By
Olota Abdulsomad
There was a rich man during the earlier stage of modernization, this man was popularly referred to as “Owo o mọ agọ” which literally translates to “money knows not a fool”. This cognomen was given to the man because he was clueless and unwise. The man believed himself to be a philanthropist because he spent money extravagantly.
Summarily, this man dug numbers of modern borehole for a community and to his uttermost surprise, nobody used any of the boreholes he dug. Out of curiosity, some elites carried out a research to know the reason why the gesture was not appreciated. The result of the research showed that the boreholes were not needed by the society because the traditional well the community used then was the only avenue they had to interact with one another and where the younger ones were also socialized. Until a community hall was built for them after decades, nobody used the borehole.
The above story perfectly suits that of Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq who has shown that there is no limit to his cluelessness, mediocrity and excessive wastage of state resources. It is one thing that Abdulrahman embarked on a white elephant project just to have a big project to his credit. Who exactly lavishes state resources in embarking on a project that causes distress to the people except a clueless and mediocre individual?
Such is the Tanke fly-over project Governor Abdulrahman started since a year ago. The project has since crippled businesses, added to the budden of students in that vicinity and even caused a hike in the cost of transportation at a time the country is experiencing economic depression. Even motorists and motorcyclists avoid going towards that axis. Funny enough, the problem Abdulrahman intends to solve was not much of a problem to begin with. Anyone who has stayed in Tanke long enough prior to the commencement of the project would tell you that a bridge was never the most important need of the community and would also attest to the fact that, the road looked better when it was cleared before the construction started. So, expansion could have been best suited instead of executing a white elephant project. There was no point in time that axis was ever plagued with traffic for up to 10 minutes except during special occasions in Unilorin particularly the yearly convocations. In essence, the project is needless and will never serve the same purpose as that of Post-Office and Gerin-Alimi project.
Another prevarication by Governor AA is the lie, deception and false hope he sold to the community and Kwarans at large by consistely promising that the project will be ready for commissioning in December 2022. Even a layman will tell you that it is impossible to finish the project in January 2023, let alone commissioning it. Interestingly, this project was approved in November 2021 and expected to be completed within 12 months as presented by the Governor. One would expect a reasonable person with integrity to at least, complete the project a month after the proposed date for completion but this is not the case for Abdulrahman, it is one year and one month already and the project is barely halfway to completion. So pathetic! It is more like an implication of entering one chance.
More bothering defects of the project were concerns shown in the report given by a professional who was on the site to inspect the project. The report says that, there are honeycombs on the walls of the reinforced concrete which affects the smoothness of the wall and as such, questions the longevity of the project.
The report also shows that the concrete mixing is not of the high-quality proposed in the design because the concrete mixer has no expert monitoring the quantity of cement, sand and granites mixed together to produce desired quality of the concrete.
It is also shameless of Abdulrahman government to have employed casual workers who barely have knowledge of safety compliance on site. The iron benders, carpenters and mansonry team were also seen unkitted and working in an unsafe condition which is against the rules guiding the on-site workers. This government endangers the lives of the workers and of course the users of the bridge by employing unprofessional bricklayers to handle such a delicate and expensive project.
Greatness they say recognizes greatness, in this case, mediocrity recognizes mediocrity. The slow pace of the project execution despite having no environmental hindrance cannot only be credited to the contractor of the project. Governor AA led administration has always been known for their deception, hence we have to consider the probability of Abdulrazaq not fully paying the contractor yet or perhaps may have mismanaged the funds allocated to the project.
The reason for the Governor’s care-free attitude, thoughtless statements and false promises can’t also be totally discredited from the incautious act of the rubber stamp Kwara state house of assembly.
My call is that come march 2023, the good people of Kwara state must come together and vote out the ruling mediocre party, APC out of government from all levels.
Olota writes from Oke-Oyi, Ilorin East.
