Governor Fatai Ahmed of Kwara State sacked his cabinet, including the retinue of special advisers, senior special assistants, special assistants and sundry lumpen attaches of governance, two weeks ago or so. I read about the action while I was in Dubai.

In the two weeks since, many online sites, such as Ilorin Info, have reported the concerted lobbying going on, by the sacked government officials to return to their positions.

Of course, in these matters, the ultimate authority in the hegemonic politics of Kwara is the self-appointed ‘leader’, Bukola Saraki.

He “owns” the prebend that Kwara is and appoints, sacks, re-appoints or orders, as catches his fancy. He is the ultimate dispenser of positions in the governance structures of the state and is the final authority that all the sacked seeking re-appointment, look up to.

There are critical ‘stakeholders’ often looked upon to intervene. In Kwara, eminent traditional rulers can whisper into Bukola’s ears to get a favoured subject a cabinet placement.

In such matters, the spiritual dimension is also explored fervently. Those who know these things say these are lucrative times for Kwara’sMalams, prayer warriors, Bokaye and Babalawos. A spiritually-induced form of trickle-down economics is now rife in the state.

Gender sensitivity

Many of those lobbying to get a place in cabinet are said to have moved into residences of these “men of God” (I don’t know if there is gender sensitivity about these things, with women with spiritual powers also getting a bite of the cherry!), to ensure that their names appear on the final list that Bukola Saraki will sanction for His Excellency, Fatai Ahmed.

Monies that didn’t service the social needs of the community now reach them in an ironic twist of fate as prayer warriors are now on permanent duty.

Informed sources in Kwara added that the most popular place of spiritual tourism in search of divine intervention to enter Kwara’s next cabinet is the Baruten Local Government Area of the state.

For those who don’t know the geography of our dear state, Baruten is the neglected backwater on the border with Republic of Benin and is home to the remarkable Batonbu speaking people who belonged to the old Borgu Empire. A people with some of the most beautiful musical traditions in West Africa, the Orchestre Super Borgou, was one of the most popular bands in the seventies and eighties in West Africa.

They actually emerged from Kwara’sBaruten area, but because of the paucity of recording opportunities, they moved to Parakou, in Northern Republic of Benin and made success of artistic life there.

Well, that also happens to be the constituency of Hon. Zakari Muhammed, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Media and Public Affairs.

It is said that the spiritual powers of the BarutenMalams and Bokaye trump those of others in our state, hence the spiritual “Hijra” that the local government is witnessing in the search for cabinet positions by Kwara’s nPDP politicians. What they refused to give the people legit now reaches them through prayer warriors.

It is freebies time for our prayer warriors. We would still wait a while to know those whose prayers were finally answered, or better still, those whose prayers sufficiently softened the heart of their self-appointed leader, Saraki, to get into the cabinet list!