By Our staff reporter
The gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Kwara State, Alhaji Abdullahi Shuaibu Yaman, has charged the state governor, AbdulRaham AbdulRazaq to stop giving frivolous excuses for his many failures in the governance of the state.
In a statement issued in Ilorin on Thursday and signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Strategy, Abdulwahab Oba, the gubernatorial candidate said the governor needs to be more resourceful and proactive in tackling challenges of governance rather than giving flimsy and boring excuses of unfounded allegations of financial improprieties by previous administrations for his many failures.
Reacting to the protest by workers of the state government-owned Kwara Hotel against seven months’ salary arrears, Yaman said a sensitive government needs not wait for workers’ protest before releasing the said “intervention” fund of N26m to clear the backlog of salaries owed exclusively during his administration.
According to the statement, “a government that inherited more than N8bn accruing from tax refund and illegally withheld federal allocation for May 2019 cannot keep complaining of unproven liabilities almost three and a half years after taking over governance of the state.
“This is a clear indication of incompetence and lack of wisdom to do the needful, especially when the same government shares a whooping sum of N600m to political cronies under the camouflage of traders’ money.
“The government that has accumulated more than N50bn domestic debt within a record time of fewer than four years, yet cannot pay workers salary of less than N30m should not be allowed the privilege of another term, else the state will be completely ruined”.
If elected, Yaman said, a Yaman/Makanjuola administration will not only prioritise the payment of workers’ salaries but revive ailing state-owned enterprises to create jobs for our growing youth population.
Recall that business activities were paralysed on Thursday at the hotel as a result of the protest by workers of the facility over non-payment of seven months salaries and complain of poor welfare by the management.
The aggrieved workers urged the state governor to wade into the matter and address their needs.
