Revealed: Saraki’s unbelievable relationship with Abdulfatah Ahmed

– Muideen Akorede is the senior special assistant on media and communication to the Kwara state governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, and, he has been handling this post since the Governor assumed office in 2011

– He is the sole administrator of all Kwara state media house

In this interview with NAIJ.com’s Ibitoye Shittu in his office inside the government house in Ilorin, Akorede revealed the present relationship between the Kwara state Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed and the Senate President Bukola Saraki.

Muideen Akorede

As the senior special assistant on media to the Governor, how can you access the performance of your boss so far?

 I will rate his performance as high as he has demonstrated the value of continuity in governance by ensuring that all the project he inherited has either been completed or nearly completion.

In other states, Governors comes in and abandon their predecessors’ projects, but the Governor has done excellently well by completing all inherited project and he did not stop there, as he has also started his own new project and today, Kwara state has one of the best general hospital in the country following the Governor’s rehabilitation of the hospitals in Ilorin, Share, Omu Aran, Offa and Kaima was done.

The Governor has also expanded the community health insurance from 3 local governments to 10 increasing the number of beneficiaries and the state government has also started a road project across the state as roads in Ilorin for example, we have GRA, Ejiba road, Taiwo road have all be rehabilitated and these roads were done by this administration.

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In other part of the state, Share Oke Ode road is ongoing, Ilesha baruba is ongoing, Offa road is ongoing and the Governor has also established the first international vocational centre in the whole of Nigeria which will begin in Ajase Ipo next year.

This administration has also provided about 400 communities with access to pipe born water in the state and rehabilitated about 17 water works and in the functional education sector, this government has dotted a new engineering complex at the Kwara state University in Malete which is nearly completion.

More than 50 thousands small businesses have benefited from this SME scheme in which this administration has injected about 1.2 billion naira so far and it will get better and part of that is the empowerment of taxi drivers and motor cycles operators and farmers in the state.

Muideen Akorede addressing NAIJ.com’s correspondent

Can you speak on the present relationship between Governor Ahmed and Senate President Bukola Saraki as it is being speculated that the relationship is no longer cordial?

The relationship is cordial, and it has always been that as they have been together even before they came to government and it grows stronger on a daily basis.

Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed was the finance commissioner under Senator Bukola Saraki’s administration and he served in that capacity for almost 8 years before he was elected in as the Governor.

The Governor recognises Senator Bukola Saraki as his leader, and the Senate President also recognises him as the controller of government in Kwara state.

What legacy did Bukola Saraki left behind in Kwara state?

The Senate President has left a good legacy which many follows and he performed excellently well when he was the Governor of Kwara state.

Can you speak on the bail out fund currently being processed by Kwara State?

The state government received a bail out in 2015 around July/August and that was the only bale out received by the government so far.

There was an expectation that bale out would be received by the local government councils, and it was apparently approved by the federal government and the state government is still trying to get the federal government to release that money to the local government, but as I speak today, that money has not come in.

The money I will talk about is the budget support that the federal government has packaged for states in the country so that they will be able to implement their budget because budget are statement of intention which is to get some money in and will be used for something.

Now allocations has dropped by as much as 40% in certain cases, the state capacity to implement the budget is seriously hampered and the federal government recognised this and said they will augment the state budget capacity in which Kwara state will get 1.3 billion per mount so that state government will be able to maintain its obligation interms of paying salaries and also projects. In terms of the local government bail out, that is still being awaited.

Muideen Akorede

What will be the government action on those identified as been illegally recruited in the civil service most especially in the teaching service?

The state executive council will discuss it, and so based on that discussion, decision will be taken on the fate of those affected and even those perpetrated that illegal recruitment will also be punished.

It has been widely said in the state that Governor Ahmed is preparing to go into the Senate after his tenure, can you access his prospect?

He has not told me that, and I don’t think he’s thinking about that because at the moment, the Governor is only focused on delivering his mandate to the people of Kwara state and only God knows what will happen in 2019.

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How do you think Governor Ahmed will like to be remembered as the Governor of Kwara state?

Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed will want to be remembered as the Governor who built on the foundation of successes and transformed Kwara into the new frontier of the North central. He would also want to be remembered as the Governor who also midwives the development of Kwara to a different level interms of emphasising our position in several sectors. The Governor also reformed the tax collection system.

What is the position of the state government on the recent issues raised by the Nigeria Labour Congress especially on workers salary?

I will want to first commends the Labour for their cordial relationship with the state government, and the Governor also appreciate them, but we must be cleared that Labour was referring to local government councils in the issue of salary, and the state government is one of the few that is paying salaries to workers and even some states that have better resources than us are not paying salaries like us and it is not something to brag about just like you will not brag about feeding your children.

How is the government assisting local governments to pay their backlog of salaries and pension arrears?

The Kwara state government is not responsible for local government salaries and pensions as it is on separate basis by law.

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