A human rights activist and Political observer, Comrade Razaq Olokoba, has said the second term fate of the Kwara State Governor, Abdur-Razaq Abdur-Rahaman, will be determined by the type of economic model he puts on the ground in the next two years in the face of the new development over the Value Added Tax (VAT). The Ilorin, Kwara State-born activist, who is the National President of the Campaign for Dignity in Governance (CDG), in a media interaction in Lagos also spoke on other issues like the politics in the state and the crisis, rocking the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Razaq Bamidele was there and reports.
Can we have an insight into the situation in Kwara State now in terms of politics and governance?
There are different definitions to what the Kwara State Governor, Abdur-Razaq Abdur-Rahaman, is doing in Kwara State today. While some people are saying he is doing well, others are saying he is not doing as expected. On the assessment of his politics, fewer feel he is handling the politics very well. But the number of those saying he is not handling it well is far higher than the number of those with the view that he is doing it right. And that is not good enough for him.
For me, I just need to advise members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Kwara State that they should stop behaving like people under a spell. This goes for the governor and the people who are opposing him within the party. If care is not taken and the opposition is allowed to come back to power in the next election, what the two sides within the APC are referring to now as suffering, marginalization or discrimination would be a child’s play in comparison to the pain and trauma what they would suffer from the real opposition. And that should guide them. And if they think another government coming would treat them better than how Abdur-Razaq is treating them today, I tell them, that is an illusion! And if Abdur-Razaq is also thinking that he should not re-contest and let the opposition come back to face the trauma he is facing now, he would also be making the greatest mistake of his life. It would be the worse political irony if he is thinking along that line.
Does that suggest that there is still a formidable opposition on ground in the state?
Yes, there is; of course. It is even interesting to note that the opposition is becoming organised and more organised by every passing day, as against the constant fights and unnecessary disagreement members of the APC in the state are having every day. The truth is that the APC members in Kwara State are behaving like political toddlers. They are not getting it right at all as far as I am concerned.
I assume they should know that there would be crisis. The formation of APC in Kwara shows that the members came from different political backgrounds. So, ahead of the crisis, they should have put in place, a crisis management mechanism. They were supposed to have an effective conflict resolution body solidly on ground because there would be disagreement based on where every individual member came from. The governor did not suggest this, and that is disappointing. The members, who now claim to be in the opposition within the APC also, did not suggest it. And this is also disappointing.
By now, if the needful had been done, the crisis resolution body would be working. I don’t see the two factions reconciling before the election. They have gone too far in pretending that things are fine. But this is not the time for pretension. I am from Kwara and I know the depth of the crisis that is going on. The depth of the crisis suggests that the two factions sadly, lack political maturity. One wonders how they could have allowed the enmity between them within the same party become irreconcilable; that is disappointing. So, the earlier they reconcile the better.
Has the intra party crisis within the APC affected the general peace in the state?
Fortunately, no. But permit me to cap it all by saying this; everybody in Nigeria today goes to the market to buy peace. Peace has become a scarce commodity in the country today. Fortunately, there is peace in Kwara now. What the governor has done to bring peace on board in the state, I don’t know how he did it. Senator Bukola Saraki, the former governor, was succeeded by Abdul-Fatah Ahmed. During their tenures, there were crises and violence. And when Abdur-Razaq came on board, peace started reigning supreme. How he did it, only God knows.
And to me as an indigene, I know that it is when there is peace that anybody can progress. And I also know that, it is when you are alive that there would be development and growth. Violence and conflict bring about deaths, disruption and disaster. It is when you are alive that you can start talking about restructuring, devolution of powers and dividends of democracy that good governance always offers us. And that the governor has been able to bring about peace is the only consolation.
So, if Bukola Saraki and his tendencies in the state are coming to sustain that peace, let them come and become the governor. We will welcome them. And if it is Abdur-Razaq himself, who gave birth to the reigning peace that assures us in his manifesto that the peace would still be sustained, I can continue to promote him and say, let him remain the governor for another four years. For me, my support would not be for this party or that party, but for those who would bring happiness to the people of Kwara.
Take, for instance, the issue of the Value Added Tax (VAT). Some states are becoming jittery now. Those states that were not hitherto taking their economy seriously are now chorusing, ‘let us be our brothers’ keepers!’ There is nothing like brothers’ keepers nah. It has become a state to state survival. America would not say Mexico is in crisis and for that traumatise America to make Mexico feel fine. Lagos and Rivers States would not traumatise their states because they want Kwara State happy. Just like Trump would say, America first. So, as far as Sanwo-Olu is concerned, it is Lagos first. And as far as Wike is concerned, it is the people of Rivers first.
So, if in Kwara State, the anti-Abdur-Razaq tendencies and Saraki tendencies become a Third Force that is coming to introduce a model that would put the economy of our state in order; that is what we should be looking out for. Our support would be guided by their manifesto. In the next 10, 15 or 20 years’ time, it is not going to be Eldorado and cap in hand to Abuja again. Each state must fend for itself.
So, the question now is what is the economic model of Abdur-Razaq in the next two years, as a background that VAT is no more going to Abuja again? And before you say Jack Robinson, we are walking towards resource control. There must be economic model. And that is my concern for successive governors of Kwara State. We would ask what your economic model for the state is because the cap in hand to Abuja would become ‘once upon a time.’ So, there must be a viable economic model from Saraki’s Third Force and from Abdur-Razaq. So, the electorate must be guided by their programme, manifesto and blueprint. So, whoever aspires to come on board should know that the electorate would be guided by his manifestos before voting for him.
Have you forgotten the sectional biases in Kwara State when it comes to voting?
This time, such a primordial blackmail of whichever of the senatorial districts an aspirant comes from would not matter because that is not how a nation grows. The way to make a nation grow is to put a workable programme in place. I mean the programme that would put prosperity in the lives of the people.
Singularly, the economy of California is rated among the best economies of the world and it is the seventh economy of the world today. It keeps changing; it can be fourth economy today and eleventh tomorrow. As a state, you must have a dream and realise the dream. Lagos is one of the three most cosmopolitan nations in Africa today, taking after Jonesburg in South Africa and Cairo in Egypt. What is Kwara State doing to be rated among the most economically advanced states in Nigeria? All of us know that once the economy of a nation is traumatised, morality becomes a scarce commodity. Once you see poverty moving in through the door, morality and good behaviour escape through the windows.
So, if you want to have control of the youth, you want to have security in your state, you address the economy first. What I am saying in essence is that, the economy of our state, Kwara, is very important and central to us. We must not wait until we wake up one day to hear Abuja say, there is nothing we can give you again. We are going towards that gradually. So, if any governor in Kwara State is not thinking towards that scenario, he is wasting the time of the good people of Kwara.
Kwara State was created over 50 years ago. It is older than I. We should be able to put Kwara side by side with Ogun State. And there is nothing wrong if we put it side by side with Lagos. In land mass, we are about seven times bigger than Lagos State. In terms of natural resources, we are far ahead of Lagos State. So, there is no reason we cannot put it side by side with Lagos, even in prosperity.
The question is how far has Kwara gone in that direction? This primordial blackmail that has kept us motionless and refused to allow us to move forward as a people; let us jettison it. If it is religion, let us say bye to it. Israel and Saudi Arabia know people can die any time; they, therefore, make plans that can last their countries about 450 years to come. The optimism that if we live long, we shall do this or that is no longer tenable. People plan for their lives. If they talk about God, they are talking about moral.
