By Abdullahi Ishaq

As the Kwara State Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) chieftain, Mr. Dele Belgore (SAN), celebrates his birthday today, ABDULLAHI ISHAQ examines his contributions as a legal giant and irrepressible progressive opposition leader.

The unrelenting attacks on Mohammed Dele Belgore (SAN) are self-inflicted. They are to be expected. But anyone that is familiar with real politics should know that such unceasing attacks, authored by different faces of the political status quo in Kwara State, are never directed at a political featherweight. They signal the relevance of and the threat that Belgore poses to the 'old order' in the peculiar politics of the state.

Whatever happens in 2015, he has made a point. For the first time in the history of post-election Kwara politics, the people of the state are now guaranteed alternative views from an opposition political figure on almost all policies of the government and issues affecting the public. Belgore, flag bearer for the opposition ACN in the 2011 governorship poll, had long been expected to disappear from the political scene, to reappear in 2014 or 2015 when the next election is just few months away.

Having, therefore, proved the bookmakers wrong by sticking around, even after the Supreme Court judgment which upheld the election of PDPs Abdulfattah Ahmed, the political establishment rightly deems Mr Belgore a political risk, who must be checkmated.

Clearly jittery about what the future holds, the pro status quo elite are not challenging MDB at the level of idea. They are not accusing him of lacking the intellectual content or constitutional right to govern Kwara State. Instead, they are appealing to pedestrian sentiments and scaremongering. Indeed, they once dismissed the opposition as nonexistent, then they graduated to saying the opposition should be constructive and alleging that opposition was behind the rage that greeted the perennial nonpayment of workers salary and the minimum wage. All of it is understandable, placed against the fact that the political establishment had never been used to consistent opposition, which insists that things must be done the right way and stays the course.

But the establishment politicians are honing their attack skills. Hiding under numerous names, they are accusing Belgore of dumping his support base after the election and waiting till election time to identify with the people. That was a misfire, a terrible one that questions their credentials.

Since Belgore's voice is heard again and again on Kwara (and national matters) as they affect the masses, whose collective wealth and investments, made with their funds, are daily being converted to private estate, it is safe to interpret these fellows' understanding of 'identify with the people' to mean a call on Belgore to descend to their level of bread-and-butter politics, which makes even pundits loyal to them, to aver that the state politics is shaped by poverty. If Kwara politics has not shed the toga of it being shaped by poverty, for which it is known some decades ago, does it not say something worrisome about the much-glorified political establishment? If that is not enough reason to do away with such political machinery, then every Nigerian state is invited to adopt Kwara as their development model.

Now, here is the issue: Belgore should never be stampeded into compromising his personal principle of respecting the poor by keeping to his chest, as much as practicable, whatever gestures made in community development.

Perhaps, except the government which has a responsibility to account for how every penny of public fund is spent, individuals reserve the right to keep to themselves whatever personal goodwill they have extended to the less privileged. I am aware that the most rewarding gift is that given in secret. We are told that the right-hand should give without the left-hand knowing. And as Belgore himself has repeatedly stated in the past, it is never a good thing to humiliate fellow human beings by publicising their names/status in the name of offering them aids. This in fact conflicts with our moral belief. Besides, whatever anyone gives to the next persons ought to be from the conviction that the recipients deserve it – and not to give the impression of politically-motivated philanthropy. Indeed, the education support (extramural classes) Belgore gave last year became a public issue (as far as I can tell), only when the government was playing politics with it. We neither heard him nor his media office announcing it in the media. I was to learn later that the lawyer, well before the 2011 poll, gave scholarship every year to at least five law students, among other gestures, I'm told, he does in his own way. But we don't hear of these in the media. It is his own style. Whoever wishes to announce his philanthropic gestures is absolutely free to do so, but it will be unfair to expect everybody to join the indecent charade of exhibiting/mocking the helplessness of our people by showing on TV or sponsoring some newspaper articles containing scenes of where ankara/garri/UTME forms are being shared to the 'poor' and to students deliberately, not exposed to qualitative primary/secondary education to give them solid beginning.

Maybe I should say here that this article is provoked partly by a recent article in THISDAY entitled Ilorin Elite and the Sarakis, authored by one Arowolo. The writer undid himself through and through. And in trying to clad the Sarakis as the messiah of Kwara people, he did much to indict them. Having been in government and calling the shots for decades, a genuine pro-people effort would have been to push for an institutionalised social security net for the people – one that would make such pro-people gesture a matter of right for the recipient and not something designed to keep them perpetually loyal to any individual political dynasty. That's what has been done in the United States that Arowolo referenced. No American recipient of that gesture is duty bound to belong to the GOP or the Democratic Party! And quite interestingly, we have seen the social security system now gradually being institutionalised in Osun and Ekiti whose governors, being ACN chieftains, are Belgore's associates. In these two states today, once you are aged 60 and above, you are entitled to some naira at month's end. You need not belong to ACN/Aregbesola/Fayemi's camp to get it. That's the sort of empowerment that is without any 'string attached.'

Also, Arowolo failed to tell the public that the sort of philanthropy he laboured so much to compare with the US social security system is in fact unacceptable in that society. That society, not only rejects individuals not known with legally-identifiable sources of income, it in fact, does not reckon with politicians with no personal record of professional/trade excellence. They celebrate individuals who can inspire the young generations to attain dignified success!

It is questionable that Arowolo does not see anything wrong in repeating the innuendo that the Kwara State politics is defined by poverty and cronyism. If somebody had been privileged to remain in power for four decades, as Arowolo rightly said of the Sarakis, is it not self-indicting that the same Ilorin people still don't have access to good water more than 30 years after personal fund was used to distribute water? The Ilorin Water Reticulation Project, which we understand has now gulped over N4b, has not resulted in a drop of water. Instead the government said it is still digging boreholes (in 21st century) to address the water problem.

Also, it is in the interest of the sarakites not to launch a debate comparing Senator Bukola Saraki to Belgore. Occasionally, I see them touting on the social media the former's divine right to lead Kwara the same way Thomas Hobbes regaled the British society with the 'divine right' of the King to, not only rule over them, but to dictate what religion they practice. To be sure, both men (Saraki and Belgore) are miles apart if leadership should be judged by personal discipline, integrity and professional excellence. And in the years to come, the good people of Kwara, not least the youth, would need to decide who leads them politically, keeping in mind what grave implications such decision has for their future and the future of the generations yet to be born.

One final thing: Belgore is a year older today. He was born on June 25, 1961, and, according to records accessible online, he was educated in Capital School (Kaduna); Offa Grammar School, Offa; and University of Hull, London where he read law. He has a Masters Degree in Law from the University of Bristol, England. At 28, in 1989, he co-founded what is today one of Nigeria's leading law firms Sofunde, Osakwe, Ogundipe and Belgore (SOOB). At 40, in 2001, Belgore became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, one of the youngest holders of the title.

His detractors are genuinely worried that his voice has refused to go away since the April poll. They had thought he would fizzle out after the Supreme Court ruling. By not keeping quiet on Kwara matters, Belgore has kept faith with his pledge to keep the flag of the struggle flying. HBD MDB!

Ishaq wrote from Ilorin, Kwara State.