At the risk of sounding immodest, our Party is doubtful whether Kwarans are excited about news making the rounds yet again insinuating an imminent cabinet change, as every attempt in the recent past seemed to have left us worse off than we already were. If the government is not appointing more redundant aides in place of the removed dead woods, it is establishing more MDAs. The whole exercise of cabinet reshuffle has turned out to be a hoax, meaningless and laughable, such that political appointments under the PDP-led government seem to be for rehabilitation and a family welfare scheme of some sort. Thus, the expected consequence of this is that since the coming into power of Mr. Fatai Ahmed and his food-is-ready cabinet, Kwara has become one big SUPERHIGHWAY of corruption, with the governor himself unashamedly directing the traffic.

But assuming without conceding that the Governor is serious this time around about the rumored cabinet reshuffle, the CPC has an advice for him; the next attempt at cabinet reshuffle should involve a painstaking approach of scouting around for Kwarans who can make the difference. It will be time to look beyond party affiliations and get those who have what it takes to turn things around in the state. Our submission is however without prejudice to party men and women who can deliver on the government bucketful of promises, rather than recycling old and spent forces.

We posit unequivocally that the Governor does not enjoy any further luxury of dilly delaying on the proposed cabinet reshuffle. It is an exercise that is long overdue. It is now clear like crystal that the presence of some of the members of the State Executive Council has not added any marginal value to the governance of the state, rather, they are at best do-nothing bench warmers feeding fat on the state resources without a commensurate contribution in return.

To be specific, if there is one official whose obvious ineptitude should earn him an immediate sack, it is the Commissioner for Tertiary Education in the state. The alarming level of rot and the arrays of avoidable fatal skirmishes arising from cult clashes, industrial actions and mindless looting by certain PDP board members and management staff of some of the higher institutions in the state right under his nose is evidence enough to show him the door. It is worrisome that under his watch, the state tertiary education has descended to a theatre of absurd, where constant mindless cult related clashes have become the norm rather than the exception.

Available court records and confidential data from security agencies at the disposal of our party point to a griming fact that the state has recorded close to one hundred and twenty deadly cult clashes since the inception of Mr. Fatai Ahmed administration in the state. This is as unprecedented as it is very worrisome! And to say that this ugly trend is despite the existence of yet another substantive education ministry, which staff have consequently grown idle and its commissioner jobless to the extent that their pastime in office is now spent on listening to court jesters and praise singers, is to say the least disappointing and shameful! What further justification does Governor Fatai have to retain such an utterly clueless individual in his government?

Equally deserving of the hammer is the Commissioner of Culture and Tourism, who for several months was living in denial of our Party’s timely factual alarm over the socio-economic danger inherent in the influx of beggars and destitute into the state. Her latest public grandstanding notwithstanding

The Commissioners of Commerce and Cooperatives, Industry and Solid Minerals, Energy, Housing and Urban Development and a host of other do-nothing in Mr. Fatai Ahmed’s cabinet should also be shown the door or shoved aside. It is regrettable that this bunch are lacking in ideas and innovations that are capable of lifting the state from its parlous state.

It is even more regrettable that out of all the Special Advisers and retinue of assistants, there is virtually none that can be conveniently said to be a trophy that the Mr. Fatai government can hold high aloft. It is difficult to determine what value they add to service delivery or to governance in the state. This no doubt is a self inflicted scourge that is directly responsible for the public trust deficit that Mr. Fatai’s administration is currently bedeviled with!

The CPC thereby insists that the Governor must take a critical look at the performance index of his cabinet and fire those whose presence has but added little or no essence to quality governance in the state. More importantly, our Party believes that a cosmetic cabinet reshuffle, where existing State Executive Members will only swap offices and responsibilities, will not augur well for the state. It will be an exercise that will neither raise any performance level from its abysmal state nor reflect the expectations of Kwarans.

We challenge him to be man enough, look his overbearing godfather right in the eyes and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH to his selfish political manipulations. He must this time, unlike in the past, firmly stand his ground and halt further payment of IOUs to his political godfather, who not only cares less about the quality of minds he foists on the Governor in the name of political patronage but has also rendered meaningless the raison d’être of the Governor’s independent mandate.

The Governor would also do well in reducing his over bloated cabinet. The thoughtless act of wasting public resources on large armies of commissioners and special assistants ostensibly as aides to advise him on virtually every issue under the sun is outrightly unacceptable.  Indeed, the governor seems to be running a circus featuring men and women, some of whom are people of shady characters, and which has left us wondering whether the governor wants to create a new colony for himself in the government house or if he is building a brigade large enough to re-elect him in the next general election.

It is disturbing that the governor, in making such ridiculous appointments, has unwittingly reduced governance to a pedestrian and irresponsible affair. He has amplified the letter of the constitution, which requires that the composition of the government should reflect the people’s diversity and engender a sense of belonging, to the detriment of its spirit, which envisages that political players would operate within the limits of reason and do what is right, just and defensible vis-à-vis the resources of the state.

Governance, we dare say, is a serious business that does not deserve to be trivialized by political comedians who suddenly find themselves in power only to discover that they are bereft of the needed ideas to drive modern governments. They must either shape up or ship out.

Thank you.

Alhaji Suleiman Buhari
CPC State Chairman