By Demola Akinyemi

Executive Governor of Kwara State, Abdulrazaq Abdulrahaman

Since the battle against the spread of Covid-19 virus started in March, in Kwara state, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has not left any stone unturned in his efforts to stop the spread of the disease in the state of harmony. Similarly, the real governance in the state has not stopped as the government continued in the provision of social amenities for the residents to make life more comfortable for them.

Kwara State Commissioner for Works, Engineer Suleiman Iliasu, said during the Covid-19 pandemic session that while the residents were experiencing lockdown, the government completed rehabilitations of not less than thirty road projects in the state capital alone.

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Among them were rehabilitation of Tanke round about to UNILORIN main gate, rehabilitation of Saadu Alanamu, Pakata and Isale Oja road as well as rehabilitation of Tipper garage to Judges Quarters (New GRA) and repair of Taiwo road.

Others were Taiwo -Unity road, repair of Ita Adu junction to Jagun junction road, and the repair of Jagun junction road to Sobi specialist hospital among others .

In the same vein, the staff in the ministry of water resources have continued to ensure constant provision of water to various homes while the government has ordered the drilling of motorised bore holes to residents in Baruten part of Kwara north that had not enjoyed serious water supply from past administrations over the years.

Commissioner for Water Resources Hajia Fatimah Arinola Lawal said during a recent visit to the area that Governor AbdulRazaq directed the drilling and completion of at least 14 motorised boreholes in various parts of Baruten local government area of the state to further ease water scarcity in the area stressing that the motorised boreholes were being located at Gure, Kosubosu, Geasoro, Okuta, Taberu, Ngurume, Ilesha Baruba, Shiya, and Boriya.

She said the boreholes would complement the existing water works the administration has put in place.

Hajia Arinola said the government would also complete the rehabilitation of the Yashikira water works by May 29, noting that the administration has so far fixed five major water works across the state including Asa Dam (Central); Patigi (North); Gwanara (North); Lafiagi (North); and Igbaja (South) among several others.

Meanwhile, in the battle against the spread of Covid-19 in the state, the governor announced the donation of his 10 months salary from May 29 when he was sworn in as governor as he encouraged other stakeholders to support the government in the task as government alone cannot do it.

The Governor also commended Minister of Information and Culture, Alh Lai Mohammed and Minister of state for Transport, Senator Gbemisola Saraki who are members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) from the state, for donating half of their monthly salaries to the national efforts to fight the virus.

Palliatives were distributed to the vulnerable in the state with the help of the resident NGOs in the state which supported the Covid-19 Technical Committee under the chairmanship of the deputy governor, Mr Kayode Alabi.

During the lockdown, the government also dispensed N100m as non-interest loan to 20,000 transporters and artisans across the state under the Kwara State Social Investment Programme — which components include conditional cash transfer for the aged (Owo Arugbo), market moni for petty traders, and K-power which targets the youths and unskilled segments of the society.

The governor had also completed 670 bed spaces in strategic parts of the state for the treatments of Covid-19 patients in the state.

The governor in his twitter handle said, “no nation is sufficiently prepared for this pandemic but we all have to do what we can to fight it while we continue to improve on what we have everyday. This is exactly what we are doing in Kwara. We have successfully converted our hajj camp into a 600-bed isolation centre. That is apart from the 10-bed ultra modern, fully-equipped Intensive Care Unit of the Kwara State Infectious Disease Centre (IDC) that our administration had recently built to manage patients in advanced stage of COVID-19. There is another 60-bed extension of our isolation centre at the Sobi Specialist Hospital, Alagbado, Ilorin. We have also started the erection of such facility in Offa local government.”

In order to control the spread of Covid-19 across the nooks and crannies of the state the governor had also directed the 193 wards across the sixteen local governments in the state to form their own committees to deepen enlightenment on the COVID-19 pandemic and own the campaign against community transmission of the virus. The health workers on duty during this Covid-19 period were also given special salary package for the special assignment.