Nothing, absolutely nothing, shocks me anymore about the present crop of leaders in Kwara State. I hope you forgive me for my pessimism (?). For over six years now, what we have seen in Kwara is not governance, but a tragicomedy. A governance style full of opacity, occultic secrecy, and official lies polished with raw crude arrogance is no governance. This is a government so steeped in duplicity that when it says “Good morning,” you would be well-advised to run outside and verify.
Does anyone still remember Ms. Khadijetou Wouro Ba? Yes, that Senegalese lady that was smuggled into the government of Kwara state like a thief in the night. When the blogs exposed her, Mallam Rafiu Ajakaiye, the sanctimonious all-powerful and all-knowing Chief Press Secretary nearly swore on a stack of Qur’ans that no such human being existed in Government House. Yet, fast-forward to today and Khadijetou has morphed into one of the most powerful figures in the governor’s kitchen cabinet. That tells you all you need to know about the habitual duplicity that define this government.
But today’s story is not about Khadijetou Baa. It is about the controversial multi-million naira mansion on Abdulkadir Road, which the governor allegedly acquired as a palatial post-retirement home. Everybody in Ilorin knows this story already. Even street urchins at Post Office roundabout know that the property, long on the market, was snapped up by Kwara’s most powerful man.
Yes, Sahara Reporters may have bungled a few details but to imagine that they invented the story from thin air is to insult our collective intelligence. Predictably, however, Maalm Ajakaiye has come out with his usual braggadocious denials. It is déjà vu all over again. Vintage Ajakaiye!
But there is a problem this time. Unlike the Khadijetou saga, when it took months before the lies unraveled, this one collapsed almost immediately. The purported statement from ‘Otunba Adekanola’ denying any transaction has already been torn to shreds by descerning members of the public. People are openly saying the statement itself was manufactured in Government House, because the writing lacked Adekanola’s familiar class. And they are not wrong.
The real Otunba Adekanola is a man of signature. Every single public statement of his comes with his titles: JP, FCA, mni. Always! To now suddenly see a poorly worded note stripped of these identifiers being circulated as his statement is to witness the government’s clumsy fingerprints in real time. If Mallam Ajakaiye was in such a hurry to cover his boss, could he not have remembered to add the man’s professional epaulettes?
But more fundamentally, why all this stress and denial? What exactly are they trying to prove? Nobody has accused the Governor of using stolen money to buy the mansion. Even Sahara Reporters did not allege that. If the man bought a house from his personal pocket, so be it. That alone should exonerate him. Why then the fuss, the panic, the manufactured denials, the hurriedly typed statements?
This is the pattern: deny today, lie tomorrow, admit quietly the day after. It happened with Khadijetou Wouro Ba. It is happening again with the Adekanola mansion. The only consistency this government has demonstrated is a consistency in falsehood. But the people are not stupid, they see through the smoke and mirrors.
Unfortunately, we’re being ruled by a government that underrates the people of Kwara state. They think we are gullible. They believe they can cook lies in the Government House and serve them as breakfast, lunch and dinner without consequences. They may be daft enough to believe their own propaganda, but we are not.
-Lawal Akanbi Sharafadeen writes from Kwara State Capital.
