Saraki’s leadership and the Ilorin attack

Gov. Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State

THE most recent appellation of the Senate President Bukola Saraki among his people in Kwara state, is “the leader.”

This new appellation is in close affinity with the definition father of the Senate President, late Chief Olusola Saraki gave to a leader.

Olusola Saraki shortly before his demise had told a group of reporters at his ‘Ile Loke’ residence, Ilorin, that leadership is all about followership. In what appeared as his valedictory briefing with reporters in his ancient town he had said, “my people love me and they are not hiding it. I love them too and they know that. That is why it is not difficult for them to accept me as their leader.”

With this definition of a leader by the late political stalwart popularly called ‘Oloye’ among his people, it will be easier to decipher the existing relationship between his heir (the Senate President) and the people of the state.

On Thursday September 24 this year, Saraki, had like many other muslim faithful gone to the Praying Ground on ‘Eid El Kabir’ day to observe the ‘Rakat’ Prayer, in obedience to Allah’s injunction following the example of Prophet Ibrahim.

By virtue of his title as the Turakin of Ilorin, Saraki had worn his immaculate white turban, distinguishing him among the motley worshipers at the Moslem Central Praying Ground, Asa Dam Road, Ilorin.

He was not alone at the VIPs section of the venue. At the place were such dignitaries as the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Dr Ali Ahmad, the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu Gambari, the Chief Imam of Ilorin, Alhaji Mohammed Bashir, former Chairman of Federal Character Commission (FCC), Professor Shuaib Oba AbdulRaheem, former Acting Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP), Alhaji Abubakar Baraje and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin Professor AbdulGaniyu Ambali.

Conspicuously absent at the sprawling praying ground was the state Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed. Ahmed, a product of Saraki’s school of politics, having served in Saraki’s cabinet as Finance Commissioner for a consecutive seven years before emerging as the Governor, was said to have gone to his Share country home for the religious rites.

Many political analysts in the state believed that Ahmed, the son of a late retired police officer, had allegedly adopted the military option of “a tactical withdrawal” in order to escape from the attacks of those the police called the hoodlums on the day.

But Senior Special Assistant to Ahmed on Media, Dr Muideen Akorede sensing people’s interpretation of the Governor’s absence at the event, as the beginning of a frosty relationship between Ahmed and Saraki, had promptly dispelled the “senseless and needless rumour” in a press statement in Ilorin.

Ahmed, who apparently wanted an emphatic disclosure of an existing warm relationship with ‘the leader’ had to address a group of leaders of thought in the state who had paid him a Sallah greetings at the Government House Ilorin, that what happened at the Praying Ground on the fateful day was alien to the culture of Ilorin and the entire Kwara as a state. According to him, “what happened that day was not in the character of Ilorin and even that of Kwara as a whole.”

In the same vein, the Emir of Ilorin who is also the Chairman of Kwara State Traditional Council described the praying ground episode as sacrilegious act, wondering why converting a religious ground to a fiasco arena. He spoke during a visit to Saraki, few hours after the event. Nine prominent traditional rulers across the state were on his entourage.

They are Emir of Gwanara, Alhaji Abdullahi Idris, Alofa of Iloffa, Oba Samuel Dada, Olusin of Isanlu Isin, Solomon Ilufemiloye, Olomu of Omu-Aran Charles Ibitoye, Olofa of Offa, Oba Mufutau Gbadamosi, Emir of Kaima Alhaji Shehu Muazu Umar, Etsu Tsaragi Abdullahi Ndakpoto and Olosi of Osi, Salihu Adasofegbe.

The event that later followed has now become history of a sort. The state police command through its spokesman Ajayi Okasanmi an Assistant Superintendent of Police, had stigmatized those who attempted an assault on the VIPs as charlatans who are  used to “begging for money at the praying grounds. But this time around and in view of the general security issues globally, we prevented them from having a physical contact with these dignitaries. In the process we arrested eight of them.”

Sources told The Guardian that Saraki and a few others at the programme had frowned at the treatment meted out to “those who put us in power” just as he allegedly ordered some of his aides to “ensure that palliative Sallah packages” were given to the less privileged “among my people.”

Saraki, as the Governor of the state, (2003-2011) had sustained a mantra among those occupying political posts in the state urging them to share their resources with the people of their constituencies. Reporters on ground had caught him on countless times telling them thus: “please ensure that you conduct real empowerment to the people of your constituencies. They are the powers we have.”

Besides, at one of his routine chats with reporters in Ilorin, Saraki had said, “the way politics is developing in Nigeria today, we need to tell ourselves the stark truth that only a performing government would continuously receive the supports of the majority.”

It is not yet clear what could have been responsible for the attempted attack on Saraki and others at the event. Saraki had since emerging as ‘the leader’ in the state had sustained the legacies of his late father, by providing for some of the needs of the aged and widows in Ilorin and its adjoining communities.

The development probably gave his party All Progressives Congress (APC) a clean sweep at the polls in the last general elections in the state. The APC had won elections in all the electoral wards in the state from Councillorship to Presidential levels.

But while the “stomach infrastructure” policy continues what could have stirred the hornet nest on the day was the alleged non-payment of accumulated salaries of workers in the employment of the state government. Akorede dispelled the rumour of non-payment of salaries noting that while it was possible for some of the workers to have received their salaries few hours to the muslim festival, others would be paid theirs immediately after the festivity period.

Despite all these palliative measures put in place, who then could be responsible for the attempted assault on the dignitaries remains a salient question still begging for an answer.

Perhaps, the theory of elimination by substitution could be of a great help here.
Sources at the scene and footages placed on social media have ruled out direct hand of strangers in the brouhaha as the voices heard were those of the speakers of Ilorin version of the Yoruba language.

One man who however believed that the miscreants were sponsored was an astute loyalist of Saraki, Alhaji Suleiman Yusuf. According to Yusuf, “we know ourselves intimately in Ilorin. Most of the faces we saw at the praying ground that day were very strange. No one born in Ilorin would ever attempt an assault on those dignitaries that day. They must have been sent by some enemies of peace.

“It is not possible for our people to assault the Emir or Saraki. Let us even remove the factor of the Emir at this stage. What the Sarakis have done for the people of this town is innumerable. There is hardly any family today in Ilorin that has not benefited from the kind gestures of the Sarakis. That is the main reason the family will continue to win elections in the state at whatever level. If anyone thinks otherwise, let him come forward for an electoral duel with Saraki in Ilorin and let us see who will win such a poll.”

Already, the Publicity Secretary of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state Chief Rex Olawoye, has called for a restraint in staging protests in the state just as he urged the APC ruling party in the state to “pay workers’ salaries as at when due, so that our state will continually retain its toga as a haven of peace.”

Although the events at the praying ground had since been thrown into dustbin of history in Ilorin, what is still sacrosanct is the leadership of Saraki among his people.