Fellow Kwarans,

Greetings and many thanks for your keen interest in the fortunes of our dear State, Kwara.

I am Abdulrazaq Abdulrahman, from Ilorin West Local Government Area, offering myself for selfless service as the next Governor of Kwara State in 2019.

The year 2019 will be a crucial year in the history of Kwara. It is crucial because it is a year of the election that comes after 20 years of high expectations, a postmilitary era which came as a dawn of political freedom, economic and social development and with so many promises. But 20 years after the conditions of the majority of our people are just getting worse.

Looking at the quality and quantum of human and natural resources with which the Almighty has blessed us, Kwara has absolutely no reason to be as poor and underdeveloped as it presently is.

I have traversed the three Senatorial Districts of our State and seen the enormous infrastructure deficit, decay and deprivations that our people have been forced to endure. It is a case of needless suffering in the midst of plenty.

A situation where over 70% of the populace are without access to electricity, 65% of the roads in the state are unmotorable, where access to clean and potable water is a mirage despite enormous budgetary allocations in the last 16 years, to say the least is untenable.

Presently, our roads have become death traps. For instance, a total of 1,545 accidents were recorded on roads in Kwara between 2013 and 2015 alone. While over 35 deaths from road accidents were recorded in just three months in 2017 i.e. Jul-September. Aside avoidable and unfortunate loss of human lives, it is abundantly clear that the state of development of our roads and connectivity, is holding back the economic development of the state i.e. output, wealth creation, employment and societal integration.

Year in year out, the state budget enormous sums for water and water reticulation, yet access to water has remained a mirage. There were 1617 reported cases of cholera in the state in July 2017 alone of which 17 unfortunate souls avoidably lost their lives.

So much have purportedly been spent on education in the last 16 years, yet all the schools are in such a state of physical disrepair. There are not enough teachers. The ratio of teachers to students is abysmally low. Lower than states like Ekiti that were created yesterday. Presently, over 250,000 kids are out of school. One in every two adults cannot read and write. This is no way to build or develop a society.

The health sector has not fared any better. With over N60 billion budgeted for health in the last 10 years, the state still has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country i.e. 489 deaths per 100,000 delivery. There are no equipment and the hospitals where available, are completely dilapidated.

It is received wisdom that power (electricity) is essential for a lot of economic activities, and it is one of the requirements for industrial development and a major determinant of quality of life. Sadly however, virtually all rural communities are not electrified, while the urban centres suffer from an epileptic supply. In most cases, simple solutions are required such as transformers, connection to the national grid among others. Yet, this has been difficult to surmount.

The most disturbing aspect of things is, to date, the current leadership has not, and never offered any roadmaps. It never made any pact with Kwarans, and never delivered anything. Resultantly, after 16 years of bad leadership, the state is still mired in abject poverty (one of the poorest in the country), illiteracy, massive unemployment (with over 600,000 people out of work), violent cultism (due to lack of education, skills and economic space for the youth), absence of health care facilities, among other human development indexes.

Fellow Kwarans, for the sake of our children, (un)born grandchildren, and ourselves, we cannot allow the current situation to continue. The current leadership has abused our collective trust and mismanaged our commonwealth. It is time to reset the trajectory of the state and put it back on the path of growth and glory. This is our collective responsibility, and together we can do it!

It is in appreciation of this that I offered to serve the state as your next governor. What I am bringing to the table, is my successful experience in the private sector. Aside, I come from an illustrious and successful family with deep roots in the state. A family noted for its immense contribution to the state in diverse spheres from education and infrastructure development, to employment and empowerment. My offer to serve, is a higher calling and an extension of a tradition that is entrenched in my family.
Given our realities as stated earlier, our roadmap is designed to achieve our stated objectives of improving the general welfare of the people of the state, create employment, create a conducive environment for people to create wealth, provide security of lives and properties, and lay a solid foundation for the overall development of the state.

This policy document, unlike others, does not present promises; it offers a vision, a set of commitments that will be implemented. It is a practical and implementable program, which will shape and define our government in Kwara. The document represents the aspirations of the working class and the poor and provides vision and solution for a true transformation in Kwara. It is a commitment to the greatest good for the greatest number. It is our covenant with the good people of Kwara State

We, therefore, pledge to all KWARANS:
  1. Open, Transparent and Systems-based Government
  2. Pro-active, Pro-people Good Governance
  3. Robust physical and social Infrastructure development
  4. Inclusive and Sustainable Development
  5. Innovative and Technologically driven Society
  6. Nationally and Globally Competitive Economy
  7. Flourishing Agriculture
  8. Improved Quality of life in our Rural Communities
  9. Involvement of Women and Vibrant Participatory Democracy
  10. Productive Youth & Sports Development
  11. Strong, Effective and Futuristic Institutions
  12. Brand Kwara built on Quality, Equity, Fairness and Justice

Working with other patriotic Kwarans whose passion for progress is never in doubt, we have identified and documented for implementation various radical programmes that will positively transform our State into the benchmark for Participatory Governance. The details of the programs are therefore provided below.

GOVERNMENT POLICY THRUST: PARTICIPATORY GOVERNANCE (IJOBA AWA ARA WA)

The government will be built on the concept of participatory governance. All the activities of the government, from initiation to completion, will involve the people.


Not only has the current leadership mismanaged our resources, but they have also consistently failed to develop the economy and harness the strategic competitive advantages embedded in the system. The state has vast arable land in excess of 36,000 sqm, major rivers and tributaries, commercially viable deposits of solid minerals, a climate and environment conducive for livestock farming and fisheries, which the government has neglected or ignored.

The plan of this administration is to widen, deepen, and diversify the economic base for sustainable growth, wealth creation and employment. To this effect, we would do the following;

  • Map and document the mineral deposits in Kwara State;
  • Encourage Kwarans and other investors to invest in the mining sector by procuring mining licenses;
  • Ensure conformity with extant regulations to mitigate the likely impacts of mining activities on the host communities;
  • Create an enabling environment and investor-friendly policies for the industrial development of Kwara State;
  • Create immediately, an Investor Relations Desk that will be directly responsible to the Executive Governor to ease setting up of businesses;
  • Put in place people-friendly and business promoting tax regime;
  • Provide easy access to local and foreign markets for the producers of raw materials and finished products in the State;
  • Boost entrepreneurship development, the government will put in place a policy framework for the growth of SMEs as key drivers of the economy;
  • Establish an innovative funding window in support of entrepreneurship development to be known as KwaraFundMe.

The policies on other aspects of the economy are detailed in the infrastructure, power, health etc section below.
Infrastructure represents the stock of the state social capital. These are the essential pillars upon which economic developments are built. They underpin all economic activities. Without perquisite stock, the process of economic growth (wealth creation, job creation, societal integration) is stunted as presently witnessed. To redress this, we intend to take the following actions.
As stated earlier, despite huge budgetary allocations over the years, there is nothing on ground to show for this. Kwara State possibly has the worst roads in the country today. To redress this;
  • We will construct/ rehabilitate a minimum of one major road in each Local Government Area
  • We will work with local government administrations to complement our efforts by constructing connecting roads to each major road in each local government areas thereby linking communities to each other, and larger economies
  • In the implementation of this, as a policy statement, we would employ local capacities as much as possible, and or insist on local contents to ensure that most of the wealth created in the process, are trapped in the state for the multiplier effect i.e. further job and wealth creation
  • We will strengthen our oversight capacity to ensure that projects are well conceived, designed, cost, delivered timely, and in line with the quality specifications. This will ensure we get value for money
  • We will aggressively and proactively maintain our existing stock roads and new ones. The public works and road maintenance department of the state would be restructured and empowered. We shall also work with federal agencies such as FERMA on the maintenance of Federal Roads in the state.
  • We will work with the Federal Government on aggressive rehabilitation of Federal Roads in the state, and construction of new ones.
A comprehensive power audit would be conducted to help develop a power solution. Suffice to say that some of the issues require simple solutions such as:
  • Provision of Transformers (Quick win)
  • Connection to National Grid (Quick Win)
  • We shall also explore captive power supply for the urban centres to free up power for the rural centres
  • We shall work assiduously with private sector investors in the power industry, and the regulatory agencies to design and implement a robust power solution for the state
In the last ten years, the state has budgeted over N20b for water supply and its reticulation, and yet water supply has remained but an illusion. To address the issue of access to adequate, clean and potable water, we shall do the followings:
  • Rehabilitation and expansion of existing dams to serving the urban centres
  • Reticulation of water supply.
  • Provision of boreholes in all the rural areas
  • Implementation of these projects would be diligently planned and assiduously executed to ensure quality delivery to the citizens in a timely manner
  • We shall also collaborate with multilateral agencies dedicated to rural development to access capacity, funding and know-how required to deliver on the objective of providing quality water to the citizens.
As mentioned earlier, there is a disconnect between the spending of the Kwara state in the last 16 years, and the parlous state of our health care system. As a responsible government, we will work towards achieving Universal Health Coverage for all Kwarans. To this effect ;
  • We will strive to ensure that all Kwarans have access to effective and highquality health services without experiencing financial hardship;
  • We will revamp and expand existing health infrastructure across the state;
  • We will promote means for health financing mechanism;
  • We will revive and strengthen Primary Health Care Services across the state;
  • We will ensure efficient management of the Drug Revolving Scheme;
  • We will improve health statistics/indicators for maternal and child health and other major health indicators
  • We will develop and maintain health care infrastructure in accordance with global best practices;
  • Our government will ensure appropriate and adequate staffing of Health Care facilities across the state in tandem with WHO standards;
  • Our government will leverage extant opportunities for funding and participation by the international community in Kwara’s Health Care System;
  • We will make training and retraining an integral part of the State Policy on Health Care System.
The government will stimulate the growth of Integrated Community-based Smallholding and Commercial Agriculture for diversification of the State’s economy.

Our State is fortunate to be richly blessed by the Almighty God with vast and fertile land mass, very generous annual rainfall, major rivers and their tributaries, and the potential to generate values far greater than what crude oil currently offers.

Agriculture (crop farming and animal husbandry) remains the most potent means of generating such values and the principal cash crops include: Rice, Cassava, Cashew, Yam, Maize, Beans, Palm Produce, Sweet Potatoes, Sugarcane, Tobacco, Shea nuts, Cocoa, Kolanut, Groundnuts, Tomato, and fresh vegetables.
To realise our potentials in agriculture space therefore, the government will:
  • emphasise the training of Smallholding farmers in order to greatly increase crop production and enhance capacity in animal husbandry;
  • establish linkages with research institutions such as IITA, and Agriculture departments of tertiary institutions such as Unilorin, Kwasu, Kwara Poly etc to provide necessary scientific supports including modern farming methods for the sector
  • revive easy access to agricultural extension services by small holding farmers;
  • explore available funding windows that will provide needed support for small holding farmers and enhance production;
  • promote a deliberate policy of organising farm clusters around relevant processing facilities;
  • Set up the necessary infrastructure that provides linkage between the farmers and their markets to ensure economic prices for their products. This would guarantee farmers offtake, and would improve their output and income
  • examine the possibility of setting up an Agric equipment leasing company to provide access to necessary machines that can improve yield and output
  • encourage local and international investors to locate processing facilities at the centres of the established farm clusters.

To encourage potential investors in Commercial Agriculture, the government will:
  • undertake the mapping and documentation of best locations for specific crops;
  • ensure an appropriate investor-friendly environment for effective commercial agriculture to thrive;
  • reclaim and reactivate Shonga Farm project to ensure good returns on investment.
Our objective is to deliver qualitative, affordable and accessible education for all. Across our state, we have witnessed the steady dilapidation of school buildings, the absence of necessary teaching aids, poorly equipped laboratories, lack of libraries, very low levels of motivation and morale among teachers, inadequate and irregular funding, and the attendant poor performances in internal and external examinations.

In the overall interest of communities, these and other ills that are responsible for the rot in the system will not be allowed to continue under my watch. The government will tackle the problems in the sector by:
  • declaring a state of emergency in education;
  • re-designing, rehabilitating and ensuring standard educational infrastructure for all public schools in Kwara State;
  • human resources mapping to determine specific areas of needed specialisations;
  • ending the pilfering of funds and ensuring that allocations to the sector are appropriately applied to the last kobo;
  • ensuring prompt payment of salaries and allowances to all teachers in public schools;
  • resuscitating the Inspectorate Division of the education sector;
  • placing a premium on relevant skills, competence and professionalism in the recruitment and selection processes;
  • pursuing a deliberate policy of training and retraining to enhance teachers’ capacity;
  • enforcing strict compliance with the approved educational curriculum at all times;
  • the teaching of entrepreneurship skills in secondary schools;
  • ensuring adequate and timely funding of all state-owned tertiary institutions.
Our youth currently represents about 50% of our population i.e. 1.5m. They are largely unemployed, lacking education and skills through no fault of theirs. For the growth of the state, we believe it is essential we turn the youths to what they represent to us – Assets.

Developing the potentials of youth by refocusing and rechannelling their talents and energies into productive endeavours is an important program for us. In view of this;
  • we will put in place strategies to support youth talent especially in entertainment and creativity;
  • we will fully support the growth of the creative industry including fashion, movie, creative writing, crafts, among others;
  • we will establish IT hubs for the youth to encourage IT development that meets with the global standard; Strategic alliances to be set up with successful IT hubs like Yaba and Educational institutions like Unilorin, Kwasu, Kwara Poly and Offa Poly among others
  • we will rehabilitate and or build trade centres to teach certificated trade skills as a means of reducing youth unemployment and fostering economic development.
  • we will identify and harness the talents and energies of the youth towards returning Kwara State to her sports glory;
  • we will promote the spirit of healthy competition among the youth and their participation in national and international sports.
  • initiate and promote policies that will create access to women's participation in all activities of the government;
  • to put legislation in place to protect women from domestic violence;
  • initiating and promoting policies that will extend economic empowerment opportunities to women especially through skill acquisition and entrepreneurship training e.g. in pottery, cloth weaving, handicrafts etc;
  • encouraging and empowering them to fully participate in entrepreneurship culture and the building of the future that we want;
  • free health services for widows.
Change is almost always accompanied by challenges; deliberate, planned and sustained strategic communication must always be in practice. We believe that communication is a central factor in the processes of formulation and implementation of public policies.

Our driving purpose will be to always provide the necessary political information and education, which Kwarans need to reinforce perceptions, by telling them about the good work that their government is doing. To ensure effective public perception management, the government will:
  • always be proactive in all its communication activities;
  • eradicate ignorance of government activities and the damaging consequences of such ignorance;
  • stimulate interest, desire, and preference for Kwara State by local and foreign investors;
  • institutionalize interface between the government and the people;
  • establish understanding by the public based on truth, knowledge and adequate information;
  • provide the public with more insights into the workings of their government and its platform for people’s participation;
  • revive, reposition and rebrand the three state-owned media outfits for effectiveness, viability and sustainability;
  • put in place regular interactive sessions with the people through Town Hall meetings;
  • organise monthly media briefing/interaction by the MDAs.
Overhauling of the Public Service for efficient service delivery. This will be achieved through certain measures that will include:
  • repositioning of the sector to make it people-centred and service oriented;
  • the revival of the Staff Development Centre to meet the need to improve the capacity of the Civil Servants;
  • prompt payment of salaries and appropriate allowances to workers;
  • better standard of living for retirees through prompt payment of gratuities and pensions;
  • standardization of the recruitment and selection processes into the public service.
A secure state is a productive state. To secure the state, we will ;
  • encourage, expand and strengthen Community Policing;
  • engage the youthful segment of our population in productive activities that can discourage them from criminal tendencies;
  • work to ensure synergy with the Federal Government inadequately equipping the security agencies in the state;
  • engage in partnerships with security agencies towards the eradication of violence, crimes and all deviant behaviours.
To improve the quality of lives for rural dwellers by aggressively tackling the enormous infrastructure deficit across the State. This will entail the followings;
  • immediate establishment of Kwara State Integrated Rural Development Bureau
  • the government will ensure the creation of Community Development Committees to interface with the Bureau;
  • local governments will synergise with the Bureau towards the attainment of a better life for the people at the grassroots;
  • government to ensure the construction of new rural roads and rehabilitate existing ones such that every community is accessible;
  • communities with proximity to the national grid will be connected;
  • where it is more expedient, alternative energy will be leveraged to supply such communities.
Positioning and branding Kwara State as the nation’s preferred tourist destination. This will include;
  • mapping and documentation of tourist locations in Kwara State;
  • creation of Kwara State Cultural Calendar;
  • encouragement of private sector participation in tourism development;
  • improvement and upgrading of identified tourist locations in Kwara State.
To promote and institutionalise transparency, accountability and integrity in governance, we will;
  • put in place transparent contracting process;
  • identify, track and block all leakages and wastages in government fiscal transactions;
  • ensure that persons found culpable of corrupt practices are brought to justice in accordance with extant laws and through established institutions.
The government will create and ensure a cleaner, healthier and sustainable environment that will promote the economic growth of Kwara State.
  • government will ensure adequate waste disposal system to improve the well-being of the people;
  • government will review extant environmental policies and procedures;
  • government will ensure compliance with extant laws on deforestation;
  • government will put in place proactive measures to avert environmental disasters;
  • government will put in place necessary means of prompt response to natural disasters wherever and whenever they may occur;
  • government will ensure judicious utilisation of ecological fund.
Housing remains one of the most essential basic need. It is the fundamental cornerstone for societal welfare and productivity. Our administration is committed to quality housing for the greatest number of our citizens. To this effect;
  • We will partner with the private sector to provide quality and affordable housing for our citizens
  • We will provide the enabling environment for private sector developers to reduce the housing deficit state-wide
  • Government would provide land for private developers under a PPP arrangement to ensure development of affordable houses.
  • Government would liaise with Federal Mortgage Bank, Primary Mortgage Institutions (PMIs), and Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Company (NMRC) to provide accessible and affordable mortgage financing for the citizens.
  • We will monitor construction and delivery of the houses to ensure that they are delivered to quality specification through our regulatory agencies such as department of physical planning/ development control.
Actualising the roadmap as detailed will require a lot of resources. The financial situation has however been compounded by successive mismanagement of the state resources and perennial overhanging debts. This would not deter us, as we intend to:
  • take a critical look at the government finances to date with a view to identifying areas of wastages, mismanagement, outright stealing, and plugging same to free up resources for our programs
  • Review the state of our investments with a view to plugging leakages and optimising revenue accruing to the state coffers.
  • Restructure the state’s investment holding company for better performance
  • Review the state’s assets with a view to optimising the portfolio
  • Explore creative funding options such as Public-Private Partnership to build up the stock of social capital quickly
  • Tap into multilateral funding agencies with concessional terms and conditions to fund our projects.
  • Explore other avenues to generate funding such as tourism potential

We are sincerely committed to the assiduous implementation of our Roadmap, and thereby laying a solid foundation for the state, and returning it to the path of its lost glory.

This is my covenant with you!

God bless you. God Bless Kwara.

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