The Kwara State government has said that former Governor Bukola Saraki lacked the moral standing to speak on the welfare of Kwarans under the current dispensation given his record of ‘iron-fist imperialism’ while he called the shots in the State.
The State government also described as laughable and self-flattery the comments of the former Senate President on the outcome of the recent local government elections in the state, which the ruling All Progressives Party (APC) won with a landslide.
In a statement signed by the commissioner for Communication, Mrs Bola Olukoju, the Kwara State Government said Saraki’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) not only fruitlessly tried to frustrate the conduct of the elections 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.
The statement reads: “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.
“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 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.”
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