Thomas Jefferson, 3rd president of the United States, said: “Politics is such a torment that I would advise everyone I love not to mix with it.”
By the same token, John Webster, English dramatist (c.1580-c.1632), said: “A politician imitates the devil, as the devil imitates a cannon; wheresover he comes to do mischief, he comes with his backside towards you.”
The signs of acute political hatred in Kwara came to the fore shortly before the 2019 general election. It came to a head when Bukola Saraki, a former Senate president, was said to have been rejected wholesale in his own state. The hatred culminated in the formation of ‘Otoge Movement’ which aimed at ending his powerful influence in the political affairs of the state.
He was branded as power drunk and many Kwarans questioned why it must be Saraki’s family all the time. His blood sister, Gbemi, who also was engaged in war of attrition, politically, had also provided some stones for the catapult that left her brother’s forehead shattered in a manner reminiscent of the battle between David and Goliath.
Bukola’s political foes were united in one spirit and mission- to send him on political retirement.
Since the overthrow of Saraki, as it were, he has faced a lot of buffetings from political enemies.
On Thursday, January 2, 2020, a day after the world welcomed a brand new year, the state government rolled out some caterpillars to mow down a building said to have been erected by Bukola’s father, Olusola Saraki, who himself was a political juggernaut of his time, where the aged people lived.
Expectedly, the former Senate president was so shocked at the level of audacity that he said that Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq had crossed the line of decency. Many people also concurred.
The demolition has continued to generate reactions, as everyone with conscience believes that Governor Abdulrazaq went too far. The governor acted as though he would be the governor of Kwara State eternally.
Unexpectedly also, Gbemi reacted sharply against the unfortunate development, justifying the saying that blood is thicker than water.
In her condemnation of the demolition, Gbemi, who was compensated with the post of minister of state for transportation for allegedly providing the secret that ousted her brother from political relevance, said: “The level of force and violence that the governor chose to adopt was totally unwarranted. What resistance to protest justifies firing live ammunition and tear-gassing old women?”
In her fury over the development, she added: “I condemn in totality the actions taken on Thursday 2nd January 2020 by Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, especially unleashing terror and mayhem on innocent defenseless aged women simply exercising their right to peaceful protest.”
The minister was not only disappointed in the attitude of the governor, she called out the entire All Progressives Congress (APC) family, complaining that she had been unfairly treated, despite all that she stands for in the party.
Reports had it that mobile policemen in their hundreds besieged the Ile-Arugbo (house for the aged) in the early hours of the ill-fated day, shooting sporadically into the air and tear-gassing anybody in sight while the demolition lasted.
Kola Shittu, state chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), said the demolition was shocking and unfortunate.
“The issue of the land was being treated as if it was a stolen land and it was not. It was allocated and there is a letter of allocation written by the government which allocated it,” Shittu said.
What the governor has done will continue to reverberate even after his current tenure. Pundits say it may signal his nemesis on his political trajectory.
Since the development, sentiment has continued to swing in favour of the Sarakis. The thinking in some quarters is that the ordeal may once again unite the Saraki family, a possibility which observers said would again make them formidable in the politics of the state.
Some observers have challenged Gbemi to go beyond belly-aching and resign his ministerial appointment as a proof of her disappointment over the insult hurled at her father and the house of her father.
It is condemnable for elected political office holders to hide under politics to pursue personal vendetta.
It was Tom (Thomas Jennerly) Wolfe, 1931- American journalist and novelist that said: “It is very comforting to believe that leaders who do terrible things are, in fact, mad. That way, all we have to do is make sure we don’t put psychotics in high places and we’ve got the problem solved.”
