The Kwara State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has chided Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq on the vague explanation he gave concerning the allegations that his administration wasted hundreds of millions of Naira to host a Christmas Show in Ilorin in which artistes were paid over N100 million Naira and private jets were hired to fly music stars in and out of Ilorin.
In a statement signed by Tunde Ashaolu, the Publicity Secretary, the PDP expressed disappointment that the Governor, instead of answering the genuine enquiries raised by the people of Kwara State on the alleged waste of State funds on a needless show, resorted to attacking past administrations and giving bland explanation on the sponsorship of the show.
“We have noted with disdain the explanation given by the Governor through his verified Twitter handle on the controversial musical show on Xmas Day which many regarded as frivolous waste of funds in which he only attacked the previous administration and simply said the Concert was “a private sector initiative”.
“The terse and dubious explanation portrayed him as a man who has continuously lived under the shadows of former Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, who left the governance of the state 103 months ago. That is why when the Governor is called upon to answer questions on any issue concerning accountability and transparency, he simply launched into attacking the Saraki administration. This is a simple case of inferiority complex and we urge the Governor to grow up and live up to the responsibility of his office.
“Governor Abdulrazaq should know that he was not elected just to be attacking Saraki or seeking to escape the reality of his failure to live to expectation by simply invoking Saraki’s name or image. The people of the state who are asking questions about why such huge amount of public funds were expended on a frivolous show are exercising their right to make the government accountable and for the sake of transparency they deserve honest, open and detail answers on the funding of the show. The Governor should leave the previous administrations and Saraki out of this show.
“ To simply claim that the multi-million Naira show was “a private sector initiative” says nothing. That curt explanation is dubious. The Governor should tell Kwarans who and who constitute the “private sector initiative”, what their names are and what organisations they represent. The people can then understand what the motivation of this private initiators are and what they stand to gain from their investments of well over 100 million on such a concert.
“If truly, the Xmas musical show was a “private sector initiative”, it is our opinion that the initiative was a misplaced priority. In a state where people are hungry, teachers, civil servants and staff of local government councils have not been paid and there is mass hunger, these “private sector” sponsor of the dance show should have been advised or directed by the government to put the resources into better initiatives that could alleviate the hunger of the people or help this administration to accomplish its numerous promises to the people of the state.
“It appears that this Governor is an egoistic individual who is simply using government to satisfy his tall ego. The people are seeing through his lies and they know that his deceit is egregious. We call on the Kwara Governor to wake up to reality and be more transparent. When people call him to account, what they expect from him is the truth, the detail and nothing more. A word is good for the wise”, the party concluded.
