In One Year, Abdulrahman’s Reformation and Reconstruction Agenda Yet to Deliver Expected Public Goods in Kwara State -Report

In 2019, Alhaji Abdulrasaq Abdulrahman became Kwara State Governor after several months of campaigns, convincing the indigenes and residents that there is a need to change the year-long Saraki Dynasty political dominance in the State.  Under the popular Otoge campaign slogan, Governor Abdulrahman promised people a number of public goods which would accrue to them through his reformation and reconstruction agenda. “If Otoge got us through the struggle to the point of victory, and given the enormous task of reformation and reconstruction ahead, it is now time for Iseya. As you will all agree, there is so much to be done. “These range from institutional reforms and reconstruction, infrastructural development, human capacity building, social welfare and policy reforms to other socio-economic, cultural, scientific and administrative repositioning. It is not in our tradition to shy away from challenges. We shall engage them and find solutions,” Alhaji Abdulrasaq Abdulrahman said during his inauguration as the new Executive Governor of Kwara State.

In one year, a new report from the Brain Builders Youth Development Initiative, a Kwara based non-governmental organisation, notes that less than 30% of 7,391 people in the State considered his administration excellent.

“Three rating scale was given to 9 out of the 11 thematic areas examined. Less than 30% of the sampled citizens gave a 4 rating to all the areas, while more than 81% and 73% gave 1-rating to security and open governance respectively. Health and Water Resources Ministries and their commissioners received better rating [4-rating] than environment and forestry, sports, education and human capital development. Sports Ministry and its Commissioner were given 1-rating more than education and human capital development ministry and its commissioner.

At 3-rating, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, and its Commissioner was better during the one-year period of assessment than Ministries of Water Resources, Health and Education and Human Capital Development.  In all the segments, sampled citizens believe that the government has done a number of programmes and projects that have changed the State outlook.  Despite this, our analysis of the responses shows that efforts in the security, open governance, water supply, anti-corruption, and climate actions were rated poorly, while activities within good governance, infrastructure, anti-corruption, health and youth development were considered as exceptional.

Our analysts note that the consideration of these segments as excellent could be linked with the fact that some policies and programmes of the government shifted from the previous policies and projects of the past administrations that made sustainable public goods impossible in the segments,” the report notes.

Download the full report here