O to gee backlash!

By Sulaiman Salawudeen

 

It was gripping, summative and sweeping. It was apt and succinct. It was effective and effectual. O to gee (Yoruba coinage for ‘enough is enough!’) was an invocational chant, or so it seemed, crafted quite suddenly at the height of intrigues in the run up to the last general elections that sounded the mortal knell, perhaps finally, upon the political dynasty of late Dr. Olusola Saraki and that of his son, Dr. Bukola Saraki, two-time governor of Kwara State and former president of Nigeria’s Senate. Prime beneficiary of that unprecedented political deluge, call it conflagration if you like, is no other than current governor of the state, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.

Politics is intrigues and intrigues politics. No error! Here, we are instructed, you don’t have permanent friends. You have only permanent interests. Interests?

Yes, interests! How to attain the seat of power – at whatever level – and retain that for AS LONG AS POSSIBLE(!), irrespective and regardless of existing laws or constitutional provisions; how to call the shorts in organisations and establishments and corner the fortunes, cash and kind. In short, how to possess the heavens while just here on the earth-plane!

Presidents of nations, governors of states, leaders across broad spectrums have often chosen to bare their basest to twist and swing pendulums in their own favours.

Many who started out as friends have ended as arch rivals. Allegiances are shifted in cross-carpet runs that alter entire fate of commoners, what the soviet would call ‘the hoi polloi’, for good.

Lives may be lost, properties may be burnt, a sea of refuges may be unleashed and poverty – the kind that has reduced entire lot to crass beggary, may worsen! Here, ‘might’ – politics granted might – is right! So long as whatever moves cater for the calculations, even if and when such are blatantly insane and self-serving!

O to gee has come and may take some time to die off. As a deluge, it this time is not threatening to sweep voters away from the Sarakis as it did in 2019 to deny them four decades or more hold on political leadership of the state, it (the o to gee mantra)  is consuming one of the family’s valued acquisitions within the metropolis of Ilorin, state capital, named Ile Arugbo (House for the aged/elderly – built on a sprawling land-space located not in a remote, far off Oke Oyi or Ganmo nook, but within very cherished precincts of the GRA, at the very heart of the town.

The property, brought down just few days ago, on the orders of the state government, as sanctioned by the assembly, was said to have been built by Olusola Saraki, father of former senate president, Bukola, who, as godfather to many wielders in and about the state then, used same, a bungalow, for empowerment programmes for old women.

The governor had noted in his revocation order that the land was originally meant for the construction of the phase II of the Kwara State Civil Service Secretariat and a parking space for both the civil service clinic and the secretariat.

Claims and counter-claims upon the land occupied by Ile Arugbo have expectedly ensued in consequence of the seizure or repossession.

Bukola Saraki is opposed to it. This is not unlikely. Who would not one to protect his own father’s legacy? But governor AbdulRazaq’s decision to demolish the building and return land ownership to the state had followed a resolution of the state House of Assembly which, in backing the move, maintained “it was arbitrarily taken over in the 1990s without any evidence of payment by the Asa Investment Limited, even though the land was meant for public use.”

The secretariat project was said to have been awarded at the time to Alhaji Ado Ibrahim’s company by then General Innih’s administration.

But the project was abandoned at foundation level, while subsequent administrations, including that of Saraki the son, consolidated the abandonment.

So far, there has been no concrete counter-claims from the wronged Saraki, save a lame statement commending his supporters for having staged a road show of solidarity, assuring – “The family will challenge the move”, noting the  move by Governor AbdulRazaq was another version of a so-called witch-hunt by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Who is on the side of the law, who is acting or has acted in opposition to the law? Time will answer that.

For now, someone may be quick to notice the contradiction arising from the location of Ile Arugbo and the purpose it is claimed to serve.

Rather than a restricted, often well-guarded location like a GRA, where old people would want to interact with only sparingly and would ordinarily not want to come near, why not in a place like Okesuna, or other locations within the capital, where real Arugbos (old people) live and where others could be asked to join them, for empowerments?

Read Also:  Saraki’s house demolition: Lack of foresight by Kwara Gov – Groups

 

Another issue regards the ownership! If this is really a building for the elderly lot, such should be the owners! The building should therefore be one of the many state-owned buildings to be constantly renovated and maintained by government to remain useful for the elderly lot.

Ownership by a single person of a building meant to serve a section of the community within a GRA raises concerns, in a way!

For now, one can only urge caution, especially on part of those who feel government has short-changed the Sarakis. If the power of politics had indeed been invoked to corner what belonged to everyone, the courts would settle need-fully.

That an erroneous move was acceptable in the Neolithic age when humans could hardly see, does not make same right when advancement of age and trends of time have sent blindness packing in quite staggering, ramifying regards! Blindness, as a condition of ocular impossibility, has never been and can never be a choice.

It is almost always imposed by unwanted fate. That a possible error has lasted long enough to be forgotten does not make same right.

But ‘O to gee’ may be a slogan produced by politics in a restricted corner of the country; it sure has implications that transcend that realm.

No more should fleeting personalities and parsonages apply transient powers to corner common possession and hoodwink posterity.

What produced O to gee was not acceptance or satisfaction with the status quo ante, as represented by the Sarakis, it was the opposite of that, a situation arising from long-standing resentment towards an openly hegemonic dynasty.

The ferment of renewal and age of reversal, the spirit of which the slogan encapsulates, however predated the Kwara experience, given developments elsewhere across the country.

That spirit must be allowed to replicate and fester by occupiers of political offices across the tiers, across the country, to make Nigeria a country of all, liveable for all. Let Nigerian leaders wake up to a new challenge!