Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq of Kwara State has said he is passionate about the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, becoming the next President of Nigeria because of his belief in him to deliver impactful projects he promised the state.
The governor also said the internal wrangling among gladiators who were part of the Otoge struggle was not ideological but about positions.
Abdulrasaq disclosed that Tinubu has made several promises to the state during his recent campaign and said he cannot wait for him to win the February 25 election and become the next President in May.
Speaking in Lagos while interacting with Kwara Professionals based in the Centre of Excellence, the governor said, “It is important we have a President we can sit with. I am passionate about him doing what he promised us. He will deliver highly impactful projects for us.”
The governor further said the internal crisis in the state chapter of the APC leading to some chieftains dumping the party was not an ideological fight driven by the desire to move the state forward rather it was about individual ambitions.
He noted that all the candidates of the opposition parties including Alhaji Shuaib Abdullahi Yaman of PDP; Hakeem Lawal of the SDP; Prof. Shuaib Abdulraheem of NNPP left the APC because of their ambition.
“But we are reaching to those that are aggrieved, we continue to talk to them, most of them are still members of the family, they are holding important positions at the federal level.
“When you see Otoge people fighting one another, it is about ambition. The major opposition party (PDP) does not even have a candidate. It was from Otoge that they picked a candidate,” he said.
The governor stated that while he remains open to reconciling with the aggrieved, he is focused on delivering impactful governance to the people and revamping the state’s economy in order to change its status from a civil service state to an industrialised state.
He said in the last three and half years of his government, he has invested heavily in infrastructure, healthcare, education and many areas which suffered neglect from the previous administrations, adding that it will take 15 years to recover infrastructure in primary and secondary schools.
“We are more about impacting education which was completely abandoned because we were not getting the interventions needed as UBEC (Universal Basic Education Commission) has blacklisted Kwara State since 2013. In healthcare, it is the same issue. We had UNICEF but they have left.
“But in the last three and half years we have been able to achieve a lot. Every community in the state has seen major investments.
“Like I said, we received N44bn less than the last administration and they were still paying N18,000 minimum wage. We are paying minimum wage of N30,000 which shot up our wage Bill, yet we have been able to achieve a lot,” he said.
Abdulrasaq emphasised that his investments and commitment to making all the sectors work is paying off with increased commercial activities in the state, disclosing that the state is experiencing private sector investment like never before in the area of agro-processing, food security, among others.
He said Olam, which currently has an agro-processing factory and feed mill in the state, is planning another $50m investment in Soya Processing.
“This is our vision for the state. Investments like this will create jobs, pay a living wage and people will be happy,” he said.
He stated that the Kwara Garment Factory which is under construction is one of the investments that would further create jobs in the state and position it as one of the Textile hubs in the country.
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