Saliu Mustapha and His Imaginary N20billion Projects: Setting the Record Straight

Public office requires competence, capacity and experience to deliver dividends of democracy to the citizenry and make lasting impacts in the society. Hence, Political Office Holders must be competent, vast and understanding process/policy to function effectively as well as their work easier.

However, the series of public apology trailing missteps of the Senator representing Kwara Central, Senator Saliu Mustapha since assumption of office leave more to desired for his constituents and Kwarans at large.

It’s now obvious that Senator Saliu Mustapha has adopted blame game and circulation of misinformation for cover his incompetent, lack of vision and poor performance in the 10th National Assembly. No wonder, his Aide went on air to accuse His Excellency, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of blocking over N20billion worth projects he facilitated to Kwara Central. Available facts indicate that Senator Saliu Mustapha’s N20billion imaginary projects only exist in his dream because there is no verifiable evidence to support it.

For clarity, project facilitation is one of the ways Lawmakers could attract development to their constituency. This should be done in synergy with the executive arm of government at the sub-national and national levels.

Furthermore, Senators and House of Representatives Members have the privilege to facilitate projects under constituency project or use their network to inject projects to MDAs budget. This means the projects would be captured in the federal government budget assented by the President after legislative approval.

Almost 48hours after dishing out lies, fallacies and misinformation on a radio programme, Senator Saliu Mustapha is yet to produce evidence to support his bogus claims. One would expect the Senator to release details such as project title, location, amount allocated and budget code for easy tracking. But chameleons would never change, it’s the same old strategy of spreading falsehoods to gain public sympathy.

Unfortunately for the Senator, the game of distractions he started in 2023 has continue to haunt him because Mustapha has no landmark projects or assented bills to his credit.

Recall that in November 2023, Senator Saliu Mustapha admitted missteps in the proposed road project in Adewole ward.

The Senator writes: “I have followed some conversations on the constituency project that I facilitated from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. I wish to state that the information gap and withdrawal missteps on the said project are being addressed with the Kwara State Ministry of Works and Transport, As a leader, I take responsibility for the misunderstanding.”

Apart from that, he schemed to incite people of Ilorin Emirate against Governor Abdulrahman by moving to Emir’s forecourt to construct Pavilion without building plan, environmental impact assessment report and approval from relevant government agencies.

Again, Senator Mustapha quickly issued disclaimer and urged the Contractor to apply for permit from Kwara State Geographical Information Service (KWGIS) before moving to site. He deliberately used the contractor as a fall guy for his incompetence and lack of legislative experience.

The most recent one by Senator MISSTEP was the project reportedly valued at N200 million for upgrading of primary healthcare centre in Awodi, a community in Gambari Ward II of Ilorin East Local Government. Unknown to our Lawmaker, the local government already captured it in their budget.

Without admitting his bogus N20billion worth projects claim, all these projects are receiving deserving attention.

It’s imperative for Senator Saliu Mustapha to note that Kwarans are wiser now and won’t fall for his unintelligent propaganda. He should quickly move round to fix some of his failed borehole projects to use them for campaigns ahead of 2027 general elections.