Atunwa to Kwara Gov: After 64 Months, Your Govt Lacks Focus

Former Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Razak Atunwa, yesterday, chided the Governor of Kwara State, Mr. Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, for allowing obsession with running down former Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, to make it obvious that the present administration in the state lacks focus, blueprint, or manifesto that can guide it towards serving the interest of the people.

Atunwa, in a statement, was reacting to a statement issued by the State Commissioner for Communications, Mrs. Bola Olukoju, who in government’s response to the former Senate President’s comment on last weekend local government polls raised several allegations against the Saraki and Abdulfatai Ahmed’s administrations in the state.

The former Speaker who also served in the House of Representatives and the 2019 PDP gubernatorial candidate, stated that the Kwara State governor who allegedly runs the state on impulse “has not been able to execute projects, programmes, or policies which could present him with a lasting legacy because he has no blueprint or manifesto that could guide him to serve the people better.”

“It is somewhat disappointing that a state commissioner could only list the payment of salaries as the achievement of a government that has been in office in the last 64 months.

“Indeed, when there is nothing significant to boast of, any mundane achievement will become significant to a non-performing government. A Government that receives over N14 billion every month from the Federation Account, in addition to the usurpation of billions of Naira of local government funds, should present meaningful and lasting projects on its scorecard. Laying of paving stone over a road less than one kilometre and resurfacing a small number of 100 metre roads is quite uninspiring,” the statement added.

“It is difficult to expect good governance from a governor who has no respect for democratic institutions and will rather castrate such institutions than allow them to function. He has rendered the State House of Assembly ineffectual, put the State Executive Council in limbo, ensured the State Security Council does not sit, relegated the Council of Traditional Rulers to the background, and destroyed the party on whose platform he was elected.

“A government which does not hold the statutory State Executive Council meetings, an administration that is run through WhatsApp messages between the commissioners,  and an elusive, absentee governor cannot achieve much. It is a dysfunctional government. The cabinet members do not have the platform and the freedom to present ideas and debate them at a council chaired by a focused, experienced, and well-intentioned governor.

“Contracts are awarded through WhatsApp messages and commissioners are equally informed through the same medium.

“I challenge commissioners in Kwara State to make public how many times they had attended the State Executive Council since they were appointed commissioner. I was a commissioner who served in several ministries and I know how vibrant and constant our meetings were. As a commissioner, you must be ready to debate and defend the memo in which you have proposed your plans for your ministry. It was invariably quite rigorous sessions. Those who were part of that cabinet and who are now members of the governor’s party will attest to this fact.

“Every right-thinking person in our dear state knows that there is no basis for comparison between the administration that Dr. Saraki headed for eight years and even that of his successor, Dr. Abdulfatai Ahmed, and this non-performing, directionless, and regressive government that is in Kwara State today. More than five years after taking over, the present government has not been able to commission one single project. What we have is a small number of incomplete and poorly executed projects.”

He urged Kwarans to continue to remain firm, resolute, and devoted in their bid to hold the government accountable and responsible.