Date: 2019-11-26

It is very obvious that the Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq administration has no agenda to develop Kwara and improve on governance as it boasted during the electioneering period. Their strategy is actually to run down the previous administrations and continue to grandstand. That is why exactly one week after taking office, the first thing it did was to set up a muck-raking, shadowy committee consisting of bitter, aggrieved and spent forces led by Mr. Makanjuola Ajadi to start a probe of past governments.

This effort was the beginning of what one could now see as the declaration of war against the Sarakis. The new Governor seems to be set to ignite a war aimed at settling family scores. He has been busy pursuing family vendetta. His obsession with erasing of the legacies of the Sarakis made him to behave as if the only government that had reigned in Kwara since the return of democracy in 1999 was the one headed by Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki.

It is along this line that one can view the report of the Ajadi committee. The report is filled with inconsistencies and reflects the shallow minds of the committee members and their sponsors. The committee report has now been given to an underground, buccaneer group under the non-descript name, Kwara Must Change, for them to serialise and use it to blackmail the opposition with a view to forcing the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to submission.

We have noted that the Kwara Must Change Group thinks that it has a holy book for blackmail that it could be reaching out to take chapters from, particularly,

In painting former Senate President, Dr. Saraki and the leadership of the PDP in the state, black, as Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq and company did during the campaigns. However, they must know that the dirty game has lost its potency. Our people have seen through their empty deceit and campaign of calumny.

The Makanjuola Ajadi report has only advertised the ignorance of the people now ruling Kwara State about the concept of Public Private Partnership as the reigning global model in infrastructure development. They have also failed to understand the sociology and linkage of project conception, development and execution. This shallow interpretation of project linkage has denied them the ability to contextually analyze the necessity of the various projects they chose to probe.

Another example of this deficiency was obvious in the recent report of the masquerade group, Kwara Must Change, on the Ilorin Cargo Terminal project on which the committee claimed over 90 percent of the cost of the project was released but less than five percent of the work has been done.

The aviation sector was one of the areas through which the Abubakar Bukola Saraki government set out to jump-start the then comatose economy of Kwara State when it came into office in 2003. And it started first with the repair of the Ilorin airport and getting commercial flights to be operating regular flights into the town. Today, the hitherto abandoned airport now have two airlines regularly plying the Abuja-Ilorin and Lagos-Ilorin routes. Before 2003 when Saraki became Governor, Ilorin airport was a dead end. The credit for all these achievements goes to the Saraki administration.

The second stage of the plan in this sector is the establishment of the Kwara Aviation College through which some of the licensed pilots who today are flying commercial and private planes across Nigeria and beyond were trained. The College has helped to put Kwara State as a focal Centre in the nation’s Aviation industry.

The third phase was the Ilorin Cargo Airport through which imported goods and those for export are to be transported into and out of the country. When the government conceived the project, the Federal Government at that time promised to designate Ilorin Airport as a Cargo Centre which will be an alternative to Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos. It will then be possible for cargo to be discharged in Ilorin and transported by road to other parts of the country. Cargo planes landing in Ilorin would be able to take agricultural products coming from Shonga Farms and other areas like Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Niger and Kogi States back to Europe and America instead of returning empty, thereby charging cargo owners both ways.

The State Government also got the federal authorities interested in the project and this culminated in the visit of then President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and his Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Abah Ruma to Ilorin to inspect the project. Both men gave kudos to the Saraki administration for the foresight and vision that led to the concept.

However, one of the major set backs suffered by the project was the sudden change of government policy following the death of Yar’Adua. The Ministry of Aviation instead of fulfilling the promise to make Ilorin the sole designated cargo airport designed six zonal cargo airports and Ilorin Airport was not considered. This change of policy led to a complete reversal of the gains that the Ilorin Cargo Project was predicated on. The investors and partners withdrew their interest. The project became a victim of government policy somersault. Thus, the project became stagnated. In fact, contrary to the wrong impression created by the Ajadi committee, what was left to complete the project are mainly inputs from foreign partners and investors.

The government was very committed to the timely and efficient completion of the project. Stabilini Visinoni which had the experience of building the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal 2 was the major contractor. The other small sub-contractors were mainly those to which the company sub-let the contract.

Till May 2011 when the Saraki Government left office, Stabilini was paid money in installments based on the issuance of certificate of completion of the various phases by supervising engineers, including those from the state Ministry of Works. No money was paid upfront in the manner that the Ajadi committee tried to claim in its malicious report.

The committee seeks to create propaganda materials for the shadow group working for the same sponsor of their disinformation by submitting that "comprehensive repair of the project should be undertaken by the government". In another vein, it also noted that "in 2016, it was noticed that some items at the Cargo Terminal Building was vandalized without trace". Among items the committee reported as having been stolen were underground armour cable, cable feeder pillars of transformer, supply cables, distribution box, control box, taxi way light and CCTV cameras. It also added that "the walls of the cargo building is already cracking due to abandonment and its doors are also damaged". If the committee wants unbiased Kwarans to believe nothing or only five percent of the work was done, how come it then admitted the existence of a project, building and some vandalized critical facilities? Can you "vandalize" or "repair" what does not exist?

Having made the above explanation, one wonders why the Abdulrahman government is so preoccupied with a project initiated over ten years ago to create benefit for the people of Kwara State, instead of conceiving new projects, policies and programmes that will help it to fulfill its numerous promises to the people.

The PDP in the state based on instructions from its leader, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki has decided to give the new government a good honeymoon period to enable it perform without any distraction. This gesture is now being misconstrued by the government to think the opposition is weak and that it should just ride roughshod on it and kill it off.

The PDP is ready to give Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq more than enough time, without any disturbance or distraction, to enable him fulfill his promises to the people, provide better governance as he mouthed during the campaign and make positive changes, as he said. His plenty promises have raised expectations of the people to high heavens and the party believe it is in public interest to give him some breathing space to perform.

However, it seems the Governor himself has another plan. Part of the plan is to create distractions that will not allow the people to focus on measuring its performance against the earlier promises. Part of the game plan is also to undo everything that Saraki did between 2003 and 2011. This game is aimed at settling personal and family scores or seeking to further non-existent family rivalry. At least, that is the most logical way to interpret this obsession with 'Saraki did this, Saraki did that'. In fact, Abdulrazaq's obsession with Saraki is making it look like Saraki was the immediate Past Governor of Kwara State or that no government existed in the State after 2011 when Saraki left office and proceeded to the Senate.

The behaviour of this Governor of Kwara State is presenting him as somebody who has no real sense of appreciation of why he was elected. He seems to be in confusion as to whether he was elected to fight Saraki or to serve Kwarans. That is why a government will be scheming to take over the property that the late Wazirin Ilorin, Oloye Abubakar Olusola Saraki had possessed for over 35 years and which he used to take care of aged people and widows, called Ile Arugbo. If one may ask, of what use is that vengeful plot to improving governance? This obsession with personal and family vendetta can only make him to betray the trust of Kwarans.

The PDP will like to advice Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq that he was not elected to fight the Sarakis or to erase the legacies of the family. You were elected to construct good roads, develop education infrastructure and provide good health facilities. You were elected to provide for the welfare of workers and all the residents. You were elected to create jobs for the youths. These were part of the promises you made to the people. Kwara people did not vote for you to be pursuing the agenda of 'Bring down the Sarakis'. By all these your actions, you are just unveiling yourself for the people of Kwara State to see your true emptiness.

As much as the party will respect the instructions of its leader not to get provoked and descend into the arena with this Governor for now, we will not keep quiet while he struggles to rubbish the legacies of father and son. Anytime we see these devious efforts to paint the Sarakis black. We believe today's 'Kwara Must Change' from this official lies, fabrications and manipulations.

Our one kobo advice: Leave Saraki alone and do the work for which you were elected.

*Ashaolu is the Kwara State PDP Publicity Secretary.