To hold a people in oppression, you have to convince them first that they are supposed to be oppressed – John Henrik Clarke.
On Thursday, the 11th of December, 2014, Kwara State convinced the world that we are a people destined to be oppressed. Like John Clarke said, we announced to the world on that day that Bukola Saraki is not our problem; rather we are our own worst enemy. I don’t know how Bukola did it, but he has surely convinced those who ordinarily should think and see beyond their noses that Kwara people do not only deserve to be oppressed, but rather they are supposed to be oppressed.
As I write this, the Kwara State government under the leadership of Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed is already celebrating its victory in the yet to be conducted election of 2015. And they are not wrong. Many front-line PDP members in Kwara State whom I spoke to already throw in the towel, they already accepted defeat. They know, as many APC members in Kwara do, that the victory and freedom they anticipated in 2015 is now a mirage.
But how did we get to this point? How did we succeeded in murdering the hope, that just few hours ago, was everywhere and was so bright? How did Kwara PDP ended up murdering the great expectation of the majority of Kwarans who had thought freedom was finally here? How did we mess up the chance to save ourselves and the generations of Kwarans yet unborn? We had a chance, but we blew it!
I am still receiving feedback and report on the mood of many in Ilorin immediately the announcement came that Senator Simeon Sule Ajibola emerged the flag-bearer of the PDP in Kwara State. Many youths and old women were weeping like babies, and so many more were lamenting the loss of a bright opportunity to rescue a people that many thought have been cheated and oppressed for so long. Of course they are not shedding tears because the election has already been lost and won, but they are weeping because of the realization of the many years of hardship that still lay ahead under a Bukola Saraki leadership. Kwara is now forever in trouble!
Now to the key implications: Many do not hate Bukola Saraki as a person. In fact, once you have met Bukola or had any form of contact with him, he is a likeable guy who is quite intelligent and charismatic. What many hate in Bukola Saraki is his greed and the manner he treats others once his own desires are met. The selfish gene in Bukola is what many hate, and not Bukola himself.
Just a quick recap: Bukola came in 2003 and won election against the late Muhammed Alabi Lawal to become the 5th democratically elected governor of the State of harmony. Like many new leader, Bukola Saraki’s emergence as governor was greeted with so much enthusiasm and high expectation. Many had expected Bukola to build Eldorado and to use his youthful energy to build a State that would be the pride of all Kwarans everywhere in the world.
Indeed, upon the completion of his eight year tenure, the general belief and consensus among many, in and out of Kwara State, is that Bukola Saraki did well as governor. Many of his admirers readily point to landmark monuments like the Kwara State University (KWASU), the Ilorin International Airport and Cargo Terminal, the Aviation College (Ilorin), the Kwara State Diagnostic Centre, the Ajase Ipo Vocational Training Centre etc as some of the achievements of Bukola Saraki. However, many of these projects are synonymous to a pack of goods delivered at midnight – many only realize the content when the day breaks. It was late before many in Kwara realize that Bukola’s achievements were Greek gifts, and that what we lost was more than what we gained. Kwara has been duped.
The ownership of many of the structures that Bukola Saraki claims as his achievements while in office is still shrouded in secrecy. As I write this, Kwara people do not know the truth about Shonga Farm; neither do they know the true owners of the Kwara Diagnostic Centre. Many of what we thought Kwara owns actually belong to Bukola Saraki. And to cover up all these shady and very dark under-hand dealings, Bukola, after raping the State to stupor, anointed Abdulfatah Ahmed, his ally and Commissioner for eight years, to cover his tracks and keep the secrets of his administration safe. And the man popularly called Maigida has been doing just that.
Since coming to power in 2011, Dr. Abdulfatah Ahmed has served only one man and one man only: BUKOLA SARAKI. In Governor Ahmed’s calculation, once Bukola Saraki, the godfather and the Governor-General of Kwara, is happy, everything else doesn’t matter. And so it was that even when there were neither good roads or water or even stable light for the four years of Ahmed administration, the man still got A-grade in his performance assessment report and was told to continue in office for another four years, because the godfather is pleased with him. “For me, I believed the governor has performed excellently well”, so says Bukola while endorsing his stooge, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed. For four years, Ahmed has served himself and his godfather diligently.
While just 200 naira became a very big challenge for an average Kwaran to get, governor Abdulfatah , his godfather and very few privileged ones were buying houses and leaving the good life. While many in Kwara are groaning under a harsh economic condition, Bukola Saraki was drawing outrageous pension from a State that depended completely on Federal allocation. As if that was not enough, Bukola mandated the State government to build a house for him as part of his pension package, which he then monetized and sold back to the same State government which built the house in the first instance. The atrocities of Bukola Saraki were much and many people in Kwara are aware of them. Many are very much fed up with the profligacy that the Kwara State government is perpetuating under the leadership of SAI BUKKY.
It was in this situation that many concerned Kwarans who are political leaders in their own rights came together to salvage the State and rescue it before its eventual total collapse. Bukola Saraki, because of a personal disagreement with the National leader of his then political party (the PDP) had earlier ditched the party for the opposition All Progressive Congress (APC). So, the new set of Kwarans who are desirous of rescuing the State from its perilous condition took over the Party that Bukola Saraki abandoned. Through that party, which ironically had an umbrella as its logo, they hoped to shelter Kwara indigenes from the harsh weather of slavery and servitude that Bukola and associates were subjecting them to. So, rightly, they call themselves freedom fighters. Many of them were strong political figures and they are also in the ruling party and they had a level playing field to engage Bukola, the don. All was set for freedom to happen and the people’s hope was high.
Then suddenly, things began to fall apart. Ambition began to blind the freedom fighters and so they could not see the big picture again. As the day for a possible freedom for Kwara draws nearer, the ‘freedom fighters’ refused to stay their eyes on the ball and everyone became a god unto himself. They refused to allow a leader among themselves to coordinate the war against the almighty Bukola Saraki. And amidst wide speculation that Bukola himself, out of fear, had planted moles among them; they began to fight like small children and, at a point; some of them even threw chairs at one another like mere motor park touts. It was very unfortunate.
It was amidst the fiasco and internal bickering among them that a very unpopular candidate eventually emerged as the candidate to confront Bukola Saraki’s godson (Maigida). The many efforts that were made by some of them to make them see reasons yielded no results.
The billionaire business woman, Hajia Bola Shagaya, spent her personal money in pursuit of freedom for her people, but it was all a waste. Bio Ibrahim was running around the place to secure the freedom they believed was possible and attainable, yet his efforts ended in vain. Jani Ibrahim left his comfort zone and came out to join others in pursuit of a shared vision, but his efforts were also thwarted. Amidst allegations and lies, they frustrated Hajia Bola Shagaya and dampened his morale. Hakeem Lawal, though a new face in politics, also played his own part, either rightly or wrongly. Of course, Professor Abdulraheem Oba also came out to support the call for freedom. Dele Belgore (SAN) was not left out in the fight for a new Kwara. But all their efforts yielded no results, because the saboteurs among them are more concerned about what Bukola Saraki would give them rather than the freedom for Kwara people.
While Professor Oba, Hakeem Lawal, Dele Belore, Gbemi Saraki, Kale Belgore are all aspirants from Kwara Central, they refused to yield the ground for one another. Even when they knew Dele Belgore was the only one who had fought the war they were about to fight before and had a remarkable success to show for it; they refused to yield any space to him. While they were fumbling and misbehaving, the opposition APC, led by Bukola Saraki, was financing the moles among them and praying that they make a mistake, and they made it. They eventually settled for a slow-walking ‘bench-warmer’ Senator with little or no popularity, and one with a questionable religion identity. In a State with a predominantly Muslim population, the PDP jesters in Kwara settled for Simeon Suleiman Ajibola who was born a Muslim but converted to Christianity as a result of marriage to a Christian, and who is now known to be a practicing traditionalist. This is the person they hoped would win election in a State with an overwhelming Muslim population and with appreciable number of world renowned Islamic scholars. Gbemi Saraki and other moles in their midst really did their home-work and they deserve commendation and compensation from Bukola Saraki.
We Kwarans, especially the youths, who will continued to suffer under the renewed slavery of Bukola Saraki, have wept and accepted the loss of yet another opportunity to free ourselves from Bukola’s bondage. But that is all the pain we have to bear. People like Professor Oba Abdulraheem would carry the guilt of this obvious tragedy and wasted opportunity to their graves. Generations of Kwarans yet unborn would ask Prof. Oba’s children this story and the roles their father played in the whole arrangement that has now resulted in this mess that we would continued to see and endure for a long time to come. Already, I heard Prof. Oba is already being insulted in Ilorin for failing to put the people above self. How he hopes to redeem himself and rewrite the narrative for the sake of his children is what I am yet to know.
At over 70, Prof. Oba had the chance to play the role of a father figure and rally everyone in the PDP together to deliver the freedom we all craved, but he failed us. Being a Professor, he was supposed to be the one who was supposed to ask himself empirical questions and be guided by the electoral antecedents of the aspirants, but he was blinded by his egocentric and selfish ambition. Dele Belgore came second in 2011governorship election in Kwara State and he was the one, even without all the so-called big wigs in the PDP today, who single-handedly gave Bukola Saraki a run for his money at that time. So who needs a soothsayer to tell him that with a stronger backing, he would likely defeat the incumbent non-performing governor of Kwara State.
But lest the saboteurs and the moles rejoice yet, for our cries and wailings will disturb you to your graves. Anytime we are sad over the mis-governance of Kwara State, our sadness will be a curse to you. Anyone in PDP who, either deliberately or unwittingly, created the atmosphere that resulted in the emergence of a weak candidate, so as to give the present APC government the advantage to continue to enslave us in Kwara would one day reap the burden of poverty that we are now being forced to endure.
- Abdulsalam writes from Ilorin