I join our compatriots in Kwara State and across the country to welcome another year. It is indeed a time to congratulate one another for surviving the outgone year which, no thanks to the Corona virus pandemic, shook human civilisation to its foundation.
While COVID-19 and the economic crisis are still with us, there are glimmers of hope that the worst is behind us. It is therefore a time to rebuild our world.
In Kwara, our administration will push harder the efforts to reposition the state for sustainable and inclusive growth.
We will continue to pay special attention to the vulnerable and the poor, which has stood us out, while our investments in basic amenities will continue within available resources. We will invest more in the legitimate dreams and aspirations of our youths.
We will continue to respect the rights of every individual while hoping that differences will be kept within decent limits without anyone resorting to activities that could threaten public peace. Fake news wrought heavy damage on the country in the outgoing year.
We call for everyone to avoid a repeat in the interest of all.
Every Kwaran is a stakeholder in the state. We all need to agree to a common agenda for growth and commit to rebuilding Kwara and make it work for all.
I wish everyone a more prosperous New Year.
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Today, January 3, 2021, the portals for taking applications for a new crop of teachers will go live. That begins a new process to fill our schools with qualified and competent tutors who will teach our children in basic classes and senior secondary schools across Kwara State.
It is an enormous task that we do not take for granted. It a task for which our administration will be judged — coming after we painfully nullified a process that had thrown up some 2,414 teachers.
Without mincing words, no patriotic person should defend the nullified process. It was egregiously faulty. Political interests had a field day dictating which individual got a place in our classrooms with scanty regard for merit.
I have just had an emergency security meeting with heads of various security agencies in the state. This is to assess the situation in the state.
Over the last few days, I had earlier met with the traditional rulers, opinion leaders, members of the student community, and many other stakeholders in the state.
Our observation is that what has happened so far today was not a protest. It cannot be defended under any guise.
It was a pure act of criminality. Some persons are hiding under the nationwide tension to commit crimes.
The government has a duty to protect law abiding citizens and their properties.
Our reality is that if we accede to the demands of the labour as they are, we will not be able to do any other thing other than paying workers. Our schools, like the Banni Community Secondary School which I visited today, have collapsed;
the basic health facilities need to be fixed; and we need to do much more for the rest of the population too.
We have a huge infrastructural deficit and we cannot spend 100% of our earnings on paying salaries.
The school I visited today is totally dilapidated like most schools in Kwara state. It is amazing that students learn inside here. Library is gone. The laboratory is gone. The roofs have largely been blown off.
SUMMARY OF MY MEETING WITH PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI TODAY
1. I commended His Excellency, Mr. President, for his swift actions and efforts towards mitigating the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic and reviving the economy through the approval of the Economic Sustainability Plan.
2. I appealed to Mr. President to continue to support our administration in delivering socio-economic development to the people of Kwara State.
3. We wished for Kwara to be part of the first beneficiaries of road construction and rehabilitation, support to MSMEs, land development for agricultural purposes, mass housing and rural electrification; which are approved initiatives under the COVID 19 intervention programmes.
I am saddened by the havoc wreaked on various households in Ilorin, the state capital, and indeed elsewhere across the state by yesterday’s heavy rain storm. I commiserate with those affected by it.
Informed by NIMET prediction of the incoming storm, I had visited NEMA and other Federal Agencies last week to seek special relief for Kwara.
On our part, we are immediately setting up a special disaster response team to collate data of areas affected and determine how the state government can offer support based on available resources.
We have approved the design of a new master plan for Ilorin, the capital city of Kwara State, decades after the first and the last one was designed by former military regime of the late Brigadier-General David Bamigboye.
A new master plan is necessary to allow for proper development, prepare for the future, and halt unplanned growth that is creating urban slums and other avoidable crisis of development in the city.
The committee for Offa/Oyun master plan is already in place and it’s working; the one for Patigi will start soon. Same for Lafiagi, Omu Aran, and others. All our major cities will get urban master plans so that we can organise the way we live and plan our infrastructure.