legacies were abrogated for luxury! There was indeed a Kwara.
Founding fathers’ efforts in the area of establishment of infrastructural facilities like roads and water can also be examined. For want of time and space, attention should be given to provision of safe water for the use of the people of this state. All the dams in this state were established by governments before the advent of the regimes, before 1999. The water works in Ilorin, Offa, Lafiagi, Omu Aran, Igbaja, Oke Onigbin and others were established by governments that came to the saddle before 1999. I must state that none of these Dams is healthy today. Let us look at the provision of water in the Ilorin metropolis as an example for acute water shortage in Kwara State. By 1999, Ilorin water works had the capacity to produce about thirty-three million gallons of water per day, though the metropolis needed more than that as at then. The population of Ilorin compared to what it was in 1999, may have even quadrupled as a result of massive rural/urban migration; yet the thirty-three gallons per day of pre-1999 era are not available not to talk of being increased to meet the growing population. The moribund condition of the Ilorin water works is also typical of other water works in Kwara State.
People are no more drinking from government facilities but rather from open wells and boreholes mainly dug by individuals. The efforts of governments since 1999, have not produced appropriate results. Governor Mohammed Lawal (1999-2003) wanted to expand the water supply in the city. He started building water reservoirs all around the city. Though, he was unable to finish the project during his tenure, this was abandoned by the succeeding administration. The regime of Dr Bukola Saraki, (2003-2011) started a water reticulation project. Pipes were bought and perhaps installed, but it reticulated no water. Essentially today, people have lost hope in public water supply, they have resulted to self-help even in the areas of water supply to homes.
In 1994, in my Tanke home at Ilorin, it was unnecessary to store water in containers not to talk of purchase of water tanks for storage. That was a time when there was always a continuous flow of public water in my premises. But that only lasted for five years. From 1999, public water ceased to flow and until today, the taps in Tanke, like elsewhere in Ilorin, remain dry. One should therefore want to know the need for the existence of Ministry of water resources and Water Corporation, if the two cannot deliver safe water to the people of Kwara State. The founding fathers gave us water, the successors cannot maintain, sustain and expand the projects. There was a Kwara.
There was a time when Kwara State was really a shining light in the field of education in this country. But when the state was created in 1967, one could count on finger tips the numbers of secondary schools in the state. There was indeed no tertiary institution even in the then expansive Kwara State. The Bamigboye regime (1967-1975) acquired the existing mission secondary schools, grant aided them and expanded the admission capacities. At the middle of the 70s, there was the Universal Primary Education (UPE) in Nigeria, which led to upsurge in the numbers of schools established and great numbers of teachers that were trained for the scheme. Kwara State had its own fair share of the scheme. Then the 80s was really a boom in the establishment of Community Secondary Schools, many of them taken over by Governor Adamu Atta and grant aided by his administration. Governor Adamu Atta also established many Government Secondary Schools and Technical Colleges. The three months of Governor CO Adebayo was very impactful, especially under the free education program of his Party (UPN). He was really the author of all the Government Day Secondary Schools wherever they exist today. Where there were no tertiary institutions before the creation of the state, within twenty-two years, there were established, Kwara College of Technology, Ilorin, (Kwara State Polytechnic), College of Health Technology, Offa, Colleges of Nursing, Ilorin, and Oke-Ode, Colleges of Education, Ilorin, Oro and Lafiagi. There was also established, College of Advanced Islamic Legal Studies, Ilorin. These were the legacies we inherited from our fathers.
From 1999 to date how have we fared in the areas of education. While we may not be advocating for the establishment of more Secondary Schools and tertiary institutions, what have we done in the areas of the maintenance and sustenance of quality of public education in the state? What have the succeeding administrations done in providing instructional materials in schools that can make them meet up in the race of this era on information and communication technology? The fact is that our public institutions still stink and the products cannot compete globally. That is the abrogation of the values, inherited from our fathers.
The founding fathers had excellent perspectives on economic development of Kwara State. The established Ministry of Commerce Industries and Co-Operatives acted as advisors to those that established small scale industries and provided facilities to the medium and large scale industries. During that era, there were industries like, bicycle industry in Oro, Iron and Steel industries in Ajase-Ipo, Ilorin and Omu-Aran, Global Soap Industry in Ilorin, companies that were producing soft drinks at Ilorin, Biscuit industry at Offa, etc. Government also established Kwara Hotel, Satellite Motel, Gateway Insurance, Kwara Textile Mills, Midland Stores, Erin-Ile Paper Converters, Trade Bank, Kwara lottery, Kwara Furniture, Noble Beer, Ijagbo, later sold to Chief Adesoye of Offa, among many others. The co-operative policy of government was so robust that even a Co-Operative House was built and Co-Operative Bank was about to be established.
But today where are all these industries of high economic values? The fact is that private investors are too difficult to come by and those that once established their companies had completely folded up. Though, governments from 1999 till date often embarked on foreign trips on investment drives, the amount spent on foreign trips to attract foreign investors have never been justified by the numbers and values of investment into Kwara economy since 1999 till date. As to government established businesses and industries, all without exception had died. In this sector, it is not the fact that we have not sustained, maintained and expanded what we inherited, we have killed all.
There is also the need to look at our health institution. When we talk of 90% of maternities and dispensaries, health centers, cottage hospitals, General Hospitals, Specialist hospitals in Kwara State; they were all established before 1999. Though, there is population explosion since 1999, there had been no increase or meaningful expansion in the numbers of public health institutions to take care of the surging population. As there is no remarkable expansion in our health institutions, there are no appropriate numbers of medical and para-medical personnel to even man the inadequate health institutions. Therefore, what we have inherited, we are unable to increase, expand, and maintain.
Even the area where we have even fared worst is in the areas of equity, fairness and justice among the heterogeneous composition of the people of Kwara State. At creation in 1967, we were not as divided as we are today. This is a Kwara of three substantial people in one: the south, central and the north. It is also a state divided by religion, poverty and even sub-ethnic considerations. When we call ourselves a state of harmony, I think it is more of an ideal, but from our actions and utterances, it is an ideal we have not prepared ourselves to attain. So, the foundation that was strong had been destroyed. There was a Kwara and there is now a Kwara.
