Who Is Fighting Womanhood?

It is pertinent and high time that those of us that know the intrigues of, and on goings in Kwara politics react to the multitude of rubbish being peddle and published by the media in recent time about the politics of the state.

Those who are supposing that they know, when they know nothing, and those who tend to speak with authority when they are indeed sponsored and are mouth pieces to some cowards hiding under religion to undermine their opponents and perceived enemies should be considered as devil’s tools and political enemies of the state.

Islam and other religions may have refused women (female) of religious leadership but certainly not leadership rights in the political or social arena.

The Scroll Nigeria of June 14, 2010, Vol. 3 No 24,  claimed that Senator Gbemisola Saraki has been purportedly endorsed “to contest for the 2011 governorship election by the Kwara state ‘king makers’. The magazine went on to state that “various Islamic groups had declared their disapproval over the endorsement of Gbemisola to contest in next year’s election as governor”. These and many others like it are just the machinations of some cowards who tend to hide under religion to undermine their opponents and perceived enemies. Many of the so-called Islamic religious bodies are acting out a script as spelt out by their financiers and sponsors.

From what we know, many of those who signed the fliers being circulated are not known and for some of the fliers, there were no names. Those who sees Gbemisola as a threat to the realisation of their dreams/ambition, those that feel the women folks might undermine their authority at home and those who feel that with Gbemi on board, a lot of their misdemeanours would or might be exposed are scared and terribly threatened of her coming on board because they have skeletons to hide.

However, I am a woman, but not a politician though a watcher of politics and other unfolding events in the state, I feel it is high time we do away with trivialities and unwholesome acts because of our desperation to be relevant and put food on the table.

Some of the opposition and the supposedly clerics are doing what they are doing so that they can get attention and make some quick money before the turn of events.

To clarify issues, many of us in the state know that Dr Olusola Saraki has not named any body as successor to Governor Bukola Saraki, whom one of the writers alleged “did not do anything for the state”. It is on record that Bukola Saraki has greatly impacted on the state, if compared with other governors that had held rein at one time or the other in the state.

And for those in opposition that spoke or wrote under anonymity, I could well tell them that they are cowards and are not sure of what they said. The ANPP chieftain who craved anonymity and asked for the achievements of Bukola Saraki while alleging that Olusola Saraki was selfish should be asked where he was some 8, 10, 12 years ago. It is interesting that such a person would claim to come from Igbaja when Igbaja people are known to be bold and daring. If their is under development in Igbaja, they should ask one of their ‘own brothers’ in the Saraki camp what happened.

After all, during the second republic, a woman leader from Igbaja and in the NPN was able to woo the government to tar the road, bring a bank and some other developments to the area and making sons and daughters of the town relevant.

The anonymous ANPP member said Gbemi “hardly talk in the House”, it is a shame that the man is daft and not enlightened enough to know that he could easily access contributions of members through the internet or possibly go to the National Assembly to get the facts.

The ‘selfish’ Saraki installed Adamu Attah, made his followers to vote for Cornelius Adebayo of the opposition party, installed Alhaji Shaba Lafiaji, Mohammed Lawal in Kwara state that is, not talking of a number of people he had helped in other states to realise their political ambitions, before he ever thought of bringing his son.

Many are wont to say that he claimed to have been implored and pressured to bring his son, as far as this writer is concerned, the fact is that if anybody has done as much as installing one, two, three people in governance, when indeed he has children old enough to hold the same post, nothing should stop him from hoisting his children, if he could. It is what many of our leaders could do and what they are doing these days. The important thing is for them to behave well and govern the people to the best of all abilities.

Former Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos is today so desperately want to be relevant in the affairs of Lagos state; he has hoisted and is still hoisting his own loyalist in various states for different juicy positions. The senior Adebayo installed his son as Governor in Ekiti state, Bankole is a son of a political heavy weight and so on. There are still many of the former governors and politicians that are seriously fighting to make waves and retain relevance by being god-fathers and political deciders and no one is complaining. In several of the states in the country today, the issue of god-fatherism has been brewing violence while discordant tunes had led to sorry tales among the people, but not so in Kwara state. There have been relative peace and progress, in spite of Saraki’s roles and perhaps he had a way of carrying every one along.

The Westerner Magazine in its edition wrote, “Though, the second term legislator has not publicly declared her intention to run for the coveted seat come next year, there is serious indication that she desires to succeed her elder brother and incumbent governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki”. As a human being, it is natural to want to try out something that others feel you could be good at. The senator, according to a source close to her never give a thought to wanting to run for the gubernatorial seat of the state, she was contented with her seat in the National Assembly until the hues and cries about her purported desires to be governor.

Obviously, The Westerner was right to say that the main problem was the fact that she is a woman, when it wrote that “A battle line appears drawn between the protagonists and antagonists of a female governor in the next dispensation”, meaning that the opposition was actually based on gender. The supposed battle therefore is against the female folks and a violation of her rights as a woman as provided for in the Nigeria Constitution.

However, the Emir of Ilorin and state chairman, Council of Chiefs and Traditional Rulers, Alhaji Ibrahim Zulu-Gambari, represented by Mogaji Nda of Ilorin, Alhaji Salihu Woru Mohammed, recently declared that there was nowhere in the Holy Qur’an, which discriminated against women holding elective office; that is coming from the custodian of the Ilorin people’s Islamic religion.

Here in Nigeria, we may recall the story of Queen Amina of Zauzau (Zaria) and other more Islamic countries in Africa that had had and still have women as their political leaders. Politics is entirely different from religion and the fact that Nigerian male chauvinists tend to combine them has always resulted in chaos, mayhem and imbroglio across the nation.

No wonder the Emir said “Politics is about comfort and making life comfortable for the people. Politics is about development; therefore, traditional rulers must take part. I have not seen anywhere in the Qur’an where women are discriminated against. My advice for you is to play politics of love and live peacefully with other people”.

As against the dissent voice of some Islamic scholars who said “While it is unequivocally stated in Shariah literature that a woman can occupy, and indeed women have occupied, the position of subsidiary leadership, as Ministers, Commissioners etc, the grand leadership of a state or a nation is exclusively men, Masculinity is usually stated conspicuously as a prerequisite for the position of leadership of a state or a nation”.

“Leadership in Islam is a responsibility and not a privilege; hence, restriction of grand leadership to males alone never suggests discrimination against women. The fact we had/have female

 leaders in very few Muslims countries-compared to the overwhelming majority of them”.

Binta Bunmi Ibrahim