By Ibrahim Sheriff
For some days, there has been brickbats from discerning Kwarans, who are truly agitated by the decision of the Kwara state government to award the contract, for the remodeling of Kwara Hotels, to a Lebanese company by the name Craneburg.
There are also politically induced arguments for and against this development, especially with respect to a purported award of a concession contract for the same hotel, initially.
However, the thrust of my opinion is not the political rigmarole or underlining contending interest of individuals, rather, I’ll attempt to evoke some issue based intellectual curiosity, that could inform comparative views of the administrative preferences of past and present governments of Kwara state. This would serve as moral compass.
Justification of whether or not, the N17billion earmarked for the project was bogus or not, like I had opined in some engagements, should be analyzed from the perspective of the scope of work to be done on. This can only be assessed via the Bill of Quantity, as against arbitrary, interest laden and uninformed judgement. However, I think the opinion of the Chief Press Secretary- Rafiu Ajakaiye has sufficiently hinted on the scope of work. However, that is not my talking point.
Recently, I understand that some people struggled so hard to prove the gunless revolution that berthed the liberation of Kwara state, sociopolitical – Otoge was a fluke. These category of persons, mostly fanatics of the deposed political hegemony in the state cited ordeals of some of us who were young frontliners in the people’s movement of 2019, during internal wrangling within the APC as examples.
However, they failed to see the fact that divergence of political views, internally or external is a critical element that signals a progressive democratic development, as against the master-servant kind of politics they were and still used to. What is important is; we were together and we are still together, bonded by our collective desire to move Kwara forward and not return it to the inglorious past.
Now, to the crux of this column. According to renown late American historian and social critic, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr, “it is useful to remember that history is to the nation (Kwara state in this instance) as memory is to the individual. As a person deprived of memory becomes disorientated and lost, not knowing where they have been or where they are going. A nation denied of a conception of the past will be disabled in dealing with its present and its future.”
While it is clear that we still have a very long way to go as a state, it is also crystal clear that we are definitely not where we used to be; we are indeed steps further. This I owned up to, publicly, even as an opposition figure.
However, in making comparative analysis that will reflect the direction Kwara state is moving, we must be guided by historical facts and figures. So that those whose return strategy is calculated attempt to disorientate the people, instead of showing remorse will not hoodwink Kwarans.
In 2011, after serving as Governor for two terms and elected as Senator representing Kwara Central Senatorial District, through the instrumentality of a drain pipe law under the guise of Kwara state Governor Pension, former Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki got a whopping N252 million from the Kwara State Government under the leadership of Gov. Abdulfatah Ahmed, to build a five-bedroom duplex, just for himself. Sen. Saraki later claimed that the money (N252m was not even enough to build the house and that he added his own money, to complete it.
That was in 2011, when price of cement was less than N2,000 per bag, with a consumer price index average of 225.672 points and 10.3% inflation rate, against current period when a bag of cement sells for N5,000 with a CPI reaching an all time high at 629.40 points with an inflation rate of 28.2%.
This gives an idea of how cheap every material and appliances needed by Senator Saraki to build the house, over a decade ago. That is an historical figure that cannot be contended.
Using a conservative interest rate average of 12% to compound N225million Naira and obtain its value today, ignoring the fact that the rate is below the market interest rate and also, opportunity cost of the fund, it gives N876,577,500. That is at least, the least value of the fund used by Kwara state government to build 5bedroom duplex for a single person, in a state of over 3million population, with dearth of housing deficit. In 2009, a nnit of house at Harmony estate, funded by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria was sold at N2million, implying that even at that time, at least the fund not enough to build a house for Sen. Saraki by Kwara state government could actually make 126 people decent homeowners.
Now, in 2011, N252million which can today be valued at a minimum of N876,577,500 was used to build a 5bedroom duplex for a single person. But in 2023, N17billion approved by the Kwara state government for the reconstruction, remodeling and rebranding of over 170rooms Kwara Hotels, with the facilities therein has been adjudged by adherents of the sole beneficiary of the 5bedroom bungalow.
On a lighter note. Going by some laughable warped estimates, the AbdulRazaq led Kwara state government is spending about N90million on every rooms in Kwara Hotel, as if the facility housed only rooms. They must also be on the notion that Senator Saraki spend N45million, which can be valued today at N175,315,500 to build each room in the 5bedroom duplex (not 5star hotel oo). In fact, going by their jaundiced argument, they showed the present government is even more conservative than their model. This is mindless of the fact that the 5bedroom duplex has zero return on investment for Kwara state. It was just a wasteful giveaway!
Kwara Hotels has almost 200rooms, several other facilities, including open bar, lounge, swimming pool, gym, halls A, B and C. Its repositioning will not only attract return on investment for the state, but also generate gainful employment for hundreds of Kwarans. I was in fact, at the forefront of the agitation by workers of the same hotel when they were to be retrenched following its closure. They were in hundreds, despite the hotel functioned far below optimal level, as most of the facilities there had deteriorated. As at last year, less than 40 of over 170rooms were functional.
How the same elements of a political party under whose watch parasitic laws were made to enrich few at the expense of all, now come and criticize a government for investing on behalf of the people and not in one person, is baffling. However, if they try hard to disorientate the people about how they arrogate our common patrimony to themselves, we will not stop revisiting history and drawing logical inferences that will in fact, justify the essence and manifestation of Otoge, notwithstanding its challenges. After all, every moment, setting and even human have one or more challenges.
Ibrahim Sheriff (Gold) is a social analyst, management science researcher and editor of Fresh Insight Newspaper