“Trumpet blowing” is a normal self-help and confirmation tool that measures one’s performance. It is commonly acceptable and approved by many, especially in democratic climes. Failure to praise and rate oneself could be a self-inflicted injury that would be miscalculated by (almost) all as an admittance of incapability and inability. Such a government or politician may be assumed to be an outright failure with nothing to showcase.

This realisation must be the reason why politicians and governments (world over) have continued to list, periodically, their achievements and conquests within certain periods of time.
In Kwara State, it was another experience as the major opposition party, before recently, taunted, teased, and dared Governor AbdulRahman to showcase his achievements (if any) to the world.

The challenges were constant and daring, with Kwarans in the diaspora placing ceaseless distance calls, seeking to know the true situation of governance in their state.
In spite of all this, the undaunted Mallam at the helm of governance wouldn’t bulge. “His Excellency is a political genius, trust him, he wouldn’t react verbally,” a source in government circles recently hinted while munching fast food in the Tanke area of the state capital.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as the major focal opposition, must have eventually succeeded in pushing the governor over the edge with no option other than to reel out his achievements for all to see.

Rather than charge any of his aides to do that, he merely took newsmen out to a project later to be called: “See for Yourselves.”
The seriousness attached to this was silently downplayed until the last-minute tour of completed and ongoing projects across the 16 local governments was granted, with security and site guides and narrators to enhance better understanding of some technical projects.
The mapped-out sites for coverage in Kwara South were: Omu-Aran Waterworks, Oro-Esie Road – Kwara/Osun Boundary Road, Ajase-Ipo – Okeiya-Oke-Ode Road, Offa Township Stadium, Ibrahim Taiwo Road Offa, and SUBEB school projects.

In Kwara Central, the tour took on the recently renovated Ahmadu Bello Way, Adeta Primary School Ilorin, KWASUTH ICU, Sugar Factory Film Studio, George Innih Stadium Ilorin, and the Flower Garden that had just worn a new look.
In Kwara North, the team led by Kayode Azees visited Jebba Waterworks, Bode-Sadu-Kaima Road, and SUBEB school projects.
It was at the ancient Jebba town, in Moro LGA, that it was discovered that for over 30 years the community had suffered water shortage, with residents fleeing especially in the dry season when the only source (River Niger) dried up.

This major plight, according to the locals, was ignored by successive governments until 2019 when Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq assumed office.

Dated back to over three decades when the government of the late Shiaba Lafiagi commenced the (now abandoned) water station in Jebba, the hope of the residents for potable water died when the former governor was booted out by the military, as successive governments never considered resuscitating the project. The people, including the royal family, suffered undue hardship as they had to embrace alternatives that later resulted in epidemics and forceful relocations.
The truth is that the sorry situation persisted because, just like a few other critical sectors, the water sector has remained one of the major conduit pipes through which government officials and politicians easily siphon public funds.

The government of AbdulRazaq, however, changed the narrative in 2024 with a water project that produces 200,000 litres of water daily, of which 150,000 litres daily are pumped into the overhead tank for distribution in Jebba community. This has improved access to hygienic water in the area.
Recall that the governor, on assumption of office, visited the Ministry of Water Resources with a marching order to the staff for constant water supply to some areas in Ilorin and all other parts of the state within 100 days, threatening to wield the big stick in the form of ‘house cleaning’ if the ministry did not deliver on his directive.

He directed the ministry and the concerned consultants to deliver water to every part of the state by getting all the dams working, pledging to give them necessary support.
Now that he has walked the talk, the water operator, Mr. Sulaiman Abdulwaheed, who guided the reporters from the Correspondents’ Chapel of the State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), said: “Residents now have access to clean water for up to 12 hours daily.”
The elated operator explained: “We get the water from the River Niger to the pressure house where all sediments are removed, then we send it to the filter where the water becomes about 70 per cent clean and later transfer it to another tank where chlorine and alum are added and left for between 15 and 30 hours before being released to the overhead tank for public use.”
He commended the state government for easing the community’s long struggle with water scarcity but appealed for further intervention to ensure sustainability.

Development in the state is not restricted to water. The administration made remarkable impact on transportation. The government, in Q3 of 2025, disclosed that it has repositioned and reformed the sector for efficiency, safety, and sustainable development.
With vital directorates that play pivotal roles in policy formulation, the state has renewed a transportation agenda that includes reforms and significant strides in reforming and sanitising the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), the Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), and other unions, which has further fostered harmonious coexistence and promoted orderliness.

For instance, the state has unified the Tricycle Owners Association of Nigeria (TOAN) for improved coordination, recertified private motor parks for environmental compliance and public safety.
“Unauthorised motor parks and garages were cleared via task force activities and media sensitisation,” the commissioner for transportation disclosed, among many others, at the recent ministerial briefing.

In sports, saddled with promoting human well-being by empowering individuals and communities, fostering social inclusion, and building resilient societies, the government said it has renovated and upgraded the Amoyo Rehabilitation Center (ARC) with complete renovation and upgrading of all facilities therein, now at 90 per cent completion stage, basically to provide modern facilities, address decay, and provide a more conducive environment.
There, the state is drilling a new borehole with solar energy facilities to ensure sufficiency of water and has repaired the faulty Mikano generator set to reduce reliance on the national grid.
Still concerned about the fitness and social engagement of citizens at the grassroots, the state has approved the fencing of the entire land of about 33 acres to secure the land and prevent encroachment.

As if this is not enough, the government of Mallam AbdulRazaq is proposing an old people’s home at Amoyo “to provide a safe, supportive, and dignified living environment for senior citizens who can no longer live independently,” the commissioner of sports told newsmen.
Up till the period under review, the state has asserted efforts in taking mentally ill people off the streets for treatment. This, it said, is for public health and safety.
Also on record is the issue of evacuation and repatriation of beggars from Ilorin metropolis. Through the ministry, the state had carried out three evacuation operations within this period under review, and the exercise is now done bi-monthly to rid miscreants from the city.
If not for the media tour, how would anyone aside from the government and its officials have known that this administration had just completed a psychiatric home at Ajengbe in Irepodun Local Government?

With the Social Welfare Department, the state has re-renovated its Juvenile Correctional Centre at Oko-Erin, where it temporarily secures and houses young offenders who have committed crimes.
The centre facilitates their rehabilitation through education, counselling, and behavioural programmes. The place, now renovated, is fortified with functional CCTV cameras with solar energy.
Kwara State, complying with universal practice, has launched a hotline (08144342786) for people to lodge complaints, especially on jungle justice.

The administration has continued to pay more attention to sports because it diverts attention and minds away from social vices, among other benefits.
To realise this, the government provided many convincing facilities. “The Governor didn’t rule out that sport gives life, breeds unity, promotes love, and also helps to remould youths into shapes of good morals and deflect them away from social vices and public nuisance,” the chairman of the Sports Commission, Bola Magaji, stated.

Meanwhile, the management of Urban Nexus Limited, the consultant handling the Offa Sports Stadium in Kwara State, assured the team of journalists that phase one of the multi-billion-naira Offa Township Stadium project would be completed in six months.
Fielding questions from newsmen, the company’s Managing Director, Arch. Abdulmajeed Mustapha, said the stadium has a 3,000-capacity crowd and would be a standard facility with the best features when eventually delivered.
“We aim to complete a standard stadium with standard sporting facilities like a football pitch, indoor sports gym, volleyball, basketball, and track events, among others,” he stated, noting that every little detail is being put in place to ensure the best for the preliminary stage and to avoid setbacks.

On this project, the Special Adviser on Sports to the Offa Local Government chairman, Olabusoye Oladapo, commended Governor AbdulRazaq for the initiative and support, describing him as a sport-loving man who prioritises youths in his administration.
Unarguably, all the achievements of the youths in the country and beyond in sporting activities could not have been possible without the encouragement and inputs of the governor, “because he is a lover of sport and he made sure the Commission was provided with the necessary facilities required for various events and athletics,” Magaji told newsmen at the just-concluded two-day inter-ministerial press meeting.

To ensure that every community not only tastes the dividends of democracy embodied in true governance, the governor often seeks partnership and, where possible, lures higher organs like the federal government, development partners, and non-governmental bodies to the state.
Readily on mind is the completed 130-km Bode-Sadu-Kaiama-Kosubosu road recently visited by media practitioners in the state.

The road, fully financed by BUA Group under the Federal Government’s Road Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme (RITC), confirmed Mallam AbdulRazaq’s flexibility and accessibility in governance. He has ceaselessly demonstrated openness and readiness to partner any development-inclined cadre in the government cycle and foreign bodies.
Mallam AbdulRazaq, the careful strategist as fondly called by the elites, must have been laughing his heart out each time the opposition called him an “Abuja governor” in the media, especially the online ones.

He had bided his time, waiting for the appropriate moment to take them to the cleaners. This he did with meticulous planning to organise the media tour dubbed: “See for Yourselves.”
Since the return from the tour, naysayers have ceased casting aspersions that once dominated the media space. They must have realised that the “Abuja governor” was actually working, shifting governance to the grassroots, and discouraging social vices across the state.