What is at stake in Kwara State in 2023 election goes beyond liking or hating the incumbent governor. The election presents a unique opportunity to rescue a State that is presently being led by someone who clearly does not even respect the boundary of anything, either relationship or finances of the state or even the specific amount allocated to the few misdirected projects he has initiated since coming into office. It is on record that the governor inflated almost all the cost of contracts awarded so far under his administration, thus misappropriating state resources in the process. But that is not even the point of this article.
Last Friday, in a feverish attempt to counter the International Youth Day event organized by the supporters and friends of the PDP Kwara Central Senatorial Candidate, Bolaji Abdullahi, the Abdulrahman Abdulrazak-led administration quickly rushed through a plan to host their own version of the event. The AA government, in its trademark tradition of governing by deceit, said it would empower young entrepreneurs during their own version of 2022 International Youth Day; hence they had what they called Kwarapreneur 2.0. But what was not clear to the few unsuspecting non-APC youth who went to the event was that the money released from government covers for the programme was only for tacit campaign and not to empower any young entrepreneur as claimed.
Aside the supposed beneficiary of the Kwarapreneur 2.0 ‘package’ not having been subjected to any process of selection, which was ostensibly due to a clear understanding on the path of the government that the money was destined for private pockets of some individuals; the already confirmed report that the Ag. General Manager of Kwara State Social Investment Programme (KWASSIP), Qowiyy Olododo was directed to allocate slots to APC leaders and candidates, while he also take three for himself, was enough proof that Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasak was already deploying our State resources to settle his party members and tacitly campaign for his re-election in 2023.
Anyone who has friends in the APC should kindly confirm whether or not the so-called KwaraPreneur money, which was routed through KWASSIP, was not shared to APC members in cluster. What happened was that for every single person who got #1,000,000, there were 8 or 9 people in his group that he was expected to share the amount allotted to him with. Before getting into the hall for the event, everyone who was billed to have a share of AA’s International Youth Day largesse already had his name submitted by someone, either someone in the party who got a slot or any of the party candidates. Therefore, the ordinary Kwara youths who went to the programme thinking it was an open event were shocked when they were asked to name their sponsor upon making an attempt to register at the ‘beneficiary table.’
AA did not stop at just distributing state money to party members. He equally flew into the State individuals who had no specific value to add to the event. Aside paying for flight, accommodation and honourarium to the APC National Youth Leader, Dayo Israel and his entourage numbering about 10; AA equally hosted and paid honourarium to one Rinsola Abiola, an aide to former Speaker Yakubu Dogara who also came with two of her friends. This was aside the money paid to panelists who spoke at the event. Indeed, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazak used the occasion of the International Youth Day to invite his favorite young people from Abuja to come ‘chop’ a bit of Kwara money, given as much as #5,000,000 to the APC Youth Leader alone; while the actual young people in Kwara, even those in APC, where asked to group themselves and jointly share N1m.
Governance thrives on collectivity, but Governor AA who had in the past boasted of his capacity to stay in a place for days without talking to anyone runs Kwara the same way he ran his personal businesses before coming to power. His decisions were mostly not based on any deliberate engagements with his subordinates; rather they are borne out of his own personal wishes and desires. He only gives them orders to carry out any line of action he must have long pre-decided. It is therefore little surprise that majority of those in government who went to do sycophantic dance in Banquet hall last Friday knew little or nothing about the event that was being held.
Indeed, majority of those who campaigned to make AA governor already realized that they made a terrible mistake. Both privately and publicly, they have announced to Kwarans the new person they discovered Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasak to be after he assumed power. If we are a people who listen, we need to pay attention to what the majority of people who have abandoned AA are saying. Definitely, all of them can’t be wrong. Kwara does not need this governor who, aside being poor in managing people to deliver result, is also a ‘one man mopol’ kind of guy who decides on mere whims how to run our State into deeper ‘shit.’ We must put our hands together to stop AA in 2023, or we would live for many years trying to rectify the errors of his indiscretions.