The Director-General for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, gubernatorial campaign council in Kwara State, Prof. Ali Ahmad has insisted that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has been driving the state backwards due to its insensitive policies and programmes.
He made this disclosure while featuring on a radio program tagged ‘Efura Hour’ sponsored by the Kwara Stakeholders Consultative Forum on Harmony FM in Kwara State.
Prof. Ali Ahmad said that the present government in the state from the legislature to the executive’s arms have done nothing to improve the conditions of the state.
The PDP Governorship Campaign Council DG mentioned some of the policies he implemented while he was the speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, boasting that those were not maintained by the present government.
He said, “During our days in government, many people benefitted beyond a reasonable doubt. Let me tell you what we did that many people were not aware of. When we were doing the budget, we proposed that the budget cycle should start from January to December, and we are the first state to implement it in the whole of Nigeria.
“We adopted this budget cycle method so that the state treasury will be balanced and will also show the people that we are transparent. During this period, we mostly subjected our decisions to public debate. As the representative of the people, the public deserves total confidence in us to strongly believe those they elected at the helm of affairs are fair and just.
“Before 2017, the State House of Assembly under my leadership used to pass the budget around March and April, but then we discovered that the budget implementation was tasking. That’s why we shifted the budget cycle from January to December.
“We did that in the first, and second years. During this period, the state was rewarded by the World Bank with about $5 million and $10 million respectively. When this present government came on board in 2019, they benefited from the largesse in their first year. We must commend President Muhammadu Buhari for maintaining prompt passage of the budget every January.
“Kwarans should be worried and ask questions on why Gov AbdulRazaq APC-led government could not maintain that legacy that we have built. Today, the governor has not assented to the 2023 budget. And this is undoubtedly bringing Kwara backwards. If you could remember, Kwara used to be the cleanest state with the Clean and Green programme during the Dr Bukola Saraki’s tenure as governor is now the dirtiest under Gov. AbdulRazaq is just the tip of an iceberg of what our government had done that Kwara would have benefitted from if properly maintained.
“Just imagine Kwara receiving $5 million for maintaining prompt passage of the budget. $5 million is a lot of money that the state government can benefit from without much stress. As things are hard for us in the state, such money would have been useful for the people.
“During my tenure as the speaker of Kwara State House of Assembly, when governor Abdulfatah Ahmed wanted to take a loan, at that time our tenure was about to end, it remained like 2 years. When the governor, brought that to our notice, we asked how much he wanted to borrow, he said that the amount was running into billions. We told the governor to let us scrutinize the request. Lo and behold, Kwarans rejected it. So, I told the then Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, that we could not approve his loan request. Thereafter, he thought out of the box and improve our IGR through the KWIRS.
“Despite my closeness and friendship with the then governor, I did not let that affect my primary duty as the Speaker of the State House of Assembly. I never compromise with him. I followed what the public wanted.
“Thinking out of the box, Gov. Abdulfatah Ahmed commendably blocked loopholes by working closely with the State Assembly to create KWIRS. He also improves the state IGR without increasing the tax rate. With this singular exercise, the IGR in 2016 jacked up from N7bn to N17bn annually. Had it been PDP is still in power till now, the figures would have increased to a bigger amount even up to N30bn annually.
The former federal lawmaker mocked the AbdulRazaq-led administration for the interlocking of roads, stressing that if there is a real drought of new projects in the state, such interlocking will look like a big deal.
“The question we are asking today is What tangible project has this present administration commissioned in Kwara state? Nothing. Look at Imo and Ogun governors, they are both first-term APC governors. They have all invited the President for project commissioning on more than two occasions within their first four years in office. But nothing has been done here in Kwara. Despite the bonds, grants, and loans Gov. AbdulRazaq received over the years, it is unfortunate that nothing can be shown for it. All the roads he renovated are not up to 10km in total.
“In other states, we heard about 50km of road projects and 500 units of housing projects are being constructed by their governors. We haven’t had it so bad as this in Kwara State spending four years without a single project. What is impressive about that? Is such government worthy of continuation? Kwarans are not fools, they have spotted the difference. And they are ready to vote out the bad government,” Prof Ali Ahmad added.