As a young pupil in a private primary school in Offa, Kwara state in the late eighties to early nineties, my favourite class, after Current Affairs, was Bible Knowledge(BK). Although a Christian school where BK was mandatory for all pupils, the school, arguably the best in Kwara at the time, was too reputable for our Muslim parents to resist sending us to.

Perhaps it was in recognition of the natural inclination of children to hearing stories that made our teachers regale us with biblical stories in virtually every BK class, which we listened to with rapt attention. One such common tale was the story of Moses.

Pharaoh, the story always began, was a powerful ruler who oppressed the Israelites with his power and might. He ruled with absolute decree. Foretold that a male child will be born that will put end to his fiendish reign, he ordered the killing of all male children born in his kingdom. When Moses’ mother gave birth to a male child(Moses) at the time, she was afraid, packaged the baby in a wooden box and left at the bank of a river. Pharaoh’s wife, having gone to the river to bath, saw the wooden object, opened it, saw the innocent baby and, out of rare display of pity, took him home to give motherly care to the baby.

She hired a woman - incidentally Moses’ biological mother- to take care of the boy and that was how Moses, who would later grow up to be used by God to deliver the children of Israel from Pharaoh, was raised in Pharaoh’s own house.This interesting story sank in our (pupils’) minds, and we can narrate it like national anthem.

Shortly after we finished primary school, when our parents deemed it fit to give us Islamic education too, a local Islamic teacher(alfa) was hired for us to train us in our religion, and surprisingly to us, this story also featured in the many Qur’anic stories our alfa used to tell us. With Moses called Musa and Pharaoh Fir’aun in the Qur’anic account, the story we were told in our evening Arabic classes was almost exactly the same with the biblical account.



Now, what has Kwara got to do with this? In Nigeria’s political discourse, when Kwara is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is Saraki family. The family patriarch, Dr. Olusola Saraki, who lost a legislative election in 1964, and on coming back in 1978, has continued to hold the ace in Kwara politics. Nobody got to office in Kwara without the rubber-stamping of Olooye, as he is fondly called. He decided who got what, how and when. And that was how American political scientist, Harold Lasswell (1902-1978, defined politics. In other words, Saraki was Kwara politics and Kwara politics was Saraki.

In 1979, he installed NPN’s Alhaji Adamu Attah as governor. The man from Okene, having got to power, thought he can deploy his incumbency factor to outmuscle Saraki, but he was shown the exit door four years later, when the Ile l’ooke landlord backed UPN’s Chief C.O Adebayo to unseat him. In the shortlived third republic, he installed Alhaji Shaaba Lafiaji as governor, but his tenure was too short to know whether he too would have gone the way of his predecessors.

When, after the military interregnum, civil rule returned in 1999, Saraki pitched his tent with APP and produced Rear Admiral Mohammed Alabi Lawal as Kwara state governor. The retired naval officer gave Saraki what he himself described as the toughest fight in his political career, but when the dust settled, Saraki was still in control.

Then came Dr. Bukola Saraki, who was not only raised in Emperor Saraki’s house, but was Saraki’s biological son. The suave Medical Doctor son of Olooye rode to power on his father’s back. If other people he helped to power betrayed him, his son surely cannot. So thought Olusola Saraki, as he practically left the state’s political machinery in his son’s care. By a combination of factors such as old age, failing health and trust for his son, the man became politically inactive. His bubbling Ile l’ooke soon became deserted. He never knew what was lurking around the corner in 2011.

To many of us Kwarans, one man’s word being law was not only discomfiting, it was ignominious. Even the most pedestrian of analysts - some of whose states are even worse, like Oyo, commandeered by an unschooled amala and gbegiri politician, inspite of its claim to being home to many of Nigeria’s finest intellectuals - began to throw all manners of jibes at us. They called us all sorts of names, from illiterates, to animals, to mumus, you name it! It was sure Kwara needed liberation from Dr Olusola Saraki.

The liberation was not because Olusola Saraki was a tyrannical leader. No, he may be domineering but clearly wasn’t tyrannical. If anything, he was a cheerful giver, a man with uncommon magnanimity. But in a state(and country) where majority of voters are poor, vulnerable men and women, he was able to play on the psyche of these people to his political advantage. In any case, Kwara needed change, everybody agreed. But who will lead the change?

His son, Bukola, raised in his house like Moses in Pharaoh’s kingdom, offered to lead what eventually became the decisive break-away from Olusola Saraki’s fiefdom. But can Bukola Saraki, like Moses, take Kwara to the Promised Land? I have reasons to believe the answer is in the negative.

A close study of Bukola Saraki’s brand of politics reveals double-standard, self-interest, inconsistency and even more power-hungry than his father. In the run-up to 2011 presidential elections, Bukola Saraki teamed up with IBB and co for the emergence of a northerner as presidential candidate of PDP in line with the party’s zoning principle. Having failed, and knowing the alliance was destined for failure, he went back to Goodluck Jonathan’s anti-zoning group. I don’t know any other name for that other than political prostitution and quest for power at all cost. True, he has the right to any political association, but I fear men that lack consistency.

Bukola Saraki also strongly opposed his father’s selfish and daring plot to install his sister, Gbemisola, as his successor. Bukola opposed this, reportedly on the ground that it would be immoral to have his sister succeed him as Kwara’s no 1 citizen. Fine argument. But wait for it, Bukola Saraki, having lost in the presidential bid, quickly dropped the man PDP nominated to replace his sister, and picked the Senatorial ticket for Kwara central, replacing his sister. It is not moral for his sister to replace him, but it is moral to replace his sister in Senate. This is height of hypocrisy.

Bukola Saraki installed his protégé, AbdulFattah Ahmed, a political paperweight, as Kwara state governor. Why not support a stronger, more independent-minded man like Prof Oba AbdulRahman or Lagos-raised Bashir Bolarinwa as governor? The answer: with Ahmed, he will easily have full control of Kwara affairs, and if Ahmed dares him in 2015, he can easily show him his way to Share or Lagos; after all, the former banker doesn’t have any political clout to fight him. So what is the difference?

With the Kwara political structure now fully in Bukola Saraki’s hand, Kwarans are just starting another decade of one-man show. By the beginning of the second decade, I will not be surprised if the new emperor has become so daring that he would also root for his wife or son as governor. After all, his father also started this way. Mark my word.

So, while Kwarans continue to celebrate the extrication of their state from the stranglehold of Olusola Saraki, it is clear to some of us that read between the lines that it is not yet eureka. To me, Bukola Saraki is the not the Moses Kwara needs.

passing,

Nice article by Jarus.

Hopefully he'll be part of the solution in Kwara.