Congratulations to the citizens and residents of Kwara, a state that is now synonymous to Leadership revolution.
Theelectoral victory and the revolution are not success stories for the elected people, who are unavoidable beneficiaries of the people’s determination for change, but for Kwara citizens and residents that have been yearning for a power shift in the state for a very long time. That people’s votes have counted in this 2019 general election is a clear indication that Kwarans have been governed till date by beneficiaries of selection by central (Federal Government) political favoritism, but not by those willingly voted for by Kwarans in the past.
Now that we have spoken with our votes and the votes have genuinely counted, let us now focus on the most important aspect of governance – #FollowKwaraMoney. In addition to the leadership problem that we have been facing for a long time, followership problem is a bigger problem that we have not critically solved. The well-described poor governance in kwara state is majorly as a result of citizens’ lackadaisical attitude to governance. We have made our elected leaders to feel that the dividends of democracy expected from them is a privilege, instead of being our rights. We give too much commendations to government, but find it difficult to question them. We hero-worship government as if they are doing us a favor, instead of running errands for us through our resources that we entrust with them.
Fellow Kwarans, about 20% of our problem might have been solved by this present power shift, but the remaining 80% can only be solved if we are involved in governance by monitoring how our taxes are spent. The way we were involved in political revolution in Kwara State, we must all #FollowKwaraMoney to ensure that our money works for us (the citizens), and not for the elected people. How many Kwarans are asking why the N6.5 Billion Ilorin Water Reticulation is not giving us water? How many Kwarans are asking why virtually all the schools in Kwara State are dilapidated? How many are asking why Kwara State government has refused to pay counterpart fund to access over 5 Billion naira matching grant since 2013? How many have asked how the 500 million naira IF-K fund deducted from our IGR monthly is being spent? How many are asking how the Federal Government-funded Zonal Intervention projects are being executed in Kwara? Just to mention a few.
In conclusion, you have not made any meaningful impact on the good governance in Kwara state if you only voted for change but refuse to #FollowKwaraMoney, as failure to do so might be an opportunity for other sets of people to be enriched.
ALAGBONSI Abdullateef, Ph.D.
Coordinator
Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD)