Date: 2015-09-06

Setting agenda for genuine development

Title: Letters To The Emir - A Vision For A Heterogeneous Kwara State

Author: Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo

Publishers: Integrity Publications, Lagos

Year of Publication: 2015

No of pages: 256

Reviewer: Yemi Adurotoye

In the book, devoted for mails addressed to the Emir of Ilorin, Iyiola Oyedepo explicitly and graphically detailed his thoughts on how public affairs and governance should be handled in Kwara State.

Passion for growth is a key factor that spurs development in a community, state or the country. Man must become so obsessed with positive attitude to bring about sustainable progress. When Obafemi Awolowo, the late sage and first premier of the Western region, sat down and crafted 'The Path To Nigeria Freedom' and various other books that showed his concern for Nigeria as well as pointing the direction he believed the nation should sail, not many of his contemporaries took him serious. Later years, when things had gone awry as Nigeria nation was held down by forces of underdevelopment, the late sage was to be described by the Emeka Ojukwu, Ikemba Nnewi, as 'the best president Nigeria never had'. How unfortunate it was for the country!

To win a soccer competition, there is need for planning; there is need for master-stroke strategies. To start with, both the coach and the technical adviser must agree on the best eleven to field for the match. The match commissioner and the referees must be impartial. These are some of the needed rules and conditions to get the best result from a match that would be free of protest or rejection of result. The same principle, and even much more, applies to managing the affairs of a state.

In the book, Letters To The Emir, Oyedepo speaks the truth to power, presenting long and different epistles to the Emir of Ilorin. He was frank and straight-forward. His choice of the revered monarch was not born out of unnecessary boldness, but great concern for the development of Kwara State. He regards the Emir as the father figure for all people in Kwara, and more so, his position endures. Perhaps, his stance could spur the Emir to sit the political class and notable stakeholders in the state to discuss how best the state should be run for the benefit of all and sundry.

The author, a political scientist, lawyer, farmer and politician, in the 256-page book, set agenda for genuine development of his home state, Kwara. The book comprises 27 lengthy mails addressed to the Emir of Ilorin and each one makes a chapter. One needs not bore readers with chapter-by-chapter account of the book, but to let them have the kernel of the message conveyed with copious references to some expressions of the author. It is a must-read, particularly for all stakeholders in the Kwara project, and generally for students of politics, politicians, traditional leaders, community leaders and those interested in developing capacity for visionary leadership.

Oyedepo, a past cabinet member and lawmaker in the state, does not lose sight of the heterogeneity of the state, but described it as an experiment in political engineering. It is pertinent to ask: Why would a state remain an experiment after 48 years of statehood? The author's explanation suffices: "Kwara is made up of people with different cultural and historical identities, but united by force of arms, superior Islamic learning, intimidation, political oppression and threat of violence." To him, interactions across ethnic lines are characterized by distrust and suspicions of one another; these informed his call for 'a new thinking, a new vision'.

The new vision he talks about is that of an egalitarian society where everybody will have equal opportunity. He canvassed fairness and justice because he knows that injustice breeds agitation, violence, chaos, destruction and separation. He believes war of conquest is, today, of history; but it is time to build an enduring relationship among the various ethnic and interest groups in the state. True to his fear, the Kwara state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, raised the scepter of hostility to fight marginalization of Christians in the state last year even as Igbomina people agitated for the creation of Igbomina State, while the Ekiti in Kwara are working out ways to have boundary adjustment to realign with their kith and kin in Ekiti state.

The corporate existence of Kwara as a state is thus being threatened. And the sources of the threat are many. Ethnic rat-race to overtake and dominate others has manifested in nepotism, prebendalism, favoritism, tribalism and red-tapism. To drive home this point, Oyedepo analyzed the administrative officers in the state civil service who are within levels 8 – 17, senatorial district-by-senatorial district, and found out that Kwara central has 131, which is more than the number that both Kwara south and Kwara north had, which are 55 and 66 respectively. Pitiably, Oke-Ero local council area did not have more than two of this cadre of civil servants out of a total figure of 252, meanwhile Ilorin west can boast of 54 of these officers.

The above trend is replicated in appointments, promotions and citing of government projects across the state. Oyedepo, who is also the chairman of People's Democratic Party, PDP, in the state, enjoins the royal father not to take quietude of people for existence of harmony. His reason for this is not far to seek, "in a society that parades multi-ethnic groups and diverse culture, unequal opportunity and favouritism are potential threat to good relationship. No side should be made to eat the crumbs from the master's table."

In the eighth mail, he acknowledges that Kwara North senatorial district is one in dire need of developmental projects, urging the people not to sit on the fence, but be articulate and defend their district to attract to them what they are really entitled to. Writing on resource control in the tenth letter, Akogun, who is fondly called, enjoins the Emir to develop passionate interest in the greater Kwara project and convince the people, particularly the other ethnic groups – Igbomina, Ibolo, Ekiti, Nupe and Baruba about it because unity is a prerequisite for development; only leaders that believe in divide-and-rule that will not encourage it.

Akogun decries the unwholesome exploitation of women's weakness for political advantage and the use of money to establish "democratic dictatorship", describing the situation as monstrous. "How can one person dictate for the governor, his deputy, all National Assembly members, 24-member state House of Assembly, 16 council chairmen and the state commissioners?" the Isanlu-Isin born politician seems to be at loss over the undemocratic scenario. As he reiterates that "Kwara has remained more or less stagnant since 1975", he put the three civilian governors who had been opportune to be in charge of governance since 1999 to responsiveness tests and scored them abysmally low.

It was Frantz Fanon, Afro-Caribbean psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary writer, who wrote the popular "The Wretched of The Earth" that says: "The measure of all intellectual works is the liberation of the people." If "Letter To The Emir" achieves the goal of reviving fairness in the business of governance and unity among Kwara people, which Oyedepo intends, the project would be a worthwhile venture after all.