Kwara: AbdulRazaq Takes Oath Of Office For Second Term

Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State on Monday took the oath for a second term and vowed to remain a responsible and responsive leader for the people of the state.

Both the Governor and his Deputy Governor Kayode Alabi were accompanied by their spouses, Olufolake AbdulRazaq and as well as members of their families and friends.

Chief Judge of Kwara State Justice Abiodun Adebara administered the oath first to the Deputy Governor and then to the Governor.

Speaking shortly after he took the oath of office, AbdulRazaq who set out his priorities, said the second tenure would see him building on the gains of the last four years all of which he credited to the support of the people of the state.

“The next four years will consolidate the gains of our first tenure and lay new foundations for sustained socioeconomic development and institutional growth.

“We are going to deepen the reforms and investments in critical sectors like education, healthcare delivery, civil service welfare, social safety programmes, general infrastructural upgrade and renewals, focused expansion of our economic base, and promotion of a political culture that advances self-reliance and growth.

“Our spending priorities will be to complete all the ongoing infrastructural projects and iron out the business models to deliver maximum benefits to the people.

“Adequate attention will be focused on completing projects like the Ilorin International Conference Centre, the Revenue House, Innovation Hub, Visual Arts Centre, Sugar Film Factory, Osi and Ilesha Baruba campuses of the Kwara State University, industrial park, Shea Butter factory in Kaiama, among others.

“The General Tunde Idiagbon Flyover and the garment factory will be flagged off soon with huge economic benefits.

“The Ilorin Capital City Master Plan will be followed by a grander Kwara State Master Plan that will cover Kwara South and Kwara North for sustainable living.

“Affordable housing programme will be another priority of this dispensation.

“This will help civil servants and other citizens to own their own homes. It will also curb unplanned construction and support decent living conditions.

“In this wise, we will form partnerships with private and federal government agencies to develop new satellite towns already mapped out in the Ilorin City Master Plan as well as in GRA lands in parts of Kwara South and Kwara North.

“In addition to our Kwapreneur initiative that directly puts money into ideas mostly owned by young people, we will consider an annual multidisciplinary scholarship scheme that will be open to our best brains, especially at Postgraduate Level. Beneficiaries will emerge only through a very rigorous and transparent process.

“I believe this will hasten the pace of human capital development in different fields.

“A major flaw in our developmental journey as a nation is a culture of government officials determining what projects are executed in a particular community.

“This has to be reversed, as we have tried to do in our first term, to allow for people-focused development.

“For this reason, we are setting up a bureau of integrated rural development to be domiciled in the Government House.

“It will liaise with communities to come up with their needs in order of priority.

“This will allow the government to better deploy limited resources in a way that addresses popular needs.

“Our traditional institutions and community-based organisations will be major players in this regard."