Sir: The Kwara State rulers are involved in a kind of awijare (Yoruba for: If you don't blow your own trumpet, nobody will blow it for you). One commissioner or special adviser or the other appears on the radio some days in the week to tell Kwarans if they have mended a bridge, filled a pot-hole, sunk a borehole, or anything of that nature. They ask for what the people expect from the government to get done, and they offer explanations or promises, as the case may require. Yes, it is good, and other states may emulate the Kwara rulers.

The reality of the Saraki dynasty is there. A dynasty survives by domesticating traditional rulers, religious leaders, and other powerful influences. In Kwara, the rulers have found a way of domesticating the commercial motorcyclists also. The Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, should learn. I always think that if Senator Bola Tinubu treated Lagosians as Fashola is doing, his party would not have been popular.

There is peace in Kwara State, but sometime, not very long ago, we heard of some individuals killed at night and at dawn. Then, some persons were said to be stampeded to death in the Leader's Vineyard not very long ago. Yes, only God is humans' security. Apart from that, Kwarans are sometimes deceived or the rulers miscalculate. When Dr. Bukola Saraki became the governor in 2003, he promised to activate the two dams in Ilorin, and that the whole state would soon have pipe borne water. He spent eight years; instead, he created a second stadium, successfully at all cost.

Saraki also promised that "the Ganma Power Station" he was constructing would bring an end to power failure in Kwara State. At the end, he said the Federal Government did not play its own role, as if he did not know about the electric power situation of Nigeria when he was making the promise.

Then, like the rest of Nigerian rulers, the Kwara rulers spend public funds on sponsoring some people on pilgrimage overseas. In the spirit of "continuity", Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed's wife, otherwise called, "the First Lady of the state" plays the Santa Claus at Christian and Muslim festivals. At the end, they complain of paucity of funds to build roads and other infrastructure.

Beyond that, Kwarans are complaining of high cost of kerosene and petroleum products, which are among basic necessities for minimum standard of living, and bad roads outside of Ilorin, the capital town. The Kwara rulers keep saying the Federal Government is to blame, while they continue to give their unflinching support to the same Federal Government. So, what is the big difference between the Kwara rulers and the other rulers in Nigeria? They have two football teams.

• Pius Abioje, University of Ilorin.