By Oyinloye Temitope
Your Excellency the Governor of Kwara State, when you retrieved the piece of land that was originally meant for the construction of the civil service secretariat and some persons were making noise on social media, I took it upon myself in my immediate environment to enlighten some of our compatriots who clearly were suffering from the Oslo Syndrome.
Nearly seven months down the line, I am glad that many people at home and elsewhere have realised that you did nothing wrong. What you did was simply to return to Kwara people what belonged to them. The noise was expected. Those who suddenly became billionaires with public patrimony would do everything to keep their loot. But as a government elected to right these many wrongs, you should not allow that to happen.
Your Excellency, let me alert you to the noise in the public: our people are not too comfortable that the characters they chased out in the last election are still bold enough to taunt them with ill-gotten wealth. They appear to still be in charge of public properties that your government has said were unlawfully converted to private use.
This takes me, Your Excellency, to the Senator Suleiman Ajadi Committee and its report. What exactly is happening, sir? I have not read the full report. All I have read were excerpts and worrying stories emanating from the said report.
With due respect, your government must act promptly on the report. Kwarans expect actions that would lead to the retrieval of our properties from the marauders who stole them or bought them at giveaway prices. When will this happen? Please ignore the noise about a witch-hunt. It is part of such blackmail tools that looters employ to get away with their crimes against the people, their victims.
On the backdrop of the LG funds investigation seems a desire to rid the state of filth and lucre. But it must be holistic and sweeping. If you could probe your own self and people, why have you let a dossier on the pass lying unchecked?
Kwarans want to see actions. They want their properties back since yesterday (if you know what I mean). Your Excellency should please not let us down. Return to us what belongs to us. As I said, do not mind the noise. They will cry blue murder. Their social media vuvuzelas will trend hashtags. Their hired columnists will write epistles. Na lie.
Let the Senator Ajadi Committee Report be acted upon now. We can see that you are working with the resources available. We can feel your sincerity, not minding the naysayers. We didn’t even have (common) water under their wasteful years. Now water is flowing. But, Your Excellency, we want to see action on Senator Ajadi’s report. That is another way we will know that our votes were not in vain. Will you act in people’s interest? We wait to see it.
Temitope is a Kwara-born Biochemist, based in Kogi.
