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.

Monthly Sanitation Exercise     Ben Duntoye     Majlis For Sadakah, Zakat And Waqf     Muhammad Mustapha Suleiman     Micheal Imoudu     Roseline Oni Aremu     Park     Clara Nwachukwu     Baba Idris     Ope Saraki     Olaitan Buraimoh     Apata Ajele Secondary School     Abdulmajeed Abdullahi     Abdulrahman Abdulrazak     Lanre Jimoh     Salami Adekunle     Aliyu Sabi     Kwara South     Lanre Olosunde     Abdulwahab Ololele     TESCOM     Tuesday Assayomo     Razak Atunwa     Elekoyangan     Abdullahi Samari     Saba Mamman Daniel     Oloruntoyosi Thomas     Aliyu Alhassan     Bello Bature     AbdulRazaq Abubakar Jiddah     Yusuf Arowosaye     Garba Idris Ajia     GGDSS Pakata     Mopelola Abdulmaliq-Bashir     Awili Pedro     Azeez Salawu     Alliance For Democracy     Jimoh Bashir     Baba-Isale     Kayode Oyin-Zubair     Ahmad Uthman     Modupe Oluwole     Usman Alkali Baba     Aliyu Kora Sabi     Alumni Association Of The Federal Polytechnic Offa     Ali Ahmad     Standard Organization Of Nigeria     Peculiar Allowance     Dar-Al-Handasah Consultants Ltd     Elerinjare     Oba-Solagberu     Abdulganiyu Oladosu     Khadijat Ayoola Yusuf     Abdullahi Imam Abdullahi     Erin-ile     Abdulazeez Uthman     Balikis Jawondo     Musa Yeketi     Akeem Lawal     Federal Allocation     Shonga Farm Project     Salihu S. Yaru     Abdulrahman Onikijipa     Isiaka Oniwa     Lafia Aliyu Korasabi     Undergraduate Bursary     Zulkifli Ibraheem     Kwara Polytechnic     Nigeria Governors\' Forum     Justina Oha     Siraj Oyewale     Oluwatoyin Lukman     Abdulwaheed Musa     Sarkin Malamai     Jawondo     JSSCE     Rasaq Jimoh    

Cloud Tag: What's trending

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

Jalala     KWASIEC     Funmilayo Isiaka Oniwa     Saka Saadu     Owo Arugbo     Eghe Igbinehin     Kuliyan Geri     March 28     Centre For Digital Economy     Onilu     Suleiman Abubakar     Abraysports FC     Ayeyemi Sulaiman     Shao     Iyaloja-General     Oko-Erin     Olabode George Towoju     Saadatu Modibbo-Kawu     Olaitan Adefila     Raliat Elelu-Habeeb     Oasis Muslim Care Foundation     Suraj Tunji Oyewale     Umar Yakubu Jaja     Ashiru     Tricycle Owners Association Of Nigeria     Segun Abifarin     Salami Adekunle     Vasolar Consortium     Kawu Baraje     Islamiya Abdulraheem     Adegoke Bamidele     Oniwasi Agbaye     Halimat Yusuf     Olateju Lukman     Omar Bolaji Gambari     Sherif Sagaya     Dogara     Col. Adedipe     ITP     Mubarak Oladosu     Kwara Liberation Group     Wahab Egbewole     Ayotunde Emmanuel Alao     Waheed Ibrahim     Kupchi Hosea Maxwell     Unicontinental Construction Company     Kunle Suleiman     Kayode Oyin Zubair     Teachers Specific Allowance     Idofin     Gobir Organization Foundation     Shero     Amuda Musbau     Ilesha Gwanara Road     Amusement Park     Lafia Aliyu Korasabi     Ilorin.Info     James Ayeni     Muyiwa Oladipo Kanu     Ahmad Ali     Park     Khairat Gwadabe     Sam Onile     Just Law Forum     IF-K     FERMA     Sulyman Tejidini     Kwara Consultative Forum     Alimi     National Party Of Nigeria     John Olajide Adedipe     Okanlawon Taiwo     Kola Bukoye     Apaola     Moronfoye     John Olobayo     Oke-Ode