As New Dawn Breaks In Kwara State
By Abdulbaqi Jimoh
What else can we say other than Alhamdulilah.” All gratitude be unto the Almighty Allah . Congratulations to you and I whom God destined to be active participant in this epoch making struggle to liberate our community and our state in general, of a vicious and stiffling political enslavement cum well calculated impoverishment.
For so long our commonwealth has been stolen and wasted with unimaginable impunity. We have been reduced to onlookers whose thoughts , opinions and passion to attttact development to the state were repressed and opposed with such callous wickedness ever thought possible.
Our culture of reverence to our elders, our ethos of religiosity and general communal fraternity were desecrated for political purpose.
The state resources was reduced to personal estate managed and directed with such gluttonous traits that reduced thriving banks to delapidation unworthy of resuscitation. Our sweat and blood became the honey, licked with relish by people who were not of us and who despised us like slave drivers do a recalcitrant slave.
Our fathers fought the war but failed, while some compromised, swallowed their pride and kowtowed with the ‘Lord of the Manor’, eating the crumbs from the master’s table, others stood in principled deviance maintaining the long time principle of an Ilorin man. “I’m not fed; nonetheless I’m not hungry” Most of them are dead today but their stoicism fueled by resilience and pessimism is the result we’ve just had. In their graves they are grateful to God that He bequeathed on them warrior children like themselves whose spirits were not vanquished by the fierceness of the struggle.
We shall ever remember them and salute their heroic ruggedness, this victory is not ours but theirs who planted the spirit of oppression repellent in us. Alongside the deceased victors are the gruesomely brutalized and fatally injured, we share their emotional and physical pains and while we genuinely commiserate with them, we fervently pray for divine healing from the most beneficent ever living Allah, the Lord of all the worlds.
To the arrow head of the struggle, people see you from different angles, from being arrogant to being inaccessible, from being arrogant to being taciturn and so on. That is the description from those who are far away. The truth is, your reservedness and humility is mistaken for arrogance. Some of us know you are down to earth and very intelligent in every sense of it. Your blueprint, to any deep mind is outstandingly rich and your eloquence when you talk to it give credence to its originality.
For those who know how you solely rose to the zenith as a renowned business man without any family imput; less would be their surprise. However, politics is a different ballgame altogether! The intrigue, the mischief, the deceit, the lies, the wolves, and other different malaise and predators can be consuming, you need more than your business experience, most importantly you need Allah on your side, next is good counsel (I don’t know where you can get that) that’s because of the depth of human capacity to be mischievous and the statement of William Shakespeare in “Macbeth” that, … there is no art to find man’s construction in the face” moreover people can be pretentious.
In the maintime let me quickly offer this unsolicited advise , which is to remind you that man is nothing but nothing as life itself is nothing but nothing, man realises something from the nothingness of himself by what he stands for and he makes something of the nothingness of life by his positive contributions to life . You have enjoyed an uncommon tremendous goodwill, therefore; the success or failure of your administration is dependent on how you manage the gesture of the people through this voluntary mandate as expressed on Saturday 9th March 2019. Alas!
You will be under equal tremendous pressure as if you are a magician. Unfortunately, the tilts are not only empty, the assets to access are debts to repay. You will be under a very serious predicament you therefore need to keep your thinking cap on, till your head is either bald completely or grey irreversibly. That is the sacrifice for leadership, I’m sure you must be prepared but in truth you need to be more prepared. May God help you. Amen.
To us the electorates, we need to be patient and be ready for more sacrifices because the past years were the years of locusts so much damage have been visibly done talk less of damage yet unknown.
To the former leader, he deserves our pity than torrent of insults. Yes, he had committed so much “errors” wittingly or otherwise, he has been alleged to have pillaged our commonwealth, deliberately suppressing the development of the state and individuals, empowering people from Lagos and Abeokuta above the locals and indigenes.
I am specifically miffed and critically sad on two occasions about Federal Character Commission. The first instance was when he fought overtly, tooth and nail that Prof. Oba AbdulRaheem, OFR, must not be returned as the Executive Chairman of Federal Character Commission in 2012, that battle he lost but he won in 2015 when he obstinately refused to clear Dr. Alimi AbdulRazak as the Executive Chairman of the same Commission. Only someone like me will know what the state has lost by that singular act, to date, the Commission never had a substantive Executive Chairman.
Look at the mysterious way of God’s doing, the younger brother of the same man whom he despisely denied of the opportunity is one of those who dethroned his reign ignobly. Dr. Ibrahim Yahya Oloriegbe who was seen as a nobody and whom he rypically looked down upon as an unequal match earnned the support of God and the populace and in the twinkle of an eye Allah regalled him with the noble garment of David and dressed the former leader with filthy dress of arrogance worn by goliath and the rest is indelible history in the annals of the state. Only God is powerful, only God is able, only God is irreplaceable. No man can fight God, but the former leader fought God by playing god.
One of the most heinous sin against God is competing with Him mimetically or otherwise. No man plays God and ends the scene alive, such are destroyed with ignominy before the denouement of the act. Sadly, none of the clergymen brought these shortcomings to his notice, “all hail the king” was the song, leading the elephant to the precipice of destruction.
What a pity! Life is nothing but “a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing”, yet, I still submit that he deserves our pity because of the impending consequences of sacrilegious crimes against humanity committed and flippant disregard for Allah’s commandments on goodness to parents. This is just the beginning of a possibly long trip to Armageddon and oblivion, in waiting for possible forgiveness or the wrath of God.
No man makes his parent(s) eternally sad and live eternally happy. No man ridicules his father and remain glorious,no man incurres the wrath and curses of his parent and remain distinguished not here in this world nor in the hereafter.
Therefore, the clergy men who have lived fat on him should not boycott him now but teach him how to seek repentance from the offended spirit of the dead, if possible and to seek forgiveness from God. He must seek forgiveness from the people of the state individually and collectively and at the same time give back unto ceaser what is ceaser’s, otherwise the judgement of God is near as this humpty dumpty fall is just symptomatic, the wrath of God is progressive and revved up. May God safe us and protect us from His wrath.
Congratulations to all those who won the election, but be reminded that it’s not party time but work time.
Abdulbaqi Jimoh writes from Ilorin, Kwara State
