By Rafiu Ajakaye
My growing up as a teenager was filled with privileged exposures to interesting scholars like Sheikh Muyideen Ajani Bello, a witty and fiery Muslim preacher then based in Kano.
Quoting another scholar, I heard him categorise humans into four groups: those who know and know that they know; those who know but often forget that they know; those who do not know and they readily admit that they do not know; and those who do not know and do not admit that they do not know.
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He called the fourth category ignorant people who should be cautioned or lectured. Everyday interaction has revealed this to be true.
A recently published article claimed that the ‘N35bn bond’ taken by the Kwara state administration is an exercise in executive lawlessness. What I see in that article are a combination of mischief, ignorance. The article seems to possess all the knowledge to fix Kwara from its rock bottom position in basic ratings of human capital development in 2019 to Disney Land in just two years. It is not our attitude to respond to every opinion, grandstanding, or postulations as that may mean any of three things on our part: lack of focus, joblessness, or a tendency to want to read just sweet things about us. None of these defines the Governor or his administration. We are not jobless. We remain focused as ever! And we are not ashamed to admit our imperfections nor are we deaf to Kwarans, our employers, pointing out to us what we should do better next time. For this reason, I will restrict myself to responding only to a few of the article’s claims that need clarifications.
The article gratuitously claimed that the ‘norm is for bonds to be issued by the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Nigeria Stock Exchange but neither was part of this arrangement. Bond issuance may take two broad forms. Apart from the one issued by the SEC and NSE, there is also the private bond. No fewer than 10 states — governed by either PDP or APC — have accessed private bonds over the past three years. Kwara’s N35bn private bond is one of the lowest. Private bond issuance is ethical, legal, and faster as it bypasses certain bureaucratic niceties. The Kwara bond followed every legal step there is, such as cabinet and legislative approvals. For emphasis, ‘public hearing’ is not a legal requirement in bond issuance. The Debt Management Office (DMO) has not only certified the state as financially healthy to take N35bn or more, but it has also green-lighted the procedures so far taken by the government.
The article again displayed ignorance when it said that some of the projects listed in the budget are also to be funded by the bond. I failed to see any contradiction in it, particularly when the article stated that the provisions made for the said projects in the budget are way below the cost of the projects. For instance, only N100m was earmarked for the innovation hub in the budget, whereas the total project cost is N1.1bn. What is the fuss if the bond will complete the huge facility with a balance of N1bn as would be accommodated in the supplementary budget?
Indeed, Kwara got parliamentary approval to raise N35bn. However, it has only raised N27bn at the extant 15% market rate.
A few concerns have been raised about the bond. That includes the viability to pay back. Kwara is solvent and can easily payback. That is the expert conclusion of the DMO, the national statutory body that regulates lending by the national and subnational governments in Nigeria. The administration has cut waste and cannot in good conscience be accused of profligacy. It has earned itself various cognomen for ending the corruption. Bond redemption will take seven long years, charged to the state’s monthly allocation from the federal government. Bolstered by internal revenue, the plan is such that no basic commitment of the government will be affected.
Some persons have also said the N35bn is a tad much. Measured against infrastructural deficits in Kwara, it is not. As of 2016, the deficits were valued at N256bn.
Everyone complains that Kwara remains hugely dependent on handouts from the centre. But are there alternatives to changing that status except enough resources go into infrastructural development and creating economic centres? No. We must spend our way unlocking the Kwara potentials as the southernmost northern state. This is exactly what the administration seeks to do with the bond. The bond will fund some ongoing projects to completion and do many more. These projects include the abandoned Kwara State University Campuses at Osi (Kwara South) and Ilesha Baruba (Kwara North); the Ilesha Gwanara Road; and a few others. These are projects inherited from the past administration. Had the administration chosen the self-serving post-2003 path of governance in the state, it will simply abandon those projects and conceive its own for politics. But it is not doing that because the funds already sunk into them came from the public purse. This administration has a reputation of attending to abandoned projects in the interest of the people who brought it to power. If that does not fit into the Otoge revolution, then nothing else should.
Kwara is essentially an agrarian state. Atop the blessing of rich arable lands is its rich tourism potentials. Kwara is home to the Owu Fall, the highest waterfall in West Africa. But it is inaccessible to date. Count the economic loss. The bond will part-fund the road leading to this treasure. Job-creating projects like garment factory, innovation hub, visual arts centre, film factory, and agro-processing firms, spread across the state, will also be funded.
On the issue of Offa Grammar School raised in the article, the people of Offa requested the government to rehabilitate other schools in the town because the OGS is a beneficiary of some communal and CBN interventions that are underway. They understandably did not want a duplication of efforts. The government yielded to that request and instead invested the resources meant for the comprehensive renovation of OGS in eight schools in the community.
The administration makes no pretences about the porous system it inherited and the need to plug the leakages and give a new orientation to its workers in the most gradual, humane way.
The administration is adjudged to have blazed the trail in addressing the people’s basic needs, even as it invests in their future. The innovation hub and the visual arts centre will be the best and biggest in West Africa when completed. This is strategic positioning of Kwara for growth.
By every fair standard, the Otoge administration has changed the story of Kwara for good. This is not an article to break down what the Governor has done, but a subtle reminder of where we are coming from.
Ajakaye is the CPS to the Governor of Kwara State
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