Governor Ahmed: “For us in Kwara State, we opted to use it to address salaries at both the local government and state levels as well as to meet other state exigencies. For anybody to have said we have collected a bail-out, he is either demonstrating ignorance or demonstrating mischief.”

Q: When are you going to appoint commissioners?

A: You see, ordinarily as a second-term governor under a smooth running system where you don’t have financial constraint, I would have appointed commissioners the next day I was sworn in but you see no matter how much plans you have in running government, first thing first, resources must be available.

We are all aware that we are coming out of a huge financial deficit largely perpetrated by the last PDP-led federal administration which has brought us to a level where it was unbelievably difficult for states to meet up with their salaries. So, it would be very much out of place for me to come in and immediately appoint commissioners, commissioners to do what? Do you want me to appoint commissioners and other political advisers who would also put me under financial pressure for salaries and wages?

Q: Some people are tagging the administration of President Mohammadu Buhari as go-slow, what is your response to this?

A: I would be very surprised if people imagine that the current federal system run under President Mohammadu Buhari is being tagged go-slow. We are all living witnesses to the level of economic mismanagement that we went through in the last administration, we are all living witnesses to a very poor transition process between the last administration and this administration. No matter what plans that the current administration has at the federal level, it cannot just jump on ground and begin to hit the ground running otherwise it would sink. It requires to create a solid platform, it requires to draw a line. If there had been a smooth transition, then it would have been easy to draw a line but there is no smooth transition. So, where do you want to start from? No matter how sweet your picture is and you want to build a house, you must start from the foundation, if the foundation is weak, no matter how you try to put anything apart, it is going to fall on top.

Q: What is your take on the crisis in the National Assembly?

A: The National Assembly is going through a normal process of democracy, it is a process we expect to smoothen out and will take us to the level where we would begin to see the sort of change that would make Nigeria a better place to live in.

Governor Explains” is a programme by Kwara Radio and Kwara Television