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LG Polls: You lack credibility to speak on people’s welfare, Kwara State Govt slams Saraki
Kwara State Government has described as laughable and self-flattery the comments of Senator Bukola Saraki on the outcome of the recent local government elections in the state, which the ruling All Progressive Party (APC) convincingly won across the state.
The government said Saraki’s PDP not only fruitlessly tried to frustrate the conduct of the election through the court, but it mobilised urchins and its local collaborators to disrupt the balloting with their shenanigans and hooliganism after seeing that they lacked the credibility or a record of convincing people to vote for them.
“It took the popular will of the people to cast their ballot. The government has done well enough to win the trust of the people, and that was what played out, regardless of the noise from Saraki’s men.
It is bewildering that Saraki’s party is confused between floating the narrative that no election took place and claiming a victory from an election it said was never held.
That is the lot of a confused, desperate people that Senator Saraki leads,” according to a statement by the Honourable Commissioner for Communications Mrs Bola Olukoju.
“We also find it incredible that Senator Bukola Saraki was talking about people’s welfare. The record of his iron-fist imperialism, which featured non-payment of salary, use of thugs to intimidate people, and high rate of suicides and destitution and other menaces faced by workers is still fresh.
In 2016 when things were so tough and various categories of workers were not being paid, Kwarans remembered how Senator Saraki was fighting to buy exotic cars while public funds were also being used to transport people to show solidarity for him in the dock.
The same Senator Saraki is notorious for his conversion of public properties for personal use, even as the government he inspired was not paying workers while all their appointees were getting 100% salaries and other perks of office. The government that he struggles so hard to bad-mouth has cleared the years of salary arrears that his lackeys left unpaid.
“As far as people’s welfare is concerned, Saraki lacks the moral standing to talk. He is a bald hairdresser recommending his unfailing hair restorer. He is a snail claiming a championship in a community of horned animals. The world is facing serious economic challenges. Nigerians have not been immune to the same.
“In addition to the efforts of President Tinubu to ease things, not only is the Kwara State Government committed to public welfare, as is evident in its many programmes, it continues to execute different infrastructural projects and social protection programmes that strengthen the purchasing powers of the people.
The government is also not denying people their wages while its appointees enjoy the perks of office as the Saraki-inspired government did. We urge Senator Saraki to reflect on his legacies of impoverishing people and organising questionable philanthropic feasts to throw morsels at the same people during which hundreds died.”
President Bola Tinubu, on Thursday, reappointed Bitrus Chinoko as the Director General of the Centre for Management Development (CMD).
According to reports, the appointment was disclosed by the Minister for Budget and Economic Planning, Sen. Abubakar Bagudu in a letter dated Aug. 28.
“Further to your letter, CMD/DGO/ABJ/02/2024, I am pleased to inform you that His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, President, Federal Republic of Nigeria has approved your re-appointment as Director General, Centre for Management Development, for a second term with immediate effect,” the letter read.
It should be recalled that former President Muhammadu Buhari confirmed the appointment of Chinoko as substantive CMD DG on April 28, 2020.
The appointment is for a final term of four years.
Chinoko took over from Dr Kabir Usman, whose two terms of four years each, ended at the time.
Meanwhile, NewsPOnline Nigeria reports that his appointment is coming at a time when the presidency has confirmed that a cabinet reshuffle is on the horizon, with indications that up to 11 ministers could soon be relieved of their positions.
This development was shared during a media briefing at the Presidential Villa in Abuja by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
Joining Onanuga at the briefing, O’tega Ogra, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Digital and New Media, did not provide a specific timeline for the reshuffle but hinted that an announcement could be made later this week.
Insiders who spoke with the Guardian noted that the long-anticipated changes were postponed following the conclusion of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Monday.
“It’s true President Bola Tinubu has plans to reshuffle his cabinet, but I can’t say specifically whether that will be done before the Independence celebration on October 1,” Onanuga stated, emphasizing that the President initially appointed his ministers in August of last year.
Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, says the Federal Government will toll all major roads in the country upon completion of construction and renovation.
“We have the Lagos-Ibadan (Expressway), we are completing it and we are tolling it,” Umahi said on Thursday in Abuja at an Inter-Ministerial Press Briefing, part of activities to mark Nigeria’s 64th independence anniversary.
He listed some of the roads as Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Second Niger Bridge, Abuja-Kano Road, and Makurdi-9th Mile, among others.
The former Ebonyi State governor said the tolling of federal roads “is going to bring a lot of money to the Federal Government”.
Umahi said private sector members have been engaged “to bring in funds, construct these roads, work with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission and the Ministry of Works to toll these roads”.
The minister said the government would start with the Keffi-Makurdi Road that has been completed, stating that his ministry has been engaging with the Ministry of Finance for a paperless mode of payment.
He said, “For example, we are completing the Lagos-Ibadan, we are working on Makurdi to 9th Mile in Enugu State, we are working from Abuja to Lagos. These roads are going to be tolled. But we are not just tolling them, we are bringing confidence in the use of these roads.
“If people can travel at night because we are bringing security, where the response time will be 10 minutes on the entire corridor, where you have solar light permanently there and then reduce travel time, and through the tolling, the roads are maintained, then, there will be confidence because Nigerians will pay if the roads are good.”
He said before now, road developments have not been handled as investments but the administration of President Bola Tinubu has been handling road developments more professionally.
He said the present administration inherited a total of 300 damaged roads and bridges, adding that more road constructions would commence from October 1, 2024, across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
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