Of all the States of the federation of Nigeria, perhaps this state of Kwara is the most unfortunate. We had in Governor Bukola Saraki a Governor that would want to be awarded a score of excellence when obviously he has a woeful performance in an examination. A man that would wish to be appreciated when all he has done is to have urinated in the mouths of the people history destined him to govern. This is a leader that under performs and still garners awards all over the world. Former Governor Bukola Saraki is permanently hooked on wining spurious awards. He started his gubernatorial career with it and now relishes it as a Senator of the federal republic of Nigeria. What lesson will our youths learn from this award craze behaviour? Perhaps all the socialization process of the young ones in our society is to get recognition locally and internationally through manipulations of the process.

We have really lost counts of the numbers of awards our award winning Governor garnered during his eight years of yet to be dispassionately reviewed tenure in Kwara State. The few I can now remember started with President Obasanjo's lengthy letter in year 2005 after visiting the fraud which Shonga commercial farm now turn out to be. President Obasanjo said the success which the farm was, proved him wrong on his pre conceived notion that the former Governor could not be a good administrator.  That was a presidential award and the first in the series. Let Obasanjo visit the farm today and he might realize though too late that, award should not be given to a farmer who merely cleared the land for cropping. In 2006, in far away Germany, Senator Bukola Saraki as the then Governor of Kwara State was honored for what the award house called "his remarkable feat" in agriculture. He was once ridiculously honored as the best governor in Africa. Yet there was an award of Thisday Newspaper in 2005 that pronounced the then Governor Bukola Saraki, the best Governor in Nigeria. One would have thought that the madness of penchant for award would have ended with the gubernatorial tenure of Governor Bukola Saraki.  Not so. In an advertorial published in two dailies on 25th day of June 2013, it was claimed that the Senate of the State of Georgia has conferred on Senator Bukola Saraki honorary citizenship of the State of Georgia. And for this award the present Governor of Kwara State, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed and many other high ranking government officers of Kwara State had to travel to Atlanta to receive the award and honor their leader. Expenses on such travels are usually the burden of the state. What really is the significance of various awards that this man has been taken nationally and internationally since 2004? Why is he always honored abroad and never at home? What did Governor Bukola Saraki do in the office of the Governor of Kwara State and now as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that must qualify him for awards? These questions and many more should be answered by the Senator and many of his chorus boys.

There are some unsettled issues relating to the Georgia award. Dr Bukola Saraki sometimes in 2004 was given honorary citizenship of the same State of Georgia. Has the 2004 award expired that now necessitates the granting of a new award or shall we call the latest a renewal? And what is the meaning of honorary citizenship of a state of Georgia under the Federal constitution of U S A? Does it really amount to anything as I as a state legislator on a legislative visit to Georgia in January 2003 was given the same award? When along with four others on that tour we were given such honor, we did not see it as amounting to anything but this is what is being celebrated by Senator Saraki today with the whole apparatus of Kwara State government behind him. Even today, I do not think granting of an honorary citizenship of a state in USA goes beyond exhibition or extension of hands of friendship to the honoree. Perhaps it is their own idea of saying "you are welcome". Is this what "their Leader" is celebrating with public fund? Our investigations have shown that granting even honorary citizenship of USA is not only a high constitutional matter, involving immigration processes; it has remained a high political decision that had benefitted only seven people in the history of the country and of the seven, five were posthumously granted. And even in that country honorary citizenship can only be granted to "person of exceptional merit."  The USA that has embassy here would have known the character and the quality of human value Senator Bukola Saraki is made of. The embassy must have all the records of the Senator as the helmsman of a failed bank, a friend of the jailed James Ibori and a man who is presently being investigated for numerous corruption allegations. USA is not a place of anything goes when it comes to matter of integrity and character. Not even a fraction of that God's own country can condone criminality that is passed for leadership in Nigeria. A thorough scrutiny of the business diary of the State of Georgia as contained in the State governor, Nathan Deal's diary from January 1st 2013 to date has not revealed that the state has anything to support the claimed award. That must be why the award ceremony was held in Hyatt Regency Hotel where even the current leader of the Senate of the State of Georgia, Mr Casey Cagle and other current leadership were conspicuously absent. The presenter of the award to Senator Saraki was Senator Steen Mlles who is not a serving Senator of the State of Georgia. Furthermore, only two serving Senators, Gail Davenport (Democrat District 44 Jonnesboro) and Donzella James (Democrat District 35, Atlanta) were only present at the award ceremony in their private capacities.

Dilapidated school Building at Government Secondary School, Ilorin.

All the above either cast some doubts on the authenticity of "this celebrated award" or portray it as an award of very low esteem which does not worth the entire noise making and it is indeed a waste of public fund. And why should there be in Dr Bukola Saraki, this gluttonous desire for award winning especially outside Kwara State? A man elected to be either Governor or Senator by the people of Kwara State now garners for himself some spurious awards in some foreign countries. What are the evidences of Kwarans appreciation of Bukola Saraki's leadership at home? Perhaps some people may want to claim that there could not have been greater award for the Senator than regular victories at the polls for some years now. In this fourth republic and especially since 2003 that Bukola Saraki has dominated the political space in Kwara State, democracy had been kidnapped through the usual manipulations of the electoral process in Nigeria and more especially in Kwara State. In Kwara State, a façade of popularity is created through regular manipulations of the poor that are often mobilized to collect doles before, during and out of election seasons, deceitful philanthropic gestures that targets political patronage, unholy alliance with the security forces and electoral officers etc. All these account for the famed Saraki's popularity in Kwara State. If the Senator is truly popular in Kwara State, let him dump the PDP platform, play a Mimiko by adopting APGA as a platform, believing in his popularity; and let us know if he will not end up like his late father, Dr Olusola saraki who thought he was popular to conquer Kwara under any platform, brought the ACPN and politically crashed to the grave. In Kwara State, People are mere onlookers in election process. For his two terms tenure as the Governor of Kwara State and two year stint in the Senate, the usual congratulatory messages on the occasions of birthday, victory in elections, tenure anniversaries etc that go to "the political icon" are from Commissioners, traditional rulers that are also civil servants, government contractors and party hangers on. Why will he not go out to seek foreign recognition in a country where anything foreign especially from America is taken to be of immense value at home.

Dilapidated school Building at Government Day Secondary School, Baboko Ilorin.

The more awards our current political leaders win, the more the people of Kwara State are thrown into poverty bordering on penury. There is an ironic correlation between awards and poverty in Kwara State. That is why I believe that all the award houses should have a true assessment of a performing State executive which should include the improvement he is able to bring to bear in the life of the people. It should be the difference between what he met and what he left. Governor Bukola Saraki met Kwara State dependent on the statutory allocation 80% and with all his efforts at the end of the tenure Kwara remains on the same spot. During his years, performances of our students in both NECO/WAEC ranged between 10% to 15% annually, unemployment soars all the years until now, there are serious infrastructural decay in the schools, Kwara state workers are the least paid in the federation, hospitals may be renovated but they are without medical personnel and medications, Students bursary still remains the lowest in the federation with 5,000 naira per student and the morale of the people remain very low. Do the award givers look at all these before they squeeze public money from public officers to grant these spurious awards? Yet there is much poverty in the state and our Governor is the toast of the award givers all over the world.

The best Governor in the world, the best Governor in Africa, A Senator of distinction, honorary citizen of the State of Georgia and later of the world!!! These, to discerning minds, are mere political sloganeering and a source of embarrassment, first to Kwara State that once produced Senator Bukola Saraki as Governor of Kwara State and now to the Central Senatorial District of Kwara State on which platform he is now a Senator. If people are looking for the best governors in Nigeria where do we categorize outstanding performing governors like Oshiomole, Fashola, Ajumobi, Kwakwaso, Sule Lamido, Amosun and Fayemi among a few others. Dr Bukola Saraki is hooked on seeking vain glories by descending so low to make claims that may sometimes look ridiculous and embarrassing to the Country, the Senate and the people of Kwara State. We indeed can pardon musicians and entertainers that claim these types of bogus honorary awards, but it is not for a Senator and former Governor that should showcase quality leadership in this country.        

Akogun Iyiola OYEDEPO wrote from 82/85 Stadium Shopping Complex, Ibrahim Taiwo Road, Ilorin, Kwara StateKwara State. Tel 08037147948. Email kimoye54@yahoo.com