By Wahab Oba
When the Kwara State Government recently announced the winding down of Harmony Holdings Limited, it framed the decision as a responsible economic move.
But those who have followed the trajectory of this administration know better. This wasn’t reform. This was the final act in a slow, deliberate, and avoidable institutional killing. Harmony Holdings wasn’t perfect, but it was viable, auditable, and useful, a strategic initiative conceived to reposition the state as an active player in business, infrastructure, and revenue generation.
Now, it has been laid to rest, not because it couldn’t be revived, but because those in power lacked the discipline, vision, and humility to admit that the institution was beyond their capacity to manage.
Harmony Holdings was the brainchild of the previous administration under Dr. Abdulfatah Ahmed. It was structured to operate as an investment vehicle for the state, driving commercial interests across real estate, transportation, hospitality, and asset management.
Under that administration, the company remitted over one billion naira to the state treasury, managed key public assets, and executed multiple high-impact projects without drawing a kobo from government coffers.
The Harmony Hub on Fate Road, the Harmony Residential Area beside NTA, the rejuvenated Kwara Express with over 300 staff and more than 40 buses, the renovation of government properties, all these were achieved through creativity, partnership, and competence.
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Rather than build on this legacy, the current administration dismantled the structure from within.
Since 2019, Harmony Holdings has had no functional Board of Directors. No clear strategy. No credible oversight.
A commercial entity was handed over to civil servants with no business experience, a reckless move that defies every known principle of corporate governance. Instead of appointing capable hands or seeking assistance from competent Kwarans, both at home and in the diaspora, the government did what has now become its pattern: it let the institution rot, then blamed the rot on the dead.
The tragedy of Harmony Holdings isn’t isolated. It reflects a larger culture of destruction that this government has normalised. The once-bustling Kwara Express was allowed to collapse. Kwara Hotel, which was operational, was shut down for a retrofit project that has now cost over twenty billion naira and delivered nothing. Another billions is reportedly earmarked for further work. What kind of economic thinking supports such a decision?
The demolition of Crystal Place, one of Ilorin’s most vibrant business hubs, is another disturbing case in point. Thriving businesses and young entrepreneurs were displaced without relocation, compensation, or any form of economic cushioning, all under the guise of “urban renewal.” The same misplaced aggression has been extended to lock-up shops across various parts of the city, where small-scale traders have had their businesses pulled down or fenced off with walls that isolate them from customers, without providing alternative spaces, adequate security, or even basic emergency provisions.
The same fate befell the Pavilion Project, a federal government initiative designed to energize the hospitality and events industry, generate employment, and enhance the city’s cultural appeal. It was halted, not for any structural or genuine legal reason, but due to political insecurity.
If a project or investment does not originate from the ruling inner circle, it is either sabotaged, fenced off, or forcefully shut down.
Even worse is the administration’s repeated refusal to allow thousands of Kwaran youths to access legitimate empowerment initiatives sponsored by political figures such as Senator Saliu Mustapha and others perceived as rivals. In a state where unemployment and poverty are rising, denying young people access to tools of empowerment simply because the giver is not politically aligned is not just short-sighted, it’s cruel and callousness.
All of this points to a single, painful truth: this government is not structured to build. It is wired to destroy. And when it can’t control, it chooses to kill institutions, businesses, ideas, and hope.
One would expect Kwara to have its own version of Ibile Holdings in Lagos or Odu’a Investment Company in the Southwest. Even the federal government has the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority. But here, we kill what we can’t manage. We bury what we can’t understand. We destroyed what we didn’t create.
There are no excuses left. The evidence is overwhelming. Harmony Holdings did not fail. It was failed by a government that prioritised propaganda over planning and vendetta over vision. Rather than finding competent people to manage what was working, the government chose the lazy option: destruction.
Kwarans, irrespective of political affiliations, must now speak up. This is not about party politics. This is about the soul of the state. We must insist on a return to reason.
Since 2019, Harmony Holdings has had no functional Board of Directors. No clear strategy. No credible oversight. matter who is providing them.
Let us be clear: this is no longer just a matter of misgovernance. It is an existential crisis for the state’s future. The destruction must stop. The vendetta must end. It is time to build.
Let Harmony Holdings live. Let Kwara breathe.
×Oba was one-time Chief Press Secretary to Kwara State Governor
