TheCable

Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, governor of Kwara, says his administration is determined to change the status of the state from being a predominantly civil service state.

He said this on Thursday during a media briefing on his administration’s efforts to revamp the state.

Abdulrazaq said he is committed to reviving other critical sectors and building functional industries to engage the youths.

“Kwara is known as a civil service state. We want to change that. We want to create an economy outside the civil service. That’s the vision. We want people to work, get them to pay taxes, and expand our financial inclusiveness, to improve our GDP. How do you do that? By creating jobs, by creating businesses, sustainable businesses,” he said.

“We are trying to rebrand our state from being solely a civil service state to having functional industries for the youths to engage in.”

The governor said he remains unperturbed by his critics, who he said are peddling “fake news and propaganda” to discredit his efforts.

“Yes, indeed, we have seen an avalanche of fake news and propaganda but our counter to this is to sell our projects, to do more of what we have been doing– that is, making progress, and commissioning our projects, to showcase the government to the people that there is change that people are already feeling,” he said.

“Basically, we are going to be telling the truth and selling our story.

“It is not business as usual. We can’t do things like before. Expectations are high and that means there has to be a lot of sacrifices and discipline on our part and members of our party (especially in the management of resources and deliverables).”