With Joke Adeniyi-Jackson
On Sunday, the serene atmosphere of Agbaji, ancestral home of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki in Ilorin, Kwara State, was replaced by turmoil, when suspected All Progressives Congress (APC) thugs unleashed terror on the community.
Agbaji came under severe attack as the hoodlums fired shots sporadically, causing pandemonium. In the wake of the mayhem, two people were reportedly shot and 11 others injured.
During the melee, a mosque was attacked, there was looting spree of shops and residential houses and destruction of no fewer than 50 cars. The incident came on heels of an earlier attack in the Adewole/Adeta area of Ilorin, where many were left injured. With this development, Kwara and Ilorin the state capital in particular is fast turning to a battle field of violence, thuggery and bloodbath.
It is disheartening that youths who are the leaders of tomorrow are at the centre of it all; they have made themselves available to be used as objects of destruction, tools to create mayhem by politicians. So sad is it, that these youths are causing havoc on the orders of politicians who arm them and give them peanuts. Political gladiators have made thuggery seem like a lucrative venture. The situation is quite unfortunate because these politicians will not allow their children indulge in political thuggery or arm them to kill or cause unrest, but would rather have other people’s children carry out dirty jobs for them. Most of these politicians have send their children abroad to study in a bid to secure better future for them. What these political thugs have failed to realise is that the free money they are enjoying will not last forever as politicians are known for their ‘use and dump’ syndrome. Of more serious concern is that they are unwittingly destroying their future. There have been instances where some of these political thugs had been killed or arrested in the course of carrying out their ungodly tasks.
It is unfortunate that partisan politics here in Kwara is seen by the youths as a game for the brutish, the heartless, which shouldn’t be. It is a game in which all participants should be decorous. Elections should not be seen as a do- or -die affair in the state since leadership is suppose to service based. But, sadly many are gunning for elective positions in order to inordinately amass wealth and as such will go to any length to get there, hence the use of thugs to unleash violence, intimidate political opponents, for assassination and ballot snatching etcetera.
It is high time Kwara politicians eschewed politics of bitterness and played the game by the rules for peace to reign. Recent happenings on the political scene have undermined the sobriquet of Kwara; the state of harmony and the hitherto piety status of the ancient town of Ilorin.
Like I aptly noted in an earlier write up in this column, the way politics is being played in the state leaves much to be desired. Politics in this part of the country is setting ‘brothers’ apart; making them take arms against each other, thus straining the close kinship they earlier enjoyed. Here, it is perceived as wrong for ‘brothers’ to hold views that sit on very different sides of the political spectrum, and therefore they go to war over their opposing views. Politician and their supporters have allowed politics to define them instead of the other way round. And, this has continued to heat up the polity in the build up to the 2019 general elections in the state.
With just few weeks to the polls, there is heightened concerns over recent developments that are pointers to the war ahead. The actions and rhetorics coming from political camps have no doubt raised worries over the election in the state.
Nevertheless, inspite of people’s different ideologies, they should not be confrontational. Politics should not be allowed to destroy the bond that exists between brothers. Towards this end Kwarans should desist from actions that could jeopardise peaceful electioneering and elections in the state. Elections will come and go, but what with become of relationships that have been strained by politics? It is, therefore, the responsibility of all Kwarans to ensure that the state maintains its reputation for rancour-free campaigns and elections.
Nonetheless, there is the need to remind our politicians that election of any sort is a mere political contest, which should not be turned into a bloody battle.
