Kwara debt portfolio down to N49bn — Governor

By Muyideen Aliyu

Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on Saturday stated that President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms are yielding positive fruits, making more resources available for infrastructure growth and workers’ welfare.

AbdulRazaq noted that states no longer borrow to pay salaries and are now implementing key capital projects due to the ingenuity and economic transformation of the Tinubu administration.

“We were coming from an era of non-payment of salaries and a near-collapsed economy. Things have changed. In my first term, after paying salaries from the federal allocation, all we had left was about N200 million. Things have improved due to the reforms the president has implemented. This has given more resources to the states.”

“Now, you don’t hear that states are borrowing to pay salaries. That wasn’t the case before. Back then, many states had to borrow money, and we had to issue bonds to drive capital projects during my first term. Now, we are not talking about that anymore. We have enough resources to easily pay workers’ salaries, and we are even paying back loans while also developing infrastructure.”

“Kwara reduced its debt and liabilities from about N170 billion to about N49 billion within a space of two years. These are things that people need to see. The economy is doing better, and that is why we need to sustain the policies to drive the economy and developments across the board.”

“People who haven’t visited the state in a long time will see a lot of changes. Things have drastically changed for the better,” AbdulRazaq told reporters in Ilorin.

The Governor added that the APC presidential primary election reflects a full endorsement of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s programmes.

“It’s a full endorsement of the President’s programmes. I would have thought that after a series of primaries, beginning with the House of Representatives, House of Assembly, and the governorship, members of our party would be tired, assume that the President has won, and sit at home. But that was not the case. They have shown that they are in full support of the President. They came out in numbers today, and there was no apathy at all,” he said.

“We had two contestants in this election — President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Mr. Stanley Osifo. We gave our full support to Mr. President throughout the state. The other aspirant did not get any votes. It is a full endorsement of the president,” he added.

Addressing party leaders and supporters at Adewole Ward, the State Chairman of the APC, Prince Sunday Fagbemi, commended them for turning out en masse to support President Tinubu.

“We are happy that Kwara is progressing under Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq. We thank all members of the party for not disappointing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq,” he said.