Date: 2014-08-11

As is my practice every morning during breakfast, I go over the web to catch up on Nigerian news. After a few minutes this morning, I stumbled on a press release by Senator Bukola Saraki congratulating Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola on his well deserved victory. The press release was titled "Congratulations to Aregbesola and the People of Osun for Defeating Federal Might" dated August 10, 2014.

I was taken aback by the sheer hypocrisy in Bukola Saraki's words. Every word, every sentence is an insult on the sensibilities of hard working Kwarans who are suffering under the yoke of Bukola's repressive, tyrannical rule over Kwara since 2003.

I had to read the press release twice and double check the name signed on it to be sure it was Bukola Saraki. If Bukola had left his message at paragraph two, I wouldn't have taken umbrage at his person but he had to over reach. Immediately after the second paragraph, everything Bukola Saraki wrote is an indictment of everything that he personifies. As a scientist, I will attempt a paragraph by paragraph analysis of Bukola Saraki's message and have you the reader be the judge.

On paragraph three, Bukola wrote "From every nook and cranny of the State of Osun, people came out en mass to send a clear and loud message: we will not be bullied into submission; we will not cower until we get the change that we rightly deserve; and we will remain united in the firm belief that we can rescue our nation from the failed governance of the Peoples Democratic Party"

Now let me rephrase for Bukola, from every nook and cranny of Kwara state, the people of Kwara will come out in their thousands to send a clear and loud message to you come February 2015. We refuse to submit to your corrupt hegemony, the people of Kwara will not cower until we get the change that we rightly deserve and we will remain united in the firm belief that we can rescue our state from the failed governance that you represent during your eight years in the PDP as Governor, your three years as Governor-General in the present AbdulFatah Ahmed interregnum under the PDP and your continued control of state apparatus in the seven months voyage that you have embarked upon in the APC presently.

In your fourth paragraph you accused some distinguished Kwarans of being seasonal politicians that come around only during elections and in your characteristic duplicitous manner made references to the anachronistic "federal might." Now, the folks that you called seasonal politicians are indeed full blooded Kwarans with verifiable pedigrees. This is something we cannot say about you. These same individuals have been living amongst ordinary Kwarans all their lives. They have had their homes in various parts of Kwara for decades; their kids also live here, they have age grade friends in the community, simply put, everything that they are is invested in Kwara.

The fact that these individuals have singularly or collectively sought to overthrow your corrupt hegemony in the past while you were using the instruments of this same "federal might" to rig elections you never won does not give you the audacity to label them as seasonal politicians. If anyone is guilty of been a seasonal politician in Kwara state, it is you Senator.

You didn't grow up here. You never attended school here; I mean at any level of education. You never worked here prior to 2003. You do not till date have indigenous age grade fiends that are either of your Ilorin stock or of Kwara that are on a first name basis with you. You never had a personal residence in Ilorin up until the time that you arrived from Lagos to be Governor in 2003. Till date, you pop in and out of Kwara like a stranger Indeed, if anyone is to be tagged a seasonal politician, it is you Bukola Saraki. Your arrogant attitude and uncouth character is alien to our people and for the first time since 2003, that same "federal might" will not confer undue advantage on you in 2015 and all that we ask for is a level playing field to show you the way out of Kwara. We the people of Kwara have had enough of your ill-mannered behaviour.

In reference to your fifth paragraph, be assured that the youths of Kwara will follow the electoral process all day to ensure results are not tampered by your agents at any stage of the electoral process. We know the places where this same "federal might" aided and abetted you in the past to commit electoral heist, places like Asa, Moro, Edu, Patigi, Baruten, Kaiama and other numerous places in Kwara. In 2015, you will find in the majority of Kwarans a worthy adversary. Our will to free ourselves from your bondage and into freedom and prosperity is greater than your will to keep us in perpetual servitude.

In paragraph six, you said "The 2015 General Elections are only months away, therefore, before the single most important democratic contest of our time, we must bring those that choose to trample on the tenets of our democracy to justice."

I agree with you that the 2015 general elections is perhaps the single most important democratic contest in our lifetime, atleast those of us from Kwara view it as such. I also agree that we must bring people like you that have repeatedly trampled on the will of the people and the tenets of our democracy to justice.

Interestingly in your final paragraph, you urge all change makers "I also urge all change makers, pacesetters, and progressive minded Nigerians to come on board and join us in the battle to reclaim the mandate of our nation.We can rescue Nigeria, however, like Osun has demonstrated today, we have to work hard and work together."

Isn't it laughable that you, a reactionary ultra conservative right wing politician schooled in the politics of old can write your name and progressivism in the same sentence? You, the same Bukola Saraki that normally write whatever results you want in LGA elections and dash whomever you want the LGA chairmanship at will? The general elections that you couldn't pull off on your own, you had people like Atiku Abubakar, Olusegun Obasanjo, and Maurice Iwu to write whatever result you wanted. In the rare case where the citizens against all odds voted in the only elections you manage directly (the council elections), you have been known to ask the local radio station to announce a different result. The people of Offa amongst others will not forget you and your impunity in a hurry.

If anyone believes that because you have switched your political affiliation and thus that have conferred the toga of progressivism on your reactionary self, I have a bridge in the city of Cambridge to sell that individual.

And finally let me remind you that surely with God's help, we shall reclaim our state from your corrupt influence.

Abdullahi Imam Abdullahi writes from Ilorin