(Opinion): Deji Adeyanju’s crisis of ignorance and cashtivism: Jamiu Balogun

By Jamiu Balogun

The latest outbursts by hack writer and social media loudmouth Deji Adeyanju show that Bukola Saraki the leader of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State no longer have confidence in his samurais and retinue of propagandists at home. He has therefore gone further to recruit Adeyanju, an unstable person, to do the propaganda job for him in his desperate bid to enslave Kwara State once again. That’s an exercise in futility and a voyage to failure.

This time, they recruited an ignorant person who is unaware of the trend in Kwara State, does not know where we are coming from as a people. All his rants end on social media. It has no significant effect on the utmost decision of the Kwara electorate who can testify to the breath of fresh air we have witnessed under Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq. Cashtivist Deji would only do Saraki and his dynasty more harm because he would not only ridicule himself but also expose the reasons why Kwara people sent Saraki his new paymaster packing.

True to form, he has started. He shared a post today to claim that Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq defaults in salary payment. Many people would give up on Deji and not even take him seriously with this unconscionable lie and twist of the narrative. You can accuse him of anything, not payment of salaries. Governor AbdulRazaq has never defaulted in paying all civil servants across the state. This is in addition to the fact that he cleared several months of backlogs of salaries, years of allowances across MDAs and has in fact implemented the minimum wage of N30,000.

If Deji had watched carefully before sharing the Sahara Reporters news story, he would have seen that the news he picked was dated October 8, 2019. That’s just 6 months into the administration of AbdulRazaq. How could he therefore have been responsible for 36 months salaries in Ilorin Model School?! That’s the irresponsibility of Deji’s new paymasters. AbdulRazaq has cleared many of such. Ask people in the state-owned Herald newspaper who were owed months of salaries, just like their counterparts in Radio Kwara, by the previous administration. AbdulRazaq has cleared all that.

The least any critic can take on Governor AbdulRazaq for is workers welfare. This is a Governor that does not want to hear that workers are not being paid. He swings into action immediately. What did Deji Adeyanju’s new paymasters do in their times? They unleashed both state and non-state actors on workers protesting for their dues. The pensioners too are there. AbdulRazaq is bringing smiles on their faces.

The ignorant Deji Adeyanju should update himself with the recent release of BudgIT where it spelt out states defaulting on workers pay. Kwara came out with a clean slate. This gives the lie to the gratuitous claim made by the social media loudmouth who out of intellectual deficiency is substantiating his claim with a stale news item.

I gave up on Deji when he also shared the story of constabularies on Daily Trust to back up his mischief and justify the pay he receives from his new paymaster. How does a person in his standing not understand that police are not workers of the state. More than anyone else, the federal government is responsible for the pay of constabulary police, but they made it clear at the get-go that it was a voluntary service. The protest of the elements demanding payment for a voluntary job is just a cheap blackmail that won’t work. Thankfully, the police establishment has also spoken on this loud and clear.

When I said Deji doesn’t know where we are coming from and therefore would only be doing his new paymasters a disservice, I was very clear about it. In one of his mischievous posts laced with outlandish falsehood and misrepresentation of the state’s finance, Deji Adeyanju accused the Otoge government as being clownish. For what? For supporting petty traders through KWASSIP with stalls. These petty traders must be seeing a fool in Deji. Under his new paymasters, petty traders were not even recognised. Grants and funds meant for MSMEs were diverted into private pockets. That trend has changed under the new government. We have massive support for petty traders, young business owners, the elderly and so on. In the previous administration, what you have is the distribution of ridiculous amounts to senior citizens in the most chaotic and disdainful manner. The infamous ‘eba ati waso and puff-puff’

Through Ijoba Mekunu, 170 young business owners benefitted from non-interest loan between N350,000 and N3 million. Recently, 100 of them got N1 million naira grant each to boost their businesses. The third edition is also coming soon. Under Ijoba Mekunu, thousands of petty traders and the elderly have benefited. There is value for all the funds coming into Kwara, unlike in the last where billions of naira belonging to the public is diverted (UBEC funds is case in point). The billion naira bond collected by Saraki, what did he use it for? To build Post Office overhead bridge at a ridiculously inflated bill. Several years after building Post Office bridge, Governor AbdulRazaq is building Tanke Flyover at almost the same bill. How dubious could the Saraki government be?! He also built Kwara Mall and later turned back to dash it out to a private sector player. Built Shonga Farms, and later dashed it to private persons, with huge debt hanging on the neck of Kwara government to date. He built Cargo Terminal, Agro Mall and other white elephant investments that have not accrued commensurate benefits to Kwara State.

Deji Adeyanju should watch the road next time he is crossing. When they send you on a slavery errand, you carry it out responsibly. We know you are only working for your stomach. But abeg, do it with sense, not lies, half-truth and blissful ignorance. Meanwhile, Saraki would still take this job from you because you have given the impression of incompetence in your first outing. More than anybody else, the critical mass of Kwara people are in a position to judge the government, not an ignorant hack writer. We have been on ground in Kwara. We are still in Kwara, not Abuja like the buffon Deji. And we can say the difference is clear. We know our realities. Thousands of Deji Adeyanju cannot define our realities for us!

Jamiu Balogun writes from Iwo-Isin.