Like Kurumi’s tortoise journey, the Kwara Traditional Rulers’ excursion to Abuja to meet with President Bola Tinubu and APC leaders over Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasak’s phantom gubernatorial primary that produced Speaker Danladi Yakubu as the governorship candidate ended in disgrace, as Tinubu gave the delegation a Red Card. Olukayode Thomas writes that the Olofa of Offa’s involvement in the amoral trip is heartbreaking; he also points the way forward for the APC in Kwara State.
Introduction
Let me start by confessing: I have never met Femi Agbaje Whyte, the henchman of Governor Abdulrasak. But I can write a book on Whyte’s ignoble role in Offa and Kwara politics.
The first time I heard Whyte’s name was during a radio interview where Saheed Popoola called him Oni Dilali. Popoola accused Whyte of being a political mercenary whose loyalty is to the highest bidder.
Popoola mentioned the names of several politicians who have been used and dumped by Whyte. After listening to the interview, I fact-checked Popoola’s allegations, and in all honesty, discovers that Whyte’s white garment is full of stains.
The role Whyte played in the recent phantom APC primaries among aspirants from Offa, involving people like Lola Ashiru, Muheeba Dan Kaka and KayodeAdebiyi, further confirmed Popoola’s allegations.
So I was not surprised when Whyte took his vile role to Abuja alongside traditional rulers and proclaimed that the Abdulrasak phantom APC gubernatorial primary election that produced Yakubu Danladi, the current Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, as party flagbearer was free and fair.
This is an election that 10 aspirants, including the president of Offa Descendant Union (ODU), Muyideen Salako, are asking the national secretariat of APC to cancel.
For Whyte, his kinsman being unjustly treated is inconsequential; what matters is doing the bidding of his paymaster Abdulrasak.
He was live in Abuja with Kwara traditional rulers and even delivered the closing remarks during a special “Thank You” visit to the Special Adviser on Political and other Matters to the President, Ibrahim Masari, even as President Tinubu gave the delegation a red card.
Olofa’s involvement is amoral
Whyte is inconsequential and may go down with Abdulrasak’s government and move into oblivion. The same cannot be said of the involvement of His Royal Majesty, Oba Mufutau Okikiola Esuwoye II, the Olofa of Offa, in Abdulrasak’s scheme to legalise illegality.
Only an Offa indigene with a heart of stone will not be sad that the paramount ruler of Ibolo Kingdom is one of the cheerleaders of Abdulrasak’s third-term agenda via power shift to Kwara North.
That our king is involved in an unconstitutional act is sad enough, because the 1999 Constitution clearly forbid monarchs from engaging in party politics; it also warned them to avoid endorsing candidates.
Sadder is that the Olofa is the leading campaigner to legitimise the phantom APC gubernatorial primary election, which produced Danladi.
This is an election where one of Olofa’s children, Salako, the president of the umbrella organisation for all Offa indigenes, ODU, is a victim of injustice.
Olofa apparently did not weigh the implications of his words when he said, ‘’We in the Kwara State Traditional Rulers Council started the process that produced a Kwara Northerner as APC Governorship Candidate.
‘’We’re pleased with the leadership of Governor Abdulrazak for not imposing any candidate on us in Kwara State.
‘’We also thank President Tinubu for enabling the Governor and also endorsing Danladi, who emerged as the party’s candidate after the primary. ‘’
Olofa should please stop disgracing us and stop dragging our crown in the mud.
Even High School children in Offa and Kwara State are aware that the APC does not have a governorship candidate as at the time he spoke. They also know that Abdulrasak is desperate to impose Danladi on Kwara APC members.
So what will be the fate of Offa if eventually justice prevails and the APC national headquarters rejects Danladi?
So if, at the end of the day, his son Salako or Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa, a worthy son of Kwara South, gets the ticket and becomes Governor, where will Olofa run to?
Peradventure Olofa does not realise it, Offa may be small in size and population, but the city is huge in reputation, accomplishment and others.
Any Olofa is a deity, sitting on a throne that dates back to 1397. Has he ever asked himself why the Emir of Ilorin, whose throne is more recent, is not involved in such despicable acts?
Oba Esuwoye must also realise that Olofas, before him, always fought for what was right, even if heaven would fall. About five Olofas lost their crown because they stood for what was just, instead of pecuniary gains.
Power shift to Kwara North is Abdulrasak’s Third Term Agenda
Olofa’s claim that the Kwara State Traditional Rulers Council started the process that produced Danladi is not true.
