The Kwara State House of Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill that seeks to, among other things, create an agency that will be saddled with the responsibility of compulsorily registering all Kwara residents and keep their data.
The Kwara Residents Registration Agency Bill is an executive bill sent to the House by Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq for consideration.
The motion for the presentation of a report and passage of the bill was moved by the House leader, Abubakar Olawoyin-Magaji.
The bill was passed after the House adopted the report of an ad hoc committee on the bill chaired by Aliyi Opakunle (APC-Afon).
Opakunle, while presenting the report, told the House that stakeholders at the public hearing on the bill expressed support for the establishment of the Kwara Residents Registration Agency Bill.
With the approval of the bill, the Speaker, Yakubu Salihu Danladi, directed the Assembly clerk, Jumai Kperogi to transmit same to the Governor for assent.
Creation of new agency needless – CSO
Meanwhile, a Kwara-based Civil Society Organisation, Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD), during its public hearing presentation cautioned the State Assembly against passing of the bill.
Mr. Sideeq Bola Mustapha, the group’s deputy coordinator, noted that the concept behind the proposal for the Agency is laudable, but added that the state has other establishments with same purpose with the proposed agency.
He stated, “The KWSG already has a Ministry of Planning, a Bureau of Statistics, and the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS, with presence in all the LGAs). We are also aware that the immediate past administration of Abdulfatah Ahmed initiated Kwara Residents Identification Number (KRIN) under the KWIRS, which has not been significantly implemented to date by the KWSG. The difference between the KRIN and the proposed Agency is not worth the creation of a new agency.”
Speaking further, Sideeq said, “The present administration is still struggling to fix infrastructural deficits with meagre resources, servicing loans, and still applying for the same. The Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, reported that over 75% of the State’s monthly allocation is being used to pay salaries of civil servants, even though such percentage is still for the outdated ₦18,000 minimum wage as the State has not implemented the currently lawful ₦30,000 minimum wage.
“We insist that there is no need to create another agency to do a work that some existing Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) could do satisfactorily with minimal cost to the state from taxpayers’ money. Guaranteeing good administrative results is not about the number MDAs that we have in the State, rather, it is about the efficiency of our existing MDAs.”