The hide and seek between the two leading political parties in Kwara State: the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has taken a twist with the latter rating the performance of the APC administration in the state abysmally low, writes BIOLA AZEEZ.
GOVERNOR Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara State wears two caps at the moment. He doubles as the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF). The body comprises the chief executive officers of all the 36 states, regardless of their political affiliations. However, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition political party in Kwara, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are enmeshed in verb war over the five-year record of Governor Abdulrazaq in office.
His government had used May 29 to showcase some completed projects that he embarked upon when he assumed office. The opposition party says it is not impressed with his record in five years of being in the saddle, describing his performance as poor and wasteful. It should be recalled that the governor had marked the day with the launching of some projects. He unveiled the new Ilorin master plan; 20,000-hectare smart city prototype, while he also commissioned Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) station. He also flagged off the distribution of 16,000 textbooks across basic schools and opened the popular Flower Garden arena, recreational facility for public use.
The Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the governor, Rafiu Ajakaye, had shed light on the strides of his boss against the backdrop of the flak from the PDP. He said: “The day (May 29) opened with the commissioning of the 4.7km Yebumot-Adeta Roundabout and Adeta-Oloje roads, which the governor named after two elder statesmen from the capital city — retired Major General Mohammed Abdullahi Adangba and prominent scholar Sheikh Yahya Murtadha Agodi. The road commissioning was followed by a walk around the newly developed Flower Garden — currently the largest green space in Kwara purposely made for outdoor recreational activities, promotion of work-life balance, and protection of mother nature in the capital city. As he did that in Ilorin, deputy Governor Kayode Alabi was in the northern senatorial district to commission the Jebba waterworks, ending the community’s longstanding thirst for state-owned clean water source. At the banquet hall in Ilorin, creme de la creme from Kwara and beyond joined AbdulRazaq to unveil the Ilorin City Master Plan, the second ever blueprint since the creation of the state in 1967, as well as the talk-of-the-town 20,000-hectare Ilorin Smart City project.
Governor AbdulRazaq also expatiated on the project, saying the whole idea is targeted at making the capital city habitable, eco-friendly, and compliant with the rules that govern urban planning. He said the Ilorin City Master Plan has been designed to guide a sustainable living of the people for the next 40 years, while the Smart City is an innovative response of the administration to the multi-dimensional challenges of urban living. According to him, “This is about making our capital city habitable, compliant with the rules that govern urban planning in the age of climate crisis, and bequeathing a legacy for those coming after us.”
AbdulRazaq said the new master plan is justified by the population growth that he said poses a great social threat without proper architectural designs.“While the Ilorin City Master Plan has been designed to guide how we live sustainably for the next 40 years, the Smart City is our innovative response to the multidimensional challenges of urban living that now confront Ilorin, including congestion and the associated pressures it brings on the existing infrastructure,” he said.
“Designed to host 540,000 residents, the Smart City is a nine residential district city that is built in compliance with the United Nations prescriptions for urban living.”
“The first phase of this ambitious project covers 11,000 hectares with an estimated N1.72 trillion funding requirements from public private investments between now (2024) and 2027.
“Even as Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s administration expended more than N15bn to clear many years of salary, promotion arrears and gratuities, and faces up the daunting task of bridging the infrastructure gaps in basic schools such as fixing classrooms in more than 605 locations, it is commonplace to hear apologists of the past regimes saying nothing good has happened in the last five years,” he said.
However, the opposition party said that Abdulrazaq’s five years in office has suffocated Kwarans and reversed gains of past leaders. According to the state publicity secretary of the party, Olusegun Olusola Adewara, Governor Abdulrazaq has failed to meet the expectations, yearnings and aspirations of Kwarans. The party claimed: “However, celebrated with Kwarans on the sustenance of democratic rule since 1999 while also hailing their perseverance and resilience in the face of economic hardship they had been subjected to by the APC-led administration in the state and at the national.” The party lamented that despite the huge financial inflow to the state since 2019, Kwara has not witnessed significant infrastructure and economic development, “with many of its inhabitants living below the poverty line while small-scale businesses are folding up in their hundreds due to unfavourable government policies.”
The Kwara PDP also condemned the LP perceived anti-masses policies of the state government, alleging that the latest of such was the demolition of shops in the metropolis. It claimed the exercise deprived many shop owners of their means of livelihood and left their families in ruins. “At a time when the government should be implementing programs and policies to ameliorate the hardship in the country, the Abdulrazaq administration decided to embark on the massive demolition of people’s businesses and sources of livelihood along Taiwo-Unity Road, Ahmadu Bello Way, Sulu Gambari Road, Post Office, Tanke Road, Kaiama Road, Oloje, and Adeta-Alfa Yahaya Road, among others. Our party stands in solidarity with all affected persons and urges them to be strong.”
According to some observers, the claims and counter-claims by the APC and the PDP over the rating of the AbdulRahman administration so far may have such begun. This , they said, is because of the need for both camps to provide more empirical evidence to substantiate their individual claims.
ALSO READ: June 12 Protest: Lagos CP, Fayoade, assures zero tolerance for lawlessness
