This Is Not My Governor.
By Wahab Oba
No matter the amount of window dressing on cyberspace or the degree of honourable mention on other media platforms, I am convinced, I am yet to see what I expected of a governor and a government that emanated from a popular movement like the one that installed Abdulrazaq Abdulrahaman as governor of Kwara State. As a matter of fact, what I am seeing in Kwara state is not what I will equate with my expectations of the coalition that enabled AA’s emergence.
Agreed, there are some opportunists, touts and political jobbers in the coalition like any other coalitions, but a coalition that has the likes of Prof. Oba Abdulraham, Lukmam Mustspha, Barr. Iyiola Akogun, Lai Muhammed, Sen. Gbemisola Saraki, Modibbo Kawu, Raheem Adedoyin, Alhaji L.A.K. Jimoh, Sen Ahmed Ahmed among others, is expected to give Kwarans more dividends than we are presently experiencing. But comparing what is on ground with what is in the media space, I am tended to assert that there is a misjudgement of the true state of Kwara.
AA has fallen my hand, to use the common Pidgin parlance for disappointment. For a governor who was more of a foreigner among the set of people that worked for his election, it is surprising that Mr Governor has turned around to haunt the same set of political leaders who risked all on his behalf. It talks of selfishness. It talks of insensitivity. No matter the excuse and explanation for what AA is doing to his former political backbones, the truth is that the development speaks of low quality leadership on the part of the governor.
As at now, he has literally thrown out everyone of the firewood that cooked his last meal on the excuse that each one thrown out was not contributing to the cooking of the meal. Yet the elders say no man takes such a step if he is wise. Today, Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo is our governor’s enemy. Ditto Bashiru Bolarinwa BOB, ditto GRS, ditto Lai Mohammed, etc. Elders of the party in his constituency are fed up and only bearing the burden of a strange governance system being practiced by our governor. Bisi Fakayode referred to the system as “Rahmantocracy”.
The leadership vacuum has also been manifested in other areas. In the first place, which leader but someone with a bend to dictatorship will appoint a fresh university graduate, with no experience whatsoever into executive position, all in the name of being youth friendly? While I hold no grudge against the individual in question, the choice, as I have lamented elsewhere, speaks of deep lack of vision on the part of AA, and an assault on Kwara youth with consummate experience and tested integrity.
Bolaji Abdullah, Zakari Muhammed, AbdulRazaq Atunwa, Amuda Kannike, Kamaldeen Ajibade and a host of others, were all in their prime when they got appointed as either commissioners or special advisers, yet they made positive impacts in their various portfolios. What are the consequences of putting seeming political or other subjective consideration above competence? Lack of meaningful projects. Lack of insight into governance. A governor that must see every file, including files for promoting junior officers, a governor that must see everything, every bill, etc is a governor that has nothing to do. That is a governor who will ensure everything is at a standstill once he is not around. Don’t tell me he is promoting accountability.
No, he is promoting suspicion. This is a governor who trusts no one working with him and so he must see everything. The Yoruba call that as seeking to find out what is at the bottom of the cocoyam plant.
The civil servants who are the brain box of any progressive government have been relegated almost to nothing. This government has issued two different “stay at home” orders to them without reversing the first. Ofcourse, where are chief executive of the ministries? Non existent! First time, it took His Excellency almost six months to constitute the State Executive Council. Only God knows when the next will be constituted.
And to add salt to injury, His Excellency has paralysed effective governance at the local government councils with his refusal to conduct election at that level despite agitations for him to do the needful.
This definitely not the kind of governor I prayed for. I had prayed for a governor with sound education and right temperament to galvanised various ideas and proposals into purposeful thinking that results into sustainable growth and development for my state.
Let’s point at something meaningful this administration has done since inception, other than refurbishing what were on ground and tagging them as “promise made, promise fulfilled”.
Very little accomplishments, simply because once Oga is not around, and I heard that takes place more often than not, everything is at standstill. Yes, he has done some roads in the north. But how many of such are there in the south? Or in the central?
What of the COVID-19 issue in the state? Have you visited Kwara of recent? Do you see leadership or governance in the management of the pandemic. Apart from having an isolation centre, which is the standard practice ordered by the federal government, what else do you see as positive dimension to the handling of the pandemic in Kwara? What is the level of awareness? What is the level of adoption of safe practices? What is the level of monitoring and compliance? Almost nil!
To me, this governor is like the proverbial farmer who made a thousand heaps and went ahead to disband each heap from the last to the first, all in a bit to find out where he lost a piece of gourd containing his tobacco snuff. Foolishness and Stupidity counselled him to take that step of “Discovery”. Wisdom on the other hand would have counselled him to go and buy another snuff box. But that is meant for someone who listens to elders surrounding his life.
What has demolition of Ile Arugbo got to do with development? What would it have taken away from the government, at worst, asking presumed owners to regularise their documents within a specified period even if they don’t have one? Vengeance, personal vendetta, envy and persecution is order of the day. I am more ashamed of my State today than ever before.
But there is always a way to remove a strand of meat that gets itself lodged between the teeth.
May Allah protect us from evils of men.
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