Date: 2014-09-13

My father, God bless him, has always emphasized that for one to avoid disgrace, one must learn to always speak the truth. And in my upbringing, the moral influence of my father has been much more important than any other trainings I have received, whether formal or informal. This explains why I will never speak in support of anyone if I don't suspect or believe that such a person has truth on his side. If I do otherwise, I will have betrayed all the morality and forthrightness that my father bequeathed to me.

In recent times, I have written a lot in support of Bola Shagaya's family, especially Alhaji Sherif Shagaya who is warming up to contest the House of Representatives elections to represent Ilorin West/Asa Federal Constituency. Many of these write-ups I have done because I believe in the inalienable right of all to aspire to greater heights in life, without being encumbered by the perceived wrongdoings of others. I also believed in the candidacy of Alhaji Sherif Shagaya because of the reasons I enumerated in my earlier piece on the same subject (please check "Abuja Politicians" With Real Values).

Of course there would hardly be a protagonist without antagonist. So in my effort to lay bear the content of my heart, based on my convictions, I have incurred the wrath of a few protagonists, with the feasible one being Abdulraheem Salman. In his last piece titled "By Their Words We Shall Know Them", he said Kwarans do not care about what would be but rather what was. That is, Kwarans demand to know from the Shagaya family what they have done for Kwara State and not what they intend to do. This was also an obvious response to another article I wrote titled 'Sherif Shagaya's good tidings'.

To be honest, I didn't know what help the Shagaya family has rendered Ilorin or Kwara people in the past. And that was why instead of saying what I didn't know, I smartly lectured Kwara electorates on the need to desist from voting people into offices based on what they have given or would give. This was the subject of my last piece titled 'The past shouldn't be too distant'. Today, I now know that the Shagaya family has helped countless Ilorin people in the past (yesterday), it is helping many more Ilorin people presently (today) and they plan to do more in future (tomorrow).

Thanks to one faceless guy on Facebook who simply identified himself as TRUE VOICE, I can now confirm to the Salmans of Kwara State that the Shagaya family is not just about what could be, but also about what was and was is. Yes, Alhaji Sherif plans to empower his Constituency when he is elected into the House of Representatives, but it is not just about promises alone. The Shagaya family has rendered significant help to Ilorin people, much more than even the benefitiaries would admit. At least that is what we now know from the revelations of our anonymous TRUE VOICE.

Indeed, the Shagaya family as a whole didn't help matter by refusing to disclose the help they have rendered Ilorin and by extension Kwara people. But may be this is strategic and deliberate, or simply a very honest adherence to the religious warning that even the right hand must not know the favour done by the left. Whether or not this is politically correct is something I will leave the Shagaya family itself to determine.

Many may query why I have not ask Alhaji Sherif Shagaya himself, since I have access to him, what his family has done to help Kwara people. Why does it have to be a supposed TRUE VOICE, writing from far away Lagos, that is informing me (us) of the philantrophic efforts of the Shagayas? The truth is that I have asked Alhaji Sherif countless number of time to come out with the list of assistance they have rendered Ilorin people, if there is any. But each time I raise this subject, Sherif would simply tell me that "the people we (Shagaya family) assisted know themselves".

Like Blaise Pascal said, there are people who are "so made that they cannot believe". But I am not one of these unbelievers. I believe everything that anonymous True voice guy wrote in his Facebook post. For me, it would have been pleasantly surprising for a family to have the sort of wealth the Shagaya family has and turn blind eyes to the misery of their own people. In fact, that would be a wickedness that not devil himself could have contemplated. But I am happy the family is not as wicked as the Salmans want us to believe.

Among the many help rendered Ilorin and Kwara people, as enumerated by TRUE VOICE include:

* Distribution of fertilizer to Kwara farmers through the FGN-GES programme

* Creating employment for Kwara indigenes

* Facilitating job placements in Federal agencies and parastatals

* Helping with Federal government appointments

* Religious donations, specifically towards the rebuilding of Ilorin Central Mosque

* Annual Ramadan donation

The details of what TRUE VOICE wrote can be found on his Facebook page.

In conclusion, I would like to observe that one thing that has always dominate public discourse in Ilorin is that many people often tend to put forward arguments that come not from facts but from imaginations and wishful thinking. But lack of belief in a family or hatred for them should not make us to deny the existence of truth and reason, because what this guy from Lagos (True voice) shared with us sticks closely to the truth. This is even more so as the guy claimed to have evidences to back up every statement he made. Now let the unbelievers and the naysayers challenge the truth so that we can now also know them by their own words.

Abdullahi writes from Abuja