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Olanrewaju AjiboyeWednesday, May 26, 2010
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KWARA STATE AND ITS QUEER POLITICS

f you don’t want to throw up or ruin your meal, avoid most news report about this State called Kwara, at least as far as her politics is concerned; it spawns enough oddities to warrant a renouncement of their State of origin for those who crave for what is right but are helpless in realising them.


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Kwara state came into being on 27th May 1967 when the then Military government of General Yakubu Gowon jettisoned the Four Region status of Nigeria and replaced it with a 12 state status. It was first designated as ‘West Central State’ before the name changed to Kwara. Its size was reduced in 1976 when Idah/Dekina was carved out of it to form part of Benue State. The State was further reduced in size through further state creations that came up in 1991 when five local governments consisting of Okene, Okehi, Oyi, Yagba and Kogi were further cut out to join in the creation of Kogi State.

As at present, Kwara state consists of sixteen local governments:

Asa; Baruten; Edu; Kaima ;Moro ;Pategi; Ifelodun; Irepodun; Isin; Ekiti; Ilorin East; Ilorin West; Ilorin South; Offa; Oke Ero; and Oyun. The state is populated by four main ethnic groups; Yoruba being the predominant; the others being Nupe, Fulani and Bariba who are in the minorities.

As at 2007, the health of her economy going by her GDP was estimated at $3.84Billion which translates into $1,585.00 earnings per person by way of Per Capita Income at the same period.

One politician whose politics predates the creation of the state is Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki who contested and lost the 1964 parliamentary election for Ilorin as an independent candidate. However, since the return of partisan politics in 1978 and through the off and on period of party politics since 1989 up till date, the influence of the man had soared considerably such that for any aspirant to occupy any political office in most parts of the state, the line of wisdom is to seek the politician’s blessing and endorsement.

Dr. Olusola Saraki made Alhaji Adamu Attah the governor in 1979 and ensured he did not return in 1983 when the latter overpriced his “worth” which pitched him against the strong man of Kwara politics. Cornelius Adebayo became a three month governor with the support of Dr. Saraki. The story was not different for Mohammed Shaaba Lafiagi who ruled during the diarchy until full blown dictatorship resurfaced.

Since 1999 however, the seat of governor had been occupied by an Ilorin indigene. Late Mohammed Alabi Lawal who was installed by Dr. Olusola Saraki fell out of favour and was dislodged by the powerful man in 2003. It was time for the man to reap bountifully from his stranglehold of Kwara politics when he installed two of his own biological children as a governor and a senator of the federal republic of Nigeria representing Kwara.

The repulsiveness of the state’s politics is now about to be put into the front burner as the race for who will succeed his son as the executive governor of the state gathers momentum. First, it is as if there is no alternative party in the state and that no capable individual can challenge the status quo going by the utterances of the old man popularly known as “Oloye”. Sometimes last year, he was quoted in the newspapers as saying he would announce the next governor of the state when he returns from Lesser Hajj (Keri- Keri I). Even under military dictatorship, its head still defer to some colleagues in who gets what in terms of appointment. Is there only one party in the state? Can nobody else win an election outside the man’s candidate? To further raise the stakes of the state’s loathsome politics, one ex-soldier by the name Theophilus Bamgboye also went to the man to give his obeisance, a calculation he thought would give him the PDP governorship ticket. Mind you, he contested for governorship under Accord Party in 2007 and lost.

Keri -Keri II

The only thing wrong in the absurdity that is playing out in Kwara politics as far as the body of Muslim Scholars from Ilorin township of the state is concerned is the purported endorsement of a female candidate by the King makers as the next governor of the state. It does not matter to them if an Ilorin indigene rule the state for the next fifty years provided he is a male and a Muslim. Curiously, the state has substantial Muslim and Christian faithful as well as traditional believers. Some world renowned Christian religious leaders are also from the state.

The posers for this body of Muslim Scholars who had issued a communiqué expressing their objections to a female leader are:

  • What is wrong in a Woman becoming a governor in a democracy as embraced in Nigeria today?

  • Is Kwara state a Caliphate?

  • Does Ilorin alone constitutes Kwara state or is Kwara state Ilorin?

  • Is it fair, rational, equitable, justifiable and agreeable in the spirit of consensus politics for an Indigene of Ilorin to rule for 20 years consecutively and out of which 16 years were done by siblings of same parents in direct change of batons?

  • Is the Islamic tenet superior to the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria? And finally

  • Can a candidate win the gubernatorial elections by winning the three local governments in Ilorin against other parts of the state?

Today, Ilorin metropolis is highly developed and the custodians of culture in other parts of the state are also having a feel of the perquisites by way of limousine vehicles; but is that employment for the good of the more than 2.5M of mostly agrarian population? Roads are bad outside the state capital; things are not done by what is right and desirable, but by lobbying, patronage and seeking to be in the good books of the powers that be.

A political office aspirant from the state once said in an interview that the Baruten axis of the state if well interconnected by roads could serve as the food basket of the country, unfortunately well laid out policy in the interest of the state are always compromised for the wish of some individuals.

Keri-Keri III

Kwara is one of the few states if not the only state where each community mobilizes its members to travel out of their places of residence and businesses to their hometown and villages to come and welcome the ‘Alpha and Omega’ of politics of their weird state. At such forums, the community would now present a list of requests their community desire and plead fervently through the strong man to help them influence its realization through the state government, yet they have representatives from their constituencies at the state house of assembly but they are lame duck and lethargic. Don’t be surprised when you are travelling through such a community and you see countless cars parked; it is not as if they have lost their traditional ruler or whether they are celebrating the wedding of an illustrious son’s ward, they are most likely to be welcoming the strong man and begging him for what their votes ought to have earned them in the first place.

This is a state that is blessed with locations that can boost tourism but has failed to harness such opportunities; and these include the Esie Museum, Owu Falls, Imoleboja Rock Shelter, Ogunjokoro, Kanji Lake and Agbonna Hill. A major town called Igbaja once had a cottage industry for pottery making, if there had been a government based on intellectual research for policy formulation, such a traditional effort ought to have been revived. The local pottery is a natural water cooler and has a sort of spirituality in it that is good for today’s sinful world.

Not far from that town is a village or for argument sake, a town called Buari. An illustrious son who succeeded in the city wanted to give back to his community when he decided to set a watch assembly in the local community. Towards this end, he erected structures and equipped them with machineries for watch assembling line; there were even some expatriates he brought in then. The project died with the man and a government that is in dire need of investors never for once bothered to understand any community and its undercurrents. If you passed by this community and saw the structures that had been allowed to waste away and you are the inquisitive type you would be inclined to ask questions and you would be told the story.

These structures are all suffering dilapidations and none of the successive governments and the strong man of Kwara politics had deemed it fit to liaise with the family of the late illustrious indigene of the state with a view to immortalising his efforts one way or the other. One can continue to mention all the private efforts of the people which should have should have helped stimulate the economic growth of the state, but unfortunately, it is a state of ‘Awada Keri-Keri’ that thrives on patronage.

A thought are supposed to precede actions and nowhere is it more evident than in political party formation; after a careful study of culture of development, values, opportunities, yearnings and projections are codified into manifestoes and which people are therefore persuaded with who can either buy to it after due consideration of other factors like individuals to be used as vehicles to achieve a desired results. But this is not how politics is conducted in Nigeria, it is even worse when people have to queue during productive hours to collect stipends at the doors of their benefactor. This is the misfortune in Kwara politics too where people suffocating from dearth of human capital development are further distracted by religious sentiments against sound judgement of what is fair and rational in electing a governor.

Looking back in perspectives, the late J.S. Olawoyin really fought several battles in a state that deserves to be renamed Haiti 1957-1986, in sad remembrance of the Duvaliers era.

Olanrewaju Ajiboye is a member, Board of Nigeria Foundation www.nigeriafoundation.org

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