By Babatunde Shuaib

This article ought to be titled 'Re- A Call for Unity in Kwara ACN.' That is because it is a rejoinder to an article under that name, authored by one Abdulkadir Bolakale and published first in the Nigerian Tribune of April 30, 2013. That article having been published under different headings in different national dailies, including in the Daily Independent of May 3, 2013 (Party politics, greed and people's interest) and THISDAY of Wednesday May 8, 2013 (Of Kwara ACN, Party Politics and Greed), I have decided to caption the rejoinder differently.

Since that article was anything but a unifier, added to the wide access the nondescript writer has to the media, it is safe to conclude that the article was an attempt to weaken the resolve of Kwara people for a change, sponsored by those bent on sustaining the evil status quo that makes the state look like a fiefdom. And true to intention, the writer began by amplifying the same excuse the Kwara State Government has given for its failures over the years: lack of resources even when a former governor of the state is being investigated for allegedly embezzling about N65b of state funds! Thus leaving the State virtually bankrupt and unbankable.

In likening Kwara to Lagos, where he claimed to have come to work for ACN's success in Kwara in the hope that the Lagos success story would be replicated there, Bolakale forgot that that success story is a product of creativity and industry of Lagos' leaders such that today the state generates more money internally than it receives from the centre. Indeed, it may not be fair to compare Lagos with Kwara because of the many privileges the former enjoyed as the former capital territory and the many industries sighted there. But it may also be argued that whatever burden Kwara has, pales into insignificance when weighed against what Lagos contends with in terms of population and hazards of development. To expose the incompetence of Kwara rulers, compare the state in terms of human and infrastructural development with fourth generation states like Ekiti. Kwara leaders seek sympathy by claiming to head a civil servant state. In a space of two years, Ekiti now generates over a billion naira internally and has positioned itself as a fast-rising tourist centre with the brilliant works done to the Ikogosi Spring. Perhaps the only significant stride in Kwara ought to be the Shonga Farm, set up with communal land, boosted with state-funded infrastructure and bank loans sought with implications for state revenue and good will. Today, the whole project has become a 'private concern,' raising questions of monumental fraud. IGR in Kwara, a first generation state created in 1967, is around N700m monthly and the state for now does not have any comparative advantage to woo serious investors. The point being made is that Kwara remains poor and undeveloped not because of resources but incompetence and greed of its ruling elite. The story of the Asian Tigers and Ekiti under Kayode Fayemi, as mentioned above, testify to the power of ideas, not huge resources. Indeed, the failure of the Nigerian state, with its huge resources, gives the lie to Bolakale's bent. 

Now to Bolakale's pontifications about Kwara ACN. Clearly he's clearly not an ACN member and has never been one, and if at all he is, then he's evidently a plant on the party by the PDP. His article was a total whitewash of the PDP in Kwara State, an image-laundering job that even the brashest of PDP supporters would struggle very hard to surpass. If there was so much wrong with his party, ACN, as he claims, given the ease with which one can switch political parties in Nigeria, why hasn't he left the party? Why hasn't he gone to the PDP for which is he such an unabashed apologist?

No genuine party member - much less one supposedly calling for unity - will make false claims capable of further drifting the party apart. Unifiers neither inflict undeserved pain nor weave a web of lies around people they wish to unite. So Bolakale's ACN pretensions fall flat. Bolakale was merely doing a hatchet job for his PDP paymasters. In doing so, he attempted to cause further rift among ACN's interest groups. That was the agenda.

Bolakale's allegations about the internal affairs of the ACN and its leadership further expose him as a hired gun who knows nothing about that party. One sure quality of leaders is foresight and the leadership of ACN was right to have supported the Belgore ticket. He has proven to be deserving of the trust to not just brighten the chances of ACN in the state, but to continuously be a consistent symbol of the collective struggle of Kwara people. And this he has done without adopting the Amala style politics, which the Kwara PDP leadership has made their registered trademark. If anyone doubts the threat the Belgore poses to these oppressors let him follow the trend of how jittery the KWSG becomes each time he speaks on their actions or inaction. He has been consistent. Bolakale incomprehensibly suggested that Belgore, a senior advocate of Nigeria and a co-founder of one of Nigeria's leading and biggest law firms, was preferred for governorship 'merely' because of his privileged Sheikh Belgore's lineage. Haba! Would Bolakale rather have ACN support somebody not known for any personal achievement or enviable professional excellence?

Indeed, Belgore was not the only target of Bolakale's article. The target is the entirety of the Kwara opposition, official and unofficial. And I hope that the opposition will see through this gimmick and not walk into it. The arguments in Bolakale's article are so pedestrian and contradictory that one easily sees through his roguery.

Bolakale's narrative on the so-called ACN crisis further shows him not to be an insider he claimed to be. That is because he did not tell us what the so-called crisis is all about. He speculated, churned out unfounded rumour with some pretense of authority and failed to pinpoint any discernible activity that properly qualifies as a crisis. What is so desperately being painted as a crisis is no more than vibrant democratic expressions of views and choices within a voluntary association. These are guaranteed constitutional rights. In the state ACN, opinions are permitted to be expressed, contrary to what obtains in the PDP. One should not forget that it was not too long ago that certain members of the Kwara House of Assembly made some well-articulated allegations of corruption and impropriety against their Speaker. And what was the outcome of that? There was no formal investigation of the allegations. Instead, the petitioners were roundly punished and humiliated, and hence all voices of dissent were silenced.

I recall the ACN election campaign slogans of free education; free medical services for children up to 18 years old, for pregnant women and the elderly over 70; employment generation; robust youth empowerment schemes and improved infrastructural development, to name but a few. In other words, the party stands for a welfare state based upon the sound principles of equality, justice and opportunity for the greatest number and for the overall good of society. The very principles that are the antithesis of what the hegemonic, opportunistic and self-serving leadership of the PDP have long practiced for decades to the detriment of the vast majority of the people of Kwara. Now that these people are being challenged in a space that has been conceded to them for far too long, they are unable to compete on the level of ideas or on the basis of their performance. Rather they resort to propaganda that is unbecoming of a government and leadership with any self-esteem. They should at least have the courage to put their names behind such publications.

I am an indigene of Kwara State and it is obvious to me as it is to most Kwarans that our hearts and minds would not be won over by pretentious and image laundering diatribes like that of those hiding behind the likes of the Bolakales of this world. The PDP government in Kwara may wish to continue to spend valuable time and resources on cheap and unproductive propaganda of this nature instead of governing, but that will never detract from the fact that the ultimate and only important question is whether they have improved the lives of their citizenry. Positive developments are there for all to see when one visits the ACN governed States. The better parts of all the link roads into Kwara are those constructed by ACN governments of Oyo, Ekiti and Osun. One is hard pressed to see any such signs in Kwara State.

Shuaib writes in from Baboko, Ilorin, Kwara State.