By Abdulwahab Oba
May this new year bring boundless opportunities to our ways. May our dreams of a better and prosperous state come to fruition. May the Almighty Allah light our ways and guide our steps. May the Almighty Allah that secured and guided Moses from Pharaoh protect and secure all our steps and decisions. May God that protected the people of Quraish in Meccah and secured the holy mosque against the companions of the elephant turn every plan of our enemies over us to failure and crown our efforts with success. We shall continue to stand tall among our equals. May Alah protect us from this year till eternity from disgrace, humiliation and embarrassment in this world and in the hereafter. These and many others are my prayers for the good people of our state.
I also pray for our brother, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, the factional APC gubernatorial candidate who has finally found his voice last week, having virtually gone to sleep since a controversial primary pushed him up as a candidate of his party. He has more or less been dumb in the last three months, perhaps afraid that if he talks the slippery ground upon which his purported candidature rests will immediately cave in. Unfortunately, when he did spoke, rather than bring good tidings to our people, it was still like one sleep-walking, because in all honesty his first major public statement was clearly devoid of logic, was filled with inaccuracies and showed the absence of cordination one would have expected of someone seeking to govern a state in Nigeria.
Rather than apologise to the people of Ilorin and, especially the Emir for distrupting the tradionally peaceful IEDPU’s yearly event on the 25th of December, (I shall return to that next week, in sha Allah) Abdulrazaq asked governor Abdulfatah Ahmed to resign over the Offa robbery because, according to him, the government was complicit in the crime! You heard that? Someone who wants to be a governor but who does not understand the reality about security arrangements in Nigeria? Before Governor Ahmed resigns for the purpose Abdulrazaq adduced, maybe our dreamer of a governor should first ask the IGP to tow the path of honour and do the needful over the same issue. Or was it not under his nose that the self-confessed mastermind of the robbery suddenly ‘slumped’ and died and went away with all information about how the dastard act was hatched, how he got the guns used in the operation, how he recruited his gang, etc? Is it not under the same IGP that we are still asking of the whereabout of another suspect in that grim incident, Kayode Opadokun?
They told us Michael Adikwu was alive and helping them in investigation and denied our story that he was dead. But on the day of trial, they changed their tune and confirmed our position. Today, we are again raising a cry over the whereabout of Kayode Opadokun. Is he dead too? Is he still alive? If so, can we see him? If not, when will his trial start? Is it not a gross dereliction of duty that a suspect of Adikwu’s status would be allowed to die and no one is queried for that? In a saner clime, our president should have changed the IGP for gross incompetence. Abdulraham Abdulrazaq, please let your IGP do the needful. Let him tell us more on how Adikwu died; who and who were witnesses; who did the postmotem? Abi, could it be a case of an attempted cover-up? For in case Abdulraham is not aware of this, the IGP is responsible for internal security of lives and property in Nigeria on behalf of our president who has found him worthy of a tenure extention. And he reports directly to the Commander-in-Chief.
Otherwise, before Gov. Ahmed would resign, maybe our brother should ask his own man, Muhammad Buhari to resign over the unnecessary killings that take place in Nigeria on a daily basis. Or is he not the Chief Security Officer for Nigeria? Or are we not tired of the wanton waste of lives across Nigeria: Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, etc are there as the sore points of the warped security architecture of this country but our brother wont see that; the only thing that matters to him is for Ahmed to resign so that he can take over. Cheap talk.
It is unfortunate that our politicians have decided to turn the unfortunate incident at Offa into a subject of villification. The other day, Abulrazaq’s leader and boss, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed also threw in his own diatribe over the matter. In deed, he has turned the matter into a national circus show, for it does appear now that the Minister would hardly sleep in a day unless he has found a way to wriggle the Offa issue into his bulletins, all in a bid to discredit the government in Kwara state. But whoever has his line should help us kindly tell him that we have gone beyond that cheap blackmail, our people understand who loves them and who stays with them in their hours of trouble. Interpretation: what they are doing , ko le work!
And I think members of the opposition should find something better to do; they need more creativity in their discourse to at least spike the campaign that has started. It is not useful to try and re-enact the long forgotten rivalry between Ilorin and Offa. It is true that these two prominent tribes in Kwara were once not too friendly but it is also true that through the efforts of men and women of goodwill from the two sides, there is today a positive dimension to the face-off which actually was a rivalry to better their respective communities. We have virtually become one through socialisation and marriage . Therefore, for any one to seek a revival of what happened in the days of our forebears in this century is not only deceptive but equally unproductive. That is why the people on ground have been strident in condemning both Lai Mohammed and AA and their troupe, to wake up and face reality because their antics can’t work.
Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki is the Wazirin Ngeri of Ilorin Emirate. He is a title holder in Ilorin Emirate appointed by our revered Maimartaba Ilory. His father, Dr Abubakar Olusola Saraki, of blessed memory, has also honourably held those positions. To insinuate any criminality about the Wazirin Ngeri is to impugn the complicity of our Emir and the people of Ilorin who found him worthy (May Allah forbid).
*Oba can be reached via e-mail:abdulwahaboba@gmail.com
