OLORIEGBE’S CRUCIFIXION : The underlying Hatred, Ignorance, and Conjectures of the Petitioners
By:
*A. A. Bello*
Every man must die and when his time has come, then die he must. However, with the way a man lived his life, there’s always a kind of generally expected end in mind for him so much more than when and if the opposite quite happened, everyone bemoans it; likewise hatred.
If you must hate a man, let there be a justified reason for the hatred for immediately it is biased and borne out of ignorance, conjectures, envy and or jealousy, it becomes irrational and calls for bemoaning.
Logic dictates that as a bird flies so must be the intended stone to bring it down. Everything has its own limitation; the extent to which it can and should express itself. The same goes for those calling for Oloriegbe’s crucifixion because of his heavy political sins.
Careful observation shows that his crucifiers are suffering from either hatred and or ignorance and conjectures which have been proven to, over time, be the greatest factors mitigating against the emergence of truth.
*HATRED*
Hatred has been known to put a dent on the sense of reasoning which hampers the ability to discern between right and wrong, truth and false. And like a virus, it eats deep into the heart causing degeneration and hence a fatal drop in the supply of blood most especially to the brain. This is shown in the frenzies and rashness that becomes the eventual result.
Since time immemorial has it been in existence for losers to abhor hatred for the victors. In a fair fight where the scale balance tilted heavily to one side and the eventual result becomes a source of overwhelming joy even to spectators, the loser ought to swallow his pride and admits defeat.
If and when you are in a war preparation, and you’re the Vanguard Army General; the main focal and centerpiece of war success, and then the most ridiculed, mocked, detested, underestimated and maligned by the oppositions, and when during the battle you’re the biblical David that felled the opposition’s Goliath with a single stroke and was again one of the leading bulls that charged at the remaining spineless opponents and scattered them beyond their wit ends, and when, after much derision, you become the turning point of victory in, a total show of annihilation and brought home the much-desired win, then you are bound to be forever hated by the opposition. And that was Oloriegbe’s political sins.
In a total act of ruthlessness, Oloriegbe put Bukola Saraki to the sacrificial altar and shed the latter’s political blood much to the chagrin and surprise of the latter’s cronies. Thereafter, he joined hands with other Otoge stalwarts to crush Bukola’s spineless warlords and they all fell like a pack of the card while they also pulled down his reigning autocratic rule to usher in a new dawn of a new era.
Bukola may have swallowed his pride and admitted defeat; his warlords may have their tails hidden behind their legs in shame, but his boisterous war babies and infants won't allow peace to reign in the life of the man who had cut off their main supply of daily stipends of survival.
With their principal’s hands out of any governmental treasury and also he is a man of stiff fingers himself, the supply of daily stipends had stopped and real hunger lashes its belt on those lazy infantry soldiers.
Lean, thin, sullen, sunken eye sockets, visible collarbones and chest ribs that can be easily counted, they haul their deflated stomach and bony structures, like insane zombies popular in Hollywood films, at the main man who denied them of the inequalities they are so used to and have come to cherished and love.
That Oloriegbe became their target was borne out of pure hatred for what he had done. He has written his name and forever etched it in the annals of history as the man who unexpectedly defeated a man many had thought to be politically invincible. And that single act had led to recurring similar events at the polls which eventually ensured a paradigm shift in the order of things in Kwara state. And that single act also has had devastating impacts on the livelihoods of many selfish people; that was just the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Now that these people had to learn on fending for themselves in the true and real sense of the way is just too much a bitter pill to swallow; and hence the hatred.
*“Ota eni Kii pa odu Oya”* goes the popular Yoruba proverb. Blinded by this pure hatred, they began a zombie-like action on Oloriegbe’s personality, his image and most especially his legislative efforts and achievements. In a frenzied manner known to rabid dogs, they yelped at each and every one of his actions and inactions. From all angles came the spits accustomed to rabidity and they tried to weave wools and webs of lies, false and deceits on the successful legislative outing he has enjoyed within the few months of his stay in the National Assembly.
At this unripe time and moment (just 7 months into his 4 years tenure), they tried to compare his achievements to the full 8 years of his predecessor. They cooked up an unequal comparison between the two which is quite audible to the deaf and visible to the blind to be totally unfair and illogical. But that’s what hatred does; it blinds one to the truth. It takes away the reasoning power, as earlier stated, and when especially hunger is involved, it becomes too much of an excruciating pain to bear. Those war babies need urgent help; feeding and psychiatric.
*IGNORANCE AND CONJECTURES*
While some wallow in this hatred pool, others (trying to crucify Oloriegbe too) need to be inoculated from those two; ignorance and conjectures. Firstly, they know not of why and what to crucify him for, having been blinded by ignorance. They don’t know the truth and aren’t willing to while secondly, they follow conjectures from the rabid mouths that smell of the pungent fouls of hatred and hypocrisy.
While the hating group was asked for what offense should Oloriegbe be crucified for, they shouted: “They call him the Giant Slayer. Crucify him!.” The ignoramuses, being the followers and imitating machines they were bellowed also: “Crucify him!!”. Then they would go ahead and request that the thieving Barnabas be returned to them. God forbid! The history of the dark ages will not repeat itself. The truth must come out.
At the first plenary of the Upper Chamber of the 9th National Assembly, Oloriegbe was the first senator to moved a motion as he kicks started his legislative responsibilities on a very high note which was a hard testament of his readiness and high level of preparedness he had undergone behind the scene. While others were still admiring their senatorial office, marveling at its ceiling and windows and basking in the euphoria of sitting on those Red Seats as they would probably for the remaining part of their stay; being bench warmers like they are, Oloriegbe had put on his Iseya garment getting things ready for his legislative outings.
And since then, the erstwhile Kwara State House of Assembly Majority Leader had sponsored Four Bills and moved not less than Motions all of which are crucial, pivotal and of necessary and important impacts in the lives of the common Nigerian. As such, his legislative efforts as a Senator, in these few months, are unmatched even by his colleagues from his state when put together. Unarguably, he is one of the most impactful senators of the 9th assembly so far. He has demonstrated his legislative prowess within the few months of plenary meetings of which he had never missed one. The lovers of comparison should compare these legislative achievements with his predecessors within the same time frame. The difference is clear. 7up to Oloriegbe!
One key area of judging a Senator’s tenure is the amount and quality of projects he or she is able to facilitate. And here goes the popular mistake again of this rabid war babies. The year 2020 budget is the starting point where any member of the 9th senate should be judged because that is where their facilitation efforts can be seen. All the constituency projects that are flying around are from 2019 budget implementations. How anyone will judge the yield of a farmer who is still planting his seed is a mystery. That’s morbid rabidity.
Badly do they want his crucifixion that they’d throw a noose around his neck on the issue of employment lobbying he had done? They couldn’t believe he’s done anything on that aspect not to talk of up to what he claimed and they demanded proofs. But Oloriegbe is no daft. And those not suffering from hatred and ignorance are not too. They knew that Nigeria has 109 senators and over 300 federal Reps all with the access and opportunity to lobby for jobs and employments from the various federal agencies and parastatals. How would you feel like a senator who had gotten his lobbying efforts denied by an agency only to hear and see a colleague publicizing that he got 10 slots from such agency? Or how would you feel as the Director of such agency when an unthinking senator you had helped does that? Employment lobbying is done in secret and hence it results too. It’s all about who you know, getting helped and not making a public show of it to avoid hard feelings.
Another area to shed light on is this empowerment issue. Being human, we may all have been made from the same fundamental grains and traits, but these grains and traits are of varying and differing degree, quantity, and quality-wise. Hence, what is M to some is W to another. And that’s empowerment for you. Some will embark on giving out 5 million Naira to 500 people and that amount to what per head? Some may go about buying startup materials for people to earn a living with. And others may decide to sponsor people to further knowledge in their areas of expertise.
Oloriegbe’s wife facilitated skills acquisition program and bought startup business materials for the lucky beneficiaries and the rabid zombies started questioning if it’s worth coming from the Oloriegbe constituency office. Is Oloriegbe his wife? Is his wife the senator to warrant such ungrateful morbid rabidity? Or just because Oloriegbe had no access to state treasury like his predecessor who just had to keep his hands into the state coffer anytime he wishes; have that stand as a reason to nail him to the cross? Empowerment is done through constituency allowances that would be released from the year 2020 budget and it’s yet to be. Anybody doing an empowerment program is, therefore, using his or her own money. And as earlier said, we are created different and our inclination is also different. That a monkey can climb tree doesn’t necessitate that an elephant should.
And that brought me back to limitations. Admittedly, Oloriegbe’s crucifiers hated him for clearing away the sumptuous table of inequalities they’re used to, but he should be hated only for that and his routing of the giant in a fair fight. It is not a must they should ever learn to like him till they die but they should not, in their frenzy and rabid zombie-ism tried to downplay his legislative efforts and achievements so far. What he has done in the few months as a senator is unmatched by any other senator of the state within the same time frame. And he isn’t done yet, still has ample years and neither is he tired.
They should not forgive him for his original political sin (retiring Bukola Saraki); he doesn’t need it. However, they should limit how they pull the wool of deceits and lies over his sterling representation of Kwara Central so far. The petition for his crucifixion is unfounded and baseless. Let his enemies wash their hands clean of this as Pontius Pilate had once done.
May Oloriegbe succeed.
*A. A Bello wrote from Zamfara State*
0 Comments