When Mallam Ishaq Modibbo Kawu wrote a recent intervention to say that Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s re-election in Kwara State is as clear as daylight, God willing, I couldn’t agree more. All indications have pointed to this in the weeks leading to the 2023 election, and most especially, in the days leading to the gubernatorial and state assembly elections.

You could see how Bukola Saraki’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) which is the major opposition in the state has turned to a deserted home. Stalwarts and members have been dumping the party uncontrollably in what appears like a vote of no confidence in it. We have also seen the deluge of endorsements that has continued to pour in for Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq and the APC in Kwara State from all segments and stakeholders.

Various campaign groups and teams have narrated how in their mission to canvass for Governor AbdulRazaq and sell his candidacy to the people, they were in turn being schooled on his achievements in communities. The canvassers ended up being canvassed to. That speaks to the lot of efforts the Governor has invested in rebuilding the state, rewriting its story and providing good governance and dividends of democracy.

The PDP leaders, it must be admitted, have now been thrown off balance. They don’t know how to direct their campaigns again. Given that their house is now deserted and the people are speaking loud and clear, what’s left for Saraki’s PDP in Kwara State? They have now obviously resorted to desperation, insults, most ashamedly campaigns of calumny against our traditional institution. More dangerous is their grand plan of masterminding violence and using the instrument of threat and coercion to rig and manipulate the election.

The concerned authorities must rein in the PDP and allow rationality to prevail. Disparaging and denigrating our traditional rulers in the state is the lowest these elements could descend to in the name of politics. Some so-called social media bandits in the PDP have been spreading various bogus allegations against our revered traditional rulers in the northern, southern and central parts of the state, and their leaders seem to be supporting them. Has politics finally taken over commonsense? We hope that commonsense would prevail.

What the Kwara PDP failed to acknowledge is that their blackmail against traditional rulers will only aggravate their defeat at the coming polls. Our royal fathers have deep insights. They knew the Kwara of yesterday and the Kwara of today. They won’t stand on the bad side of history. Even themselves, I mean the traditional institution, were victims of the maladministration of the past that these people want to force down our throats. Some traditional rulers were not paid their entitlements for months. It was Governor AbdulRazaq that just recently cleared the backlog. Or should we talk of the respect and dignity our monarchs now enjoy as against the past when an arrogant and self-serving hegemon treated them with indignity? Imagine our royal fathers summoned in the past to welcome cows at the airport!

Of grave concern to me is the intel that these PDP elements are now planning raw violence to subvert the will of the people. Yaman Abdullahi who is the gubernatorial candidate of the PDP has been reported to be notorious for playing violent and intolerant politics. His thugs were reported to be scaring off and threatening people who have opposing political choices in his hometown of Shonga. That’s a dangerous development.

The security agencies must not allow this plan of violence to materialize. It must be resisted and anyone caught should face the full wrath of the law. Security agencies must deploy adequate personnel and reinforcements to flashpoints. In this March 18 polls, the people have decided to be on the good side of history. Their votes must count. Their decisions must be respected. Their will must not be subverted by desperate politicians who have lost credibility and legitimacy and now wish to come back through the backdoor!

Adelodun writes from Oro, Kwara State.

A note of caution has been directed to the Kwara Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by a cultural group to desist forthwith from their careless attacks on monarchs in the region.

The group, Kwara Cultural Advocacy Network, in a statement by their President, Ahmed Jibril, on Tuesday, said it has noted with grave concerns the wilful descent of Kwara PDP to campaigns of calumny targeted at their revered royal fathers.

The President said these efforts would only add to the electoral misfortune of the PDP, as their newfound love is to blackmail and spite the traditional institution in the state.

“We frown at the careless and reckless politics being played by the opposition PDP in Kwara State. What we have witnessed in recent times from their camp has been terrifyingly alarming. While we are not concerned about the side anyone chooses to stay in politics, we won’t tolerate the wilful descent of the opposition elements to denigrating and tarnishing the personalities of our royal fathers.

“We have seen how our revered Emirs and Etsus are being dragged into the mud and accused of receiving what was described as bribes for election. No evidence has been attached to these claims so far. We therefore sense a campaign of calumny in all that is playing out. We won’t tolerate all these blackmails.

“Leaders of the PDP, especially Dr Bukola Saraki, should therefore warn his attack dogs to desist. We see his silence in this open provocation and insult as complicity. They may have in fact been emboldened by Saraki’s example of spiting the Emir of Ilorin, threatening to rotate his seat as Chairman of the Kwara State Traditional Council and altering the Ilorin Emirate structure.

“Particularly, we are worried that the gubernatorial candidate of the PDP in the state, Yaman Abdullahi, is also silent as these careless attacks continue by his media handlers in support of his bid. However, we are not too surprised because Yaman has also shown that he does not have any regard for anything Kwara, talk more of our royal fathers. He was well known to have canvassed for the transfer of Kwara North to Niger State which is where he believes in. He even went as far as attending the national confab and making this submission.

“However, what we can assure PDP is that rather than add political gains for them as they assume, their careless attacks on our monarchs will only contribute a great deal to their electoral misfortune. The people of Kwara can see clearly which party and political camp has the development of our region in mind. We have decided where to go and there is no going back on it. For anyone to think that the only way to get our support is to blackmail our traditional leaders is therefore a big wonder to us. Enough is enough.”

Ahmed Jibril,
President,
Kwara Cultural Advocacy Network
14th March 2023

Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has asked residents of the state, especially marketers, to collect and spend the old and new naira notes as both are still legal tenders in the country.

“Per the judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the latest circular of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the old naira notes still remain a legal tender in the country. Banks are now officially issuing the old naira notes (including N500, N1000). I, therefore, urge all residents of our state to spend and receive both the old and the new naira notes,” according to a Kwara State Government House statement on Tuesday.

“This appeal especially goes to our marketers/traders. Further rejection of the old naira notes is in breach of the Supreme Court judgment. Such rejection is also inflicting economic pains on ourselves. Marketers, and indeed everyone in the state, can and should receive the old and new naira notes since commercial banks are now receiving the two. Citizens are to note that rejection of the legal tender, such as the old naira note, is a serious crime under our law.

“I also implore the banks to kindly extend every support within their powers to our people to ease all their transactions as things return to normal.”

Rafiu Ajakaye

Chief Press Secretary to the Governor

March 14, 2023

• Party urges umpire to improve on election logistics

Ahead of the governorship and House of Assembly polls slated for this weekend, the Kwara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has advised the Independent National Electoral Commission to improve on the challenges of logistics that slowed down the conduct of the presidential and National Assembly elections.

In a statement issued in Ilorin, the state capital, the party commended the efforts of the electoral umpire, especially its professional handling of the process.

“We are convinced that the INEC would have conducted some reviews of the last election to identify areas where it has to do better in the coming and future polls. We feel especially compelled to call on the INEC to address the late arrival of its officials and materials to various polling units. Equally important is the rampant incident of insufficient electoral materials, including the ink,” the party said.

“Similarly, we want to urge the electoral body to be very vigilant in its use of various electronic platforms. Of particular concern is the information at our disposal that the opposition party has perfected plans to hack into INEC portals to manipulate the process to its advantage. This is what the PDP is now banking on to re-impose an expired political dynasty on the state after its total rejection by the people of Kwara State. We therefore call for absolute vigilance.

“As the professional body, we are certain that the INEC must have discovered some other things that should be improved upon, and we hope to see such improvements on Saturday. All said, we commend the body for its exemplary conduct during the last election, and we seek for a better outing on Saturday.”

Alhaji Tajudeen Folaranmi Aro
Kwara State APC Publicity Secretary

..says LG workers enjoying minimum wage

The immediate past Chairman, Kwara State Council of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Aliyu Issa Ore, has berated the former Chief Press Secretary to the former Governor of the state, Mr Wahab Oba, over the claim that the state government is yet to accommodate local government workers in the N30,000 minimum wage cycle.

Ore noted that the ex-Governor’s spokesman clearly misrepresented him in his article titled “2023: Letter to Kwara Workers” in a desperate bid to drag him into collision course with the state government.

In a statement issued in Ilorin and titled “Stop twisting facts”, the former NLC Chairman recalled that at the 13th Quadrennial Delegates’ Conference of the state NLC, he remimded the state government of the outstanding demands of the organized labour, which contradicted the new dimension it took with the article credited to erstwhile Chief Press Secretary to the Governor.

Ore explained that Wahab Oba, who is now a Media Aide to the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Alhaji Shuaib Yaman Abdullahi, should desist from using the labour union to score cheap political points, adding that the state government had implemented N30,000 minimum wage at the local government level.

He also clarified that there was no time he accused the state government of stopping local government staff from rising to the position of Permanent Secretary in the state service.

The former state NLC Chairman added that civil servants in the state and local government areas currently enjoy N30,000 minimum wage with consequential adjustment component as against the allegation of the former Governor’s spokesman that the state government has not implemented the wage.

He urged the people of the state to be wary of the plot to make political fortune of the outstanding issues of state workers, which had since gotten the attention of the state government.

“It has come to my notice that an article written by Mr Wahab Oba, a former Chief Press Secretary to ex-Governor of Kwara State that the state government is yet to accommodate local government workers in the N30,000 minimum wage implementation cycle.

“The same article claimed and twisted my speech at the just concluded 13th Quadrennial Delegates’ Conference of the state council of NLC that I said the state government did not consider local government staff to rise to the position of Permanent Secretary.

“I have to make it clear and unambiguous that N30,000 minimum wage had already been Implemented for workers at the local government level. The call for appointment of permanent secretary among local government staff should not be misconstrued as if the state government barred staff at the third tier from rising to the pinnacle of their careers. The issue is about lack of consideration.

“It has to be said from the onset that the organized labour cannot be used as a tool to score cheap political points. It is advisable to seek another platform to achieve this calculated attempt and plot to drag me into a collision course with the state government. Our people should take note of this development and be wary of this needless name dropping”, Ore maintained.

Signed:

Comrade Aliyu Issa Ore

Immediate-past Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Kwara State Council

There is no truth whatsoever to the claims of the ever-lying PDP. The party is notorious among our people for its reckless claims and penchant for outright falsehood. Its latest claims are true to type and especially hypocritical of a political party that sought to buy people’s conscience with fake dollars.

The PDP is chasing shadows and engaging in false equivalence, thinking everyone acts in bad faith as they did while in the government and still do even in the opposition.

These are the same people who celebrated the cash policy in their simplistic thinking that it would make people forget their atrocities in government and elect them back to public offices. Their cries and frustration are well understood as things become clearer to them that Kwarans are not fools.

The administration of His Excellency Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, from the testimonies of all segments of the state and the realities of our state, does not need to do anything unethical to get re-elected to continue its great works, complete and fully put to use its several legacy and impactful projects like the garment factory, water works, hospital facilties, Visual Arts Centre, Innovation Hub, film factory, industrial parks, varsity campuses, sheabutter factory, among several others across the state.

It is laughable that PDP is hinging its crushing defeat on the popular pro-masses social investment programme of the administration. The social investment programme is just as old as the administration itself, having started in 2020. People can testify to the transparent nature of these interventions, which are usually done through electronic transfers to avoid any sharp practices that were rampant under the PDP. We have no apologies for being transparent.

Backed by a legislation that dated back to 2019, the Kwara State Social Investment Programme has been modelled after the Federal Government’s Social Investment Programme (N-SIP) to tackle poverty and improve social and financial inclusion. Disbursement from KWASSIP started from April 2020 to okada riders and then to petty traders in September 2020. This intervention has continued ever since, including the Kwapreneur. These initiatives have had tremendous impacts on the local economy. It is an ongoing initiative. Now, is the PDP also calling the N-SIP a vote-buying initiative? The allegations are just lamentations of a failed party.

The PDP failed and will continue to fail because of its many failures when it held sway, including non-payment of salary, while its leading lights like Ali Ahmad lived in suspicious opulence at the expense of the masses.

As aptly delivered in the presidential and National Assembly elections and will soon be repeated on March 18, the PDP should live with the well-conceived verdict of the people of Kwara State on their horrible legacies of non-payment of salaries, arrogance, greed, deliberate impoverishment of the masses, and promotion of thuggery and criminal elements who terrorised the people under their watch and enablement.

The people are not so forgetful and will not reward their horrible past with votes, no matter their attempts at false equivalence, red-herring, and outright falsehoods. Kwarans are wise, and they know their friends.

Olasumbo Florence Oyeyemi
Hon. Commissioner for Finance/Campaign Council Spokesperson, Kwara APC

The executives of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in Adewole Ward of Ilorin West Local Area, Kwara State, have dumped the party and defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The decampees were led into the APC by their Chairman, Mr. Magaji Abdullateef Oladimeji.

They were received into the ruling party at the ward level by Adewole Ward APC Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Amunutuka.

The new APC members promised to work for the victory of the party at the forthcoming polls, while mobilising for the success of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, and all other APC candidates.

Adewole is the ward of the incumbent Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq who is also the candidate of the APC seeking a second term.

Kwara APC has continued to receive thousands of decampees from various parties including the major opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which has lost several of its stakeholders to the progressive fold.

• Says PDP a group of hypocritical alarmists

Kwara State All Progressives Congress (APC) has commended the state government for the palliatives and other support it has extended to different vulnerable communities, artisans, and security agencies to ease the inconveniences of the naira redesign and fuel scarcity in the country.

The APC, in a statement by its state publicity secretary Alhaji Tajudeen Folaranmi Aro, said it was hypocritical of the PDP whose members and leaders had initially said the government was not doing anything for the people on the crisis.

The APC spokesman said many states in the country have similarly reached out to the people to support them at this time.

“We urge the state government to ignore the lousy characters in the PDP and their online choristers who think that everything boils down to petty politics,” he said.

“Indeed, the government has since the wake of the naira and fuel crises announced this support for the people. It is indeed kind of the government to include security agencies in this support because we are all in this together. It is especially mischievous for the opposition party to pick on the security agencies whose men are also members of the society and are deserving of whatever support anyone, including government, can offer.

“We make bold to say that Kwara State Social Investment Programmes has been supporting people at difficult times for more than two years. It has in the past supported artisans, widows, farmers, teachers, and security agencies in the past years. It was established in 2019. This initiative indeed supported thousands of Kwarans during Covid-19 pandemic, ENDSARS crisis, and other tough moments. Every sector has received different support from this agency of government. And what is the duty of a government if not to support its people through testing times? The PDP and its choristers on social media are a band of shameless kill-joys and nihilists who do not mean well for the people. KWASSIP is meant to support people, including through difficult moments, and no amount of PDP’s red-herrings can take away the fact this administration is led by a Governor well-raised with milk of kindness and he has shown this again and again in his relationship with the people of the state.”

Alhaji Tajudeen Folaranmi Aro
APC Publicity Secretary,
Kwara State

When Bukola Saraki realized that his several propaganda to pit Kwarans against Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s performing government didn’t work, he directed all his followers to start begging Kwarans to vote for the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar if they can’t vote for the party’s governorship candidate, Abdullahi Yaman. He said the former’s victory was more important than the latter’s. The former Senate President didn’t just say this, he has discovered that well-meaning Kwarans are in full support of AbdulRazaq’s second-term bid.

However, Kwarans should be very careful and shouldn’t fall for Saraki’s new gimmick. Even though Saraki has failed to tell his followers why he prefers Atiku’s victory to Yaman’s, some of us know his reason. Saraki knows that Yaman can’t win AbdulRazaq at the polls, therefore, if Atiku wins he is going to help him claim either by force or by raping the court. Currently, Saraki’s boys have been meeting unsuspecting Kwarans and begging them to vote for Atiku if they can’t vote for Yaman. That’s why you will barely see them campaign for Yaman in the last few weeks.

This essayist urges Kwarans not to fall for Saraki’s evil plans against them and the progressive state. The steady development and unprecedented achievements of the present administration have been giving Saraki and his retrogressive camp a serious headache and they are sad that Governor AbdulRazaq is doing what they couldn’t do for the people in their 16 years of governance in Kwara state.

From Saraki’s campaign rallies and his very recent interview on Sobi FM, it is glaring that he does not mean well for Kwara state and Kwarans. Saraki said the AbdulRazaq-led government had failed. If I may ask him, a government that pays salaries and promotes workers has failed? A government that repairs roads and renovates schools has failed? A government that provides potable water for its people has failed? A government that provides good teaching materials and introduced KwaraLEARN has failed? A government that creates jobs and pays the 30,000 minimum wages has failed?

Saraki is a sadist and he doesn’t mean well for Kwara state. His return will be a disaster for our dear state. May Saraki not happen to us again. If not for the Otoge movement in 2019, it is only God that knows where Kwara would have been by now. Bukola and his protege Abdulfatah Ahmed crumbled the state. Workers were owed months’ salaries, no potable water for the people, the structures of schools were terrible as students studied under the trees, no learning materials in classrooms, pensions, and gratuities were not paid, and hospitals were not hospitable. These are what Saraki calls achievements that AbulRazaq has not replicated which made him a failure, according to Saraki.

The Otoge movement gave us a brilliant, smart, and progressive AbdulRazaq. In all the areas Saraki and Abdulfatah had failed, AbdulRazaq has done well in the areas. Therefore, dear Kwarans, the 2023 presidential election and national assembly elections are this Saturday, February 25, let’s cast our votes for all the APC’s candidates and most importantly, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It’s our massive votes for Tinubu and other candidates that can stall Saraki’s evil plots against us and our dear state.

Abdulqaudri Mahmud writes from Ilorin East LGA, Zango Ward, Ilorin Kwara state

• Says his efforts to enslave Kwara dead on arrival

• Says Abdulrazaq still cleaning his mess in gratuities, pension, others

• Party calls Saraki an unrepentant egoist who denies Kwarans’ suffering under his vicegrip

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State has said the state is now more progressive, prosperous and solid in various sectors of human living than it ever was under the vice-grip of Senator Bukola Saraki, recalling how the APC government continues to clean the mess Saraki and his boys left in Kwara.

In a statement reacting to the interview that Saraki granted on Monday night, the APC said Saraki in his habitual self-conceit has continued to deny the many evils perpetrated under his watch, such as wanton sale of public properties to cronies, non-payment of salaries, conversion of public assets to private use, and complete breakdown of basic amenities, including education and health care sectors under his watch.

“The interview was just a rehash of his annoying claims that Kwarans were foolish to have rejected him and his party in 2019. He is an unrepentant egoist. To Saraki, it was normal for the Colleges of Education to be shut down for over a year, it was great for the waterworks to collapse despite claims of having spent billions of naira. To Saraki, there was nothing wrong about owing salaries to workers; there was nothing wrong about keeping workers on the same grade level for many years, or paying them percentage salaries, even when he and his appendages were enjoying with public patrimony. Or is it not the same Saraki who awarded himself a humongous pension package and was earning it while workers suffered until he saw signals that the long arm of the law was going to catch up with him because he was also earning salaries from the Senate? What a man!” the party said.

“It is important to state that nothing was working again under his dynasty. Water was not running. His men had stolen UBEC money to the extent of the UBEC banning the state from accessing money again. All of those have been corrected today. Saraki and his boys left a collapsed primary healthcare sector, which has now been revived to the benefits of millions of Kwara.

“Saraki is the least qualified person to lecture any government about management of public finances. He was the first Governor in Kwara State to raise public debt by over 300%. What did the state gain from it? How have Kwarans benefitted from his Shonga scam? He spent 100% of Kwara money on Shoprite with nothing for the state to benefit. He met a debt profile of below N5bn in 2003 and left a debt profile of more than N25bn. It was under his dynasty that Kwara State was ever declared unbankable and insolvent in 2012 owing to their recklessness. Today, Kwara is the number 8th in fiscal health ratings in the country.

“Contrary to the Saraki era when civil servants had to be begging friends and relatives to give them food because of lack of payment of salaries, Kwara is now among the states that are not just up to date in 100% salary payments but have judiciously implemented the minimum wage with consequential adjustment.

“We also noted some of the habitual lies of Saraki in the said radio programme. He said, among other things, that nothing has been done on the campuses of KWASU. Saraki was talking to Kwara audience, who know the truth or otherwise of his claims. People of Ekiti Local Government and Baruten Local Government know how much of the work the present government has done to complete the Osi and Ilesha Baruba campuses of KWASU, among other projects. This administration is not like the Saraki administration that wickedly abandoned all the projects of his predecessor on account of petty and vindictive politics. This is why the people of the state do not ever trust Saraki, whose agenda is to recapture Kwara State and rule it like a fiefdom as we saw under his predecessor Abdulfatai Ahmed. Saraki should stop dreaming and face reality.”

Alhaji Tajudeen Folaranmi Aro
APC Publicity Secretary, Kwara State