By Bashiru Adigun
Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq is working ascidously to make Kwara a state of our dreams while the Peoples Democratic Party’s wannabe , Shuaibu Yaman is hysteric.
In his rabid quest for power, Yaman continued his thoughtless and unsubstantiated claims about the administration of Governor AbdulRazaq.
We note that Yaman took to attack our exemplary and exceptional Governor knowing fully well that he has nothing but bringadage and looting to show from the 16 years of PDP he has chosen to sink with.
We make bold to say that Governor AbdulRazaq remains transparent and accountable to the people of Kwara in all projects embarked upon by his administration.
We restate that unlike the 16 inglorious years of the looters, Governor AbdulRazaq has executed projects that touched lives across the state.
For the record, Elite Network for Sustainable Development ( ENetSuD) has cleared the Government of allegation of any wrong doing on the Baruten road for which Yaman is making mountain out of a molehill.
It is important to inform the general public that the contract for the Baruten road was increased three times under the PDP administration with the same specification as follows: January 2015, N2,156,953,404.88; April 2017, N2,361,904,549.71; and May 15, 2019, 2,782,716,900.95.
The total amount paid to the contractor as of May 29, 2019 was N1,848,129,346.47 (66.4%). That left a balance of N934,587,553.50 to be paid to the contractor. Similarly, the percentage of work done on site as at May 29, 2019 was 21% of surface dressing work, which equalled 4.6km of the 33km road.
The administration of Governor AbdulRazaq upon appeals from the communities affected, revised the contract with additional N265,412,446.50 to upgrade it to asphalt finish. That brought the total contract sums to N3,048,129,347.45. Today, 22km of the road has been laid with asphalt , while the earthwork is up to 29km, with hydraulic structures totally completed. As of the time of writing this, the road is 71% completed.
It is important to put the issues in proper perspective for the record and posterity.
In the last five months, the statutory allocation has been much less than what the PDP administration was getting because NNPC has not been making payments to the Federation Account. PDP could not pay N 18,000 minimum wage but despite lower allocation, this administration has been paying N 30000 minimum wage.
This is an indication that the IGR and dwindled Allocations have been much better managed by the AbdulRazaq’s administration than the PDP which turned the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service to an Automatic Teller Machine for its leaders who squandered the state resources for 16 years.
The PDP candidate in his mischief, claims that the administration has done nothing with the bond secured for infrastructure development. The people of Kwara are not unaware of the good work of the Governor in provision of projects that impact lives and create jobs for the teeming youths.
It is shameful for PDP to have run short of ideas to criticize the government with its repeated lies that money is missing from the Local Governments. We restate that there is no money to steal at the local governments.
Rather, it is the state government that has been augmenting their allocations to meet their financial obligations.
We sympathize with Yaman for he is already a drowned man clinging to whatever he can find to come afloat following the capsized ship of the PDP.
We have no doubt that the people of Kwara can see through the deception of the PDP.
We urge Yaman to get serious and tell us all about his plans for the State if he has any , otherwise he will be stuck with the notorious appellation of “yakking”.
No matter the buffoonery ,propaganda and bare faced lies of Shuaibu Yaman, Kwara will never go back to the era of looting, unemployment, lack of promotion in the civil service, unpaid Salaries for civil servants, unpaid pensions and gratuities for retirees, neglect of health care delivery among others.
Never again!
