Kwara Politics: One Blow, Seven Die (I), By Abdulrazaq Hamzat
POLITICS DIGEST – Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq is a good chess player.
Like every master in the game, he cares very much about his pawn players, but he could afford to tactically sacrifice them, if it would lead to a strategic victory of winning the match.
To the small minded chess players who think themselves masters, they are eager to eat up Abdulrahman’s pawn, hoping that he would react and be startled.
They even go as far as eating up his bishops and knights, hoping to get him out of his patient shell, while working tirelessly for the people.
But unknown to them, Abdulrahman has a perfect understanding of the “so ogede si obo” philosophy, while focusing on service delivery.
For those who do not know, “so ogede si obo philosophy” simply means the philosophy of throwing banana to the monkeys. This is a way of keeping the political detractors busy, while also working on the most important things to the people.
In Brymo’s voice, Abdulrahman is that wise monkey that doesn’t monkey around with another monkey’s banana, but his opponents are the opposite.
What is not clear to them is that, as a master player, there’s only one thing that would push Abdulrahman out of his shell in the game of chess. And that’s your chess queen and by extension, your king.
To put it differently, Abdulrahman may sacrifice his pawns and knights, if need be, he could even sacrifice his bishops, but in return, he will seize your queen and in extension, your king.
This is exactly what happened, when the Kwara State governor took the bold step of not only retrieving the popular Ile Arugbo, a government property, illegally acquired by the former ruling dynasty, but actually demolished the shanty erected on the land, despite all protestation from the sponsored goons, both home and away.
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Abdulrahman, just like every person of conscience is convinced that, protest in favor of injustice cannot make it justice and as a leader, you have to do what you have to do for posterity to judge.
So, the action of taking over Ile Arugbo, despite mild brouhaha, is what Yoruba people often refer to as aroko.
Abdulrahman’s Aroko, is a clear message to a wide range of power brokers, both within and outside the state of harmony, about the mission and vision of his administration, which is to entrench justice and fairness, and win back for the people, what rightfully belongs to them, without fear of blackmail or favour of praise.
With that singular action, Abdulrahman has rewritten his profile in the mind of the people, especially those who see him as a man without a mind of action, now to a fighter, who doesn’t run away when he gets to the battlefield.
With that action, Abdulrahman has told a wide range of of power brokers in the state and outside of it that, I am seeing your actions and you need to beware of my counter reactions.
Such kind of action is usually described as one blow seven die, because of its far reaching effect.
This is so because, with just one action, Abdulrahman reset the polity, from Kwara, to North Central, to Lagos and then to Abuja.
All the initial scheming and planning was disrupted.
While the Yoruba’s would say ofi oko kan pa eye meji (he killed two birds with a single stone), in this case actually, oko kan, ni Ramoni fi pa eye meje. Apologies to the none Yoruba readers. He actually killed seven birds, with a single stone.
Although, Abdulrahman has proven that he will do everything necessary to avoid battle, but should he be forced to the field, he won’t take prisoners.
As expected, the reaction of the elite players to Abdulrahman’s action proves that they got the message, rightly and clearly, but it appeared they’re not backing out any time soon.
While all of their initial plans, alliances and approaches were rendered useless and the strategic map was dropped, what they didn’t drop, is the agenda and pursuit.
They’re now drawing a bigger plan, forming larger alliances and designing a more expanded strategy.
Abdulrazaq Hamzat is the Converner of Kwara Must Change
