Kwara @50 Is a Celebration of Sadness -PDP Chair Akogun Oyedepo

Fifty in Jewish tradition is a special year of emancipation. At fifty, in those days in Israel, farming would be suspended and slaves were set free. Kwara State was created in 1967 but not until 2017, no regime of the eighteen previous governors even did any form of anniversary for the State. The fact that we had to mark fifty even if it was low key, shows the significance of the golden jubilee. Many are of the opinion that we have nothing to celebrate. I also laboured under that opinion until we actually celebrated. Even a person can celebrate longevity without any tangible achievements. As it is in the life of individuals so it could be in the life of a State and so it has been in the life of our State of Harmony Kwara. A person that celebrates longevity without more is showing gratitude to God for sparing his life thus far. He may as well be celebrating hope and future possibilities. As it is in the life of individuals so it could be in the life of the State.

The life of Kwara, barring any form of wars or a restructuring that will decimate the State and share components into preferred destinations of the pieces or into forced arrangements with a capturing power; is longer than the lives of individuals. That we have not been pierced, parcelled, or pieced into small bits and shared by greater powers, worth celebration. That life may indeed begin at fifty also calls for celebration. So, why must we not celebrate?

Three principal organizations, Kwara State Government, Movement for Genuine Change (MGC) and Zealous Kwara Youth actively celebrated Kwara State at fifty. Both the MGC and the Zealous Youths respectively celebrated the jubilee with lectures with the themes-Kwara: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow and Kwara: How far thus far. The government also organized series of programs like lectures, entertainments, award nights etc to commemorate the jubilee celebrations. The verdict of the opposition elements represented by both the MGC and the Zealous Youths is that Kwara has been misgoverned especially from 2003 to date and that instead of development, we have underdevelopment and that we have been given poverty for prosperity and despair for hope. Expectedly, government has been eulogizing itself. A self-deceiving government claims that 2003 to date has been the best that has happened to Kwara State for fifty years. All we need to know is that the level of consciousness that is going on in the State that make people to come out for discussions in terms of summits, lectures, symposia etc is a welcome development. People that discuss want to know more and they are making government uncomfortably accountable to the people of Kwara State. When you see people discussing, idealising and sharing information, there is genuine change in the womb of the community.

From the celebration of Kwara at fifty is the emergence of a sadness that our yesterday is by far better than today. In the beginning in 1967 were problems but in that beginning was selfless hard work. Ingenuity to develop Kwara State was at work in the beginning. People remember with nostalgia how what we then call Kwara State included ldah, Ankpa and Dekina and Kwara of 1967 to 1976 share boundary with the present Anambra State. Idah, Dekina and Ankpa were excised in 1976 to Benue State. Another subsequent creation in 1991 took away Okunland and Ebira land to the present Kogi State and Borgu land to the present Niger State. And therefore how was Kwara at creation? It was a jungle with a myriad of problems. Ilorin, the state capital in terms of infrastructures like roads, pipe borne water, health facilities, schools and business opportunities can be called a big village. If there was ground nut pyramid in Kano and Cotton in Katsina; there was no-export led development and economy in Kwara State. Kwara of 1967 was a backyard rural environment at the southern tip of the expansive Northern Region. Subsistence farming was the main occupation of more than 98% of the people. It is better to imagine the Kwara of 1967 by removing all the following as we know them today: existing tarred roads and 70% of all the road networks, 98% of the present secondary and primary schools, 98% of Health facilities, 100% of the tertiary institutions, 99% of all the administrative structures including the Government House, Ministries and Departments of government. Apart from Ilorin and Offa in the present Kwara State there was no other community in 1967 that had electricity. Perhaps people even born thirty years ago cannot imagine a Kwara painted above. Yet the details of the inherited problems can only be imagined by those born into modernity. To such people, Kwara of 1967 was a stone age.
Founding fathers faced the daunting challenges of their days with absolute dedication to selfless service. They did the risky work of a pioneer with equanimity and strategic planning tailored towards the real needs of the people.

From 1967 to 1976 when Governor Bamigboye held sway, Government Secondary Schools were increased from four to eighteen, Government Technical schools from three to twelve before he left in 1975. He was the one that established Kwara College of Technology now Kwara State Polytechnics. He equally established school of Health Technology in Offa and school of Nursing and Midwifery in Ilorin. It was this Governor Bamigboye that attracted to Ilorin the establishment of University of Ilorin. At creation the State only had six General Hospitals that was from Ilorin to Kabba, Okene, Lokoja, Idah, Dekina etc. Before Bamigboye left hea built twelve General Hospitals. There was no health centres in Kwara when he came but by the time he left twelve had been built. In the same vein, he met no government health clinics, but by the time he left he had built thirteen. Bamigboye built the present Asa dam and expanded the inherited Agba Dam and all other dams he inherited. He also established Kwara Water Corporation. The regime of Bamigboye only met two industries in Ilorin or even the whole of the then Kwara State. The two companies were United Match company (MATCO) and Phillip Morris Limited But by the time the regime was toppled in 1975, there had been the following companies that were thriving going concerns in Kwara State: United Match Company (bought and restructured by government), Kwara Food Company and Patigi Rice Mill(producer of EAGLE RICE compared to today’s imported rice). Bamigboye encouraged either the Federal Government or private individuals to establish the following: Tate & Lyle Sugar Company, Oro Bicycle industry, Savannah Precast, Owolewa Iron Rods, Prospects Textile Mills, Nigerian Paper Mills, Bacita Sugar Company among others.
Bamigboye met total blackout in more than 98% of the Kwara of his time. He set up the State Rural Electrification Board that ensured the electrification of about Fifty–Five towns and villages of the Kwara of his time. His administration set up Kwara Radio, Kwara State Printing and publishing Company (the publisher of the then vibrant Nigerian Herald). He also built the most imposing State Secretariat which stands till today. When he created eleven divisions which are akin to the local government areas of today, he built for each of them befitting secretariats in each of the headquarters of the Divisions.
How did he achieve this remarkable feat within nine years of the creation of the State? The 1968 budget for Kwara State was the sum of N10m out of which N4m was even deficit. Kwara of the founding fathers had a four-year (1968-1974) Development Plan of N110m out of which the known capacity of the State was the sum of N45.6m. And in 1974 the State drew up a five year Development Plan 1975-1980. On the passion for the development of the State listen to the founding fathers in their vision as captured in the 1974-1975 Development plan: ‘’ to make Kwara the food-land of Nigeria, promote the development of agro based industries and small scale metallurgical industries (in view of the up-coming Ajaokuta Iron and Steel Industry) and the provision of basic infrastructures both in the urban and rural areas’’.
Above therefore, is the foundation laid by the first governor of Kwara State. There had been eighteen Governors after Governor Bamigboye and seventeen Governors before Governor Bukola Saraki, the iron ruler behind the curtain since 2011. Seventeen Governors spent thirty-six of the past 50 years as governors of Kwara State. That is an average of two years a Governor. Bukola Saraki is in an undisputed control of the State in the past 14years and he shall be so even for the next two years. The seventeen Governors before him built the following: stadium complex, which his father vehemently opposed, unity Road, dualised Murtala Mohammed Road, built Adewole Housing Estate, built phase two of the Kwara Hotel, Specialist Hospitals, Up graded Kwara College of Technology to Kwara State Polytechnic, established several Government Day Secondary schools, bought tractors for each of the electoral wards of Kwara State, established more colleges of Education in both Oro and Lafiagi, established Kwara State Television, renovated and built several schools, built palaces for the first class traditional rulers, Television viewing centres in 193 wards of Kwara State, Health clinics in 193 wards of the state etc. If the foundation was well laid by the founding fathers of the state, where precisely have we started to get things wrong in this State?
The year 2003 to date are not only the years of the locust, they are the dark days in Kwara State. These are years of visionless, corrupt and inept leadership in the State. These are the years of planlessness and leadership is reduced to showmanship. Our leaders since 2003 and that is predictably what they will do for the next two years, have never addressed the real needs of our people When we need to energize and empower the existing farmers of the state, they brought distressed farmers of Zimbabwe to do farming for us. When we are to encourage the teeming unemployed youths to take career in farming and its value chains; the financial encouragement from the government too went to the pampered foreign farmers. When we are to improve our school facilities so as to improve the qualities of our education, we have been given football academy. When there are no goods to transport by air in Kwara, our leaders built for us cargo shed at the airport that is not the property of Kwara. Instead of energizing Kwara State school of Management and vocations to train artisans and provide them with appropriate financial backing and tools, with billions of naira we established international Vocational centre. The billions that could have been used to buy tractors; equip our hospitals or through provision of jobs take our youths off the streets went for the building of Metropolitan Square. The quality of roads constructed and tarred under the present crop of leadership in the State are like carpet that one or two rains and erosion usually fold up. While our children take to drug, alcoholism, armed robbery, Kidnapping and cultism; leaders give us underpass and light up Kwara. For the years that their leadership has lasted so far, acute water shortage is our emblem. We rank 28th of the poorest States in Nigeria. That is what we have achieved for fourteen of the fifty years of the creation of Kwara State. That too shall be our lots for the next two years as leopard cannot change its skin.
But we have achieved more than that during the years of the locust. The assets of Kwara State, the sweat and the labour of our founding fathers have been depleted either by sales or liquidation. Where are the Trade Bank, Satellite Motel, Gateway Insurance, several Government Quarters, Agricultural land reserved for agricultural demonstrations and training, Kwara Furniture, Kwara Paper Converter etc. All the above and more were lost without replacements.
And we have been devalued too. In Kwara State, majority rule is one man battalion. Politics of godfather has transited to dynastic politics: all these during fifty years of our existence as a State. Kwara is said to be in the pocket of a man-a despot that sustain loyalty through a well-crafted policy of pauperization. You may be a world rate academic, a dye in the wool professional, diplomat of note, renowned Muslim cleric or international evangelist; once you introduce yourself as a Kwaran, the graph must drop. They believe that this land drains us of our essential values and excellence.
But despite all these, we need to celebrate at fifty. Stock taking such as done by the Movement for Genuine Change (MGC) and The Zealous Kwara Youths; is a form of reflective celebration. Without such reflections we cannot see the possibilities in a Kwara that is not governed by greedy leaders that do not believe in primitive accumulation of common heritage. The award night for those that make us proud in the journey of fifty years is also good even if it is belated and has left unappreciated some of the leading lights and pride of Kwara. We should also not mind that those undeserving of honour were honoured; when history is rewritten those undeserving of accolade will lose the acquired unmerited honour. I could see that the government too organized some talk shop. But apart from the deep paper delivered by the erudite Dr (Mrs) Sarah Alade on Socio/Economic Development of Kwara State: An agenda for future; other paper presenters are too apologetic for my consideration. I am even afraid, that with the professional and deep submission of Alade, she might as well be talking to the deaf. Lagos State that was created the same time with Kwara State celebrated Culture in the well-known Eyo masquerade and other cultural heritage of the people of Lagos. Our celebration was devoid of culture and tradition. We have egungun festival for the Yorubas, Ijakadi for the Offa, Igunnu for the Nupes and Tankie dancers for the Barubas and there could be durbar organized to honour the Emir of Ilorin. But our ‘’foreign’’ leaders regard such our cherished culture as barbaric. They have given us the songs of Pasuma, Adisa Owala, Rasidat, Fuji Tantalizer, Aremu Alade Owo, etc as our culture.
Fifty years of statehood is gone. The last Sixteen of the fifty promises nothing. And I have earlier described the period between 2003 and now and I dare say till 2019 as a result of the hopelessness of the present; as the years of the locust. If some leaders used Sixteen years to erase the work of thirty-four years, making our fifty years a non-eventful celebration of solid achievements, after fifty years even like the Jewish tradition, slaves are entitled to freedom. I therefore say that after these fifty years, Kwara should make arrangement for the freedom of the people. In the subsequent years there shall be celebration when hope is restored and what looks impossible become possibilities.

Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo is the Kwara state Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP