The 80-man transition committee recently set up by the Kwara State Governor-elect, Alhaji AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has attracted differing comments from party leaders and groups within the fold of the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with some accusing the incoming governor of undue favouritism for his local government in Ilorin West to the detriment of other councils in the composition of the committee. Head Politics, MUMINI ABDULKAREEM, writes on the issue.
Penultimate Wednesday, the Kwara State Governor-elect, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq announced an 80-member Transition Committee (TC) chaired by an alumnus of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Aminu Adisa Logun while a one-time Permanent Secretary and former Clerk of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Hon. Muhammad Razaq Umar, served as Secretary.
According to the governor-elect in a statement signed by his media aide, Rafiu Ajakaye, “The composition of the TC took into account best practices in a number of states, where a holistic change of leadership occurred, adding that it has been “mandated to come up with policy recommendations for the incoming administration”.
He said the terms of reference for the committee include liaising with the outgoing government to facilitate smooth transition to the new government on May 29, 2019 among others and charged the committee members to be sensitive to the high expectation of the electorate and the general public to experience the desired positive change in leadership.
But since the committee came into being, it has failed to achieve smoothness within its fold in the first place, this is as a result of the internal disquiet that had trailed it so early after its composition. Political analysts and stakeholders in the polity have raised concern that this is coming too early in the life of the opposition and how it may derail the goals and expectations from the electorate about the incoming government.
According to some pundits, it is unfortunate that such is happening too early within the fold of the APC asserting that there is need for the party not to allow it fester before nipping the problem in the bud otherwise it has learnt nothing from event of the past in the state where internal crisis weakened its ability to operate as a viable opposition party.
What are the issues this time around with the opponents to the committee? For one of the party stalwarts, Femi Ogunshola, who posted in his Facebook page that the new leadership cannot afford to continue with the old order or else the party’s popular Ó tó gé slogan may birth another movement E gba wa (Save Our Soul).
“…how does one justifies the composition of the committee where Ilorin with just four local governments got 32 slots and the 12 other councils were left to grapple with the remaining 48.
“To think Ilorin West alone got as much as 18 slots is an open invitation to a feeling of despondent and a brazen display of nepotism. We may be quick to talk of numerical strength, no one is contesting that, but fairness and justice should be the deciding factor, no one is an island entirely to himself.
“It is even worrisome that while other local governments got between six and three slots, Kaiama, Isin and Oke-Ero were left with just two. Isin local government is one of the early beginners of the struggle for Kwara liberation, courtesy of Iyiola Oyedepo Akogun. He did that with passion and sacrifice, the result of the election gave credence to it. Kaiama was all out for the ó tó gé revolution, the outcome of APC victory was huge in that area… The feeling of being a victim in Kwara state may not have abated and could linger on with this perceived injustice or is this a shadow of things to come…
Ogunshola had hardly drop his pen of criticism when the APC in Oloje ward interestingly in the same Ilorin West that had been accused of undue advantage picked it up.
The ward branch of the party rejected the composition of the TC, adding that out of the 18 members from Ilorin West, non was considered from the ward.
In a statement by the ward on Sunday published in National Moonlight on Tuesday, Oloje ward kicked against the members of the committee from Ilorin West Local Government and suggested that at least one member should come from each ward but none from Oloje. It added that Oloje ward was one of those that delivered votes overwhelmingly to APC in the last general elections. it stressed that the ward occupied 5th and 6th positions in term of winning margins in the presidential/NASS and governorship/House of Assembly elections respectively. According to the statement, Oloje ward has been neglected in the scheme of things and the incoming APC administration might not be any different with the outgoing regime in spite of high expectation of “our people” and demand for inclusiveness of its entire members (in the committee).
Although, the governor-elect have maintained sealed lips over the issue since it broke out, some of his party leaders have been speaking over the attacks from individuals and groups within the APC in the state.
According to the pioneer chairman of the PDP in the Kwara State, Kunle Sulyman, the issue is not one to be taken on the face value, adding that those complaining are misinformed about the purpose of the committee in the first place.
“First thing is that we have discovered that not everybody listed as members of the committee in Ilorin West are actually from the local government. There are persons whose names appeared under the council that are not from Ilorin West. The committee is not one that will appoint anybody into the next administration because it does not have such mandate and its members don’t have any role to play in that regard.
“If you look at the composition, it has to with people with strategic technical ideas that can give the governor-elect sound professional advice on identified areas that will move the state forward. Those who are complaining are ill-informed about the essence and mandate of the committee.
Similarly, a former factional chairman of the PDP, Prince Sunday Fagbemi, said although he has little to say concerning the matter, the governor-elect knows what he wants to achieve and there is supposed to be a selection committee to look into that.
“They can either expand others (committees) since everybody cannot be selected and he (Governor-elect) wants people that will add value to what he wants. It is not that they are going there to share anything. It is an ad-hoc committee that should be full of technocrats. As politicians, we are fond of complaining and there is no situation that is perfect…”, he noted.
In the words of former lawmaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, the list has been released already and they have started working, amendment might be made in the other committees (if need be).
“All he (Governor-elect) was trying to do is to use the experts in all the fields because that is where he can get the right people that will be able to do the job. You cannot say because you want to do equality, you just pick people anyhow, there are certain areas that need expertise and if you don’t have them in a place, then you go to where you can find them. If anybody is capitalising on that to do whatever blackmailing they want to do, that is their own headache. As far as I am concern, whatever misgivings about the exercise is just by the way.
“We cannot all be in one committee, there are several others that (will be coming). If we say because we work during the struggle we must be part of the committee, then there are over ten thousand people that really qualified in that regard. I for one I am not there and I don’t have any cause to complain because there are other committees coming”, he submitted.
