Opinion: Suleiman Abubakar and Kwara politics, By Olasunkanmi Abdulkadir

Date: 2014-09-04

Anyone who has read the recent interviews by our newly appointed Minister of National Planning, Dr. Suleiman Abubakar, will come out asking several questions.

True, as a Nigerian, he is entitled to his personal hopes and aspirations, and can even join others in a group or association to express such views. But as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I think Mr Suleiman needs more circumspection in thought and speech.

I am particularly harried by the minister's recent outburst that he has been given marching orders by the president to dislodge the so-called Saraki dynasty in Kwara State. What that means, Suleiman needs to tell the public. While not holding brief for the Sarakis, the claimed directive by the president, not for a sound sustainable developmental plan and economic growth from the minister, calls for apprehension.

We are yet to forget the several vituperations of a minister of state who practically left his official engagement to become a Minister Against Amaechi; focusing on personal political vendetta while his major responsibility took a nosedive. It took the appointment of a more matured politician as substantive minister in his ministry before sanity could be restored to the sector. One can only hope that Suleiman will not follow the same script because we were thinking, and we still want to risk thinking, that Suleiman has better intellectual pedigree.

The nation can ill afford federal ministers who leave their duty posts to engage in unnecessary political activities.

While one is not really bothered by his claim to political sophistry in Kwara State, or that the present gang-up against a structure that predates his biological existence will be swept away by a group of political renegades, Suleiman, like his ilk in the PDP, is entitled to dream dreams. We shall wake them up after the election has been fought and won squarely by the man who has what it takes to win a political battle in Kwara.

One wonders why in the exercise of his right to speak, our minister should expose how shallow his understanding of governance is. Simply put, it is a tragedy for a Minister of National Planning, whose main schedule is to see to the smooth execution of national policies and projects, to declare that an administration that continues with the projects of its predecessor is a failure.

Fellow Nigerians, our minister has clearly missed it. Hear him: "PDP is going to win in Kwara more so, as the government in Kwara state now has not done anything serious in term of development. The roads he has been working on are inherited ones. He has not come out with new roads. He has not come out with new schools. He has not come with new hospital."

This is bad advertisement for the PDP. The man they so much celebrated recently is not living up to the basic requirement of political knowledge. So PDP will win Kwara in 2015 because governor AbdulFattah Ahmed decided to complete the roads which his predecessor started? That he refused to abandon them and leave the people hopeless and rejected?

So, PDP will win Kwara in 2015 because the governor refused to build new schools but decided to complete the ones his predecessor was working on before his tenure expired? So, Ahmed should have abandoned the schools and left the pupils and parents forlon just to prove that he is a governor? This is simply disastrous.

Minister Suleiman said the Ahmed administration has not come up with new hospital! Is he in Nigeria at all? At least when he came to Ilorin the other day, he must have passed through the 'General Hospital' area. The changed landscape should have caught his attention, after all, until this new season of political vendetta, he was not used to coming home in grand ways, so he should have no­ticed that there is now a brand new General Hospital where the old one used to be. Or, is the hatred for anything Saraki and the Ahmed administration so great that our minister was actually blinded from seeing the beautiful layout and structures on ground by the road? There are five of such across the state sir, Minister Suleima, and as a man in charge of Planning you need to have such statistics so that you don't talk off point next time.

But sir, in case you don't have records in your office, which we believe you should as befitting your official duties, the administration you claimed has not achieved any new thing in the last three years has constructed a number of road projects, built an international vocation centre, employed 10, 200 youths, and empowered artisans among other projects too numerous to mention.

And lastly sir, when we were in the trenches campaigning in 2011, the party made one simple promise to the people of Kwara to wit; that we shall not abandon the projects started by our predecessor because we know that such attitude has been the bane of development in Nigeria and which the poor people of this country would expect the like of our minister to correct.

We have not abandoned that promise and we shall not abandon it. We promised continuity and we have delivered. Kwarans are proud of us because we have not abandoned them.

Olasunkanmi Abdulkadir is a member of O'Legacy group, a political association based in Ilorin.

Source

 

Cloud Tag: What's trending

Click on a word/phrase to read more about it.

Curfew     Goodluck Jonathan     Risikat Lawal     Muhammed Taofeeq Abdulrazaq     Bayo Ajia     Adeniyi Ojo     Yusuf Amuda Abubakar     Playing Host     Bilikisu Oniyangi     Ella Supreme Tissue Paper     Nigeria Customs Service     Wahab Abayawo     Voices Of Tomorrow     Binta Abubakar Mora     Col. Taiwo     Mohammed Yahaya Barki     Ahmad Olanrewaju Belgore     Vishvas KOZ Tractors     Waziri Yakubu Gobir     Oko-Erin     Haliru Yahaya     Jebba     Kwara Pdp     Femtech     Moses Rahman Popoola     Muideen Olaniyi Alalade     Asa     Yoonus Kola Olatinwo     3MTT     Tafidan Kaiama     Government House     Alfa Yahaya Road     Sulyman Buhari     Tinubu     Mustapha Olanipekun     Patigi Regatta     Zulkifli Ibraheem     C2c@kwarastate.gov.ng     AGM Professional Services     Toun Okewale-Sonaiya     Baba-Isale     Government Girls’ Day Secondary School Pakata     Balogun-Ojomu     Eleja     Dele Belgore     Abubakar Imam     Adewuyi Funmilayo     Ahman Pategi University     Rafiu Ibrahim     Rafiu Ajakaye     Olayinka Jelili Yusuf     Abdulmutalib Shittu     Sulu Babaita Isiaka     Afolasade Opeyemi Kemi     Babata     John Obuh     Alloy Chukwuemeka     Iponrin     Ilesha-Gwanara     Fola Consultant     Ilorin Durbar     Bolaji Abdullahi     Tafida     IESA     Gobirawa     Sulu Gambari     Oni Adebayo     Fulani     Ijagbo Health Centre     Muslim Stakeholders Of Kwara State     Olabanji Orilonishe     Yemi Sanni     Mutawali Of Ilorin     Mashood Abdulrafiu Agboola     Jamiu Oyawoye     Mohammed Halidu     Rebecca Olanrewaju    

Cloud Tag: What's trending

Click on a word/phrase to read more about it.

Babaloja-General     Mohammed Halidu     Gani Saadu     Vasolar     Abdul-Rahoof Bello     Simeon Sayomi     Olatunde Michaels     Kwara Coalition Of Business And Professional Associations     Bayo Lawal     Tinubu     Saka Abimbola Isau     Arinola Lawal     Shehu Salau     Oke-Ode     Bature Bello     Omu-aran     Elerin Of Erin-Ile     Yekeen Alabi     Facebook     Garba Ayodele Wahab     SWAN     African Democratic Congress     Ayinke Saka     Labaeka     Ahman Patigi     Bayer AG     Olabanji Orilonishe     Abdulrauf Yusuf     Elerin Of Adanla Irese     Bilikis Oladimeji     Abdullahi Biffo     Onilorin     Abdullateef Abdussalam     Mumeen Lah     ASUU     Bola Iyabo Ibiyeye Adisa     Ilorin South     JSSCE     C2c@kwarastate.gov.ng     Oro Grammar School Old Students Association     Justina Oha     Shuaib Abdulkadir     Balogun Gambari     Ella Supreme Tissue Paper     Olayinka Jelili Yusuf     MINILS     Senate Presidency     Abubakar Baba     HYPPADEC     Facemasks     Manzuma     Tunde Oyawoye     Saadu Gbogbo Iwe     Okin Group     Atiku     Christopher Odetunde     AGILE Programme     Kwara-SAPZ Project     Samuel Olusegun Adedayo     QuickWin     Kola Adesina     Monsurat Omotosho     Bankole Omisore     Kayode Ibrahim     Ishaq Salman     Abdul-Rasheed Na\'Allah     Kamaldeen Ajibade     AbdulGafar Tosho     Kwara Poly     Biliaminu Aliu     New Nigeria People’s Party     Saduki Lafiagi     Ariyo     Abdulkadir Remi Hawawu     Aminat Omodara     Olabode George Towoju     Standard Organization Of Nigeria