The Acting Provost, Kwara State College of Arabic and Islamic Legal Studies(CAILS), Dr. Sa’ad Hadi has said the government of Mall. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s disposition to the educational sector is unprecedented, affirming that the governor is up to date in the prompt payment of salaries of the staffers of the state owned tertiary institutions.

Hadi, in this interview with our editor, Mike Adeyemi, said Kwara educational sector before coming on board of the governor was almost collapsing in the hands of the previous administration, saying Mall. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has revitalized the sector.

According to him, ‘it will surprise you that at the time this government came into power, the previous administration owed about 11 months backlog of salaries unpaid. When Mall. Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq assumed office, the first thing he did was to pay off the backlog alongside increasing the subventions to the state own tertiary institutions.’

The Acting Provost, however, described AbdulRazaq -led government as a listening one who is receptive to the yearnings of the staffers of tertiary institutions in the state. Excerpts;

Tell us about yourself

Well, if I will say concerning growing up, I was brought up by average parents. My Dad was a Muslim Judge (Alkali). His name is Alh. Sahad. He died while I was a teenager.

One would not say upbringing was that rosy, but thank God we are able to move.

How did you get the news of your appointment as Acting Provost of this college?

I received the news with gladness because it has been my intention to be able to contribute my own quota to the progress of the college. Though I have contributed at lower level.

But I have that dream that if I had the opportunity, I would also contribute more to the progress of the college.

What are the challenges you met in the college when you assumed office?

The challenges I met on ground ; thank God it wasn’t insurmountable. There are challenges that are normally identified to be similar to institutions of this nature, that is being subvented by the government.

Government gives us subvention for salary, but not the totality of what we need for payment of salaries. So we have to augment from the Internally Generated Revenue. At the time I came on board, the IGR for augmentation was a bit difficult.

So augmentation poses as a challenge, but that was within a short period. After looking in ward, we are able to move on again.

What would you do differently from your predecessor towards moving the college forward?

I wouldn’t personalise that because, I have the management team and as a management, we have been designing what we hope will be different from the previous administration in moving the college forward.

And that, to some extent we have been doing that is keeping us afloat.

What are the prospects of graduates of this college in the labour market?

Graduates of this institution have the opportunity of furthering their education in universities. Our certificate gives them direct admission into the universities after spending two years here as diploma students.

They have the opportunity to enter any university in Nigeria and even abroad. Aside from that, the certificate also offers them the opportunity to seek for job.

What are you doing to augment government subvention since you assumed office?

Right from inception of my administration, you know, I told you earlier that there are these challenges of inability to augment what government was giving us subvention. So we had to take a bold step to look at means and ways by which we could improve on our IGR and to expand the programs in the college.

To increase the IGR, we have to improve the students population. In that respect, we introduced Sandwich Programs and the programs was successful. That is one area.

Another thing is the entrepreneur aspect in the college. We gave it a boost to make it more resource oriented and to program it in a way that little IGR would also come in from it into the purse of the college.

Aside from that, we introduced computer training for students. As you know, the society nowadays, any school must teach students one skill or the other. So we made the computer training compulsory and there are little IGR we generate from that also.

Those are some of the areas we are able to make it as part of augmentations for the subvention the government is giving us. We have also taken steps on hostel accommodation which is a new development. Construction has reached 80 per cent completion.

How would you access the performance of Mall.AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq in the area of education?

Well, without exaggeration and it is no longer news that the government of Mall. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaa is a government that has good plans for the education sector and has love at heart.

We cannot easily forget and it will continue to be in our record as far as state owned tertiary institutions are concerned. When Gov. AbdulRahman came onboard, the previous administration owed backlog of salaries unpaid. About eleven months salary.

And when the governor came in, that was the first thing he did. He addressed and paid off the backlog of salaries. He has also increased the subventions being given to tertiary institutions which previous administration neglected.

Of recent, the governor approved 90 per cent compact to these tertiary institutions of which CAILS is a beneficiary. The salary structure for state owned tertiary institutions called CONTEDISS has been addressed and we are able to enjoy 90 per cent.

The government of AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq is a government that is always listening to the yearnings of the staffers of tertiary institutions. He is always ready to assist in this capacity.

Are you saying as of today, none of the staffers of this college is being owe any salary by the government?

Yes! Our salary is up to date.

What are you doing to increase the productivity level of the staffers of this college?

The staffers are encouraged to further their education so as to add to their experience. Am happy to tell you that as far as academic staff are concerned, I would say not less down 80 per cent have Masters Degree and not less down 50 per cent have PhD.

That is part of the efforts of the management toward encouraging them to further in their studies and we gave them the enabling environment to do that.

Is the college not under Tetfund catchment?

In the past we are under Tetfund, but they later said our college is categorised under monotechnics and monotechnics are not beneficiaries of Tetfund. So we have been delisted from Tetfund.

What legacy are you working toward in this college?

The legacy I wish to be remembered for as the head of this institution is to leave the college to be able to compete favourably with other sister institutions. And God willing, it is our hope that the college will be lifted to the higher level up to the standard of the university.

That is my joy to lift the college to the highest level.