Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed reflects on the danger of over-dependence on the federal government by the states at the monthly interactive session with stakeholders in Ilorin, the state capital. ADEKUNLE JIMOH was there.
The 2012 budget was described by your administration as a budget of consolidation and development. How would you assess its implementation?
When we started the administration in 2011, we promoted the concept of continuity of legacies. What did we refer to as continuity of legacies? What were we expecting the people to see in the continuity of legacies? We looked at it from the angle that we have just come out of an administration that had a proper focus; and administration that was drivesn by clear policies. It would only make sense for people to begin to see the benefits of some of the programmes that were carried on from the last administration to this administration. We needed to ensure that there were benefits to the people in terms of completion of projects. We wanted to be sure that the legacies that were erected by the last administration were taken to finishing levels.
A typical one was the aviation college. The structures had just been completed when we came in. We needed to ensure that every other area that was needed to make it a functional school was taken care of and we diligently pursued that by injecting money. I am happy to tell you that our students are already flying. It is one of the very few aviation training institutions in Africa today. Our people might not feel the direct impact yet. We will begin to see the impact of this school, when we attain the economy of scale with additional aircraft. The Federal Government, through the Vice President, is willing to support Kwara State government in this regard. Within the next two or three months, we will be getting additional 10 to 15 aircraft so that the school can expand to the level where we will begin to feel the economic impact directly in the state.
We also have the International Diagnostic Centre. It was almost completed when we came in and we had to complete it. I am happy to let you know that we have since completed that project. It has been commissioned by the Vice President, Alhaji Namadi Sambo, and it will become functional in few weeks. In order words, Kwara State is going to warehouse the first Internationally recognised diagnostic centre. Inaccurate diagnosis has been the bane of healthcare delivery in Nigeria today. A lot of people have lost their lives because the ailments have not been properly diagnosed. So, no matter how perfect or advanced our doctors are in terms of knowledge, without accurate diagnosis, they will not produced the desired results.This is part of what we call shared prosperity.
Can you explain why the recurrent expenditure is higher than the capital expenditure in the 2013 budget?
It is a structural problem in the country. We have allowed government to grow to the level that it is being run with a substantial part of the budget, which ordinarily should be used for capital projects. There is no hard and fast rule to it. If you take a typical state like Kwara State that is largely a civil service- driven environment, what we have is a plethora of workers that we inherited in the current civil service. Go to the federal level, go to local government level, you will see what the government is experiencing. Unless there are deliberate efforts by governments to create a structural change, which will not allow for further growth of the civil service, the situation will remain the same. I saw a lot of criticisms coming out in the papers. I just laughed. If you don’t give it a holistic approach, you will not understand how these things are done. A typical state like Kwara State that is civil service-driven, where the major sources of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) are largely supported by the Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE). Other areas where we need to get revenue from are hugely untapped because we need to inject more money there to bring them to taxable levels. So, the recurrent expenditure that you see that is high is largely because we need to continue to sustain government the way it is. What is the component of recurrent expenditure? It is largely overhead and personnel.
You often emphasise the importance of states being less dependent on the federal allocation. Why can’t you lead by example? How do you think Kwara State can reduce its dependence on the federal allocation?
Our dependence on the federal allocation is largely borne out of very low capacity to generate your own revenue. Ordinarily, the federal allocation should have mattered to the states, but the reverse is the case. We have been heavily depending on the Pay-As-You Earn to augment our recurrent expenditure, to augment our Internally Generated Revenue. Our commercial agriculture is designed to generate what you call a value chain concept, which will see people making money from agriculture away from the subsistent level we used to know. This in itself would generate and drive taxable environment. Revenue comes from taxes, fees, fines, commissions and royalties. Out of these, apart from taxes which make up of close to eighty per cent of what we earn in internally generated revenue, our fees are very small, our commissions are small and, of course, fines are small because of lack of compliance.
We don’t want to put much pressure on a very low economic environment. To that extent, we have a responsibility as a government to continue to inject some money into driving economic activities that would become taxable. If you want to have an environment where you can raise money, you must first inject money there and convert it into an environment that can generate revenue.
Last year, you promised to construct the Ajasse-Ipo-Erin-Ile Road, which is a federal road. What is the update?
Yes, there were two forms of intervention we had in mind. The last time the Minister of Works came to Kwara, we spoke at length on our federal roads and how we are willing to look for money to execute these road projects on behalf of the federal government, subject to the fact that the federal government would pay us back our money. We wanted to reach that agreement. Unfortunately, the federal government has not given a concrete answer on that. Rather, what they have told us is that there is a policy in place, which would allow states to do federal roads and get paid back. Then, we asked them to give us the guideline. They gave us the guidelines regarding Kaiama-Kisi Road. They gave us some guidelines on how to engage contractors, bidding process and getting to the levels of award. We have other federal roads in the state. If we can get a nod to embark on these roads today, I will access the money and start rehabilitation immediately. But, don’t forget that the money would be borrowed. Unless I get assurance that I would be paid within a specific time frame, it would be dangerous for me to go and borrow money that I don’t have a source of repayment to execute roads.
The second is that, if the federal government is not responding to us as we require, we will on our own embark on the rehabilitation of that road and I think we are taking a combination of the two options. I recall that I went to Offa last year and I emphatically said that, we as a state, will take over the rehabilitation of the road. I meant what I was saying. In order words, we are not going to wait for the federal government. Offa-Erin-Ile road is something that we will try in this year’s budget to rehabilitate. I know it is around N600m to get it to a desired level. Kaiama-Kisi is going to take a minimum of N6 to N8 billion to take it to completion and, of course, Omu-Aran-Kabba. I don’t think that will take less than N8 to N10b and, of course, Jebba to Eiyenkorin will take less than N4 to N5billion. You see, all these are more than our monthly allocations.
It has been alleged by some people that your administration has been concentrating infrastructural development in Ilorin at the expense of other parts of the state. What is your reaction to this?
I will completely disagree with that. Let us look at our policies. The reason why we try to drive government business with policies is to be able to isolate the impact that the people should feel. Now, look at our roads. We have spent over N2.7b on rural roads. Not up to 10 per cent is located in Ilorin metropolis. All these roads are located in the three senatorial districts, largely in the villages and other communities. The essence of it is for our people to begin to feel the impact of government. When we renovated up to like 400 classrooms, not up to 10 per cent are within the metropolis. They are scattered across the three senatorial districts. We are renovating five General Hospitals; only one is located in Ilorin. We have two in Kwara South and one in Kwara North. If you keep going, you will see that more activities are spreading to other parts of the state. What they are seeing as concentration is completion of the on-going projects.
