A Kwara-based Civil Society Organisation, Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD), has cautioned the State Assembly against passing the “Kwara State Residents Regulation Agency Bill” proposed by Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.
The CSO described the bill, which seeks for the establishment of a new Agency that will compulsorily register all Kwara residents and keep their data, among other functions, as needless.
Mr. Sideeq Bola Mustapha, the group’s deputy coordinator, during the bill public hearing presentation at the Assembly complex in Ilorin, on Friday, 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monthly allocation is being used to pay salaries of civil servants, even though such percentage is still for the outdated ₦18,000 minimum wage as the State has not implemented the currently lawful ₦30,000 minimum wage.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.
“The KWSG needs to make the civil service that gulps the largest percentage of the state’s allocation more productive as there is no commensurate value for money paid to many civil servants in the existing MDAs at the expense of taxpayers in the informal sector (who are the largest in the state). So, the KWSG should devise methods by which the numerical strength of the state workforce can be more productive rather than creating new agencies that raise serious financial implications on our Commonwealth.
“To fulfil the important intention of database creation and residents’ registration in the State (which the proposed Agency sought to offer), the KWSG should explore and strengthen the KRIN that is already in existence without implementation.”