Many would have stumbled on the video whereby Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq went on his usual hackneyed tirade, laying baseless and false allegations against his predecessors, particularly Dr Bukola Saraki. One must confess, Mr Governor is beginning to sound like a broken record – the same record of false disinformation and misinformation Abdulrazaq has been plying in hackneyed fashion since he first lost at election to Dr Saraki in 2003.
Seeing the video, to be honest, it brought little to no worries to the mind. In fact, it is easier to dismiss the diatribe by Governor AbdulRahman as just another wild goose chase and futile attempt by him to blame previous administrations for his own failure and incompetence.
But it is clear that when a lie is exchanged and told for a while without check, it will start cloaking itself in garb of truth. So, it is imperative to set the records straight and say it as it is, perhaps ‘educate’ our Governor a thing or two on the historical timeline of the State.
First of all, let us address the recurringly false issue of the alleged ‘failure’ of Societe Generale bank, which has remained an anthem among the mischief makers and sworn enemies upon the name Bukola Saraki.
I’ll start by putting things in retrospect. In 2004, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, issued guidelines and incentives on consolidation in the Nigerian banking industry where banks were encouraged to recapitalize to the tune of N25billion by December 31, 2005 or merge or be acquired.
To this end, Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria embarked on an exercise for merger or acquisition by other banks. However, the CBN closed down Societe Generale Bank in January, 2006 on account of failure to meet new minimum capital requirement of N25bn for a national bank.
Meanwhile, one of the conditions set by CBN was for the bank to seek and obtain a forbearance of about 80-100% of its debts. But Societe Generale Bank was only granted the forbearance by the same CBN on January 5th, 2006 after the deadline had elapsed.
The bank dragged CBN to court immediately and in a judgment delivered by Justice Murtala Nyako in 2009, the Federal High Court reversed the revocation of Societe Generale Bank operational licence declaring that the apex bank had overstepped its regulatory boundaries.
Justice Nyako also stated that the revocation was perpetrated in bad faith and was therefore null and void.
The CBN however immediately appealed the judgment as opposed to granting the licence back as the court had ordered. This back and forth went on for another year before the Central bank returned Societe Generale Bank licence as a regional bank and withdrew its appeal.
After this judicial affirmation, Societe Generale Bank returned as Heritage Bank in 2012 after meeting the new requirements by the CBN and AMCON, following which it commenced an exercise to revalidate the accounts of old customers to give them the opportunity to either withdraw their money or reactivate their accounts with the bank.
As at 2013, barely a year after it started operations, Heritage Bank declared that customers had withdrawn over 60% of the N21bn deposit base it inherited from Societe Generale Bank. Today, Heritage Bank claimed they have completed the exercise 100 per cent.
So, it is important for people to know that some of the stories being thrown around that so many people lost their life savings to the bank leading to tragic stories can’t be farther away from the truth, they’re nothing but lies.
It is therefore quite disappointing that the Governor of our beloved State, whose own father AbdulGaniyu Abdulrazaq was a known beneficiary of financial services including loans from the SGBN has descended so low that he has joined the circus of rumour peddlers and propagandists, relying mainly on mere hearsay and tavern sourced rumours instead of facts, despite having all the resources to check the facts and establish what is the truth.
On education, it is obvious that AbdulRahman was being economical with the truth when he said the administration of Dr Bukola Saraki ruined education in the state, an allegation that even him couldn’t substantiate.
As the Governor of Kwara, Saraki’s giant strides in the education sector, particularly at the basic level, resulted in a meteoric rise in the educational enrollment in the state, shooting up the gross enrollment rate for primary schools from 78% in 2006 to 115% in 2009, with a gender disparity of less than 1%.
He also improved the pass rates in primary school examinations from 24% in 2006 to 49% in 2009 while that of secondary school improved from 32% to 50% within the same time frame.
In the past years, one of the characteristics of a public school is the setting of an overcrowded classroom, whereby you’ll have almost a hundred pupil occupying a single classroom.
It was this same Saraki that shifted the paradigm from what we were used to as his administration brought down the population ratio of pupils per classroom from 76:1 in 2003 when he came into office, to 32:1 in 2009, therefore providing a better conducive atmosphere for learning for the children.
In addition, Saraki’s s administration improved the school retention rate from 72% in 2006 to 95% in 2009. For clearer understanding, school retention rate indicates the percentage of students who remain at an educational institution after they begin studying there.
As a leader that has passion for education, Saraki also implemented the first ever Teachers Development Needs Assessment in Kwara, in the year 2008, to consolidate the educational standard of the state.
I want to remind Governor AA that it was this same Saraki he’s labouring hard to disparage that introduced the “Every Child Counts” education policy in Kwara State around 2008 as governor of the State, an initiative that was so good that even the Federal Government adopted it a decade later in 2018.
For better understanding, the policy was initiated to resuscitate public education in Kwara State by ensuring an improvement in quality of teaching across the State and building strong educational institutions through the development of the Ministry of Education, the Teaching Service Commission and strengthening the State Education Management Information System (EMIS).
I expect Mr Governor to know that it was this same Saraki that established the Kwara Football Academy, the first ever football training institution in Nigeria that combined football with education. This institution has produced the likes of Watford’s Emmanuel Dennis who is currently making light work of defenders in the English Premier League.
Even in a less conventional educational field, it was this same Saraki that established the International Aviation College, Ilorin, an institution that has produced pilots over the years, most of who are now flying for both local and international airlines.
It also a common Knowledge that the Kwara State University, Malete was established by the Bukola Saraki Administration. This is an institution that has gained national and international reputation and produced quality graduates that can compete anywhere in the world.
It is therefore patently false to claim that a man who did all these and more ruined Kwara’s education.
The Governor in his usual manner of lacing every outing with propaganda and insincerity, tried to down play Governor Zulum’s positive comments on KWASU. Rather than corroborate that fact, he decided to as usual jump into false narrative and propaganda that has become his forte.
One would have expected GovernorAbdulrahman to ask Governor Babagana Zulum how he is building new schools in Borno with less than the amount his own government is using to renovate schools in Kwara. It is distressing and provocative to hear that Governor Abdulrahman spent the sum of N361,957,439 to fix a SINGLE school. One would wonder how much the government will use to build a new school.
It is quite amusing seeing a government that spent over N360million to renovate a school, an amount which was even said to have been inflated by over N40million from the initially approved N321,427,233, preach to us about prudence and good governance. Governor Abdulrazaq has been siphoning resources of the State through contract inflation and underhand dealings and corrupt acts that have pervaded the administration.
It doesn’t take much intelligence to figure out that the Governor statement is just one of his futile efforts at face saving and has resorted to emotional blackmailing and riling up of the good people of Kwara.
If Governor AbdulRahman truly have his facts right and the necessary documents to back them up, then he knows what to do rather than his perennial whining and obsession with the previous administrations.
One question I believe all Kwarans will want to ask the Governor is that, where is the value for the huge amount of money that came into the state within the years of his administration. Mr Governor should tell Kwarans what he has done with the about N300b revenues that have accrued to Kwara since May 2019.
The people are interested in what is happening with our common patrimony and resources today and not this unsolicited false narratives that the Governor is peddling all around, no wonder the Governor has refused to assent the Freedom of Information bill.
The Governor at every given opportunity almost make reference to the issue of UBEC fund, I think the he needs to try an follow the trend more because the UBEC issue has been addressed by us overtime, we see no need to continue to overstretch it.
As a people centric political party, that is concerned about the well-being of Kwara state and want what is best for its people, we would advise the “One-Chance-Governor” AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq to stop chasing shadows, cease and desist from propagating the deceitful propaganda of disinformation and misinformation but rather concentrate on delivering some modicum of good governance to the state, rather than in running the state of harmony aground with insecurity, lies, falsehoods and underdevelopment that he has indulged in since his assumption of executive office .
Tunde Ashaolu is the State Publicity Secretary of the PDP in Kwara.
