Some Remarkable achivement Bukola Saraki will be Remember for in Kwara State

To start with,Kwara State under Saraki was the first state to complete the Nigeria Independent Power Project (NIPP) by Re-energizing the Ganmo Power Station in Ilorin. The power station generated only 90 MVA but after the reconstruction in collaboration with the Federal Government, the power generation capacity of the sub-station increased to an impressive 150 MVA with an installed capacity of 300 megawatts, resulting in average daily power supply of 18-22 hours per day in the areas it serviced.

2. The Bukola Saraki administration initiated and completed seven 15 MVA sub-stations (i.e mini-power stations) to fully utilize and maximize power supply coming from the National Grid through Ganmo.

3. The Saraki administration also oversaw the connection of 375 rural communities to the National Grid.

4. 725 Power transformers were installed by the Saraki administration in various parts of the State. In fact, due to the various creative investments made in the area of provision of power supply to the nooks and crannies of the State, the then Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) adjudged Kwara State under Saraki as “best state in Nigeria in terms of power supply investment”.

HEALTH

5. The Saraki administration rehabilitated 103 primary health centres across the state to a minimum specified standard which included equipment for out-patient services, family planning consultations, nutritional items added supplements for patient management, ante and post-natal services, modern laboratory equipment and cleaning facilities. Electricity and running water were also connected to all the centres.

6. The Saraki administration introduced the training of all health workers involved in child health care in the state in Integrated Management for Childhood Illness (IMCI). The training enabled them to accurately identify childhood illnesses, ensured appropriate combined treatment of all major illnesses, strengthened the counseling of caretakers and speeded of referral of severely ill children. The IMCI training served to improve the skills of the healthcare staff, family and community health practices and the overall health system, from the gateman of the Heath facility to the consultants in charge.

7. The Saraki administration was the first in Nigeria to introduce home based health record book which guaranteed the access of pregnant women to a comprehensive package of healthcare starting from antenatal care and ensuring continuous care throughout pregnancy, delivery, early infancy and childhood up until the child’s fifth birthday. The initiative was later copied by the Federal Government which named its own Personal Health Record.

8. The Saraki administration also implemented a statewide polio Programme which culminated in a zero-level prevalence of the Wild Polio Virus (WPV). The state under the administration achieved over 90 percent coverage in routine immunizations, significantly higher than the national average of 80 percent. The extensive coverage in the National Immunisation Programme ( NIP) for routine immunization then made Kwara remained polio-free despite its being surrounded by states that still have cases of WPV.

9. The Kwara Govt between 2003 to 2011 distributed over 300,000 Long-lasting Insecticide-Treated (LLIT) nets, 187,000 Artemis Combination Therapy Drugs (ACT), 370,000 Sulphadosine Pyrimethsmine (SO) and 105,000 units each of Paracetamol, Vitamin V, B-Complex / multi-vitamins across the state. As a result, malaria in pregnant women was reduced by 20 percent and reported malaria cases in hospitals in general was reduced by 10 percent between 2008 and 2009 alone.

10. The Saraki administration started the Community Health Insurance Scheme (CHIS) to make quality healthcare services readily available, accessible, acceptable and affordable to the majority of Kwarans, most of whom live in the rural areas. 39, 676 people initially enrolled and they only pay an annual fee of N300 a year. The scheme is a tripartite arrangement with the Dutch Government represented by PharmAccess, Kwara State Government and another private sector healthcare company.

11. The Saraki govt recruited and trained 1,500 health workers of different categories, including 94 physicians, three pharmacists, 852 nurses/midwives, 32 laboratory technicians/medical scientists, 18 medical record officers and 350 community health workers. It also trained radiographers in cutting-edge ultrasound techniques and also trained doctors and midwives in emergency obstetric care and extended life-saving skills.

12. The administration introduced an articulated Accident and Emergency Programme and established ambulance points at major roads leading into, and out of the State Capital. Located at Budo Awero, (Ogbomoso Road), Olokonla (Jebba Road), Odo Owu (Kabba Road) and Ijagbo (Osogbo Road), these fully equipped state-of-the-art ambulances were purchased to provide emergency first aid services and evacuate accident victims to the nearest hospital.

13. The Saraki administration conceived, built and equipped the Kwara Advanced Medical Diagnostic Centre, a state of the art Centre with imaging and laboratory divisions, complete with a 64-slice CT scanner, 1.5 Tesla MRI scanner, ultra-sound, echocardiograms, mammograms and routine X-rays machine based in Ilorin as part of a holistic vision for improving the healthcare delivery system of the state and serving as a referral diagnostic Centre for all the states in North Central Nigeria. The Centre also have a full-fledged Laboratory services division, complete with automated haematology, biochemistry, immunology and microbiology units.

14. The Saraki administration also established a new College of Nursing which was commissioned in December 2010.

15. The Kwara State Govt under Saraki succeeded in reducing HIV prevalence by 36 percent since 36 percent through the establishment of HIV counseling and testing centers in all local governments, collaborating with development partners, private hospitals and the Ministry of Education.

16. In partnership with Sight Savers International (SSI), the Saraki administration set about attempting to reverse the trend in visual loss among the less privileged. By 2009, 48, 526 patients had been attended to and screened while the number of cataract surgeries increased from 120 in 2003 to 2, 630 in 2009. The Kwara Eye Programme became so popular then that there was an influx from neighboring states.

EDUCATION

17. The Saraki administration employed enforcement of school attendance, additional recruitment and redistribution, especially among rural and urban schools to dramatically reduce actual pupil -qualified teacher ratio from 34: 1 in 2006 to 13: 1 in 2009 for primary, 50: 1 to 19: 1 for junior secondary school and 45: 1 to 16: 1 for senior secondary.

18. In 2008, Kwara Govt started an initiative called Teacher Development Needs Assessment (TDNA) under which 23, 000 teachers sat for a competency test in literacy and numeracy to determine the level of retraining they needed. It was the first time such test was conducted in Nigeria. The State Schools Improvement Team (SSIT) was formed to train and support Schools Support Officers (SSO) who in turn began to provide ongoing support and training to teachers.

19. Under the Saraki administration, Massive construction and renovation of classrooms which reduced pupil-class ratio in the state from 51: 1 to 34: 1in 2009 for primary and kept at 42: 1 and 35: 1 for junior secondary and senior secondary respectively.

20. The Saraki administration also invested in procurement of core textbooks which led to a 1: 1 textbook pupil ratio for primary schools in 2009 from the 4: 1 ratio of 2006. The Book Revolving Initiative for Schools (BREINS) introduced in 2005, has also continued to ensure access to textbooks for all junior and senior secondary school students.

21. The Saraki administration in Kwara State increased literacy rate with massive pushing up of the Gross Enrollment Rate for primary from 78 percent in 2006 to 115 percent in 2009, with a gender disparity of less than one percent. Similarly, Gross Completion Rate was pushed up from from 72 percent in 2006 to 95 percent in 2009. Also, the transition rate from junior to Senior Secondary School was raised from 78 percent in 2006 to 81 percent in 2009, with a gender disparity of five percent.

22. The Saraki administration established the Kwara State University in 2009 as a response to the growing irrelevance and dwindling capacity of tertiary education in Nigeria. Its mandate was to balance global perspective with community relevance and therefore to demonstrate its capacity to drive progress by producing global citizens for community development.

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

23. The Saraki administration created Integrated Youth Farm Settlement Schemes designed to create a new generation of farmers by bringing educated young men and women together at a camp in Malete, to be trained in a wide range of agricultural practices from soil and animal husbandry, irrigation and maintenance of farm machinery to crop harvesting, finance and marketing.

24. The Saraki government on June 8, 2008 established a world class Integrated Youth Skills Acquisition and Empowerment Centre, Yikpata in Edu LGA to help young people, women and artisans learn new and useful skills.

25. The Saraki government consistently renovated facilities at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Permanent Orientation Camp at Yikpata which was until 2012 ranked as second best in the country.

26. The Saraki government heavily invested in sports as a way of gainfully engaging with the youths. For example, it revived the Kwara United Football Club and ensured the club gained promotion into the nation’s Premier League. Also, the state recorded series of victories in local and international sports meets. For instance, DE-JAYCE Football Club in Kwara won the trophy at the National YSFON Soccer Competition at Enugu, the State’s Darts and Scrabble players participated in the 6th Edition of North Darts Tournament in Gusau and National Paralympics Championship in Ijebu Ode and won medals.

27. The Saraki administration founded the first ever football training institution in Nigeria, namely the Kwara Football Academy (KFA) to identify and train young talents. The KFA was set out in a very serene environment laid out across 35 hectares of lush green land and has four standard football pitches as well as tennis and basketball courts, a formidable gymnasium, student hostels/

dormitories with common rooms, kitchens and cafeteria, a fully functioning medical Centre, staffed with a dedicated medical expert and physiotherapist, and classroom blocks.

AGRICULTURE

28. The Saraki administration invested huge funds to tackle the problem of inadequate funding and poor infrastructure in agriculture. For example, it purchased 22 new tractors and 22 sets of Balkan implements to help with the cultivation of 711.14 hectares of land for the production of cassava, maize, rice and soya beans, as well as land cultivation and resurrection of the Duku Lake irrigation scheme which had been neglected by previous administrations.

29. The Saraki government in Kwara established a cashew processing industry in Ogbondoroko, Asa LGA, in partnership with a private company. The overall goal was to process the cashew nuts and export them from Ilorin to Atlanta.

30. The investment in Ogbondoroko attracted the Olam Cashew Processing factory which was revived with funds from Singapore. The plant then had over 1,500 workers on its payroll and all of them were provided with free accommodation and a subsidized transport system.

31. The Saraki administration brought in 13 Zimbabwean farmers to establish the Shonga Farms. This was a bold attempt to introduce large scale commercial farming into the country and make local farmers borrow new techniques, modern technology and efficient operational system from the relocated farmers which can be replicated across the country. Today, the Poultry section of the Shonga Farms has witnessed tremendous investment and is one of the biggest supplier of poultry and dairy products in Nigeria today.

32. Kwara State under Abubakar Bukola Saraki was the first state to conduct a comprehensive farmers’ census. During the census, images of Farms were captured using a Global Positioning System (GPS) to determine Farm capacity and the type of support that each required. As a result, it was established that the 102, 969 Farms are supported by 524,837 family labour and 466,426 hired labour. This brings the total number of people directly involved in farming in Kwara to 1, 094, 232 about 42 percent of the population, which is significantly less than the assumed figure of 70 percent.

33. The Saraki administration achieved a lot in agriculture through the Outgrowers Scheme for Rice Farmers implemented as a PPP where farmers were trained and supplied with all necessary production inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, herbicides and machinery. Through this scheme, rice production dramatically increased from 18,710 tonnes in 2003 to 400,431 tonnes in 2009. As a result, Kwara moved from Number 22 to the second largest rice producer in Nigeria since 2005. To accentuate this new status, government built two more rice mills. The Programme was to be expanded to cover soybeans and maize, for which the State has comparative advantage.

HOUSING

34. The Saraki administration established the Kwara State Housing Corporation and tasked it with facilitating partnerships with private sector companies to deliver mass housing units throughout the State. Additional state agencies like Surveyor-General Office, Land Information System (LIS), the Bureau of Lands and the Kwara Geographic Information System ( KWAGIS) were created and they employed skilled engineers and technical to enforce building regulations and ensure qualitative surveying of towns when building business spaces, homes and roads. Through these agencies, the state conducted 300 field surveys and identified 1600 plots of land for residential and commercial use. 80,000 hectares of land were also identified for commercial agriculture and this has been used by the Shonga Farms and Gil Flour Mills Limited. These are efforts which led to the modern Kwara that we now have.

35. The Saraki administration constructed the following residential estates across the state as part of the building of the modern Kwara State:

a) Mandate 1 Estate

b) Mandate 11 Estate

c) Mandate 111 Estate

d) Kima Estate

e) Shonga Estate

f) Omuaran Estate

g) Offa Estate

h) Irewolede Estate

i) Royal Valley

j) Harmony Estate

All these residential housing estates generated new homes for civil servants and other low income earners.

36. As part of the deliberate efforts aimed at creating a modern state, commercial property development was deliberately embarked upon and that led to the refurbishment of Kwara Hotel and Guthrie Nigeria Limited, redeveloped the old Satellite Motel in Ilorin which was upgraded to a three-star facility.

37. The Saraki government redeveloped two key markets, Ojo Oba and Kulende which was given demarcated walls, partitioned market stalls and reconstructed roads.

WATER PROVISION

38. When a 2004 report of the Kwara State Planning Commission concluded that “Although Kwara State is blessed with sufficient water resources for the needs of the people, actual water supply is very poor in most parts of the state. Access to potable water in urban areas is estimated at 40 percent of the entire population of about 2.2 million”, the government responded by setting up a Water Policy Implementation Committee which was tasked with resuscitating the dilapidated water schemes in the state. The committee first renovated 41 obsolete water works in the state.

39. The Saraki government then quickly followed up with the creation of a new N1.2 billion water treatment plant at Asa Dam WaterWorks, capable of producing 12 million gallons of water per day.

40. In a third approach to solving the water supply problem in Kwara State, the Saraki government rehabilitated 44 other water works all over the three Senatorial districts.

41. Also from 2006, the third year in office of the Saraki administration, the Ministry of Rural Development embarked a Programme to ensure 10 boreholes per ward-community under its Rural Water Supply Scheme (RUWA). Thus, 1,930 boreholes were to be constructed in the 193 ward-communities by 2007. Under the first phase of the Programme, the government financed the drilling of 30 new, hand-pump fitted boreholes and the rebuilding of 204 broken down boreholes.

42. The second phase of the Water for All in Kwara by the Saraki administration, 24 water works and boreholes were renovated and water treatment chemicals were purchased. Another water treatment plant was constructed by the Bi-water Nigeria Limited in order to raise the installed capacity from 12 million gallons per day to 13.5 million gallons.

43. The Saraki government also procured 10,000 litre water tankers to distribute water to all parts of the state as an interim measure while the Works were being carried out; these tankers delivered water direct to people’s homes across the state. The government also released 15 motorcycles to the Water Corporation for plumbers to carry out water rationing services as well as bulk-buying maintenance materials.

44. The Saraki administration dredged the Omu Aran, Oke Onigbin and Babanla weirs While also constructing the Erin Ile weir.

INFRASTRUCTURE AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT

45. The Saraki government created the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development in 2009 to serve as the intellectual base for the creation of the social and economic framework such as the Kwara State Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (KWASEEDS) to facilitate the translation of state development policies and strategies into positive economic reality.

46. The location of the Nigeria Stock Exchange and the branches of the major financial institutions in the state became clear manifestions of the positive dividends of the policy, as well as the influx of mega industries such as Dangote Flour Mill, Tuyil Phamaceutical Company, Chelarams PLC for motorcycles, all of whom manufacture a wide range of consumer and industrial products.

47. The Saraki government established the 515-hectare Free Trade Zone around Eiyenkorin.

48. The Saraki administration injected new life into some of the apparently deceased commercial ventures owned by the state, including the defunct Kwara Furniture Company (run in partnership with ETHNIX DESIGN of South Africa), the former Kwara Paper Converter Limited (now operating in partnership with Messrs Delrot (Nig) Ltd, and the Kwara State Textile Industrial Limited (in partnership with a private company).

MEDIA AND INFORMATION

49. Under the Saraki administration, Radio Kwara which had been abandoned since 1989 was equipped with four additional studios, while a 50 KW medium wave radio transmitter was installed to improve the broadcasts.

50. Also, the Saraki government purchased and caused to be installed a new Omni-directional UHF antenna at the Kwara State Television House with the involvement of Channels Television, a private sector partner, in addition to a Repeater Station installed in Kaiama and another one nearing completion at Gbugbu (Edu LGA) to enhance reception of signals in every part of the state.

51. The Saraki administration relocated the state newspaper, Herald from its temporary office to more permanent ones while considerable efforts were made to improve the print run of the newspapers.

We're they saying all this Saraki image Laundering on NL or where ?

I will find it difficult to forgive Kwarans for voting out Saraki. TLNB!

Native fowl no dey bring oil...him don move on.

Saraki is loved in Kwara state obviously

This must be a joke.

NaijaRoyalty:
Saraki is loved in Kwara state obviously

Another joke.

Damage control!!

ghettokid1:
I will find it difficult to forgive Kwarans for voting out Saraki.
TLNB!

but you are from enugu state na.


Sister Agnes should bother you more