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ARTICLE: REFLECTING ON THE AGONY OF OUR PEOPLE - Ibrahim Sheriiff (Gold)


It was a very terrible but enjoyable adventure we had yesterday, from Kosubosu to Kaiama through a motorcycle, a journey of over 3hours, through what can only be referred as 'a path', as there's no road no road construction there at all.

A question that came to my mind is: How can we be more hated as a people?. Because all I see in personal hatred for us. They can't have a bit of likeness for us and subject our people to that kind of dehumanization.

From Ilesha-Baruba through Chikanda, there's no electricity for years, the road sides were only decorated with power lines, many of which had fallen and some wires cut off. The road which was allegedly constructed from LG allocation during Hon. Bio Ibrahim's tenure is now in a very bad state, with no one talking about them, talkless of coming to their aid.

Do we talk about the bad states of their schools? There's no metropolitan road at all in Kosubosu, all major streets are dust mines, yet, they're happy, they're industrious and doing great in self-efforts to better their personal lives and their communities.

Getting to Kosubosu market and general motor park, it was another degree of embarrassment I encountered, I then begin to ask what moral right anyone has to request tax payment from people trading in that axis. What have anybody done for them to deserve tax remittance to from their end? Practically, nothing!

Considering the accelerated economic activities going on in that part of the state, i don't see any prosperity driven leader at any level of governance that should not create special attention on them and help them enhance their survival as a way of driving the growth of the region's economy and consequently, that of the state. But the reality is that, these people live in a world where 'Okada' is a faster and more effective means of transportation, on a journey of over 80 kilometers, due to non-existence of road network in a place where not less than a thousand people ply on daily basis for economic activities. Too bad!

Yet, we've not seen any representative at national or state level consistently lamenting for the sorry state his people are. We've not seen any representative of them disagreeing because of infrastructural deficit in that axis, they albeit disagree on sharing formular of their common patrimony and power rotation for self engradizement and not in the people's interest.

Don't we have people from Baruten/Kaiama in Governor Ahmed's cabinet? Will those kind of people think they're fulfilled just because they ride big cars and luxury houses when the people, through whose representation they amaze so much wealth wallow in a state of despise and chronic infrastructural decay? They're failures in all ramifications, they failed their people and themselves.

If governance is about where you come from like some people are advocating, the greatest injustice the people should never do against themselves is allow those gluttonous elements lead or represent them again in the name of 'power rotation'.

We've been so bored with the narrative of the absence of even development ib any part of the world, forgetting that no sane government in an ideal society will skew developments to a meager proportion of even the state capital. Is there development in the core Ilorin township either? Even the much media-hyped KWASU campus in Ilesha-Baruba is another story for another day, because i don't see signpost on a cleared land as equal to a University structure, which is being hyped as 'done' (oshee).

Our brothers and sisters in that axis are living with this situation as normal, they've been compelled to live with it as their own ways of life. Never again should we continue this way, if at all we dream of a good Kwara. We are only sleeping with terrifying nightmares, we need to wake up to the reality of our failure and the agony of our people as a need for rethink, reaction and revolutionary reinvention, where Kwara works for all Kwarans regardless of the geopolitical zones we belong to. A truly Kwaran Captain and seen to be such is what we need, never again will we be swayed or divided by ethnicity, religion and creed.

It happened in Oyo state, all their rural communities at least had road networks, not only in their metropolis but every streets. Why must our case be adversely different? The time to create a better experience for our people is now, Kwara is ours, let's make it work for us all.



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