5th Anniversary: Exclusive Interview With Senator Sadiq Umar

The Senator representing Kwara North, Pharm Sadiq Umar reeled out his achievements, stance on Kwara North Agenda and performance of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq in the state. Senator Sadiq Umar in FactualTimes Special Interview Series by OYEWALE OYELOLA, highlighted drilling of 150 boreholes, construction 14 roads and installation of 1500 streetlights across five local government areas in Kwara North as his achievements.

You have been representing good people of Kwara North Senatorial district for the past five years. What are your achievements in terms of Community interventions ?
Basically, we have looked at all the challenges our people are facing in education, health, water supply, road infrastructure, bridges and culverts, empowerment programs such as training and capacity building and so on. In view of that, we have been able to renovate and equipped 25 Primary Health Centers across five local government areas in Kwara.  I carried out free medical outreach where we did eye surgery for over 250 patients and distributed 1000 eye glasses. The medical outreach covered medical ailment, such as diabetes, hypertension and others.

In terms of education, we have been able to construct two examination halls and halls that have educational purposes. We have constructed 10 classrooms in selected schools across Kwara North. We constructed five ICT centres all of these in the area of education. We have equally distributed instructional materials to seven selected schools around Kwara North.

Water is a big problem and despite all the effort of the Kwara State government.  The problem in this area still remain because of the needs are huge given the limited resources over state, local and federal government. However, we have continuously supported by constructing boreholes, we have constructed about 150 boreholes in five years. We also constructed 14 roads, 15 culverts and bridges. We have installed 1500 solar street lights in small communities, major towns and villages in our Senatorial district. We installed street lights in these communities to prevent insecurity. We have supplied laboratory equipment to 10 schools.

Within five years, we have constructed two skills acquisition centers in each of the federal constituency to give opportunity to build skills and training for our people. In area of empowerment, we have done several empowerment programs by providing vehicles, motorcycles, keke NAPEP, sewing machines, grinding machines, fridges and freezers.

We did several trainings such as entrepreneurship, government development training and training for our farmers.  Using advantage of Kwara North as agrarian society, we have  continually distribute fertilizers, pesticides and other farm implements to farmers.

A lot of our constituents participated in different vocational trainings in catering and culinary service, bag making, soap making and shoe making. We also provided capital for them to start up business.  We have also done ICT training and gave them laptops Mobile Phone repair and other related services. I can go on and on again because the list is endless.

Basically, those are the key areas we have done work and also in electricity area-we provide transformers, and extended rural electrification to some communities.

You mentioned a lot of your community interventions, can you share your oversight experience?

As you are aware, the key function of the legislature is to ensure that natural resources that have been appropriated from the various Ministries, departments, agencies and the likes are appropriately in the interest of the people. We have to do oversight function on approved budget to avoid a situation where people would do whatever they like without any accountability. So, in that regard, i belong to several committees. Any committee oversight function that  are critical and relevant to the society; I  have always participated oversight function. Even as at yesterday, I have led my committee members to oversight function. Oversight function has always be something I take seriously and have always participated actively.

On the issue of bills, you sponsored some bills in the current senate, what will be the impact of the bill when pass on the people of Kwara North and Nigeria as a whole?

Honestly, the bills that i have passed in this 10th senate is five national bills that will have impact nationally. I have passed bill on education management in this country. All the bills i have passed are essentially for good governance and by the grace of God, Kwara North is part of Nigeria. So whatever the impact of those bills when finally sign into law will be the one out people will benefit. Although, i still have other bills that could be specific to my senatorial district.

Let us come to Kwara State, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq two weeks ago celebrated his 5th year in office. So, how will you rate his performance in Kwara State?

I think the current governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has made a big difference in governance in Kwara State from my experience and my own opinion. He came to power via OTOGE revolution and that is because Kwara expected a different way of being governed. They wanted some level of creativity, level of respect, basic needs of the people being met such as water need, educational need, healthcare need, infrastructure need, things as simple as regular payment of salary. These are the expectations of Kwarans before they said enough is enough (OTOGE) to some things and I think the governor have done very well to the best of my knowledge. He came in and has kept paying the salary of the workers. If you go to small villages, you will see the presence of the state governor. if you go to the schools, schools that didn’t have roofs now have. The governor has been able to touch every local government area, every ward and the people in those communities are very happy about that.

The Governor has also raised the bar in healthcare at secondary level where he provided some set of equipment during COVID-19 period and all facilities needed to take care of the patients. Some flyovers, innovation hub and a lot of big projects such Ilorin Smart City are ongoing. The Smart City is an important design for new cities starting with the state headquarter by having a State Capital that one will be proud of. Yes, people might say Ilorin, but Ilorin is our State Capital- it is the face of Kwara State. Ilorin as headquarters belongs to all Kwarans and it is our pride. So, they have to raise the bar in the Capital of the state because that is the first place everybody will see in your state.

Basically, I think the governor has done well especially in my own opinion to the level of decency in governance, humility, proper organization and utilization of limited resources available. He has shown that leadership is all about inspiring people and respecting them and not all about oppressing them. Apart from that, you can see some level of reduction in terms of thuggery. I can tell you that the governor has done well, given the available resources to me and given the circumstances we are in as a state. I am very happy with his performance.

In the Kwara State politics, the second term of governor AbdulRahman Abdulrazaq would end by 2027 and there has been agitation on zoning of governorship seat to Kwara North. What is your take on the zoning agitation?

To be honest with you, we need understand the zoning agitation. We are running a democracy, zoning is not constitutional. However, democracy is suppose to give everyone sense of belonging for everyone to be happy. We need to be fair and make sure that every component of the state have a fair share of its belongings. More so, that the Kwara State is a state of harmony, and our harmony can only be sustained by running an all inclusive government. Kwara Central and Kwara South will harmonize because Kwara North has never had the opportunity of sitting in the number one seat since 1999. So, I do not see it as Kwara north agitation for zoning but agitation for fairness, justice and equity. We will be happy to say that this zone has never had any agitation but we can collectively decide that, let us give them opportunity to provide the best they can provide for us to come and lead the state.

 

Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWSIEC) has slated September 21 for local government elections. What will be your advice for the people of Kwara North and the entire kwarans as they prepare for LG elections?
We must ensure we hold peaceful elections where there are no gunshots or fight. In that case, let our people go back home, sit together. The party people, women, youths and others should present credible candidates to contest. We want responsible, reasonable and progressive persons to become our councillors and chairmen.
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