Kwara State to import stones from Syria, Saudi Arabia

The Punch, Monday, January 11, 2010 at page 11, carried the above-captioned story, against which I think people of good conscience should speak regardless of their religious, social or ethnic persuasions if it is true that Nigerians expect peace to reign in this country. For the benefit of those who might have missed the story, the Punch authoritatively quoted the Secretary of the Ilorin Central Mosque Board of Trustee, Alh. Sheu Gafar, a former Chairman of the State’s Civil Service Commission that “the Kwara State Government had concluded an arrangement to import stones for the rebuilding of the Mosque from Syria and Saudi Arabia.” Adding that, “Governor Bukola Saraki had travelled to Beirut in Lebanon to search for a world class firm of architects to handle the job.”

For all intent and purposes, this is a case of constitutional breach by His Excellency, Governor Bukola Saraki. For him to have dragged the state government into a religious matter contradicts the prohibition of State religion as enshrined in Sec. 10 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In the light of truth, it is difficult to rationalize this expenditure with any items under the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy as contained in Chapter II of the constitution. If the Kwara State House of Assembly were not a mere ‘debating society where no one wins a debate’, it ought to have vetoed this extra-budgetary expenditure since the matter was never debated on the floor of the House. For that, the Governor deserves impeachment notice for misapplication of public funds at a period when his administration has reduced its spending by 30% for this fiscal year. Therefore, it is a façade of honesty for the state government to hide under the alibi of ‘global economic meltdown’ to impose an austerity measure on the people of Kwara state rather than increasing government spending to energize the state’s economic activities.

As a matter of fact, the tenets of Islam that are based on JUSTICE, LOVE, EQUITY and FAIRNESS remained insulted by Governor Bukola Saraki unless he can replicate the same gesture or generosity to the Christian and other Moslem communities in Kwara State, after all ‘what is good for goose is also good for gander’. Without prejudice, it would be unjust for Governor Bukola Saraki to run his administration on ‘Ilorin is Kwara and Kwara is Ilorin’ theory, a thinking that presumes every Kwaran to be a Moslem or narrowing down the interest of the generality of Kwara people to that of the Ilorin community. This smacks of insensitivity to religious and sectional sensibilities of the components units of the state that might bread unnecessary animosity among the people.

How I wish Their Eminence Sheik Kamaldeen Al-Addabiyy and Shiek Adam Abdullahi El-Ilory (may Allah bless their souls) were alive today, they would have spoken the words of truth to Governor Bukola Saraki to be mindful of how he spends public fund by divorcing his person (as a Moslem and an indigene of Ilorin) from that of the government of Kwara State as a corporate entity. May God continue to bless the people of Kwara State.

Abdul-Rahoof Bello,
A lecturer in political science,
School of Arts & Social Sciences,
National Open University of Nigeria.
Monday, January 11, 2010.