The Collapse Of The Saraki Empire By Biodun Fadayomi

“How are the mighty fallen”, is an expression that derives from the Christian Bible and is a demonstration of David’s lamentation over Saul, King of Israel and ‘King of Impunity’, when he finally died at the battlefront.

Please permit my corrupted version:

“The beauty of the pride of oligarchy has been ‘slain’; how are the mighty fallen? Tell it not on the streets of Agbaji, publish it not in Iloffa, lest the young women of Ilorin rejoice, lest the youths of the New Kwara triumph.

The summation of the above lines is: “The previously powerful are now reduced to mere mockery”.

The fall of Ile-Arugbo is a pitiable story of pride before a fall and the aftermath of misguided impunity of a former emperor whom society has reduced to a minion.

It is a story with a subject matter: Power is Transient.

I’ll also not forget the story of Jeff Orlando, a former Mayor in the rich island of Madagascar who betrayed his own people and nation just as SP betrayed the All Progressive Congress, APC, to clinch the number 3 position in our country some four years ago.

The citizens of Madagascar were so incensed  against Orlando because they were disappointed with the flagrant impunity of the middle – aged mayor in the management of the affairs of the island.

Everywhere was odious rot in the midst of large wealth which was only controlled by members of his nuclear family. As long as Orlando remained mayor, he cornered every wealth of the rich island and no one dared oppose him until a fateful day when the Madagascans summoned enough courage and boldness to rise up against him and chased Orlando out of the country, just as O to ge did to Bukola Saraki late 2018 and early last year.

Perhaps Agbaji residents where the Sarakis claim to ’emanate’ from will have a lively good story to tell to generations yet to come.

Today, Ile-Arugbois no more after being hacked down by merciless government bulldozers at the wee-hour of Wednesday January 2020.

I hear that Dr. Bukola Saraki has headed to an Ilorin high court to challenge the demolition but I ask: How does the former senate president hope to win without verifying documents of true ownership of land and property?

Bukky had better absorb this hard punch, an iron-clad uppercut that has greatly inflicted a massive dent on his great pride.

I may have all along been lethal or acerbic with my pen but I only do this because the time has come to speak and I owe no one apologies at this very point. Next time, the former governor, former senate president or former politician(?), should constantly situate his arguments within the confines of issues rather than personalities.

He would enjoy playing the game of politics regardless of its outcome. Let’s see another side of this trending story. ‘IN out in’, says the bicycle pump . Power is like the bicycle pump, says an anonynous writer.

It speaks the language of the computer – garbage in, garbage out. Power is an enigma. It’s both a myth and a mystery . It’s a mirage, so evasive and so slippery. Power is esoteric.

Only the initiate and the clairvoyant can understand the language of power .Power is a storyteller, with a thousand lessons and morals. What lesson? Power is non – negotiable; it belongs to the people. It’s full of vanity; so transient and impermanent.

While some like the former governor and senate president took a sudden flight to the acme of power and fame through godfather politics, others toiled and grinned it, grinding their nose on the windmill of power.

Power and politics are two lions littered in one day. They are like opium and bile.They pamper the valiant and lull the villain with their soothing hands and balms .Power is so fickle , yet so awesome and fleeting within the frame of fame ,fate and perseverance.

Why all this moral talk?

The election of AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq unlike that of Bukola Saraki in 2003, shows that power and time speak a universal language – hope and perseverance. It gives hope to the hopeless, and courage to the resolute.

The victory of AbdulRazaq after trying twice is an episode that recreates the history of great people like Abraham Lincoln , the 16th president of the United States of America.

Many times he tried his luck and popularity with the people at the poll and many times he failed before perseverance finally wrote his name on the American hall of fame through the ballot box.

Thomas Edison invented electricity after several experiments through the audacious spirit of tenacity and doggedness, if not by trial and error.And when Edison was asked how many times he had failed, he replied:  “I never failed once. I only learned how many ways it could be done ”.

All great men are like that. They are made of the same sterner stuff, yet different from the crowd, like Governor AbdulRazaq. They break barriers to do the unusual.

They step beyond bounds; cross – established lines of human suffering to the remit of indignity, just to conquer the frontiers of history through invention and innovation so that mankind can thrive.

They are propelled by a soaring ambition to be different and to tell history, no matter the price. When AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq failed in 2011 and again in 2015 at the senatorial elections, he never gave up even when men had written him off as a failure , a never- do  well desperado of a politician.

Yet, he gathered his pieces, held himself together and moved on even in the midst of lean financial resources.

The victory of AbdulRazaq taught Kwarans that daring to be different is not desperation or inordinate ambition to rule but to create history for mankind; to draw lessons from history through the painful process of trial and error by working in an unfamiliar path.

And the people finally gave their verdict by giving him their overwhelming mandate at the March 2019 governorship polls.

For Kwarans,a new era has emerged. It’s a new dawn and a monument of reawakening not only for the people but also for their leaders.It’s a moment for sober reflection and socio-political consciousness about the need for good governance and political tolerance among leaders.

It’s a lesson for AbdulRazaq to learn to govern his people with love,care and compassion peace and justice as well as respect for humans.

It’s an opportunity for Governor AbdulRazaq and the APC political machinery to brace up and do great things for Kwarans, who gave them their mandate, so as to transform the lives of the common man in Kwara State.