By: Abdukyekeen Mohd Bashir
09/01/2023.
There is currently a political debate going on in Ilorin and most political enthusiasts will agree with me that we have never had it this competitive. The popular “Idea and Impact” wars that have polluted the media space for a couple of days now call for concern amongst Kwarans.
These two concepts between the two leading senatorial candidates have caused serious imbroglio that people are beginning to mistake the words for what they are not. Ideas simply mean a conception in the mind of somebody, waiting to be executed or implemented. Also, it may be a plan for doing something or an intention geared towards achieving an aim. Impact on the other hand is to influence or affect positively. Now, let us look at it from this point: would we have a better representation based on ideas or impact via philanthropic gestures? In a normal sense, helping the less privileged via philanthropy has got little to do with making meaningful impacts, because most positive impacts are products of sound ideas. This now leads us to the above question that we must get it right and not lower the standard of representation.
Mallam Saliu Mustapha is a fine personality who has built a name for himself via his kind gesture to the people and still doing more to ease the burden of the downtrodden to the best of my knowledge, but is that enough prerequisite to being compensated with votes? Was the help in the first place done to relieve people of their plights or it is a case of an exchange of gesture for gratitude? Make no mistake please, I am in no way condemning the charitable traits of MSM but I believe if it is being done in good faith, it should not come with an unnecessary sense of entitlement. Away from philanthropy, is MSM capable of representing informed people of Kwara central? The Senate is not a chamber where one goes to boast of his wealth and how she/he has given people fish without actually teaching them the fishing techniques they need. The Senate is a place where great minds, cerebral heads and intellectually sound brains come together and contribute ideas to birth meaningful impact. Yes, the government spends a huge amount of resources in training legislators their statutory duties, how does it benefit the constituents if most of the time that is meant for legislation is wasted on training the legislator?
One is not jealous of MSM or his wealth. I am just pleading for caution so that we do not waste four years of our existence and the impact they could make on our unborn generations by resorting to trial and error process. Irrespective of what one might tag me, I am a Kwaran long before being a PDP apologist and we must all in the interest of our collective prosperity reason above any form of division.
We need to vote for competence ahead of anything and the PDP across the board is the only platform that has raised the bar in giving credence to competent hands to fly its tickets.
Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi amongst his competitors is the most qualified and experienced. He can be likened to a war general with tested and proven battle skills. He has served in different capacities and has left positive marks which are concurrently impactful. You might not like MBJ as a person but you will agree with me that we cannot afford an MSM to represent us at the expense of not voting for MBJ.
When critical decisions would be taken on the floor of the Senate, ideas that will birth positive impact will be considered long before anything else. After all, ideas birth wealth and not the other way round. I appreciate MSM for his contributions in helping the needy but this is not enough to vote him to the highest legislative chamber to represent a district that has produced notable legislators of high repute and standards. The people of Kwara Central should brace up and take their destiny into their hands by opting for necessity instead of non-beneficial compensation.
Abdulyekeen Mohd Bashir writes from Ibadan, Nigeria.
