By Hassan Hassan
Kwarans have recently achieved what many had thought to be impossible by dislodging the Bukola Saraki political leadership. It was a great feat, one that has made it clear that there's limit to human sufferings.
For this reason, it is natural for a people that had endured so much suffering and pain to become sensitive and hostile to anything they fear might bring back Saraki or a repeat of his tyranny. That is the natural human instinct. But such instinct comes with its own dangers. Being too sensitive leads to paranoia, which may ruin the victims. Kwarans mustn't become paranoid.
The new government of AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq must be watched and prevented from going the Saraki way. That is fair. But it also needs the sympathy, support, understanding and protection of the voting population and all-well meaning people.
The government will have two natural enemies and both of them are formidable, implacable and vindictive. Nothing would appease them, even if AbdulRahman magically turns Kwara to the unseen Canaan Land!
The first enemies are the dislodged Sarakites, led by the wily, greedy and ever-plotting Bukola Saraki. These enemies will be everywhere making things difficult for the new government through their proxies and allies inside and outside the civil service. They will concoct stories to discredit the choice of the people just to prove a point that 'we told you we were better!' All of us know they weren't better. We know their antecedence these past 16 years. They will twist government policies for the sake of making them look evil. Their vehicle of destabilisation would be traditional and social media. So, anytime you see stories about AbdulRahman running a family show or his sister, brother or uncle taking up government slots, ask yourself if you aren't reading from the book of Sarakites! Anytime you read about government officials stealing money or involved in a scandal, ask yourself if that's the whole story!
This is not to say that we won't put them on their toes. We will. We should. But we must be clear whatever negative information we get about them aren't from the stable of characters who spent the last 16 years plundering Kwara.
The second enemies to watch out for are those enemies within. They are those whose alignment with the new winners was based on the belief that this affords them the opportunity to make free money and influence. For them, it is not about services to the people, but what they could make from the system. Any threat or perceived threat to this agenda will see them going all out against the new administration. They won't mind joining forces with the Sarakites because they have similar interest. The reason they had parted ways with the Sarakites was because Saraki was all-in-all. But if their interest matches with that of the Sarakites at any point, they won't mind joining forces to destroy the new administration. We must be sure to watch out for these people.
And on the fringes are also those who would like to disable the engine of government to prevent it from taking off in the first place! They would 'want the engine to sputter and lose power', to quote a very senior friend.
Yet there are those who may express disgust because of fear of a repeat of Saraki's tendencies. They are mostly sincere. But this set of people must be patient and avoid any tantrums or impatience that could make people see them as either being needlessly antagonistic. They must realise that governance is not a walk in the park. Not everybody they see in Government house has come to make unfair deals. There must be a conscious effort to not jump into hasty conclusions, lest they destroy what they had toiled to build over the years.
This new government cannot be perfect. Apart from the fact that perfection belongs not to any human endeavours, we must recognise that the new administration is prone to mistakes as a first termer that is in a hurry to meet pupublic expectations. It is called teething problem and it is normal. We must help it to survive the two main enemies mentioned above.
And for the latter category, genuine critics, they must try to do constructive criticism by exhausting their internal means of engagement with the government. Hostile and constant criticisms are really not a good thing because the honesty of the critics would then become suspect. This is something all progressives in Kwara must avoid.
Then we should be clear that this government is faced with a lot of rot. Yes, it has been elected to fix the rot. That is true. But fixing the rot will not happen overnight. It will not happen by magic. It takes a long process, and massive support of the public.
And then the final observation: Kwarans should avoid scapegoating the governor for coming from an influential family. Nobody gets to choose his father, mother, brother, sister, or uncles. And becoming a governor should not mean that he would cut them off. We must be reasonable and be fair.
It is fair to be alert, because vigilance is the prize for freedom, but we must be careful not to become too suspicious or antagonistic. This government is the collective sweat of Kwarans. We owe ourselves a duty to not kill our own baby with our own hands.
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