2023: AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, Leave Saraki, Ahmed Alone -Wahab Oba

Fraternal Greetings, Your Excellency. 

Surely and steadily, the crucial election to seal your political fate is around the corner; just a few weeks away. So, I understand your anguish and frustration. I know that under the circumstances, you will seek to do everything and anything that you believe will help your cause, for even a drowning man will clutch at straws if that will steady him against the tide.

 However, the barefaced attempt to harass, victimize and even arrest those who you think are architects of your unfortunate predicament, including a former governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, will do you no good, not to talk of your ridiculous attempt to clutch at the cord of our traditional leadership in Ilorin Emirate and divide the traditional leadership system that had taken years of toil, labour and political sagacity to build. 

Two weeks ago, Dr Abdulfatah Ahmed led a campaign team of the Kwara State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on a campaign tour of Isin and Ifelodun local governments. It was a huge success. Requiems were everywhere. The young people, artisans, women and religious leaders came out  in large numbers to welcome the former governor and the candidates of the party. Governor Ahmed’s popularity became evident.

Subsequently, we understand that your Excellency is surreptitiously directing security onslaught on officials of the immediate past administration as a prelude to instigating the arrest of Dr Ahmed on trumped-up charges. Your Excellency, aren’t you ashamed of making negative headlines all the time? If you are not, Kwarans are. 

Now, it is the turn of another former governor, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki. Again, after another successful campaign tour of the Kwara North. What kind of desperation will push you to attempt to hang a rope of disloyalty around him? Just because he is your political nightmare. I guess you have not learned a lesson from Saraki’s political philosophy, otherwise, you will not be sowing the seed of disunity among the same people you are still coming to meet after your defeat.

 If Saraki had done what you are doing to our traditional rulers when he was in power, the kind of reception and acceptance he now receives from them, despite being out of government in the last four years, would not have been possible.

Mr Governor, any attempt by any politician to paste the tar of disrespect to traditional rulers against Saraki will fail. Always. Do you know why? The Saraki dynasty runs on two strong pillars: respect for the traditional institution, and care for the poor. As an Ilorin man, you must know this, even if it makes you uncomfortable. The late Oloye Baba Saraki was known popularly as Agoro Bogun Bolu; the wealthy man ,who used his wealth to cater for the warriors and the entire community. It wasn’t a cognomen just pasted on him; the old man lived and earned that title. And in his honour, he was the second Waziri Ngeri of Ilorin, a title reserved for the man who is regarded as the Prime Minister  of the Emirate and Chief Adviser to the Royal House. 

No traditional ruler just wakes up and dashes someone such a title. The honouree must earn it and the late Abubakar Olusola Saraki earned it. Ditto his son, Bukola, whom you now seek to vilify and cast in the mould of dissent against the same institution his family had so much honoured and protected over the years. 

Unfortunately, you are frustrated and now turning the campaign into a field of wild lies, just as you did in 2019. In that year, it was the unfortunate robbery incident in Offa. But you seem ignorant of what our elders always say whenever they want to caution against using deceit to achieve a goal: a rapist will succeed in deceiving the innocent girl but once. Your party has raped the innocent electors in Kwara and gotten away with it in 2019, but not again. Never! They are now wiser; they are now more alert; they are now better informed; they have seen your lies and will not fall prey to your deceits again.

How can you, dear governor AbdulRazaq, raise a claim against Saraki with regard to respecting the traditional stool in Kwara, or anywhere in Nigeria for that matter? You, who in the last four years, yes, it’s four years already, refused to recognize legitimate appointment of Alanguas and Magajis by Maimartaba Ilory. Is this respect for the Emirate? What did you do to Professor Ibrahim Gambari, cousin to the Emir of Ilorin?  You removed him unceremoniously as Chairman of the Governing Council of KWASU, and chased him out of his official residence as if he were a common thief. Is this respect for the Emirate? When last did you attend prayers at the Central Mosque in honour of the Emir? Yes, attend the Jumaat service with the Emir. Do you know how you ordered the breaking of the mosque’s gate just to show you despise the Emir? 

I know you were uncomfortable with the successful outings Saraki, Abdulfatah and the PDP had in Kwara north and south recently. It was against all the permutations of your party. It was a knockout. A shock. But need I tell you more are still on the way? More shock. More palpitation of the heart for you and your team?

Please, leave Saraki and Ahmed alone, their names are not on the ballot, if you need to be told-Alhaji Wahab Oba , who is Alhaji Abdulahi Shuaib Yaman’s Special Adviser on Media and Strategy, writes from Ilorin, Kwara state.