Growing up in Kwara state and spending the first eighteen years of my life without passing five consecutive nights outside of the state, it is only natural that I heard about the name Olusola Saraki at a very early age, perhaps before I hit five years age mark. Coming from Offa – the traditional seat of opposition politics in Kwara state – it is also almost natural that I am not a big fan of Dr. Olusola Saraki. As a small boy in a community whose political elders had been bruised many times by Saraki's political bulldozer, it is understandable that I grew up hearing all sorts of bad tale about Saraki and the impression stuck in my mind, at least before I became mature enough to read independent materials on politics of past years and formed opinion.

From my study of the history of Offa politics, starting from the pre-independence era, I reached a conclusion that the Saraki versus Offa political battle was only a historical co-incidence. Saraki came to the scene in the late 70's, Offa has been in opposition since 50's. Chief Josiah Sunday Olawoyin, the strongman of Offa politics and our greatest political personality, was one of the leading disciples of Action Group's Chief Obafemi Awolowo who was also jailed with him aftermath of the political crisis of the early 60's. Offa being classified as part of northern Nigeria where NPC was dominant meant Olawoyin and his Offa people, including the patriarch of our own family, Alhaji Salawu Oyewale (a dyed-in-the-wool Awoist, even at close to 100 today), were opposition figures in the North. Olawoyin was elected into the northern parliament where he emerged leader of opposition. That was pre-independence era to First republic, before the military took over and held sway for more than a decade until Obasanjo's transition arrangement opened the next phase of political activities that birthed the second republic.

When Saraki burst into the scene in the late 70's, he pitched his tent with the conservative National Party of Nigeria (NPN), the strongest party in the North. Offa people, expectedly, continued from where they stopped in the first republic – teaming with Chief Obafemi Awolowo's Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). Saraki as the leader of NPN in Kwara state and Olawoyin the leader of UPN meant both personalities cannot be friends, at least when it came to politics. That was the beginning of the Offa/Saraki political rivalry. The point here is, it may not be about Saraki initially, it was more of clash of historical ideologies and affiliations. Offa people only continued where they stopped in the first republic, aligning with their Yoruba brothers in the West. So, whoever emerged as the leader of NPN in Kwara state, even if not Saraki, would never have been in the good political books of Offa people.

Unfortunately, due to the numerical strength of Saraki's strongholds of Kwara Central and Kwara North, Offa was always coming back with bruises anytime we took the war to the Ile l'oke landlord. In 1979, our attempt to produce the civilian governor of Kwara state could not survive the Saraki force as our Chief Olawoyin of UPN lost to Saraki's NPN's Adamu Attah in the guber polls. In 1983, when Olawoyin gave another shot at the seat, internal party arrangements saw him conceding the ticket to Chief Cornelius Adebayo of Oke Onigbin, also of Kwara South. This time, Attah had fallen out with Saraki, and in the latter's attempt to unseat his estranged godson, he threw his weight behind UPN's Adebayo. The rest is history. Adebayo won.

Adebayo lasted only three months in office before Buhari and Idiagbon sacked the civilian government and put virtually all the second republic politicians – including Saraki, Idiagbon's townsman – behind bars. What was elusive to Offa people during the civilian era was to be achieved at last when son of the soil, Group Captain Salaudeen Latinwo, an equally no-nonsense officer like Buhari and Idi Agbon, was appointed military governor of the state – the first and only time Offa person was in control of Kwara state. Saraki was in jail.

Like the political juggernaut that he was, Saraki re-oiled his political machinery and resurfaced during the aborted third republic. For the elections that had already taken place before the gap-toothed General truncated his own transition programme, the Offa and Saraki polarity still played out. Saraki was a key figure in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) while Offa was majorly dominated by the National Republican Convention (NRC). That was the first election I actually witnessed in my life as one Hassan Oyeleke of NRC won the chairmanship seatt of Offa (newly carved out of Oyun then) Local Government. By my assessment, that was also the best administration Offa LG has witnessed as I remember the man's various projects including functional taps in virtually every area and distributing free books to primary school pupils, even though those of us attending private primary schools never benefitted from the free books scheme.

The events of 1999 to date are very recent and I will not bother to rehash them in details here. In 1999, Saraki's All People's Party controlled Kwara, Offa went the way of Alliance for Democracy. With the crash of AD in the 2003 polls, Offa was not spared, as the town, for the first in its more than five decades of opposition, found itself under the control of mainstream party – the PDP. The whirlwind of ACN in the South-West has however returned the community to its traditional opposition politics – Offa is today ACN-controlled while Saraki's (now the son) PDP control every other place.

A cursory look at this chronicle only shows that beyond the Saraki personality, the polarity arises more from ideological differences. Saraki is always finding himself in conservative parties, most of which metamorphosed from their forerunners. For example, political analysts see a historical trend in the politics of NPC, NPN, SDP and PDP on one hand and AG, UPN, AD and to a less extent, ACN, on the other hand. Saraki went with conservative parties throughout these phases, while Offa people are more comfortable with ‘progressive' parties.

There is also this unspoken dimension of Fulani-Yoruba rivalry in the matter. Saraki saw himself as a Fulani and Offa people, far from the Sardauna days before Saraki burst into scene, in our characteristic manner of holding our own against any subjugation –real or imagined – have always seen Saraki as the face of Fulani rule in Kwara. Indeed, the cheapest campaign line against Saraki in Offa is, ‘a vote for Saraki(that is, his candidate) is a sale of our Yoruba birthright to Fulani aristocracy'. It worked wonders, even though it never got us political clout outside our domain, as even the Kwara South senatorial representation, which should be in our kitty as the largest and perhaps most politically conscious community in the zone, was always elusive, no thanks to the Saraki influence in other part of the zone, which made us one-community army. In fact, this factor played openly in the Lawal-Saraki tug of war ahead of 2003 elections, where Offa people preferred and voted for Lawal, who was seen as face of Yoruba in the state. No prize for guessing our votes were not able to secure victory for the retired naval officer.

In truth, Offa's opposition politics has stunted its development as our brothers in the South-West, who we always followed, are, due to jurisdictional constraint, handicapped in helping us, while Saraki's Ilorin always get the chunk of the dividends. To this extent, I understand Offa people's grudges with Saraki. But beyond that, I think politics is all about who is in charge.

At this point, let me confess that I was a secret admirer of Olusola Saraki, even as an Offa man. In the year 2000, a childhood friend of mine had an accident in Abuja (that multiple accident that occurred in Abuja when Bill Clinton came to town, where cars were burnt) and got his face badly burnt, to the extent that I couldn't recognize him again until he introduced himself to me and narrated his story. He needed financial help for surgical operation. The only person that came to his mind was Saraki. He told me he made efforts to see Saraki in his house in Ilorin and actually got some assistance, if I can recall exactly. It may not be sufficient, but the mere fact that this poor boy that Saraki never knew thought of Saraki as his port of call and actually got some assistance makes me imagine how many other people would have benefitted from Saraki's generosity in the last 30 years. I later linked the friend to late Dr. Femi Adekanye, the man I also knew for limitless philanthropy, for further assistance.

I do not endorse amala politics, neither do I support politics of N50 notes to the vulnerable, but I see nothing wrong in a politician throwing his doors open for the needy in the society, especially during the off-peak periods. This is where Saraki stood head and shoulders above every other Nigerian political godfather and why he endured longest.

The talk about Saraki turning Kwara into his political fiefdom also falls short of reason when placed with the fact that he installed other people's children into political positions for more than twenty years and his children are also no less Kwaran, and qualified too.

Like him or hate him, what is not in doubt is that Saraki was a political grandmaster, an aficionado, a juggernaut. His death marked the end of an era – an era that was different thing to different people. And for us in Offa, we may dissent on political matters, he was surely not our number one political enemy, and our traditional ruler, Oba Mufutau Gbadamosi, being one of the earliest VIP callers in Saraki's home when the news of his death broke out, showed that our differences were not as deep-seated. May almighty Allah grant Olooye aljannah.