Date: 2019-01-18

A few days ago, a drowning politician that we all know flew a kite, by raising a false alarm of an imaginary threat to his life and that of members of his family. In the characteristic style of this politician who has already attained political menopause and who is afraid of his imminent exit from the political scene, he accused the Inspector General of Police of withdrawing his security details so as to make him vulnerable to attack. The police threw his own lies at his face and promptly repudiated the false claim. His security details had been intact. It was a ruse.

A curious mind will wonder: what was the purpose of this blackmail and lies; crying wolf where there was absolutely no threat on his life? As the Yorubas say, aje ke lana, omo ku loni. Tani ko ma wipe aje to ke lana lo pa omo je! No doubt the one who raised false alarm is the prime suspect in the case of the crime.

He is simply trying to create an alibi to divert suspicion. The false claim of the discredited politician on the withdrawal of his security aides, it is now clear, is to enable him unleash violence on the same people he claimed to be his kin, and linking such attacks to his political opponents. Thus, the violence in some parts of Ilorin, including the ones in Agbaji area on Sunday, is part of their script, to instigate violence and robbery and looting anywhere they find the All Progressives Congress campaigning. It is not going to work as many intelligent people are already asking questions and are determined to unmask the sponsored hooligans who carried out the attacks. O to ge, enough is enough!

The violence they unleashed on innocent people, in their homes and even in the mosques on Sunday while preparing for their prayers is a sin that God himself will not forgive or spare the masterminds. The violence of Sunday represents the desperate antics of a political bankrupt who wants to drag others down with him.

As we stated during the desecration of the Emir's palace ground in December at the IEDPU annual conference, we would not descend to the gutter level of the weevils that have feasted on our commonwealth for decades and are threatened by the clarion call of O to ge, to leave us in peace, by answering violence with violence. What we are saying is O to ge, enough is enough. We want freedom to decide on our life; to chart our destiny by ourselves. Enough of slavery and submission to someone's insatiable greed!

Violence is not part of our culture in Ilorin, or in Kwara State. That is why we are described as State of Harmony.

Those who have chosen to import violence into our culture, and promoted cultism, murder and arson since 2003 definitely do not belong here. That is why human lives do not matter to them. That is why they carry violence into people's homes and destroyed the valuables of innocent citizens in a desperate bid to frame their challengers in the polls. But it might have worked for them sometimes in the past, but today the Ilorins and Kwarans are wiser. They will never return the prodigal to the throne, for he is set to finally mortgage their future and sell them permanently into slavery. Auzu billahi!

We must all resolve to say NO to violence. We must resist making violence an essential thing is this election. Peace and refined engagement is all we need. Let our youths know that this election is about their future. Enough of life of bloodshed! Enough of arson and violence! Enough is enough! Our youths should take a look at what is happening in other lands where youths are being given opportunities of good training locally and abroad to become responsible citizens. Here our gladiators are training them to kill and to destroy! Please let us turn a new leaf and work together to restore Kwara to its destined glory.

Right now, those whose pastime is violence and looting have hijacked Kwara. We must rescue Kwara from them. We must rescue our future and that of our children and the unborn generation from the political interlopers who have been feeding on our sweat and our blood.

Let us work together to expose the masterminds of violence among us. They may be our neigbours, our friends or our associates. They may even be imported from the lands of their paternal or maternal patrons. Whoever they may be, it is important to make it impossible for them to disrupt this election.

Already their imminent defeat is giving them a nightmare and they will do anything to truncate the election so that they may have a saving face. We must intelligently frustrate their wicked plan. We must return them to oblivion, from where we unwittingly picked, raised and prospered them. We urge every one of us, including our spiritual fathers to intensify prayers.

God should expose the masterminds of violence within us and truncate all their evil plans for us and our dear state. God should turn the weapons of violence they are using against our innocent people against them. Let us pray God to sow discord among them, to confuse them so that their wicked plans will be frustrated. Our resolve and our prayers are very necessary so that we would not continue to lose our innocent citizens being sacrificed to lubricate the greed of expired politicians desperate to retain their hold on our treasury.

We must extend our words of comfort to those who have lost one thing or the other in the last violence. It is possible they will try to act the Good Samaritan, rolling out cash and relief materials for the carnage they willfully caused. This should not deceive us for they are the architect of the pains our people are now going through.

God will deliver us from the supposed helper, who is actually the architect of our collective misfortune. Let's join hands to reclaim Kwara. Let's show that Kwara belongs to us, and not some aliens struggling to snatch our collective heritage.