The party described Lawan’s understanding of what constitutes good governance as “too low, warped, pedestrian and archaic”.
The Kwara State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed disappointment with the Senate President, Dr. Ahmed Lawan over his blanket commendation of the state governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq on his performance in the last 32 months.
The party described Lawan’s understanding of what constitutes good governance as “too low, warped, pedestrian and archaic”.
A statement signed by the Publicity Secretary, Tunde Ashaolu, asked Lawan to explain what informed his judgment that Abdulrazaq has performed well when he did not inspect any completed or ongoing project embarked upon by the Kwara State Government nor examine any policy initiative of the government.
It said, “Maybe other considerations except for concrete and verifiable policy, programme or project informed the opinion of the Senator from Yobe North. It is strange for a politician of his calibre to make such a blanket statement. The Senate President is simply promoting mediocrity and that says something about his integrity as a politician.
“It must be that the Senate President has a low sense of appreciation and understanding of good governance or efficient service delivery by the executive arm of government to the people. He spoke like a man with a low standard and he shouldn’t equate the low standard in his state to that of Kwara.
“The Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq administration must be rejoicing that they were able to easily pull the wool over the eyes of the Senator. The Senate President did not come out better than a local government chairman in his judgment as expressed in his statement on Saturday.
“Kwarans will disagree that the current government under whom the education sector, health services, infrastructure, urban sanitation, rural and community development, and welfare of civil servants have all collapsed and in a poor state is doing well.
“Except he will invite the number three man to inaugurate the patching of potholes on roads and the plastering of school buildings that the government funded at exorbitantly inflated costs, Abdulrahman has nothing to show for the huge allocation from the federal government, the improved internally generated revenue made possible by his predecessors, the huge funds from intervention agencies and the money that the COVID-19 period brought into the state.
“Abdulrazaq is not only the least educated governor that Kwara State ever has, but he is also disorganised and weird in his style of governance. There must be something wrong if Lawan who has been in the National Assembly for almost 23 years believes it is good governance to have a governor who does not hold executive council meetings and runs government through WhatsApp. Something is wrong with Lawan’s sense of judgment and standard of service delivery in governance.
“This same governor refused to implement the National Minimum Wage Act passed by the National Assembly and assented to by the President until two weeks ago when he introduced a haphazard system in which many categories of workers were short-changed. He has equally disorganised his party and remains clueless while security threats that are consuming the neighbouring Niger State are spreading to Kwara without taking any measure to stem it.”