By
David Titiloye
Before I proceed, this is not by any means a derogatory piece to persons living with disabilities but a call out on the Governor of Kwara state, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq who for three and half years pretended to be deaf and dumb until his reelection bid was threatened. He has suddenly become a chatterbox and discovered a new hobby in stand up comedy through series of comic videos dominating our media space of him propagating his usual lies.
It is festive season hence I cannot recall any major deliverance or healing crusade that took place in Kwara recently, I would have excused it by saying the governor probably received his miracle and was cured of his deaf and dumbness at the deliverance service but it is clear that Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq has always been able to hear and speak but deliberately became tone-deaf to the cries and plight of Kwarans until he saw the writing on the wall that his days in office are numbered.
A governor who for three and half years was unable to register any memory of him speaking to an average Kwaran, infact many in Kwara state till date do not know what the voice of Abdulrahman sounds like simply because he failed to attend any media chat to be queried on his performance but rather chose to communicate with Kwarans through his propagandists. The same governor has now activated his modus operandi of leading the charge through propaganda thinking that will be enough to reelect him into office but Kwarans have already concluded on “Osuwa”.
Now to the issues and picking out the lie of Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq one after the other. A few months ago, they informed us that the governor had employed hundreds of doctors to improve our health sector but a few days ago the same governor while trying to absolve himself of all failures came to lament that Kwara has lost 170 medical doctors to federal hospitals and neighboring states. What exposed Abdulrahman as one incapable of critical thinking is that rather than think of the root cause of this brain drain in our state medical facilities and what makes the neighboring states more attractive to the doctors than Kwara, he chose to blame the doctors instead by describing them as unpatriotic.
Meanwhile, records have it that during Abubakar Bukola Saraki’s administration up until Maigida’s tenure, Medical doctors in state hospitals in Kwara were earning more than their counterpart in UITH thereby making the job more attractive to them.
In the 2020 budget, Gov. Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq promised to acquire an asphalt plant worth 500 million naira for Kwara state despite former Governor Abdulfatai Ahmed acquiring one previously for 200 million naira which Abdulrahman abandoned out of vindictiveness. Till date, we’re yet to see the promised new asphalt plant from Gov. Abdulrahman, meanwhile 200 million naira worth of taxpayers money is lying wasted because Abdulrahman chose to be petty by buying asphalt from neighboring states when the state has her own plant.
Also, the governor through the chairman of SUBEB on radio promised to address the consequential adjustment of SUBEB workers in February, I guess there is no calendar in the government house to remind Abdulrahman that we are now in December.
The Governor through his Attorney General, Barrister Jawondo promised to conduct local government elections at the beginning of the year, 2023 is already staring at us while his stooges are still running our local governments.
More recently is the promise of payment of bursary to 185 Law school “students” from Kwara state. The “students” have now graduated from Law school yet the government have not deemed it fit to disburse the said scholarship after littering the media space with the unfulfilled promise. It must also be noted that these embattled Fresh Lawyers were made to pay the sum of #5,000 to the account of National Association of Kwara Law Students before they were eligible to complete the registration for the bursary application. Till date, both the #5,000 they paid and the #100,000 they are expecting remains unaccounted for.
It is clear that Gov. Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq has a penchant for telling lies and it is unclear whether it is a medical condition for which he needs our help. However, now that it has been confirmed that he is neither deaf nor dumb, Kwarans look forward to seeing him speak to them directly on why the innumerable promises made by him or through his cronies remains unfulfilled.
