By Abdullahi Oganija
Before proceeding further, let me seek forgiveness on behalf of Rafiu Ajakaye. He needs forgiveness from God. He should also apologize to the people of Kwara State for intentionally misleading them. This is because every claim he made in his article titled, ‘Abdulrazaq governs with pragmatic empathy – a response to Senator Bukola Saraki.’ is a lie.
While I believe he spewed those lies deliberately as a continuation of the gimmick that his master, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, the Governor of Kwara State, began in 2018, many Ilorin indigenes believe the article was a product of his deficiency of knowledge about events in the state before 2019 when he got his current job. Maybe, the latter group is right since Ajakaye grew up outside Kwara State and only came in to grab whatever he could make under the present government. Knowing his type, after muddling up the water, he would return to his base and keep quiet after 2027.
Many indigenes of Kwara State were flabbergasted at the calmness with which Ajakaiye concocted and delivered blatant lies. Lying has become an art to him. It is however important that one clears this spiral web of lies one after the other so that posterity does not come back to haunt us as bonafide and patriotic Kwarans who witnessed tell tales being served to the public a-la-carte but failed to speak up.
Let it be stated categorically that the administration of Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki in Kwara State never demolished any structure in Idi-Ape, not to talk of razing the family house of late Governor Muhammed Lawal. That was a lie from the pit of hell, and perhaps an attempt to invoke sentiments among our brothers and sisters from the Idi-Ape area of Ilorin. One of the earliest calls I received last Tuesday was from a community leader from Idi-Ape, who debunked the falsehood and was willing to confront Ajakaiye. He was particularly angry that Ajakaiye lied against the same Saraki who as governor constructed and rehabilitated the road from Idi Ape market to Baruba to Ita Adu area and ensured houses were not demolished. The administration specifically spared the family house of the former governor.
The administration also ensured that during a clash between rival gangs in Idi-Ape and Agbarere areas, law enforcement agents were speedily deployed to restore normalcy and ensure that no harm came to the people. I dare Ajakaiye to dispute this. Compare that to the present administration that is destroying the economy of the people while ignoring to tackle the security crisis ravaging the southern and northern senatorial districts of the state.
It is also slanderous, mischievous, and ignorant for Ajakaiye to deliberately claim that the government led by Saraki demolished the property belonging to late General Abdulkareem Adisa situated opposite the Presidential Lodge. For the records, Saraki took no action on the said property. It was his predecessor, the late Mohammed Lawal who ordered the stoppage of construction work at the site. It is important to note that even the Lawal government never carried out any demolition exercise; it only put work on hold on the site. The Saraki administration offered to pay compensation to the family because the Lawal administration ordered that construction be discontinued because the property was said to pose a security threat to the Presidential Lodge. The government of Dr. Abdulfatai Ahmed eventually paid N80m compensation to the Adisa family.
The Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq administration eventually converted the property into a Film Visual Art Centre. Yet, the goatee false Mallam will not check the records before jumping to type out lies. His aim is just to push out falsehood.
All through his eight years in office, the Saraki administration never embarked on any willful, vengeful demolition exercise. Ajakaye should ask his master how Saraki saved the property belonging to Alhaji A. G. F. Abdulrazaq when the Eruda to Baboko road was being constructed. The road had to be diverted to ensure the house of the governor’s father was not touched. Abdulrahman and his boy can check out the facts from those who should know.
Also, in the period of the Saraki administration, when it was inevitable to relocate some people for public, beneficial purposes, a veritable alternative was always provided. A few instances to prove this will suffice. As part of the urban renewal plan of the Saraki administration, the traders in Ago, Oja-Oba were relocated to the Itanma market. They are still there today enjoying the better ambience provided in place of their old location. Also, the Mandate market remains one of the biggest and most popular markets in Kwara State to date. It was built by the government of Bukola Saraki, which moved the traders from the Okolowo Expressway where they were highly vulnerable to road mishaps. The construction of the modern abattoir at Akerebiata not only helps to address the environmental defects at the Ipata market but is a testament to Saraki’s status as the architect of Kwara’s genuine, well-thought-out, urban renewal plan.
Just like the famous ‘Ile-Arugbo’ owned by the late political icon, Dr. Olusola Saraki, which Abdulrazaq, in his brutish style, fiendish, and myopic style demolished, in defiance of ongoing litigation on the matter, it is essential to also state that all demolition exercises embarked upon by the incumbent government were rash and vindictive. They are short-sighted. To them, taking actions capable of impeding the economic growth of the state or worsening the hardship faced by the people is okay, even when such actions are merely targeted at settling personal scores. They are so myopic that they could only smell politics in Saraki’s statements that at this point when people are suffering and there is acute unemployment in the country, governments should not be taking actions that destroy investments or send more people into unemployment. Out of hatred, they are ignoring the patriotic message because they cannot stand the sight of the messenger.
At every drop of the hat, these motley, unruly, confused crowd in Kwara State Government will be shouting at the top of their voice that ‘Alimi Chalets was appropriated’. Is it not the the same chalet that accommodated Abdulrazaq’s deputy when he resumed office in 2019 and has been deployed to several uses by the government since then? How can somebody else be said to have ‘appropriated’ what is in government possession? This is sheer mischief and confusion in their head.
I am still wondering why the mention of the name Saraki disorients, disorganizes and incenses Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq and the characters in his crowd in this manner such that when Saraki sneezes in his Abuja home, they shiver in Kwara State. In Ilorin, the Governor and his spokesman, Ajakaye, are now referred to as a ‘Tag Team of Liars’. This is a befitting tag for an Ajakaye who claims that a government that built the Post Office flyover has no urban renewal plan.
How does it sound to Ajakaye that the government that championed the beautification of the state capital and made it one of the cleanest cities in Nigeria, is the one he believes “left the capital city and the state on autopilot in physical planning”? It should be clear to Ajakaye that what differentiates Abdulrazaq from Saraki in this regard is the latter’s first-class judgment in effecting reforms without subjecting citizens and residents to more hardship or hiding under the guise of urban development to settle political scores.
Oganija writes from Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
