By Olu Onemola
Gradually, Prof. Farouk Kperogi is coming out of his shadows. Last week, he launched a vicious attack on former Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki. The attack was timed to coincide with the period after the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State, particularly, the Northern Senatorial Zone, micro-zoned the governorship slot to Edu/Pategi/Moro axis.
Kperogi, working with a certain governorship aspirant from Baruten/Kaiama Zone who is aggrieved because the micro-zoning did not favour his aspiration, has been concocting lies and manipulating situations to present Dr. Saraki in a bad light. He started last week by claiming that because PDP did not micro-zone the governorship to his preferred LGA, Baruten, the party will lose the governorship. Several party members responded to his article and pointed out how hollow and unreasonable his claims were.
Just today on his Twitter handle again, he did another thread titled “A President Saraki Won’t Pay Federal Worker’s Salaries”. In the long post, he chose to single out the former Senate President out of 17 aspirants contesting to be president on the platform of PDP, for the attack. In a way that is smart by half, he chose the May Day dedicated to workers to post his thread in which he blamed a 2015 dispute between the Abdulfatai Ahmed administration in Kwara State and lecturers in the State College of Education on Saraki whose tenure as Governor expired in 2011.
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In a response to this same Kperogi last week, Mr. Ibrahim Olayinka Otukoko had called him an “Intellectual Who Pontificates with Malice”. From the thread he published today, nothing better describes this slimy, lying, manipulative and deceptive professor. If the Abdulfatai Ahmed administration had any problem with lecturers in one of the state-owned institutions, how will Saraki be blamed for that? In any case, industrial disputes between workers and their employers are not new. Eventually, this particular dispute he was referring to was amicably resolved and the lecturers got their salaries and allowances.
Also, at the time of the industrial dispute Kperogi was referring to, Saraki was already on his second term as Senator representing Kwara Central in the National Assembly and had been elected Senate President. The then Governor of Kwara State took responsibility for the actions of his administration. It is a common tactic regularly employed by liars and attention seekers like Kperogi when they want to be mischievous and deceptive, they blame the actions of the Kwara State Government under Alh. Abdulfatai Ahmed on Saraki. The former Governor of Kwara State can only legally and legitimately take responsibility for the policies, projects, and programmes initiated and executed by his administration between 2003 and 2011. At the time of the dispute that Kperogi was writing about, Saraki was busy in Abuja working hard to ensure the 8th Senate set itself apart and excelled beyond the level attained by its predecessors.
As a Governor between 2003 and 2011, Saraki’s administration had peaceful labour/industrial relations with workers under the banner of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). No worker would claim the Saraki administration owed him any salary or allowances.
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This good rapport between labour and government when Saraki was Kwara State Governor was carried over to the National Assembly when Saraki was Senate President such that he and his colleagues became the regular mediators each time there was an industrial crisis between the government and the NLC/TUC or any of their affiliate bodies.
It is obvious that this self-conceited lecturer, Kperogi, lives in faraway Atlanta and specializes in spreading outright falsehood in other to prosecute his proxy war. If he is as influential in Kwara politics, as he thinks he is, he should come down to contest the election as a candidate or let his chosen candidate from Baruten move into another party to contest the governorship. Kperogi’s candidate who many in Kwara State believe is Mr. Zakari Mohammed, a former member of the House of Representatives from Baruten Local Government Area can then challenge the one that Kwara PDP will eventually present. Then, the people of Kwara State will freely decide their preferences.
This Mr. Know-All lecturer should stop hiding behind one finger. He should openly declare his interest and put his money, influence, voice, and written words behind his candidate. Then, he will know the real worth of his rantings. It may also be good, at this point, for one to also call out Zakari Mohammed to put a leash on his attack dog. The rabies-infested dog seems to have gone mad. It has become what the Yoruba people call ‘Digbolugi’. He may soon turn on his handler as well. A word is enough for the wise.
…Onemola writes from Ilorin
