Bye for now, Your Excellency Alabi — our brotherhood will resume when your phones stop ringing
By Olukayode Thomas, Lagos
The one-year review of O to Ge Revolution in Kwara State by this reporter received compliments and condemnation. While condemnations by court jesters and those who don’t know the reporter are inconsequential, the vituperation of the deputy-governor Kayode Alabi was shocking, OLUKAYODE THOMAS reports.
My assessment of the 365 days of O to Ge Revolution in Kwara, published May 29, 2020, provoked diverse reactions.
While most agreed with my conclusion that Abdulrahman Abdulrasak who promised us a revolution is struggling to maintain the status quo, members of the AGIP (Any Government in Power) Political Party have taken to social media to abuse and insult me.
In a country where being an e-rat to political office holders is now a full time occupation for jobless bootlickers, I was not surprised by their reactions.
Some of them called me a Sarakite, some alleged that I was disappointed because I didn’t get an appointment.
Abila’s Reaction Still Shocking
While comments of those who barely know me are inconsequential, the outburst of the Deputy Governor, Alabi was not only shocking but was also disappointing. He descended low enough to use negative adjectives against me and also unleashed members of his Deputy Governor Think-Tank to do same.
There is a popular saying that ‘a friend in government is lost’. I think it should also include a brother in government is lost.
I have known Abila, as the deputy governor is called by close associates, for about four decades. What endeared him to me was that he abhors injustice. I remember his many fights on behalf of the poor masses.
I remember his many battles against the Saraki Political Structure. I remember him telling me how his father, the original Abila, fought any form of injustice.
I recollect Abila disparaging his childhood friends for following Bukola Saraki. I can’t forget his snubbing Fatah Ahmed at Johannesburg Airport for agreeing to serve as commissioner under Saraki nor his vigorous campaigns against Ahmed when he contested against Dele Belgore.
I also know him as a liberal who respects people’s opinion. When his older brother was campaigning for Ahmed, he was working for Belgore. Yet they meet at home every day without exchanging blows or insults.
When he formed the National Progressives, a support group for President Muhammadu Buhari, he respected my critical views of Buhari and always appealed to other members to do same.
I didn’t know Teacher has been teaching me nonsense until the ferocious attack last week.
I wonder if it was the same Abila that regularly came to our office, before the election, to paint the picture of how Kwara will work like five fingers to my General Manager Yussuf Alli and I from May 29, 2019.
Is this the same Abila that made me the Chairman of the Sports Think-Tank Committee and assured me that Abdulrasak will develop sports at the grassroots?
Apart from writing a sports policy, I also did extensive work on healthcare, tourism, education, entertainment and the building of an O to Ge Park to sustain the spirit of the revolution.
Thank God I sent him a WhatsApp message on May 28, 2019 that all I did for O to Ge was my voluntary contribution to Kwara and that I don’t want any appointment. If I had not, he may probably insinuate that I wrote the review because I was not invited to come and chop.
Between a Reporter and a Snake-Like Former Sarakite
It even got so ridiculous that some Kwarans led by a former Sarakite insinuated that I was acting on behalf of Saraki Political Structure.
I met Saraki one on one only once in my life. That was when he came to watch the Super Eagles play Germany in Cologne in 1998. A senior colleague Gboyega Okegbenro, invited me to breakfast with Saraki on the morning of the match. Then, Saraki was a banker.
Then at the 2006 edition of the NMMA, which Kwara hosted, Saraki’s disappointment that a Kwaran was not announced as winner turned into joy when I was announced as one of the winners. His aides then told me then that the Governor would love to meet me, but I couldn’t make it.
When I came to volunteer for Buhari’s campaign in Kwara between 2014/15, I saw Saraki at a distance because he was also supporting Buhari. I worked and voted for Buhari at Oluwe Compound in Offa. I did not even vote APC or any other party in the subsequent elections. After Buhari was declared winner, I moved back to Lagos. The records are with INEC.
When Saraki was gunning for Senate President, I did some analysis on why he would win, which came to pass.
I wrote to him as President of the Senate and to the Presidency that they should stop the Ministry of Sports and Youth Development’s request for funds to participate in the 2018 World Cup because it was a scam. When Saraki and the Presidency refused to stop the scam, I wrote again that PDP/APC United in Corruption.
Now compare my relationship with Saraki with the cheerleader of “he is a Sarakite” group. This is a man that served Olusola Saraki till death and was rewarded by Oloye paying his children’s school fees in the United States.
He served Bukola Saraki as Commissioner and in other capacities. His closeness to Fatah Ahmed did not stop him from secretly working for Okere in the 2011 gubernatorial election.
When Ahmed won and Oloye nominated him for appointment, he hurriedly accepted to serve. His being given a less prestigious portfolio was irrelevant. All that mattered was stomach infrastructure.
Apart from Oloye, Bukola was always there for him. When his daughter was getting married in 2018 and he was financially stranded, Bukola bailed him out with N4 million.
He made millions of naira whenever he produced a special publication for Oloye’s birthdays.
The gambit was simple. Oloye’s political associates are coaxed to place adverts congratulating him. Meanwhile, Oloye had paid the full cost of the publication. He did the same thing recently for his new master to commemorate his 365 days in office.
How did he repay the Sarakis? He not only insulted them severally, but he was the one that organized the press conference when Ile Arugbo was to be demolished. My people will say-ti iresi ba pa okuta se enu oni bara lo ye ka ti gbo.
Abdulrasak should beware of people like this cheer leader. The extent to which they can go to bootlick is beyond human reasoning.
For example, he sacked a reporter at The Herald because the reporters’ brother – who works for a media house in Lagos – wrote a story against Bukola. When Bukola heard this, he was dumbfounded and immediately ordered the recall of the reporter.
All he is doing now is merely to position himself as media consultant to the state government.
Opportunity to Be a Carpetbagger With Ahmed
As a reporter at Next Newspapers, I wrote a story Bio Mind the Gap. The story led to Hon. Ibrahim Isah Bio inviting me to work with him.
After months of making giant strides in the Ministry – including cancelling the use of Hampshire Hotel, a roadside hotel hired as camp for the Super Eagles by NFF for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, sending corrupt football officials to Kuje prison, stopping the hiring of a faulty plane to take Super Eagles to the World Cup, starting the football league reform, winning the women Nations Cup, success at the Commonwealth Games and other achievements – Bio resigned to contest for the PDP gubernatorial ticket.
His main opponent was Ahmed, whose wife Omolewa Ahmed was like my younger sister and his personal assistant, Gbolahan was like my son.
My childhood friend married Omolewa’s sister. We all stayed together at Gbolahan’s mother’s house in Surulere and Ahmed used to visit. While I was working for Bio, they were working for Ahmed. We normally met every evening at Phoenix Hotel and banter.
When Saraki picked Ahmed over Bio, a more experienced and astute administrator than Bio, I simply packed my bags and moved back Lagos.
Going by his antecedents, the cheer leader of ‘he is a Sarakite’ group would most likely move into Ahmed’s camp immediately to curry favour.
For eight years that Omolewa was first Lady in Kwara, I didn’t visit or call her. When I was in Kwara to work for Buhari as a volunteer and Gbolahan came to the secretariat and we met by chance, people were surprised at the way he greeted me and the respect he showed. They urged me to move closer to him but I didn’t call him once through my seven months stay in Kwara.
The former Sarakite who betrayed father and son would be making daily pilgrimage to the Government House if he were in my shoes.
AA and Education
When I wrote that Governor Abdulrasak is not educated most people thought it’s just about his controversial school certificate, but it’s more than that.
Though tons of certificates are good, but the quality of your decisions is the best parameter that shows your level of education. In 365 days, Abdulrasak’s decision making has been terrible and I highlighted all these in my review of his 365 days.
A revolution cannot be called a success if it produces a government that maintains the status quo. With dwindling revenue from oil, Abdulrasak has not shown us how he intends to make Kwara less dependent on Abuja.
We are still waiting for his developmental plan for Kwara in all the sectors after 365 days in office.
Abdulrasak’s e-rats have flooded social media with the pictures of the schools he renovated. Is renovation of some secondary schools equivalent to quality education?
What about the teachers and educational materials? What about the foundation, which is the primary schools?
If State Government schools in Kwara are now world class, how many of Abdulrasak’s Vulvuzelas send their children to these schools?
Kunle Sulyman and Offa Christian Community
Elder statesman Kunle Sulyman has been celebrating Abdulrasak’s achievement in 365 days, claiming it is better than 16 years of Saraki and Ahmed. While the duo have enough media aides to defend them, I just want to remind Sulyman that agba ki wa ni oja ki ori omo tuntun wo.
There is no individual in this world, no matter how intelligent and wise, that can turn around a state in 365 days. What Kwarans expect from Abdulrasak and his team in 365 days is to lay the foundation for a prosperous and self-reliant Kwara but he and his weak team have frittered that opportunity in the last 365 days; but it is not too late for them to start now.
As for Abdulrasak’s tremendous achievements in 365 days, its either Sulyman is living in another Kwara and not same Kwara where people are currently suffering and not smiling.
In Offa, Abdulrasak’s major achievement is giving most of the appointment in the city to Muslims as if there are no Christians in Offa. If Abdulrasak’s friends who give the names of nominees from Offa don’t want us in Offa, they may send us to Igosun, Erin-Ile or Ojoku.
As for Abila, let him enjoy his new stature. We will meet again when his phones stop ringing.
Thomas is a Lagos-based reporter
