By ABDUL ABDUL
Whenever Ogbeni Ajakaye writes and dresses Arakunrin Abdulrahman, I do wish it were true. Ajakaye, as always, tries his best, but reality and time have proven that Arakunrin Abdulrahman cannot be packaged over and over. Therefore, Ajakaye continues to run in cycles.
Ogbeni Ajakaye is mostly paraded as a nobleman, but that is nothing but mere collateral to evade moral accountability. He is also a poster boy for Arakunrin Abdulrahman’s antics, but time has since established he has a penchant for lying through his teeth, is intellectually dubious, serves unsolicitedly as a moral police; and one wonders as people of faith how many times he seeks forgiveness from God, deep on his knees in the middle of the night.
Ogbeni Ajakaye knows he is not doing God’s job; he is like a Sniper who shoots everyone considered to be a threat without rationality or evaluation. So, if there are no documents to prove that truly the former Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, approved something else or alternative means of proving beyond a reasonable doubt, it remains nothing but one of the necessary lies in the line of duty. Ajakaye is a known liar! Ogbeni Ajakaye and Lies play the game of who blinks first.
Hon. Moshood Mustapha has circulated to the public legal documents that allocated the land to him and approved his building plans. Only Ajakaye has continued to say by mouth the approval by former Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed is different, in the hope that his words will be taken as the truth. The media team of Hon. Moshood Mustapha has furnished the public with documents of approval, Kwara State Government via Ogbeni Ajakaye has been speaking mere words. Perhaps, they are still under the illusion that the public trusts them.
To the attack on Omowe, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, Ogebeni Ajakaye was more interested in abusing Saraki than giving a detailed account to the public on the subject, who are the actual stakeholders evaluating their government, as proven in the last local government election in the state.
Dr. Saraki has a reason to lend his voice to the ongoing issue. Despite a court order barring action from the State Government, the property of his late father, Dr Olusola Saraki — which perhaps holds a significant memory of his philanthropic ventures was brought to the ground overnight. It was first him; he was the first victim, and despite nobody lending a voice at the time, he is breaking away from party leanings to show empathy towards a fellow human whose investment is being dismantled. Ajakaye is an essayist; it is a job, and he does so effortlessly with fiction; he should consider enrolling with Netflix after 2027.
For Ogbeni Ajakaye’s information, Omowe Saraki constructed 10 new housing estates in areas that were described as “no-go areas” in the state as part of its urbanisation initiative. That is how some civil servants and other low-income earners became homeowners; we beg to ask Arakunrin how many civil servants can boast of owning a home in the last 5 years under his leadership.
Omowe Saraki established Kwara State Housing Corporation, Surveyor General Office, Land Information System, Bureau of Land, and Kwara Geographic Information System were all created as an institution to sustain the master plan and keep the vision alive. What independent power project has this administration taken on, or it’s not part of the urbanisation plan? How many major roads have been opened and constructed like under Omowe Saraki? One would think governance started under this present regime because Ogbeni Ajakaye’s memory was not serving him right when he needed it the most.
You see, when Ajakaye presents Arakunrin Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq as someone emotional and rational, it is comic. The same man awarding projects to his appointees and family members and represented by proxies? It is like someone hiding behind a finger, thinking the world cannot see him. In the history of this State, no government has awarded overinflated contracts to cronies than Arakunrin Abdulrahman.
Ogbeni Ajakaye ‘labelled’ Abdulrahman as someone visionary, but under the same man, School renovation was awarded for a bogus amount, only to pull down the fence of the same school a couple of months later to pave the way for road expansion, renovated a newly constructed bridge, despite alarm from residents on the contractor using direct labour in executing the contract instead of experts. Yet, experts are advocating every day for cost-saving, value-for-money projects, and blocking leakages and wastages, and they simply fly over the head of Arakunrin Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq. Abdulrahman is the opposite of everything Ogbeni Ajakaye says.
Many other States have reviewed their urbanisation plan, and contrary to Ajakaye’s claims about town planning, it is beyond demolition of opposition structures or pulling down investments of adversaries. It is done via collaboration with real estate investors, the private sector, mortgage banks and others who will bring the required capital in financing and complimenting whatever the government spends as a take-off of that vision. Ilorin did not begin under current leadership, and will not end after it. Progress can be made without demolishing investments out of existence.
Is Ogbeni Ajakaye aware of Ibadan master plan? It isn’t done by demolishing structures but by opening new places up for investment, patronage and organic growth. Let us even sit for a moment; urban plans can be reviewed to accommodate growing needs, and that is why infrastructures can be relocated to meet new needs. It is not a mountain that cannot be modified, as long as it tallies with the vision and development plans. At the location of the complex, is a car park more economically beneficial than business owners who are now victims of this impunity? Ajakaye is not a technical person, but Engineers and other technicians will agree that in the process of construction, modifications are permitted as long as it does not deviate from the major plans and the purpose of the facility. If there is provision for a toilet in a building, if, during the process of construction, it is considered more suitable for a store, nobody will beat the other person over such modification.
Beyond demolition of opponent’s structures in the name of urbanisation, what other solid steps or conversation has taken place towards the aspiration, none! Apart from the billions of naira that were paid to consultants, where is the engagement with stakeholders and potential development partners? The Ilorin urbanisation is only possible via a PPP and the establishment/integration of a dedicated development authority to handle regulation and ensure compliance with the master plan. Every other person knows that Arakunrin Abdulrahman is far from what Ilorin needs to leap towards industrial prosperity.
This is what we keep saying: where will the government get the trillions required to finance the plan if it does not embrace the private sector to drive the initiative? In other places where there are plans for Estates, the developers calculate the construction of the road leading to the estate as part of their cost for the project. Beyond the political bent, I doubt Ogbeni Ajakaye possesses any deep understanding of the subject matter.
However, it is permissible that Ogebeni merely communicates information and is not a creator or active actor in policy formulation and implementation. It is only on such condition that Ogbeni Ajakaye can be forgiven. Interestingly, he will be remembered along his principles as the two greatest clowns to ever grace the polity. One doesn’t know at all, the other pretends to know.
Arakunrin Abdulrahman will linger in the memory of Kwarans for a long, as a disturbed and sick person who lacks vision in maximising low-hanging fruits, making specific interventions with scarce resources; but prosecute ideas above realities, elephant projects, like the “Tanke Gada” which remains locked, a wasted infrastructure not serving anyone, despite warnings that the road only needs little expansion. Visionary leader, but he was blind for a moment on that!
There are hundreds of roads within the same Ilorin and other places that need access roads without attention. Yet, you are committing ₦17bn for Kwara Hotel, and there is another ICC underway with a 4-star hotel to be sited there just around 500 metres apart; it is only Arakunrin and his clownish Ogbeni that can justify such. Okay, what about a person rumoured to be Asiwaju from Kwara South with a franchise for Radisson Blu Hotel to be sited in ICC? Didn’t the Governor withdraw the contractor from ICC because Arakunrin and the said Asiwaju have differences? Abdulrahman awards the same contracts to two different contractors, a reoccurring issue under his administration.
What about the N50bn that came from the Excess Crude Account that is due to Kwara during the administration and Omowe Saraki and Maigida that was handed over to this government? What did Arakunrin do with it?
Clowns that are running a student union government mistaking it as distinctive leadership!
Abdulganiyu Abdulqadir is the Press Officer on Local Matters to Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki
