In his Open Letter to Professor Abdur-Rasheed Na'Allah Vice-Chancellor, KWASU, SHERIFF OLANREWAJU Calls on the University Authorities not to Honour the Poet who Unapologetically Lampoons the Senate President.

Professor Na-Allah,
Vice-Chancellor,
Kwara State University,
Malete,
Kwara State.

Dear Vice-Chancellor,

I write as one of your fervent followers and academic sons who struggle to model after your virtuous acts and gain tremendously from your eminently erudite contributions. So, think not of my letter as a polemic or an arrant disrespect for the elderly. This is chiefly about the warped view of the grievance-mongering professor, Niyi Osundare. It encapsulates the diminishment of his bloated status in the eyes of candid observers and keen followers of Nigeria's political trends.

Last week, I received in utter dismay, a pamphlet announcing the 2016 edition of Niyi Osundare's International Poetry Festival, slated to be hosted by your university on May 19-20 at KWASU.

When I first read the information, I thought it was a hoax or an effort to unjustly badmouth the university authorities; because it seemed somewhat unlikely that a poet who had unequivocally dragged the name of the Senate President through the mire could be so honoured in a university established by that same personality whom he wilfully lampoons.

That Niyi Osundare made politics the prime arbiter of his writings is no surprise; but there is no greater disloyalty to the person who established KWASU than to honour a poet who embellished him with the rubric of a criminal; at a time he started gaining credibility as the new Senate President.

Prof. Osundare, until recently is one of the most prominent poets with impeccable reputation and widely respected as non-partisan; unfortunately, he became so disillusioned that in June, 2015, he released his impassioned piece which gave him away as a vainglorious tool of the system.

Let me make a caveat to dispel the likely insinuation that I am oblivious of the allegations about Senator Bukola Saraki's bizarre management decisions as far as politics in Kwara State is concerned. I, for one, know that he is not a saint, and I do not expect him to don the garb of infallibility while feigning repentance. And as fleeting and ephemeral the life we live is, it would be merely wishful of anyone to expect the leader to achieve utopia even in a state dubbed 'Harmonious' despite its apparent intractable malaise.

Osundare's cynical grievance - which emanated from the miraculous emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki as the president of the 8th Senate - may seem like standing with the truth, and misconstrued as intellectual freedom by others who are also paranoid about the Senator's political ambition; but, no doubt, it has unveiled the sentimental view of the poet, and how celebrated erudite should not take sides in politics. Through his overweening, hostile motive, he portrayed himself, on one side, as a Saraki diehard antagonist, on the other side, as an elitist who is ready to sacrifice his honour in defence of his egocentric paymasters.

If you've read the Profs' pedestrian poem titled 'Blues for the New Senate King', you would agree with me that his rhetoric aims at bringing disrepute to the person of the Senate President whom he perceived as a betrayer of the APC. By so doing, Osundare has mathematically distanced himself from all that can be traced to the Senator Bukola Saraki.

While I may be tagged an optimistic preacher of peace, it would be outright misconception to think of me as a gullible Kwaran or an avowed supporter of Senator Bukola Saraki with whom I have no affiliation whatsoever.

Thus, based on the principles of social harmony, fairness and respect for those in positions of authorities, I hereby urge your office to frown at the idea of creating a platform where 'politicians' donning the garb of 'poets' would assemble in KWASU to further satirize and ridicule the office of the new senate president. Let Osundare take his poetry festival to his backers in Abuja and leaders in Lagos; those are the 'saints' for whom he volunteered his expertise as a poet.

Though Osundare is not immune to human frailties and misjudgement, but even if we have proofs to the contrary about his strident condemnation and hardened position; now is not the right timing to politically misinform innocent attendees under the guise of community development in KWASU.

Yours sincerely,

Sheriff Olanrewaju

Sheriff Olanrewaju is the author of 'Sambisa Squirrel and the Clueless Zoo-Keeper,' and an opinion writer from Ilorin-South.