The Ilorin Project Advocacy Council has read several reports from online media of how the former Senate President and Leader of Kwara State People’s Democratic Party, Bukola Saraki, is planning to destabilize the traditional status quo of the Ilorin Emirate; promising some monarchs that he will be rotating among them the leadership of Traditional Council chaired by our revered Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji (Dr) Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, if his party emerges in the forthcoming gubernatorial election in the state.
This group also read that Saraki is planning to tear the Ilorin Emirate structure apart once his PDP triumphs at the polls. We’re not surprised that he is making such plans. Saraki has a penchant for disrespecting the royal stool of Sheu Alimi, despite the fact he holds a traditional title in the Emirate, and his family rode in the back of the same Emir and Ilorin Emirate to get to where they are today.
Saraki should know that the stool of Sheu Alimi existed for many decades before his people moved to Kwara state, Ilorin precisely some years ago. And if not for the tolerance and accommodating nature of the Emir and Ilorin Emirate he now finds comfort in disrespecting – they would not have a place to adopt as home in our beloved state. Is Saraki not an ingrate for biting the hands that feed him and his family? Of course, he is. It’s only an ingrate that treads the path he is treading.
Whoever knows Bukola Saraki should tell him to desist from such plans even though the victory of his Party will never happen. One of the reasons the Saraki-led PDP was rejected at the polls in 2019 was because of his disregard for the revered stool of Sheu Alimi and the Emirate. So, how will Kwarans who know that he has not changed vote for his party in the coming election? An average Kwaran does not want to experience what Saraki did to our Central Mosque and the Emir of Ilorin during his time as the governor and governor-general of our dear state.
As long as he was around, we would have to wait for him before we observe the Jum’at prayer. He would keep the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji (Dr) Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari and respected Islamic scholars in the state waiting for him. No regard. The same thing happened at the Eid praying ground. And after observing his prayers, he would make sure he disrupted other processes including the Emir of Ilorin’s annual speech. Unlike him, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq respects our beloved Emir and Kwarans. He does not ask them to wait for him before they observe the Jum’at prayer, he even prays with others outside the mosque.
This group has been informed of why Saraki is plotting to destabilize the traditional status quo of the Ilorin Emirate; it was because his several moves to get our royal father, Alhaji (Dr) Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, to campaign against Governor AbdulRazaq and APC did not work. But Saraki should know more that monarchs are sacred. Besides, the Emir and the well-meaning Kwarans are happy with AbdulRazaq’s government. Who will not be happy with a govt that puts the people?
We seriously condemn Saraki’s evil plots against the peaceful reigns of our royal father, Alhaji (Dr) Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari and we wish to let him know that we will not condone any disrespectful comments from him. Enough is Enough!