Date: 2015-05-23

I have always said that a wise man is wealthier than the financially buoyant, but when an individual is endowed with affluence and wisdom; he leads even though people might detest it. In consequence, this article is merely an appeal to those who are endowed with the exceptional faculty that money cannot buy.

Is Senator Bukola Saraki as black as many critics have struggled to paint him recently? Is he such an emotionally-removed man, or truly possessed by the selfless soul of his generous father, a philanthropist who died a few years ago in the struggle for the emancipation of Kwarans? These are questions that warrant my putting pen to paper about the personality in question; because Shaykh Adam Abdullah Al-Alori of blessed memory had warned that whoever adopted indifference in matters of politics, would end up living like a dead wood.

Years of careful observation have taught me a lot. One thing I have learnt is that a great achiever is like a chicken with beautiful plumage that is never allowed to sit in a corner. I have also learnt never to allow myself to be manipulated by politicians as well as lazy writers who would not endeavour to investigate their report before writing. Thus, I don't subscribe to conspiracy theories from either the politicians or the writers.

From the period Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki was appointed Special Assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo on Budget; when he was responsible for the formulation of essential economic policies, to the time he emerged as the Executive Governor of Kwara State; when Kwara completed the Nigeria Independent Power Project, the overtones of envy against his person remain unprecedented, especially when one weighs the scale of criticism now that he aspires to lead the 8th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The tendentious allegations sustained enough interest amongst the citizenry, to the extent that many openly prayed for and against him. This was as a result of the excessive, high falutin articles penned by some key-board critics. However, it takes wisdom to understand that, on many occasions; the stands of these writers were quite difficult to substantiate, let alone getting to grip with. Findings have shown that there is nothing substantial enough to warrant pointing out which bit of their frothily scripted articles against Bukola Saraki is true and which is cooked. In fact, many of these critics are still wallowing in perpetual ignorance to understand that courts have; on many occasions; cleared the Senator from alleged bank loan frauds, just as the almighty EFCC had thrown in the towel in respect to the cases of mismanagement of fund levelled against him.

This is the reason I once asked: where are these critics coming from, beyond the borders of Kwara or within? If they are fellow Kwarans, I appeal that they need not throw the baby out with the bath water. This is because the cornfield that is far from its owners abode might be feasted upon by the birds. But if they are from the beyond, I ask, do they, like the Yoruba adage; feign to know Oso more than the mother of Oso?

In 2013, I learnt another great lesson when my poem ‘The Hypocritical Elite’ was announced as the best in Texas, USA. Immediately, I smacked the screen of my computer and I re-read the poem; it was while re-reading the poem that I discovered that the second stanza was badly punctuated. I picked my phone and called Nancy Biddle who was a member of IWA in Montreal, Canada: "I saw my emergence in the IWA-2013 poetry contest as a miracle because the punctuation was not good enough." Then, she replied: "you won simply because your poem was beautiful; and no beautiful thing is perfect."

However, distinguished Senator Bukola Saraki remains the beautiful leader of Kwara politics; and in the words of my Canadian colleague, a beautiful thing is never perfect. It takes a traitor to the cause of Kwara political emancipation to rejoice at the prospect of Bukola Saraki losing the third most revered seat in Nigeria.

As I fervently pray for the best in advancement for Nigeria and Kwara state in particular, we need, therefore, to guard against eating when the food is not ready; as well as speaking when the time is not right. While the former may lead to an internal complication, the latter might precipitate an external destruction; not just of the irrational critic, but of our collective image as harmonious people.

Sheriff Olanrewaju writes from Ilorin