We are indeed in a season of politics. It is also repulsively, a period for betrayals; when it is more beneficial to betray your benefactor for a pot of political favour from the centre of administrative gravity than to stay on the godly principle of faithfulness.
Things have gone so bizarre that politicians can now sell their birth rights for temporary political and economic imaginary benefits.
I was not old enough to understand how things went in Nigeria’s first republic but I have read enough to appreciate the commitment of participants in the politics of that era to the principles of friendships and relationships as veritable platform for building lasting political legacies. That is why we still have several political children of the leaders of that era till date.
The same scenario could be said to have also manifested during the second republic where men followed those who were their leaders and committed themselves to the emancipation of their groups’ political philosophies. Of course, some of the men of that period were active participants in the politics of the earlier republic. Bear me out; it wasn’t that there were no instances and elements of betrayals in those days, no. We can’t forget the classic parting of ways between the legendary Obafemi Awolowo and some of his closest associates in the South-west.
History is replete with cases of betrayals. We read often of the betrayal of Jesus Christ by Judas Iscariot and we are appalled that a man could so sell his eternity for a mere 30 dirty shekels of silver.
Yet I wonder why men have failed to learn from the history of betrayals; if the story of Judas, particularly how he ended it all, is too remote in time to relate with, what of those people we see around us? No one who betrays his source of help can enjoy sufficient help elsewhere. It is not a curse but the reality of life, and it is because he who betrays his friend today to gain the approval of another man will similarly betray the latter.
Men who betray don’t have honour; men who betray are never bold, they lack guts; the ability to come out openly and say it before it is too late. I say this because my understanding is that such men often have a deep-seated dissatisfaction with their victim which they however are always unable to confront because they lack the spine and character to open their mind to their victims who might thereafter give reasons to clear their doubts and settle their misgivings.
I have read some of the reasons given to justify the betrayal of Senator Bukola Saraki by few of his former friends who have now found a temporary haven in the midst of Saraki-bashers and I shiver for the apparent lack of guts by these men. How could we have entrusted legacies and platforms to them? I sympathize with Senator Saraki. He trusted dishonourable men; men without conscience, without dignity and with zest for money. A pity!
I hope it is not true that the individual who spent almost 11 years in government, eight of those with Saraki as a governor, is now alleging that he was not empowered, even while boasting that he has houses every where, including the United Kingdom?
How ridiculous is the argument by Alhaji Bio Ibrahim that Saraki refused to relate with him after the conclusion of the 2011 gubernatorial primaries in Kwara State where he was not picked as the candidate? And is that reason strong enough to warrant the kind of vituperation that has been coming from the former minister against Saraki? Well truth is that deep within him, Bio had always harbour hatred for the leader; the result of the primaries only served as an opportunity to vent his animosity.
There is a saying that whatever you utter after many bottles of beer is what had actually laid deep down within you but which you probably had no gut to say.
What is the justification for our professor’s intransigence? A man rehabilitated by the elder Saraki after his tenure as vice chancellor, who pretended to be Sarakite until he lost the bid to be governor? I wonder what he would have done if he became governor. What can we say of Senator Simeon Ajibola who was literally rejected by his own kinsmen during the campaigns for the last election and took open pleadings by Bukola on the campaign podium for those rural but politically intelligent folks to change their minds? Ajibola himself knows that the ballot that brought him back to the senate in 2011 was cast for Bukola and not for a Simeon Ajibola that had literally abandoned his constituency and refused to initiate any development works in their midst.
I am appalled that so soon Ajibola can point to the number of times he has “defeated” Saraki in elections! What a tongue! But should we blame them? Selfishness is the prime factor of betrayals.
And that is why when you find an exception in the season of anomie, lets not pretend but celebrate such. Today I celebrate the men and women who have decided to shun the porridge of affliction disguised as political opportunities from the paymaster and have rather stayed with the true leader. I cannot list their names in full but they are out there in the ‘cold’ of political reckoning because they have chosen to follow their leader and therefore become cut off from the largesse their counterparts are running to eat.
But I cannot afford to miss mentioning the name of Abdulfatah Ahmed; the great son of Igbomina stock who has stood with his boss without shame. We have been witnesses to the gale of betrayals by former deputies who seize the entire throne once given the opportunity to occupy a space in the power equilibrium but here in Kwara, Ahmed has not hidden the fact that in the political calculations of the state, he is the governor but there is a leader.
I have watched from afar and in some instances at close quarters the disposition of the incumbent governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed to the existing relationship between him and the political leader and I am truly impressed.
Many might deride him for being slavish, but men of deep insight will applaud his humility and commitment to friendship and relationships. It is the stock for which men of honour are made. And such men often go to very great places in return. Ahmed is a study in humility, hard work, resourcefulness, dedication, piety, and loyalty. I won’t be surprised if Ahmed becomes the president tomorrow.
But betrayals, except they repent and retrace, always end up in agony and destruction.
Khadijat writes from Ilorin
