From Adedeji Joseph, Ilorin
A governorship aspirant in Kwara State, Mr. Abdulrahan Abdulrazaq has said his vision for the State is to build a foundation of fairness, justice, equity and inclusiveness.
Abdulrazaq who is running for the Kwara top seat on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) made this known while fielding questions from journalists in Ilorin, the State capital.
According to him, he would be fair to all the Seantorial Districts in the sharing and distribution of resources of the State.
“I will be fair to all in the composition of our civil service, avoiding lopsidedness and cronyism. I will give due respect to our traditional institutions”, he said.
He said unlike others he would pursue his dream of development of Kwara such as building of schools, roads, creating a robust healthcare system, urban water supply schemes, paying salaries and pensions considering fiscal realities.
He said; “If I emerge the candidate, I will sit down with leaders in the Senatorial zones of our party to set up committees to ascertain the needs and developmental goals of each district.
“I will marry them with the manifesto of the presidential candidate of the party, the ideology of the party and my vision of fairness, justice, equity and inclusiveness.
“Needless to say, I shall be innovative with education, job creation, poverty reduction, agriculture and agro industries, health care and infrastructure.
“Mindful of our fiscal profile, serious attention has to be paid to revenue generation, vigorous recovery of stolen funds and assets”, he said.
The gubernatorial aspirant took a swipe at the 2018 budget of Kwara State which he said subjected the state to borrowing in order to survive.
His words; “A breakdown of the budget clearly shows that a lot of work needs to be done. The budget is N190billion, statutory allocation is N33 billion, VAT is N10 billion, IGR is N38 billion, capital expenses is N74 billion and recurrent expenditure N110 billion.
“It is obvious that the numbers do not add up and we have to resort to borrowing”, he said.