By Olota Abdulsomad
A popular quote says “Do not correct a fool or he will hate you, correct a wise man and he will appreciate you”. Hence, this is not an effort to educate or correct the writer but to not allow him mislead the populace who will be at the receiving end of his dubiousness, should it be left unattended to.
One writer named Qudus Adelodun in his ignorance wrote to make Alh. Yaman Abdullahi, the Kwara State PDP gubernatorial candidate appear uninformed, unintelligent and incoherent of which, he is the one who is either misinformed or intentionally chose to be an intellectually pretentious person. He tried to incriminate Yaman for saying he will fully implement N30,000 minimum wage for all state workers. Truly, those whose only source of information has been hijacked by the emperor we have at the helm of Kwara’s affairs would be easily convinced that what other minimum wage except the one Abdulrahman has purportedly been paying is Yaman talking about?
Yes, Abdulrazaq’s substantial point of campaign has been payment of minimum wage but what they fail to tell the public is that, the minimum wage is not all encompassing as there are still workers who are yet to get the fully implemented N30,000 minimum wage through their amputated consequential adjustment. When the immediate past government under PDP implemented the 18,000 minimum wage, it was for all, including the pensioners but what Abdulrahman led administration has implemented is on the contrary to what was signed. Hence, Yaman’s pledge to fully implement this agreement is sagacious, encouraging and should be applauded instead of trying to make him a victim out of Abdulrahman’s default. Yaman’s statement was to bridge gap and bring about relativity between the salary of TESCOM, SUBEB cum Ministries and that of local government which has long been overlooked by the present administration. It may also interest you to know that, Maigida led administration was among the first five States that implemented the 18,000 minimum wage in 2011 and did not rub it on our faces because he understands it to be an obligation unlike this mediocre administration that began the payment of N30,000 minimum wage in 2022, barely a year to general elections.
Qudus also made mention about fraudulent promotion (promotion without cash-backing) credited to the past administration and extolled the Abdulrahman led administration for having paid with the cash-backing. Just as he writes, it’s truly hilarious because the present government as of today, is yet to pay TESCOM for their promotion from 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, who is he trying to fool? One will have to wonder if there is another Kwara these people speak about that Kwarans are not aware of. Reality stares at us and yet, they are trying to manipulate Kwarans. This is not 2019 where anything flies.
In paragraph five of his piece, he also paints Alhaji Yaman as someone who is myopic. Yaman had in countless times challenged Abdulrahman to publicly debate with him and allow the citizens to judge who is inept, unintelligent and mediocre. Yaman knew that the major development in Kwara North were all brought to them by the past administrations therefore, he expressed his willingness to build on the legacy, part of which are: the longest road ever constructed in Kwara North(Ilesha Baruba to Chinkanda) about 126km constructed by the previous administration; the available housing estates(Shonga and Kaiama Estates) in Kwara North which were also built by the past administration; more than 100 communities got transformers and their power fixed under the past administration. These are what Yaman intends to consolidate on when he said he will build on the legacy of the past administration.
The writer also likened Yaman to act like the newly inaugurated Governor of Osun State, the man of the people, H.E. Ademola Adeleke. Going forward, Yaman will definitely by God’s grace be sworn in come May 2023 just as the man he was likened to. That Yaman will repeal the law that established KWASSIP, that he will reverse promotion or sack people remains hypothetical. Albeit, creating wealth has been one of the major campaign points of Alhaji Shuaibu Yaman Abdullahi. What we must honestly ask is an explanation of what Abdulrahman did to about 2500 sunset teachers. However, my caution is for Abdulrahman to avoid employments with no credibility or merit few days to the end of his tenure in office just like Oyetola did to frustrate the incoming government of PDP.
He also accused the previous leaders of the state of not respecting female and youths inclusivity in government. Firstly, the writer should come forward to tell us how many female is presently at the state house of assembly compared to the era he condemned?
Also, he said Yaman will pull down the garment factory. Just like Qudus, this is another phantom APC members are selling to the people. The man, Yaman in his recent live chat mentioned that Kwara State has the capacity to be among the largest garment producing states in the country with right leadership instead of occupying the factory with ordinary fashion designers after spending about N2bn for just renovation. Someone with this much vision for the purported garment factory Abdulrahman built is what one Qudus described as a candidate bereft of ideas to progress the state? Remember, Yaman is still waiting for Abdulrahman to accept his challenge to debate on policy, program and governance.
Lastly, he also boasts about Abdulrahman’s KWASSIP. A scheme they said was to aid Kwara entrepreneurs but instead, used as APCpreneurship. The government should come out and give accurate data of how much has been given out and to who. No wonder, some elites tagged it as vote-buying scheme because what business will one use N20,000 for in an economy highly inflated by the maladministration of APC government at all levels across the nation?
Conclusively, the nation witnessed economic meltdown between 2015 to 2018 which resulted to about 28 states including Kwara not being able to pay their workers’ salary but it is unfortunate that some other states have now paid the outstanding salaries except Governor Abdulrahman despite the tax refund of N5bn in 2019; N2bn from the international body for budget transparency of 2018; and the recent N9bn refund of Sure-P which fell under the two immediate past administrations. Abdulrahman and his flatterers must assume that Kwarans still think rudimentarily. This is 2022 where government must do more than just paying salary and campaign with not only what but also how. If salary payment was the utmost expectation of people, Oyetola would still be a governor but it is unfortunate that what Abdulrahman has learned from the fall of his colleague is absolutely nothing and come 2023, he shall follow suit.
Bruce Lee said “a wise man can learn from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer”. I’m sure the writer and the audience are not fools.
Olota writes from Oke-Oyi
