May be, the small number of advisers who were with him then were not honest enough to give him the actual situation report and mindset of the people. Or, may be, the operational protocol within them then didn’t give the room for the subordinate to boldly advise the superior. It did appear like it was a defiant disposition. The rest is history now.
By Shehu Bashir Esq.
Power is a privilege. Abuse of privilege is very ungodly and humanly senseless. In politics, there is no absolute retention of power unless you use the privilege of the power very well, to build a legacy of kindness to others without being selective in your generosity.
What you give is what you get. No emotion, no sentiment and no manipulation can steadily and consistently retain the holding of the power unless you enjoy the eternal trust of the people through your selfless service and measurable good deeds without any element of sanctimony.
Hypocrisy does not confuse the people. They know the man who is real and they know the man who is pretending and deceiving them.
To enjoy that relative trust of the people, you must yield to their yearnings and aspirations. To do this, you must be humble, accessible, available, honest, selfless, engaging, intelligent, consistent, compassionate, respectful, real and credible in your dealings.
Where there are noticeable infractions, which are unavoidable human weaknesses, people expect you as a leader to own up and make amends. You are not supposed to take anything or anyone for granted.
You are not supposed to take a condescending position and assume infallibility on the altar of your privileged political position. If you do, your pride may just come before your fall.
In 2018/2019, there was this posture of certainty and confidence of continuous control of the political ship of the state that Saraki team thought was so solid in their favour.
The presumed assurance of a victory in 2019 general elections was not seen to be threatened by the very glaring voice of dissent by the majority of the people. The more the people spoke, the less they listened.
May be, the small number of advisers who were with him then were not honest enough to give him the actual situation report and mindset of the people. Or, may be, the operational protocol within them then didn’t give the room for the subordinate to boldly advise the superior. It did appear like it was a defiant disposition. The rest is history now.
Fast forward to today, learning from the rope of experience and healing from the injury of defeat, Saraki has been “aggressively” but smartly reaching out to everyone and mending fences with his estranged allies.
He has been doing what a “resurrected” politician will do to be alive again. This is similar to what AC did then to get back the South West states that were lost to the PDP in 2003.
Saraki has been very strategic, smart, calculative and patient with his moves. He is humbly listening and engaging with everyone. He is building bridges and closing the gap of antagonism.
He is reconciling with old friends and making new friends. He is capturing more grounds and winning more hearts. He is not taking any chances. He is not even spending anything monetarily for this, he is just changing his tactics and becoming more realistic with the management of human nature.
He has been winning back considerable number of the people that will make a lot of difference in the outcome of the forthcoming elections.
Like a man determined to have the day again, he is having lesser time to attend to distractions or media distortions. He is not bothered by the noise of ranters who are querying his new principle and calling it “desperation”. He is going house to house to sell and resell himself to the people and canvass for votes for his candidates. He who is breaking the rocks knows what he is looking for.
On the contrary, the “worn-out” dress that Saraki pulled off is what AA is putting on-arrogance and self-conceitedness.
Mr. GAA has remained deaf to the caution and recalcitrant to the warnings. The complacency on his part is a posture of a tactless warrior who is going into a war without knowing the sophisticated weapons the opponent possesses.
The level of consequential naivety is typical of that of a dog that will not heed the warning whistle of the hunter because such is destined to go astray.
A politician who is destined to lose his place will engage in too many political blunders – (1) He will turn his friends into his foes and make friend with his pernicious foes. (2) He will conspire against his friends, political partners, principals and even connive with opponents of his friends. (3) He will be selfish, greedy and corrupt. (4) He will be desperate to ruin the core values of decency to set his own house on fire.
Such a politician may even be holding nocturnal secret meetings with the key opponent of his friend in order to frustrate the political ambition of his friend. He will think there is no eye on him, so, he will start the dirty game of the habitual betrayal.
They will think their subtle secret meetings are hidden, they will not know that nothing is hidden under the sky. Their moves are well documented.
Most times, such an unintelligent politician will resolve to such desperation when they have nothing else to lose. It is obvious that a blind man who is perpetually used to seeing nothing will not care if the house goes into total darkness.
My message is always to the wise ones and not to the dullards or myopic ones.
Kwara is a traditional theatre hall of political lesson. It has taught the nation many lessons on how not to take the electorates for granted and over stretch your goodluck. It will still teach again.
Since learning is endless, Kwara voters are ready and prepared, yet again, to teach the political prodigals how not to mismanage political fortunes. Even if they will run away after the inevitable loss of the election and may never return to politics, they will still be used as an example for those coming after them never to raise their voice in arrogance when they are politically empty by minus zero.
Incumbency may give you certain privileges of government power, but it is never a guarantee to win an election. Any decision of government taken with the imagination that it will influence the votes is the worse ignorant assumption that has made many past leaders fail.
You may be in control of government but you may not be in control of the people. When you create a storm, you should be expecting an implosion of sort from your political compound.
Advertisement does not necessarily sell a product when the people who have used that same product before can simply judge based on their experience with the use of the bad product. The output of governance from the incumbent administration in Kwara state is a bad product. It will not sell again.
For those who have learnt and ready to be humble, we embrace ourselves in forgiveness and move forward in common interest, to move the state forward.
And for those who have never experienced the excruciating pains of personal political defeat, we will help their indiscretions, to remove the cuticle from their hand so that they can experience the pain of political whitlow big time.
Saraki is working to reconcile with everyone and grow back his influence, but our “mutum daya” governor is drifting into stagnation, still standing on false hope, assuming self-superiority and falling more into the ditch of defeat.
Kwarans will give to both of them what they rightly deserve. All I know is that the forgiven will be recalled while the recalcitrant will be outcasted.
All Progressives Congress, APC, is not losing in Kwara state but “apc – anduramuni personal caucus” will lose woefully in the state. Know the difference and be at peace with your decision.
A campaign against the entire AA’s political agenda in the state is not automatically a campaign against the APC as a political party. The end will justify the means.
For APC in Kwara, it is soldier go, soldier come. AA goes, Saraki comes. We know who is leaving the party very soon and who is coming back into the party. We know who is truly supporting the party and the aspiration of President Tinubu and we know who is covertly dinning with the enemies to work against the President. At the right time, the word will speak itself.
In this election, if you don’t “Datiemo”, you may be trusting the wrongest guy. Datiemo before you trust them with your life. Anyone who betrayed you once will betray you again.
Kwara 2027 is for DATIEMO.
God is here!