The Peoples Democratic Party in Kwara state has accused the gubernatorial candidate of the ACN in the last election, Dele Belgore, SAN, of insensitivity and naivety in his criticism of the PDP government in the state.

In a statement signed by the Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mas'ud Adebimpe, the "party regards the call by the failed ACN candidate for reduction of the staff strength of the state's work force as retrogressive and insensitivity to the plight of the state's civil servants who have contributed to the success recorded in the infrastructural development of the state".

According to the party, by criticizing the 51% of recurrent expenditure over the capital expenditure of 49%, Belgore is indirectly calling for retrenchment in the state civil service knowing fully well that recurrent expenditure is almost synonymous with staff salary and other overhead costs. Pray, is Mr Belgore saying Kwara State Workers Salaries should not be paid. Is he asking the government to retrench workers in order to reduce the recurrent expenditure?

The party, Adebimpe said, is not surprised bearing in mind that, Belgore neither stays in the state nor ever related with the grassroots, has never worked in the public sector where he can garner enough knowledge about the complexity and dexterity of public service administration.

It is laughable to describe as window dressing the unprecedented infrastructural development in the state in the last decade which has visibly resulted into mass influx of people from various parts of the country into the state capital. It is instructive to note that in less than 2 years, the Abdulfatah Ahmed administration, despite poor finances, has rehabilitated 400 classrooms at basic education and senior secondary education levels with 720 sets of furniture supplied to pre-primary, primary and junior secondary schools; 210 urban and rural electrification projects implemented in first and second phases of electrification.

The Government has provided N250 million micro credit facility to Cooperative Societies across the State; Sunk 220 boreholes; 250 tricycles have been provided to motorcyclists to replace the popular commercial motorcycles, Okada.

PDP recalls with pride the speech of Governor Ahmed during the budget presentation to the State legislature that the 2013 budget is premised on prudent management of available resources for sustained economic development and growth; implementation of viable initiatives capable of generating employment, wealth creation and fresh investments, execution of infrastructure projects, especially those on the priority areas of Agriculture, Health, Education, Water Supply, Energy and Road Development.

The PDP in Kwara State has an advice for Belgore: It is good to criticize, but it is better and more responsible to provide viable alternatives through criticisms.

The PDP wishes to inform the public to ignore Belgore's comments as he is a drowning politician looking for relevance at all cost. The PDP government in the State cannot be distracted by a politician who plays politics only on the pages of the newspaper; we are committed to making Kwara a better State in the community of States.

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