• says the people will not exchange leaders for deceivers in 2023
A pro-democracy group in Kwara State, Kwara Rebuilders, has rebuked the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state over an irresponsible rally headlined ‘O suwa’ they staged on Tuesday, saying it was adding salt into the injury of Kwarans.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Publicity secretary of Kwara Rebuilders, Abdullahi Abdulganiy, said the attempt by Kwara PDP to deceive the people and instigate them against the performing administration of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq was dead on arrival.
Abdulganiy noted that the narratives in Kwara have changed for the good, adding that the PDP elements are understandably frustrated because it’s no longer business as usual where what is supposed to belong to everybody was cornered by a few.
“PDP elements in Kwara State are saying they are tired. It’s understandable. They will be tired and we only need to wish them peace of mind. Anybody who could read through the presentation of their leader Bukola Saraki during the O suwa rally would see frustration and disappointment. His reign of impunity and tyranny is gone. Development is now spread across the state and people, not to an entitled few.
“The Sarakis believe propaganda and incitement would work for them in this forthcoming election. That’s why rather than table their programmes, policies to the people, they have dissipated much energy on propaganda and falsehood. We need them to make this campaign issue-based instead of all the rhetorics.
“The AbdulRazaq-led administration has captured over 100,000 beneficiaries across the 16 LGAs in its safety net programmes at KWASSIP, including the aged, petty traders, transporters and young business owners. The outcome is that in just three years based on this intervention, the poverty rate in Kwara reduced drastically from 30.2 in 2019 to 20.4 in 2022 according to the World Bank State-by-State Index 2022. What did the O su wa people do during their time other than weaponising poverty by sharing pittance in disrespectful manner to our people? What did we get? Annual ritual of deaths of people at their so-called Ile Loke where, akin to the horrible triangular slave trade, humans were horswhipped while collecting wraps of eba and N50 naira. That era will never return! Never.
“Civil servants now receive their salaries as and when due. The government has also implemented the N30,000 minimum wage and consequential adjustment. What we had in the past was a culture of non-payment of salaries, or at best a gerigidi format, accumulating for months across MDAs. It is this laudable transformation that the folks at PDP said they are fed up with. Kwara civil servants should know their enemies who want to take us back.
“The AbdulRazaq-led administration has renewed our relationship with UBEC and many other development partners. The PDP government earned Kwara a backlist at UBEC for their criminal diversion of educational grant. The current administration has removed the state from that shameful status and attracted the backlogs of grants due to it with its responsible payment of counterpart funds. The result is the renovation of over 600 schools, recruitment of teachers, among other investments ongoing at our basic schools. Is this what is making the PDP elements frustrated? Kwara parents and students should take note.
“In the last three years, the AbdulRazaq-led administration has created 79,437 direct and indirect jobs in the state. According to NBS latest report, unemployment rate in Kwara has dropped from 21.1% in 2019 to 16.5% in 2022, below national average. Should that progress make any right thinking person frustrated? From second-worst in 2019, Kwara has the second-best maternal mortality rate in the country. Data by KPHCDA shows that attendance in primary health care has risen from a record low of 43,936 in 2019 to 306,238, representing 597.2%. These eloquently testify to the investments sunk into the healthcare system by the current administration.
“The economy of Kwara has grown bigger and the business climate is becoming far more liberal and competitive than in the past due to improved service delivery and an open-door policy with investors. According to KWACCIMA, the number of active manufacturing companies in the state has moved from 41 in 2019 to 77. In contrast, PDP due to obnoxious business posture and policies killed enterprise and midwifed the death of Okin Biscuits, Paper mill etc and other legacy companies in the state.
“The state under AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq is shedding the toga of a civil servant state. Kwara was one of the 15 States in Nigeria to attract FDI in 2021. From 19th in 2019, Kwara has also moved to 8th in the fiscal sustainability rating in the country. With the completion of economic-stimulating projects like Visual Arts centre, Garment factory, and the Innovation Hub, the state is on course to entering the first 4 in the ranking in the country.
“These and more are the positive developments that have been recorded in the state in the last three years. From a state that had no functional tractor in 2019, a legacy of the O suwa people, Kwara now has about 15 tractors. Add to this the development of a 10-year Agric Transformation Plan. With the recent selection as one of the four States captured in the first phase of the National Programme for Food Security, it is a further demonstration that this administration is committed to breaking the chains of poverty through agriculture and safety net programmes.
“We waited to see if PDP had better plans, especially for youths and women. But we could not be more disappointed to see their godfather, Bukola Saraki, throwing naira notes at the people over the weekend, in an utter celebration of squalor and inhumanity. Destiny forbids us as a people under God to throw away a party and government that gave young people and women a massive chance at business and in governance, for one that sees them as objects of thuggery and sacrifice for political and metaphysical power renewal.
“In three years, several waterworks across the nooks and crannies of the state that had been abandoned have now been fixed. Two brand news ones have been done. The people can count their gains on water, education, health, civil service welfare, social investment, and youth engagement. It is only irresponsible for PDP to feel frustrated in the face of these positive turnarounds. It shows that they do not mean well for the state and are proud of their records of failure, sleaze and mismanagement of Kwara resources when they held sway. They will stay in the abyss for longer.”
