Season of political protest as propaganda, fake news against Governor AbdulRazaq fail
By Abdullateef Idris
You must have seen a wave of protests in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital recently against the administration of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq. These are politically sponsored protests. It’s not difficult to understand. Seeing that the propaganda machinery they have activated on social media is not giving a better result, the Sarakites are now moving to sponsoring protests through some of their remnants in the Kwara system. But this step too will fail.
Some workers at Kwara Internal Revenue Service, KWIRS, came out recently to protest. Their protest has been rightly seen as partisan, ungodly, mischievous, borne out of greed and avarice. They demanded pay rise. The administration listened to them by calling their union to the table to effect increment in their salaries. But these workers who have more to their agitations on welfare which is to tarnish the image of the government and embarrass it said they would still go ahead with protest, that they are not content with the increment effected. Where on earth do workers dictate to their employers what to be paid? Agreed it is normal to persuade, but becoming aggressive and combative in suing for pay rise is overboard. When you are no longer contented with the pay your current job offers, you take your leave!
But these remnants of the old order apparently had sinister motives. They threatened their management, jumped to the streets to make a whole lot of noise. Most shocking however is that by the new review of their salaries, a Revenue Trainee (entry level) at KWIRS gets similar pay with a Level 10 officer in the civil service. So, has the government that agreed to this not shifted grounds enough? But like I said it’s an era of politically sponsored protests!
Some workers at Harmony Investment and Property Development Company, HIPDC, too are outside protesting. What’s funny is that a bulk of them according to an official release from their holding company’s management have been in the system for long. That meant that they were in the system when the previous administration of Bukola Saraki was creating problems for the company. They looked on when Mandate III estate that was supposed to be sold to civil servants was gifted and shared among politicians. They did not protest at that time. They also watched as the politicians accepted into the estate did not pay, leading to indebtedness of the state to the Federal Mortgage Bank where a loan was collected to build the estate. The liability now stands at N1.5 billion.
The new management said a similar untidy arrangement was done at Galadimawa estate belonging to the Kwara State Government in Abuja. Saraki gave our land to one Tosin and Banke to sell. The two of them, it was gathered, have no experience in real estate. It’s clear they were fronting for the previous administrators. They sold all our lands without paying proceeds to the state coffers. How cruel! All these liabilities and infractions the new government inherited. It even inherited backlogs of salaries and allowances. The new management of the Harmony Holdings have been able to clear the backlogs of salaries and ensured the company is still running amid all these liabilities and challenges. The company has not also owed them salaries. But the workers are out today fighting for the backlogs of allowances owed them as far back as 2014. How wicked! They were the same people there when the company was grounded. Many of them were also indicted in the infractions and crimes committed in the past. They falsified documents, sold lands without receipts, collected bribes to abet illegalities. They still have the gut to come out to protest payment of allowances dating back to 2014. If they had not swindled the company and contributed to its insolvent state, won’t the company be financially buoyant enough to pay their allowances? Will the new administration inherit liabilities? How shameless can they be!
Well, the GMD of Harmony Holdings Mr Abdullahi AbdulMajeed has said that their protest was to frustrate an ongoing investigation into the past infractions and implementation of necessary steps to get justice for the Kwara people. I agree with him. The investigation and implementation must go on. These remnants of the old order who along with their principals looted the common patrimony of Kwara people should not be this bold. They need to be nipped in the bud.
Also in the list of sponsored protests to tarnish the image of the government is the one recently held at GRA by people who call themselves journalists but are in the actual sense lawless persons. How will journalists with their level of education be seeking the release of accused persons when investigation and legal process were ongoing? But these are not journalists. They are bunch of politicians who just want to ride on the sentiment of the Akoguns’ case to put Kwara State government in the headlines. We have several members of the Sarakis dynasty, including former aspirants and former aides to Bukola Saraki, lieutenants of Bolaji Abdullahi, being packaged as journalists protesting. The NUJ which is the umbrella body of journalists has actually denied that its members participated in that protest. So, it was impostors who graduated from the institute of propaganda at Ile loke that were the fake journalists said to be protesting. Some SDP boys too have turned what should be seen for the prism of legality to politics with their shenanigans. The magistrate court has ordered that the accused persons be remanded, but these people are out doing contempt of the law court for the Akoguns to be released. They are all doing these because their propaganda against AbdulRazaq is not yielding any positive results. They now see using protest filled with emotional blackmail to attack him. It’s already time for campaign. If these people want to campaign, they should campaign for their leaders without hitting up the polity and disturbing our peace in Kwara.
More sponsored protests would come, but it doesn’t erase the fact that the AbdulRazaq administration has offered Kwarans a new lease of life. We know what this administration inherited in the area of workers welfare, education, health, among others. We know what has improved, just less than three years. Kwarans will not be fooled by sponsored protests. Like the propaganda plot, this protest strategy shall also fail!
Idris writes from Sobi community, Ilorin.