Reading through the latest vituperations by another PDP stalwart in Kwara State, Gbenga Awoyale, on their so-called agenda to liberate Kwara from whatever they perceive as the source of trouble for the people of the state, it has become very glaring that Awoyale and his ilk, who unfortunately have found a voice in the moribund PDP in the state, are truly and sincerely confused, conceited and attention-seeking.

It is expedient to let the public know that Awoyale is not representing the true and genuine Igbomina people. He might have granted the interview as President of Orisun Igbomina, but the focus of his attack definitely does not represent the true feelings of the genuine Igbomina people.

Grateful, Awoyale came out openly to explain why he and his ilk are against Bukola Saraki, the man God has ordained to be the political leader of Kwara State at this point in time. “I don’t have any personal grouse against him, except for his arrogance and rudeness to elders and Kwarans in general. It was during the tenure of Bukola Saraki that indigenous contractors were relegated to the lowest status.” If these are not “personal grouse” one wonders what else could be personal than a man’s perceived disposition. Their grouse is not about the affairs of the state but their individual stomach. I shall return to these some other time.

Beyond these two ‘offences’, to wit; arrogance and low patronage of indigenous contractors,’ every other issue in the vituperations by Awoyale are mere assumptions.

Let us ask Awoyale, who are the elders Saraki has offended with his ‘arrogance’? We don’t need to look further, they are the likes of Awoyale; people who see themselves as the exclusive ‘must’ for the state to patronise in the distribution of political opportunities, whereas the leader is asking for an expansion of that group to include other Kwarans who are equally endowed with skill and talent to bring more glory to the state of Kwara. If Awoyale’s ‘elders’ have had their ways, the likes of Bolaji Abdullahi, the son of an ordinary tailor, would not have had the opportunity to become a special assistant, special adviser, commissioner and ultimately minister of the Federal republic of Nigeria. If Awoyale’s ‘elders’ have had their ways, there would have been no way for a Zakari Mohammed, an ordinary journalist, to travel the same route with Bolaji Abdullahi in the state and today renowned member of the Federal House of Representatives. Nor would the likes of AbdulFattah Ahmed, who, today sits in honour as Chief Executive Officer of the state have dreamt beyond being a banker.

That is the arrogance Saraki displayed against the ‘elders’. You would wonder what sort of elders these are. The same elders who almost ran the state aground with the “Omo Alfa Agba” symphony?

Their eldership is that of the stomach and self. Awoyale said his group of elders are angry because Saraki did not consult them before joining the APC. No, he would not consult them because he knows them enough. The Bible says Jesus did not entrust himself to those around him because he knew them enough. Saraki knows that they would have constituted a big clog in the wheel of political movement that has become the instrument of the divine in the reformation of Nigeria.

Saraki became arrogant to them when he sought another man to replace one of them who has enjoyed federal and state patronage for more over a decade. When he was fixing their likes into positions, he was not ‘an arrogant young man’ but the moment he sought to give others, especially tested professionals hitherto excluded from the realm of authority, opportunities of a life time, he became arrogant. It is a class war but Saraki cannot lose because unlike the selfish ‘elders’, this real elder and leader has the people, the majority of the commoners with him.

The second issue is also driven by self-serving desire of the ‘elders’. Check out who the ‘indigenous contractors’ Saraki has neglected are and you will discover they are the same set of ‘elders’. They are the ones who believe that the economic pot of the state must always remain within their circle of influence, so that they can continually dip their hands and eat as much as they can, even when others are out there who needs to be equally empowered. Pathetic enough, some of them retired individuals in their late sixties who want to spend their children’s opportunities.

Awoyale made several crass assumptions about governance in several of his statements in an interview, another one of them being about the ‘fixing’ by Saraki of non-indigenes in position in the state. He seems to think that good governance is when only indigenes have access to power. We say no! And we want him to know that unlike the narrow minded approach he and his group of ‘elders’ have about leadership and governance, we consider Kwara a big enough metropolitan community; indeed an amalgamation of several ethnic groups each of which must be given a voice and a representation, no matter how little, in how the affairs of the state is being run.

•Oni, Special Assistant on Information to the Kwara State Governor, writes from Ilorin.